Bowles Visit and Another Family Reunion

Right after my mom headed out to visit her sister we picked up Grandma Denny and Papa from the airport. We just loved having back to back grandparent visits! We had a couple days to hang out and get ready for our Snowbird family reunion. We mostly grocery shopped, did laundry, packed, Denny sewed a few things for us (pictures of Davin's new cape coming!), and the kids played outside with grandma and papa as much as they could.
On Friday we drove the 45 minutes up Little Cottonwood Canyon to Snowbird for the Ziegler (Ian's maternal grandma's side of the family) family reunion. I had never been to Snowbird before. I was surprised at how close it is! I was not overly impressed with the hotel. It looks like a converted parking garage. Lots of exposed cement. It was not air conditioned. Probably because it's usually cool enough up the mountain, but it meant the rooms felt stuffy and too warm at night for my tastes. The surroundings though are amazing. Just gorgeous. And there was so much to do! We found this great, all accessible, park down one of the paths from the hotel.
We spent some time meeting/visiting with some of the Ziegler relatives of course. Then Friday night we went swimming in the pool and out for pizza. Saturday was our big play day though. We started off on the mountain tram. I am scared of heights, but I kept my cool for Weston's sake. He was terrified. He wouldn't get anywhere near the edge of the flat ground at the top and was clinging tightly to my hand. After about 20 minutes he finally warmed up and let go of my hand so he could play in the rocks with Davin. The views from the top of the mountain were just beautiful.
Weston and I took pictures of each other. It was really just my trick to get him to let go of my hand and realize that he was fine up there.
After the tram I sent Weston up the chairlift (which I assumed he would be scared of but then he was fine) with Ian and Grandma and Papa to do the alpine slide. Davin and I hung out at the bottom to get some pictures. We checked out the river and did the bounce house while we waited. The weather was gorgeous. It was overcast all morning, so it didn't get too hot until about lunch time. After Davin saw his brother come down the alpine slide he really wanted to do it too, so we headed back to the hotel for lunch, then Ian and Papa took the boys back to do the alpine slide a couple more times. I took a nap. :)
Saturday night was the big Ziegler family reunion dinner in one of the hotel conference rooms. Denny had put together a family history slideshow. It was really fun to watch it all together and hear everyone's comments about the people in the pictures. Eli and Emilee were able to come up for the dinner too. It was fun to see Ivy walking around. Since the boys had had such late naps we went for a night swim before bed that night. The pool was packed, but we had a good time.

Sunday we got up, checked out, and headed back down the mountain. This time we got to bring Grandma and Grandpa Squire with us. They hung out for a little while at our house until it was time to take them to the airport for their flight back to Seattle. We had a great time visiting with family and playing at Snowbird. Another family reunion success!
Grandma and Papa had one more day to spend with us. Papa kept busy putting in the window air conditioner for us and going to the junkyard to find parts to fix Ian's car a bit. He replaced the broken side view mirror and the door panel that had ripped off. Now Ian's car isn't quite so ghetto looking. Thanks Papa! Monday we all went to the aquarium. It was shark week, so there were lots of fun activities going on. It was a blast. Ian met up with us for lunch then it was time to say goodbye to Grandma and Papa. We are so glad they could come and spend some extra time with us. Hooray for family!
Now we are grandparent-less and adjusting to the less fun life we normally lead. ;) You know, doing stuff like cleaning the house, doing laundry, running errands, etc. I think the hardest part is the kids not having someone to play with them all day. We sure enjoyed our 2 weeks of family and weekend getaways! I feel like summer is mostly over now. Just a few more pool days and maybe a camping trip before school starts and we really get back into a routine. I'm honestly kind of looking forward to it.

Since Zion . . .

Last week my mom drove back with us from our Zion family reunion to spend a couple days visiting. We had a great time. Monday night Grandma B took us all to see Despicable Me. The boys have been watching the trailers for months, so they were pretty excited to see it. We all enjoyed it. It was sweet and funny. Although if you've seen all 4 trailers you've probably seen most of the funny lines already. :)

Tuesday we had a slow morning then took Grandma B with us to the pool. We spent a few hours playing in the pools and splash pad area, lounging in the sun, and eating snow cones. It was great fun, but we all got a little sunburned. Whoops. Wednesday's big outing was the Sweet's Candy factory tour. My mom has quite the sweet tooth, which she thoughtfully passed on to all her children, so this was right up her alley. I think it's really cool to see how jelly beans, salt water taffy, and Swedish fish are made too. Here we are in our cool candy maker hats (that are required for the tour) after our tour.
That afternoon Aunt Barbara came and picked Mom up to spend a day with her in Ogden. This worked out pretty well because we went and picked up Ian's parents from the airport right after she took off for Ogden. Thanks for such a fun visit Mom!

That's right, we have been in grandparent heaven for the last week and a half! Today has been a bit of an adjustment to having no company. I miss the adult conversation and the extra hands that are happy to help with the kids. The kids miss the extra grown up play time and attention. They don't mind the extra outings, meals out, and presents that come with grandparent time either. More details of our visit with Grandma Denny and Papa to come!

Finally.

I'm done blogging our Zion family reunion! And you know what that means . . . time to blog about our ultrasound! I know I have been annoying keeping everyone in suspense for a week, but we had the opportunity to tell both of our families in person and we decided that would be more fun. I was so glad I got to watch their reactions to us telling them that . . .

IT'S A GIRL!!!

