Annual King Family Reunion

So my Aunt & Uncle have a cabin up in Idaho in the Palasades and has been dubbed by Mark as his "dream vacation". This is for 3 reasons: the company, the competition, and the activities (too bad that last one didn't start with a "c").

Company: Usually in a family as large as ours there seem to always be a couple apples that fell pretty far from the tree (I'm not sure if that's the right expression but I'm going with it) But in my family that is not the case. Or maybe it's that we're all oddballs ??? But either way I love being around my family. It is constant fun and activities.

Competition: We are all extremely competitive and not only that but we are always looking for ways to compete. Several of these are organized (i.e., boat races, egg drop competition, scavenger hunts, Dance competitions, Minute to Win its, and Skits) while others are more impromptu (i.e., eating weird things, cooking, puzzple finishing, and lots of board games). It is a big deal to win these competitions!

Activities: In addition to all the planned competitions we also spend several days on the boat wake boarding and wake surfing, we have movies out on the deck, and we go white water rafting on the snake river (it's like 20 min from the cabin).

This was our river rafting group.

pretty view!


The annual boat races. We take this pretty seriously. You could only use 8 large sticks, 8 small sticks, 2 pieces of paper, and hot glue to make your boat. I tried to mimick the Ether 12 boats "tight like unto a dish" and while the concept was good it was pretty slow! At least it made it whole through all the waterfalls. I guess the Jaredites were more concerned about safety than speed.

The winners.
This was not my boat...but a good example

We went in heats of 6

cliff jumping

Mark used to be really good at wake boarding but only going once a year takes its tole. Last year he wrecked pretty hard core and got a bloody nose doing a flip so he was a lot more careful this year. I keep telling Mark that we are going to be a boat family.....it just may be a while till that happens

hiking group

Conner insisted on walking. Pretty much so he could play in the dirt.

One of my favorite competitions was a photo scavenger hunt. I gave a few of my favorites from different groups.

Where's waldo category
Grandma was a trooper and volunteered in her group for the mohawk from soap
Conner got volunteered to be the cross dresser. I have to admit he'd make a very cute girl. Hopefully my girls have his same sort of looks.
penny's over the eyes dead
fit in a tight place

I love my family and I am so grateful that we are able to do things like this with as big as our family is getting.

Conner's 1!

1 year ago our world changed forever when this little guy joined our family. Some of the changes were hard and it was a big adjustment to learn how to be a parent but I wouldn't have it any other way. Without getting too mushy I never knew such purpose and joy was possible. I didn't ever understand the bond and love between mother and child. I am so blessed to have him in my life.

What a change I mean I thought he was cute when he was born but he is SO much cuter now with his personality shinning through.

From the list of things little boys love (planes, trains, cars, sports, animals, music, etc.,) one of the things that tops Conner's list is animals. He LOVES animals so we decided to go to Thanksgiving Point's farm animals area for Conner's birthday. I've already mentioned how we go and look at the horses every day that live by us but Conner has widened this love to ducks, sheep, cows, and pigs. He can recognize which is which and he can successfully make a recognizable quack and moo.

He uses the quack noise for all birds and any mammal with four legs gets a mooo.

Conner loved going on the pony ride! He loved being the center of attention and every time he walked by the crowd of family watching he would give a wave or smile. He even gave the crowd a good show by flashing them. You can see the beginning of the flash in this picture.

After the petting zoo we went to my parents and had a BBQ to finish the celebration. I've been working on the decorations for weeks now. I went with the sesame street theme because that is another one of his loves.

 I made a timeline from birth to present!

 We had tons of fruit, chips & Salsa, hot dogs, corn on the cob, and brown sugar chicken wrapped in bacon. So delicious. I'm salivating now just thinking about it.

These were my Elmo cake pops. They took FOREVER!! I had originally planned to do  cookie monster ones as well but after the Elmos took so long the other cake pops were plain.

I totally copied a picture on etsy I saw of these poof ball thingys. I'm rather proud of myself

I have a confession to make...I actually enjoy some parts of Sesame Street. They have really upped their game in so many ways. The Sesame Street I remember did not have Bert and Ernie's Great Adventures, or the Flying Fairy school! One thing I could do without is Mr. Noodle. He's a little creepy!

Anyways, Conner loves sports (I may or may not be brainwashing him so he will be the next college star) but I figure there will be plenty of sports parties in the future so I may as well use the Elmo theme while it's still there.

Con digging into his cake. Brenton helped him out by painting a smiley face on his tummy.

Then it was present time. He unwrapped some of his present by himself but I think that his cousins did the majority. They were more excited than he was about the gifts. 

These were just a couple funny pictures of the cake pops. My grandpa was so funny when he was eating it. He is giving elmo a kiss in the picture to the right.

The hills and horses of montana

It was a test week for Mark a.k.a week when I don't have a husband so I decided to join my parents for a trip to Montana. My Aunt and Uncle have an awesome house there that is perfect for kids. They have a huge room in the basement that is all padded. There is nothing better! We would have nerf wars in there or I would just fall asleep on the floor and let Con crawl around. Conner is obsessed with horses and he loved going out and seeing them everyday.