We are the Mitchells!: SUMMER FUN 2012

WOW! I Can't believe my summer is coming to a close already! We have had a wonderful summer and so much going on! We had the Felkins family reunion in July in Lovell at Ryan and Amber's home. We all met on the 4th of July at Yellow Tail Lake just out of Lovell Wyoming. It was a great time!~ I love being with my parents and all my brothers and their families. All together we have 23 grandkids....and my kids were LOVING it. They had a ball. The older kids are such a great help and my OakLeigh latched onto Spencer and Justin and followed them everywhere they would let her. We had so much fun. Ryan and Amber went to a lot of planning for us. We had themes for each day. The first day was a fall theme of back to school. We had a Christmas theme which was everyones favorite. We spent that day at the church. We had a Christmas tree and every one drew names and we had to pick out a dollar store gift. It was AWESOME to see how much thought each person put into their gift even if it was from the dollar store. The best was when OakLeigh opened the gift from Hannity. She got her a princess puzzle. OakLeigh was so excited she ran right to her and gave her the biggest hug. It was priceless! It was fun to see what everyone could come up with. We also had a home cooked Christmas meal that day. With turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, hot buttery rolls, green bean casserole.....and to top it off we got banana splits and a great Christmas video that Ryan had made. It was a wonderful day. The last day of the reunion we celebrated Easter and even had an Easter egg hunt for the little kids. It was nice to celebrate the reunion like this since we all live so far apart and rarely get to spend the holidays together. We also had a game night of the Price is Right. It was hilarious! I made it to bidders row but never got off of it. Thank you Ryan and Amber for all your hard work you went through for us to all have such an amazing time! Right after the reunion we drove Brandon home and left him there and mom drove with me back to New Mexico. It was a great trip! Savanna and Weylon rode with Pa and OakLeigh and Memphis with Nana and me. It was a good trip. We had so much fun at Nana and Pa's. They put up the swimming pool! Thankfully! As you all know NEW MEXICO IS HOT! Especially compared to Big Piney. We swam every day sometimes all day long. They also built a swing set and play house. My kids were in heaven! We also got to go to Albuquerque shopping for school clothes. That was fun but a LONG drive and by the time we were done shopping and home - I don't think my mom or I would have ever taken my kids all together again... It was fun to get to go to Granny's and spend some time with her and Jo. We got to have a great bbq at Wes and Jenny's and even got to see Uncle Jim! I LOVE UNCLE JIM! He reminds me so much of Popo. I love being around him. And Wes had Katie get out a horse and let OakLeigh fulfill a huge dream of hers. She got to ride! She is my horse girl. And you couldn't wipe that smile off her face if you tried. It was also great because a week before we came home Kel and Sara's family came. Savanna and Jackson hit it off. They were inseparable. It was so funny because they would walk around the house singing the same songs, laughing at the same jokes and watching the same movies. They even slept in the same bed. Weylon and Molly and OakLeigh had fun together. But my hooked at the hip Memphis didn't let anyone get to close until about the last 2 days. Alex and Ella and Lauren were a huge help to me. My kids LOVE them. In fact OakLeigh still cries at night for Alex. Alex let her sleep in the camper with her every night and she cuddled and loved on her. She will make such a wonderful mom someday! And of course it just wouldn't be the same if Kel wasn't making fun of me or if everyone didn't sit around and tell funny Erin stories. They are lucky I can laugh at myself as much as they can laugh at me! On the 2nd to last day we went to Four Corners and got pictures of all the kids in all 4 states. It was great but HOT! So then we left there and went to the rec center pool in Cortez. The kids had a great time! All except for Alex. She happened to slip and fall on the water slide stairs and really hurt her little elbow. So she and Nana left while we all swam. It was a great time! Another good thing we got to do was go spend the day with Grandma for her birthday. I am really glad we got to go since she was home alone that day. I took the kids to the store and Weylon and Savanna really looked long and hard before they picked out a gift for her. Weylon picked out a coffee mug. "Since grandma drinks coffee she will love this," Weylon said. And Savanna picked out a glass plate. It was clear. She thought "old ladies love clear glass mom". HAHA. We took her a cake and bought her Strawberry ice cream...(her favorite). I think that by the time we left several hours later she was pooped out! We also went to the beauty college in Farmington and all of us girls got pedicures. Savanna was LOVING this. She has wanted to always do that. OakLeigh had the giggles. They girls and Weylon also got haircuts. I went later on - WITHOUT KIDS--- and got my hair chopped off! Its the shortest it has been in YEARS! We had such a wonderful time and I hope my mom and dad know how much it meant to us to spend the month with them! And Brandon, what a good sport. He was stuck at home in our DISGUSTING rental home trying to endure being alone in that place was hard on him. I felt bad every day for him. But we came home and loaded up and moved a few days later! We are now in the best home we can find here and we are so happy! Goodbye and good riddance to that dump! I feel bad for anyone who rents that place. But I will say that we were thankful to find even that to live in when we moved here so that our family could stay together. After Brandon's accident we knew it was the best thing to do to keep our family together. So as awful as that house was, I am thankful for it for that reason! And now that we are moved into our new home, I even UNPACKED! Something I didn't do much of in that other house. I lived out of a box for the most part. It was that bad! Now school starts in 2 weeks and we will be starting a new chapter in our lives. Savanna will be going into 4th grade and Weylon into 1st grade! My little OakLeigh will be OakLeigh. She is hard to describe. There is no other like her. And my little Memphis is as spoiled as ever. We all love on him - and he knows he can get away with anything anytime. I will be doing daycare soon but only 3 kids. I don't want to do more than that. It will be refreshing to have a small load! And I will say that this break I have had from daycare since we moved here has been a wonderful break for me and much needed time for us to help our family adjust. Here are some pictures. Enjoy! Oh and I just got called as the Relief Society secretary. I was excited! Its the first town we ever moved to that I was NOT put right into the nursery or primary! This will be good for me!