That's right. My intuition sucks. I was so sure it was a boy. I hardly believed the ultrasound tech when she told us and showed us. I was in shock the rest of the day. I am still surprised, but a week later I'm starting to get used to the idea. And I'm somewhat panicking. I don't know if I know how to be a mother to a girl. I will have to learn to do hair. I will acquire twice as many toys. I don't have a stitch of baby girl clothing or blankets or bedding or anything girl. Part of that makes me excited. I get to shop for a baby girl! I get to re-decorate the nursery! Let the baby girl name hunt begin!

Zion-Day 3

Warning: I had a really hard time narrowing down pictures from this day, so I apologize for the plethora of pictures.

We spent our Sunday morning enjoying another yummy breakfast together. We all got dressed for church and took family pictures before heading to the Springdale chapel for Sacrament meeting. It was nice being at church with the whole family. Weston was bummed he didn't get to go to his primary class.
After church we had a quick lunch at Mom and Dad's then put the little ones down for naps. I napped with Davin too. I was so tired. Good thing I did too because the rest of our Sunday was less restful. When Davin and Rachel woke up we got all ready and headed down to the Virgin River at the back of the hotel property. It felt so good to splash around in the cold water. The hardest part was getting all the kiddos ferried across to the shallow pool section. Jim was a trooper and carried most of the kids across.
The kids played a rowdy game of freeze tag with Uncle Jim and the cousins.
After another delicious dinner of kahlua pork and rice provided by Joy and Jules we got ready for our little Zion hike. It was the perfect time of day for it. The sun wasn't beating down on us and the lighting was gorgeous on the red rock cliffs. It was still hot and the walk was a little longer than the little ones were really up for, but I think we were all glad we did it. Davin loved seeing all the bugs, lizards, and frogs. There were giant stink bugs all along the path and tons of lizards running around everywhere.
By the time we finished the hike and got back to the hotel it was pretty late for the kids but we did a quick family home evening before putting everyone to bed. Then some of us went for a late swim and ate pizookies with homemade ice cream. So good. I was sad that it was our last night together. It was such a great trip. Monday morning we ate breakfast, got ready, and headed out. I loved spending the whole weekend with the whole family. It was just so much fun. I miss everyone already and can't wait for our next little reunion in a couple years!

Zion-Day 2

Saturday morning we started the day with some delicious Swedish pancakes, which I learned how to make. Mom made most of them though. While we slowly ate breakfast Grandma B pulled some fun Toy Story coloring pages and new crayons out of her special bag for all the kiddos. They all were very into coloring, especially Weston and Mimi. We ended up with a whole wall of Toy Story pages all colored in.
The view off Mom and Dad's patio and out our smaller room's windows. Gorgeous!
Once we all were showered and dressed we headed into the town of Springdale for some shopping and lunch. We browsed the boutiques and gift shops. Weston picked out a toy lizard as his souvenir, which was perfect because we saw lizards darting around everywhere. Davin got a toy turtle. I meant to get myself a magnet, but never did. Whoops.

We had to take pictures with our favorite golden ram. Yes, we are dorks.
We all went out to lunch together at Oscar's Cafe. It was really good food, but we ended up having to sit outside on the patio because we were such a big group, which got a little warm towards the end of the meal. Ian and I shared the Verde Pork Flautas. Mmm. After lunch we walked over to the candy shop and all picked out a treat. Also yum.
By the time our shopping adventures were over the babies were ready for naps, so we went back to the hotel and put them down, then hung out at Mom and Dad's room. Some of us played Wii. Archery was the game of the trip. Grandma B's special bag produced a fun foam sticker craft for the bigger kids to do while we all watched the massive thunder storm that blew through. I kind of enjoyed hanging out and watching the storm through the big glass patio doors. Like I said, my kind of camping.
Mel and I were in charge of dinner that night and we had brought all the fixings for taco salad. It was an easy meal to bring that served everyone and tasted good. Dad made homemade vanilla bean ice cream for dessert. It's the best. The storm finally cleared up and we went swimming again before bed. Once the kids were in bed the adults had a cream soda tasting. I have determined that I don't really like cream soda. Hardly any of them tasted good to me. I would love to try it again though with root beers. And when I'm not pregnant.

Zion Family Reunion!

This past weekend was our Olson Family reunion. This is the first time we have done a trip with all of my siblings and it was SO fun! We stayed at the fabulous Cliff Rose Lodge. It was the perfect place for us. Mom and Dad, Jules, and Brad and Mel stayed in a 2 bedroom family suite that had two separate bedrooms and bathrooms. It also had a little living room area, a (almost) full kitchen and a huge dining table. They had a private balcony too. Joy and Jim and our little family had our own regular rooms, but they were nice too. It was perfect having that one space for us all to gather in. And I loved being all together for our meals.

On Friday morning we drove down to Zion. We got there just after 2pm and checked in. We immediately got in the pool and swam with cousins. We actually did a lot of swimming, but alas there are no pictures of that since we were all in the water. That evening we had a campfire and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. It was the Olson girls version of camping and it was perfect. Ian played Trac Ball, Davin gathered pinecones with Mimi, Grandma B brought bubble wands, and my kids tried cooking their own dinner over the fire for the first time. It was hot, but in the shade it felt nice. The kids were all so tired that they were in bed by 7:30 that night. While the rest of us stayed up and played Just Dance on the Wii. It was hilarious. I sure love my family!
I know I'm keeping you in suspense about the details of our 20 week ultrasound, but I really wanted to just tell all of our family in person since we are seeing them all this week, so here's a sneak peek of our healthy baby. Details to come later this week. :)