Carn Family Reunion 2010

We arrived home a few days ago from a wonderful Carn family reunion. The trip began when we all met at the Carn compound and made our first trip of many to our favorite restaurant Portillo's! The cousins were all excited for a fun filled week ahead.

We had the opportunity to bless our not so little baby Logan at Charlie's parents home with all of his brothers. Logan's little cousin Finley was blessed as well. How did we not get a picture of the two of them together? Oh yeah, there were 35 people squished in one little room...I guess it was too crazy for pictures.
Here is Logan with his proud papa. What a special day it was to bless Logan with so many family members around.
Then the packing began. It took us 5 vans and a truck filled to the top to get to our destination. We were headed to The Grand Bear Lodge and brought enough food with us to feed a small village.



This was where we stayed. We had two lodges to fit 35 of us. They were a great place for us to all gather together and spend some family time.





The lodge has a great indoor water park with a wave pool, lazy river, and fun water slides. The kids had a blast here and we went at least twice a day if not more. One of my favorite memories was our family train of tubes floating around the lazy river. There were so many of us that the tail end of the train almost reached the start of the train!

The lodge also had a great little amusement park and mini golf but we also spent plenty of time at the lodge with fun planned activities. We played a great round of family feud, made bottle rockets with Grandpa, played bingo for the grand "Fanta" prize, and we even had our very own talent show. The talent show was quite a hit. My favorite moments were Spencer singing and dancing to," Eye of the Tiger" and believe it or not I really enjoyed the all girl act singing to ,"I'm gonna wash that man right outta my hair." Charlie promised to get it on video but he ended up messing with the baby. Someone did get a cute picture of it though and if I get a copy I will post it later.

Here is a picture of the overall craziness of the lodge. When you get 35 Carn's together you can hear us from miles away. I was glad no one was in the lodge next to us!

Here are the kiddos on the way to shoot off their rockets. It was REALLY hot but the kids had a blast...literally!

This is how we all felt at the end of the trip.

A great time was had by all and I am grateful to my in-laws for putting it all together. I loved almost every second of it :) and I am glad my kids had some good quality time with family that they do not get to see very often. We look forward to seeing everyone again next year!

Below is a clip of what our family did for the talent show and just a small bit of Spencer's awesomness!

Motherhood: An Eternal Partnership with God

I opened my email this morning after 5 days alone and 4 more ahead still to go. The kids were all screaming and fighting and it is 9:30 and I am already tired and I got to watch this. It was just what I needed. Thanks Charlie...I miss you!

Cedar Point

Charlie got it in his head a week or so ago that he was determined to go to Cedar Point. It had been a LONG time since I had been on any big roller coasters so it sounded like fun. We got a babysitter for the entire day and took off with some friends for a day of terrifying fun.

This was right before our first ride and before I knew what I was getting myself into! We rode Millennium Force first. This ride has a 300 foot drop at 93 mph!

We also rode Top Thrill Dragster. I honestly think I died a little on this ride. It accelerates to 120 mph in just 3.8 seconds. It sends you right up a 90 degree incline and sends you straight back down a 420 foot hill!

Another big one was Maverick. This one drops down a 105 foot hill at a 95 degree angle...yes, that is 5 degrees past vertical!

Here are some videos of just a few of the rides we went on. None of the videos were taken by me. Trust me I was holding on for dear life and closing my eyes and going to my "happy place".

This was our last ride and the only ride I put my arms up on. It was the train ride around the park with a top speed of 10 mph!

Did I have fun???? Yes, after all I had no kids for 11 hours and spent the entire day with my hubby. Am I thrill seeker????? No, I have decided that I like the ground and if I am going to splurge on a fun filled day again I think I will pick the spa next time :)

June

The summer is moving way too fast so I thought I would put up a few pictures before I get too far behind.

I have been very bad at taking any pictures of my little Logan. I always swore that I would never end up with one of those kids that only has two pictures of them because their parents just got too busy but here I am on number 5 and I seriously am lacking in the picture department. Here are two new ones of my little man. He is smiling ear to ear and cooing up a storm. He is sleeping a little better and we are just loving him.

Here is my attempt to actually be in a few family pictures. I am always the one behind the camera so I don't get in many pictures. So this is me and my five little kiddos. The pictures are far from perfect but they are real life and I love being their mommy.

Sam is always keeping me busy. He has decided not only is his body a temple, it is also his canvas. If this boy gets his hands on markers watch out...he colors anything he can get his hands on including himself.

We have been working on our little garden again and Sam loves to go and play with the bubbles. Here is a shot of our planting day. He was covered in dirt from head to toe. Apparently marker is not his only medium!

This is our garden after only 1 week. The kids love to see how fast everything grows.

We have had a great summer so far and look forward to some more long fun filled beautiful summer days!

Ethan's 7th birthday

My little boy just turned 7! He had a great few days and says that this was his best birthday ever.

We went to a really fun place in our town where the kids played mini golf, rode bumper boats, played laser tag and even rode a roller coaster. Ethan invited a little neighbor girl who has been in his class the last two years.

Here is Ethan on the bumper boats. The kids got soaked and had so much fun.

Here is the group playing laser tag. Ethan and Marlee gave up after only a few minutes because they got scared but Abby and Morgan played the whole time. Sam even ran around with Elmo as his protective shield the entire time.

We also went to a baseball game the night before which is one of Ethan's most favorite things to do. They put his name up on the big screen and we got the entire outfield to sing happy birthday to him. Abby also was in a cheer camp that week and got to cheer at the game. She loved it and it was fun for Ethan to have her cheer at his special game.

Yet another birthday down and now our month of birthdays has come to an end until next year.

Here is some video of the roller coaster ride that the kids loved...it scared me half to death but little did I know that much bigger roller coasters were in my future, but that is for another post!