cousins – Page 2

Newborn Eleanor Week 2

July 1, 2018 by Rebecca Whitehead

Newborn Eleanor Week 2 was another very tiring blur of feed/pump/change diapers/wash bottles/feed everyone else/sleep/repeat. Eleanor was still sleeping most of the day and waking up frequently at night, so we were basically zombies just trying to survive. Luckily, Grammy was still there to help out and Grandpa also came to visit and meet the baby, along with out three other little “mommies” who couldn’t get enough of the baby. In Amelia’s words, “A REAL baby is SO much better than playing with our dollies!”

The girls did lots of swimming, park days and lounging around!

Nice to meet you, Grandpa!

No one, apparently, wanted to be in this picture.

The cousins came for a visit and went to the waterpark!

Dinner out in San Juan Capistrano– the kids were occupied by the trains passing by and all behaved really well!

Eleanor and I hung out at home while the cousins were out and about.

I want to go toooooo!

Queen Eleanor received many royal visitors every day. Pleasure to meet you, Phi and Sheela!

Maple is always the sweetest with Eleanor.

Meredith wanted to be a baby too.

All of the “babies” swaddled up!

Meredith had her own private beach morning with cousins Noah and Hailey while the twins were in preschool.

Magnatiles and trains are always a winner at our house.

Nice to meet you, Lily and Avery!

Walks around the neighborhood were the extend of Eleanor’s outings the first few weeks!

With school out, the twins were really excited to see some of our friends again, and Meredith had to learn to share with the crowd!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Avery, beach, cousins, gavin, Grammy, Grandpa, hailey, Lily, Maple, newborn eleanor, Noah, Owen, parker, phi, sheela, sisters

Provo River Rafting with the Gerins

August 16, 2017 by Rebecca Whitehead

For our last cousin excursion in Utah, we went on a river rafting tour down the Provo River with High Country Adventure. Since the Gerins had to make an afternoon flight that day, we asked our guide if he could get us down the river in one hour, instead of the normal two hours, and he took on the challenge. He said he usually doesn’t row and just guides the raft, so he really had his work cut out for him, but he was awesome and got us back down the river just in time, and light years ahead of any other raft.

Ready to ride!

Throwing rocks before take-off.

Our ride was peaceful and the kids spent most of the time trying to spot fish and picking up rocks. There were a few “thrilling” Class I rapids, which we pretended to make a big deal of to make ourselves feel more adventurous!

Our guide got a workout trying to get us down the river in time.

Snack time on the raft.

We made it!

Back at Grammy’s, the kids took one last swing ride together before Noah and Hailey had to take off for their flight.

Jake was also flying home that night, so the kids all got their cuddles in!

What a chub.

Thanks for joining us on our Utah adventure, cousins!

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: cousins, high country adventure, Noah, provo river, river rafting, swinging, throwing rocks, Utah summer 2017

Park City with the Gerins Summer 2017

August 15, 2017 by Rebecca Whitehead

While the Gerins were in town, we spent a day taking in the fresh mountain air and gorgeous views in Park City. At such a high altitude, a relatively mild summer day felt scorching and we were all a little sunburned, altitude-stricken and exhausted at the end of our adventures, but Samantha and Amelia enjoyed showing Noah the ropes. Hailey and Meredith had a baby/toddler playdate at home with Grammy and Grandpa, so it was just the older sibs this time!

Noah and Amelia wasted no time bringing on the silliness.

First stop: riding the chair lift up to the Alpine Slide. Whenever we ride a chair lift, the twins always ask a million questions about what happens if they fall out. “AND THEN WE WILL DIE,” they pronounce, solemnly.

Trying not to die on the chair lift.

Noah provided comic relief whenever the girls got cranky.

Last October on the Alpine Slide:

Here we go! It’s always a fight over who gets to sit with Daddy. The girls came up with a reluctant compromise that whoever sat with Daddy on the Slide, HAD to sit with me on the Coaster. I’m always the second choice, and the girls don’t even pretend to hide that fact!

Oh my… mining for gems turned out to be the girls’ favorite part of the whole day (maybe vacation?) They are totally obsessed with the bag of polished rocks they collected and still keep them by their bedsides.

Proud owner of polished rocks!

For unexplained reasons, the twins were also excited about this slow-moving waterless tube hill.

Time to bounce! Samantha showed off her flips, while Amelia took a more conservative straight up and down approach.

