Mitchell Family

Mitchell Family

Friday, September 21, 2012

Next Stop...Ohio!

(My blog has been down for awhile so now I'm really far behind!)

We were all excited about Ohio because Ohio means family!
(prepare for a lot of pictures)

While in North Carolina we got word that there had been a huge storm in Ohio and many people had lost their power.  My Grandma was one of them.  We arrived in Ohio expecting hot, dirty, grumpy people - that was not the case!  They had hooked up a generator, used water sparingly, and kept busy.  My aunt and uncle had power so they pulled a camper (thanks Fran and Henry) to their house, and set up space for us to come stay!  It was great!  They are great!  And we had some good fun over the next couple of days!
  
My mom took this picture "A Beautiful Storm", before we got there!

During summer vacation at Grandma's house, my brother and I would play games (my grandma has a stack of games up in the attic) to pass the time.  So, we played games with my grandma!  And she is quite tricky at this age old game of "Hands Down!"  She got us all and we laughed - and I can't help but smile every time I think of it.  What a great memory!

See my grandma's hand - it was always ready!

Look at Kyler's face - he lost that round!

Sarah and Brian had us all over for dinner.  It was so fun to visit them in their cute home and see their cute little kids!

Kavan and Eme had a great time together!

That little Briar  is so cute with his little grin - you can't help but kiss him!


John and Annie's new puppy!

Kavan and Eme swinging...

and jumping!  And they ran everywhere!

My Aunt Patty always keeps busy, so she brought us an activity.  We made flip flops!

Flip flops for Sarah.  (and her shirt cracks me up!)

For Kenzie
Cute, right?!?

For me, but Karlee has acquired them, hmmm! :)

For Annie.


For Eme!

For my mom...

See!  :)

And where there is a baby, there will you find my dad! :)


This picture makes me laugh!


 We went shopping, cause that's what girls do with their moms, and we had 4 generations so we went shopping 2 days in a row!  (I love how we have pictures of shopping, because who does that?)  Of course we had to try on shoes!  When Kenzie was little we could not go to the shoe department... because we could not leave the shoe department without blood curdling cries!  It was painful when she needed shoes!  She's outgrown the crying... but not the love for shoes!

I love how they still pick the "highest, brightest and sparkliest" shoes!

Kenzie had to show my mom how to walk in them!  :)

Look at my Grandma checking out Karlee's shoes!

Love them! :)

We went over to John and Annie's for some amazing food and fun!


Kyler causing trouble I'm sure!

And then there are Brian and Kavan, who are always causing trouble!

Ready for fireworks!

It got cold and I think Layne was making fun of me!

Fireworks and homemade ice cream!

Oh, to sleep through noise like a baby can!

Eme gettin' her uncle!

Eme givin' hugs!

In an earlier post, I talked about this place we ate at after Brian and Sarah were sealed in DC, and Brian ate a "big ole' burger"...
this shirt came from there!  My aunt gave it to me, because she's awesome like that!  It was a great day and such a fun memory! (I love my shirt, thanks Aunt Patty!)


And talking about a fun memory... For Kenzie's birthday, Layne had "commissioned" my uncle to make her a hope chest.  She didn't know about this beautiful surprise!  So as they were bringing it up the stairs we started singing Happy Birthday and since it was past her birthday, she was singing with us, because why not?  When we got to "Happy Birthday, dear McKenzieeeeee..."  this was her reaction.


The Confusion!

The Surprise!

The Hope Chest!  It's just beautiful and smooth as a baby's bum!

The Hug!  So much love and thanks to my uncle!  What a special treasure!

We went out to my aunt's mom and dad's farm, and once again had some good fun!  Oh and some good food.  Someone brought this Mexican Vanilla Cake.  Oh man, it was to die for!  I have got to find that recipe!  Also, my aunt made this really great treat - A package of oreo cookies (generic work great) crushed and mixed with a package of cream cheese, put on a sucker stick, dipped in chocolate, and enjoyed by all!  


I love this picture of Henry and the kids!

And I love these two!  They make me happy, because they are so darn cute together!


"Come on, Kyler!"

And get a load of those cheeks, could this picture be any cuter!  Eme had Kyler's hand and heart!

Look at these two cuties!


Shooting skeet!

The girls had to show us how it's done!

Kyler likes Annie's gun...A LOT!

Look at those guys!

Go, Kenzie!


I love this picture!  I wish I had a picture of John shootin' from the hip!  He cracks me up! :)

Go, Patty!

Go, Dad!

And Uncle John shot "clean up!"  :)

Next stop, Hershey!
















Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Summer Vacation = Road Trip!


First stop, Hiddenite Gems in North Carolina.

We had a great time sluicing!  They fill the buckets with "ore" taken from the Emerald Hollow Mine.  Treasures are really fun to find, and the kids took it quite seriously!  :)  Kavan liked finding the "big" rocks.  Karlee liked finding the "crystals."  And Kyler and Kenzie caught on that "smaller, but weighty rocks" were, most often, quite precious.



Headed down to the creek!


Sluicing in the creek!





Layne and the kids could spend hours sluicing!  (And I could spend hours in their, tiny but fun, gem and jewelry store.)  Such a fun day, topped off with showers that ran orange because of all the dust and dirt we had accumulated at the mine!  Oh, and to really top off the day we were in walking distance of this new Italian restaurant - delicious - brick oven pizza, yummy lasagna, mmmmm! ...And Dairy Queen just happened to be a hop, skip and jump away!  :) 

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Where did summer go?

So, swim team is done, boy scout camp and youth conference are done, vacation is done, and band camp is over.

These are the only pictures I got this year from swimming!  Most of our meets were quite rainy!

The Team - Fins 2012

Karlee ready to start.

Lost her goggles, poor thing!
But kept going! :)

Kyler ready to start!

Going strong!


Scout camp was held at Woodruff.  Kyler's favorite thing about camp this year was climbing and repelling!  So much fun!

Youth Conference was held on the USS Yorktown in Charleston, SC.  An amazing experience for Kenzie!  Her favorite part was seeing Jericho Road - and actually getting to stay on an aircraft carrier.

We had a great vacation this summer.  Layne loves planning a road trip!  We packed our van full and set off for two weeks traveling through about 20 states - Rhode Island being the quickest to go through!   Our vacation deserved so many pictures that it will have to be in a post all on its own!  :)

Band Camp started a busy band season!  They are doing a show called Warriors (school name) vs. Aliens!  Collin is a Freshman this year so it's fun for Kenzie and Collin to be in band together!

A little rainy.



Oh, I even had a birthday...It was so fun!  I love my family! :)



Now, school has started and seminary is in session (New Testament this year - 23 kids) and "tired mode" has begun - got to get over that!  :)



First day of school...

8th grade

10th grade

5th grade

3rd grade



When they got home from school, they were all really excited about their teachers - which is kind of unusual for the older two.  So, I counted that as a really great, positive start to this year!  That night we got a call from Karlee's teacher - "Really?!?" - was our first thought.  But Ms. Duncan was calling to tell us that her day had been great, and Karlee had done well, and she was really looking forward to this school year with her class!  How many teachers take the time to do that?!  What a nice lady!  :)