Friday, July 8, 2011

The Weekend


Friday evening was the begining of the 2011 Stoker Reunion for Jeff's 5 brothers and their families. The more adventurous family members decided to float the canal...
That evening we watched Tangled, then it was off to bed. Uncle Wade camped out in the tent with some of the grandkids since the rest of us are too old and lame for that sort of thing. Kamden started out on the couch, but during the night he slid right onto the floor...
Saturday morning Kelly made buttermilk pancakes and Jeff cooked the eggs, then it was ouside for backyard games. Despite what Mark says, Jeff and I schooled him and Brad in Badminton...but I'm pretty sure that Wade & Lauren were the reigning champions.
It was a hot day and supposedly the best remedy for such a situation is a dip in the pond...
...but not before a water fight...




That evening we went to a place called Steadman's where they have 2 big water slides, a zip line, and other fun things. I don't know how many times I went down that water slide but my legs sure hurt the next morning from climbing up the hill so many times. And my head and my back from when Brian, Sierra, and I had the bright idea to ride a tube down together and couldn't slow ourselves down so we slammed into the tires at the end of the slide and crashed. Our legs went up over our heads and we ended up in the mud. Probably not the best idea since Sierra is 7 months pregnant.

We had yummy dutch oven chicken & potatoes for dinner then roasted s'mores afterword.
Sunday morning we all went to church before a group picture...
Followed by a lawnmower ride...
Then Grandpa & Grandma Stoker came over and shared stories about their parents and their childhood...
And then there were more lawnmower rides...
And Sunday afternoon snorefest naps...
And ended the evening with card games.
The 2nd annual Stoker Milk Jug golf tournament was Monday morning resulting in a tie between Mark & Tyler, defeating last year's champion, Jeff, who hopes to reclaim the title in 2012.
And Wade won Closest to the Pin...
After the 4th of July parade we all had pizza in the park where Owen was attacked by a little boy who decided Owen's arm would make a good chew toy. The mother apologized saying that her son was a biter, but I had another name in mind for him...
Later, Aunt Lauren kept the kids occupied with fun crafts:
Then we had a bbq and shared memories of Grandpa Hurst before going to watch fireworks at Grandpa & Grandma Stoker's house. Afterword we lit some in Mark & Becky's backyard before calling it a night...

Friday



On Friday we attended the funeral for Jeff's Grandpa. It was fun to hear all of the great memories and funny stories that were shared. Jeff's cousin, Cody, made this video. I think the things that were mentioned the most about Grandpa were his smile and his laugh and this video captures both perfectly. I also loved the twinkle he always had in his eyes, I'm glad to have known him for these past 8 years.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday

 Tuesday the boys did swimming lessons again and it went a bit better than the first time. That evening we went downtown and visited the little candy store, then ate ice cream at the park, and rented movies from the RedBox.
Wednesday was the last day of swimming lessons and it was COLD so the boys whined and cried about getting in the water, then they didn't want to get out. I'm not sure if they learned much in 3 days, but it was a good beginers course to get used to being in the water without a life jacket. That evening mom was at mutual and dad was getting groceries so the boys and I went on a bike ride and ended up at the elementary school. Even though they were in their jammies (t-shirts & undies) we stayed and played for awhile. I have pictures on my phone but I can't figure out how to get them from my phone to the computer.
Thursday morning we went to the dam with several friends and had a picnic. The water was a bit chilly but the kids loved digging in the sand and collecting sticks.
Jeff got to Emmett around 6:00 and we all jumped in the car and drove the 3 hours to Burley where we stayed the weekend with Kelly & Mindy (THANKS!) It was a fun & busy 5 days full of laughing, crying, water fights, and fireworks...  

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Monday...

Ethan & Kamden started swimming lessons...there was a lot of whining, crying, and flailing around in the water. Hopefully today's lesson goes a bit better...
We rode our bikes, jumped on the trampoline, built with Legos, and watched Owen devour an ice cream cone...