Amelia on the trampoline last year:

What next?

Hugs!

The ropes course looked pretty challenging, but everyone hung in there and did well.

Samantha on the ropes last year:

Noah was so cute up there!

Zipline time.

Weeeee!

Even Noah tried it!

Everyone was tired by the afternoon and ready to go, but being gluttons for punishment, Jake and I stayed to take the girls on the promised Alpine Coaster while everyone else headed home. I should probably read my old blog posts once in a while before planned excursions because the last time we were at Park City, I wrote a note to my future self, imploring myself to remember to quit while I was ahead. History repeated itself as 45 minutes, three bathroom breaks, two shaved ices and two very sunburned and tired twins later, we made it back down the mountain. We don’t even have pictures to show for all our heroic effort, so here’s the coaster from last year. It’s way faster than the slide and the girls had a blast, but I don’t know that I’d go through waiting in that torturous line with them again, thrilling coaster or not.

See you next time, Park City.

Lots of love,

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: alpine coaster, alpine slide, cousins, mining gemstones, Noah, park city, polished rocks, ropes course, summer 2017, trampoline bungee, Utah, zipline

Trek to Utah Summer 2017

August 15, 2017 by Rebecca Whitehead

At the end of July through first week of August, we packed up and spent a few weeks of family and adventure-packed time in Utah! I had debated whether to send Jake and twins in the car while I flew with Meredith, like we did last year, but ultimately decided we were better off with Meredith strapped in a car seat, screaming, than on a plane, in my lap, screaming. She’s insanely strong and I probably would have ended up buying her her own seat, just to keep her restrained on a plane, so we decided to roll the dice and drive!

We started our travel off late in the day, thanks to the girls’ dance class in the morning and an Amazon package carrying some last-minute Keens for our trip that was late. As soon as we spotted the UPS truck with the coveted Amazon package on board, we jumped for joy and were finally able to take off in the afternoon. I always underestimate how cranky the kids get with late-in-the-day travel, and this was no exception. I always assume evening road trips will be a breeze since they will most definitely drift off in the car, right? Maybe everyone else’s kids, but not ours!

By Vegas, it was well past bedtime, and yet everyone was wide-eyed, whiny and sick of the car/each other. Thanks to the long stretches of desert and crossing time zones, it was still light out at 9 p.m., and without any blackout shades in sight, no one could fall asleep, despite the steady hum of the car. At one point, late that night, everyone was screaming, I had my headphones on ignoring everyone, and Jake was gripping the wheel, diet coke in hand, when suddenly, they all went silent. Having finally conked out, the kids were peaceful for an hour before we had to unload everyone at Jake’s brother’s vacation home in St. George to rest for the night. At least we had made our first leg of the trek unscathed (physically, at least… I still have mental scars!)

The twins were bewildered to wake up in unfamiliar bunk beds, and Meredith wasted no time trying to make a mess in every room in the morning, so we left as quickly as possible, not wanting to risk damaging anything in the nice vacation house! The four-hour drive to Lindon that morning was much better than the six hour torture-session the previous day, and the girls arrived at Grammy’s in good spirits.

Ready to go, with four bikes and a baby bike seat attached.

Everyone was too excited to see cousins to nap, so we all ran them ragged in the hot sun and put everyone to bed early. Allison, Zack, Noah and Hailey had flown to Utah a few days prior to us arriving and we were so excited to hang out and show them the sights for a few days!

Look, another baby!

Hailey was confused!

During the Gerins’ stay, we headed out in the morning for activities, came back for naps (or non-naps in Samantha and Amelia’s cases), and then typically spent the afternoons playing in the backyard. It was about as relaxing a vacation as is possible with our crew.

Cousin swinging time.

Meredith has started refusing to sit in her high chair for more than a few minutes before demanding a big girl chair.

We slept over at Tyler and Elizabeth’s house in Provo while the Gerins were at my parents, and every morning, the girls got a few jumps in on the trampoline before taking off. They really miss our old trampoline!

A new best doggie friend– Roger.

I love Aunt Sarah.

Meredith enjoyed poking and prodding Hailey to no end, in addition to constantly trying to steal her food.

Our stay coincided with Pioneer Day, so the girls participated in the obligatory sparklers, parachutes and backyard fireworks display. The twins were exhausted, and being mean parents, we didn’t let them stay up until it actually got dark to do fireworks, so the fireworks looked pretty sad in the daylight. Maybe next year!