We had so much fun with our own little Amazing Race and Minute to Win it games.

The women-folk got some much needed R&R with some delicious breakfast, pedicures, and shopping.

A few weeks later, we headed to Stanley, Idaho for the Baldwin family reunion.  Each family stayed in our own little cabins.  We spent most of our time outdoors which was kind of tricky with temps in the 30′s at night and 80′s during the day.

This picture was taken right behind our cabin.  We had the most beautiful view.

We spent one day at Red Fish lake and had so much fun playing in the water and canoeing around.

Somehow we talked Audrey into doing a dive off the dock and swimming back to shore.  We told her we would canoe right along beside her in case she was tired. She got her goggles on and got all ready to go.  She dove in and then came up screaming because of the freezing water and jumped right back into the canoe.

She inspire Mason and Uncle Stephen to dive in too.

On June 4, 2011, our Audrey girl got baptized!  I can’t believe she’s old enough for this.

Before we left for her baptism, we presented her with a few gifts.  We gave her, her own set of scriptures.  I made her a quilt with some words embroidered on it that were in a song she and Kate sang at her baptism.  And Scott gave her this sweet little corsage.

She played the song, “When I am Baptized,” on the piano and she and Kate sang it together.  Here’s a video of them singing it at home.

After the baptism, we headed to the park for a picnic with family and then finished off the day having birthday cake for Grandma Jean’s birthday.

Isn’t she a cutie?

We had so much fun. Jeana and I took the girls to see the Tangled movie finally. It was as good as we had hoped. Not long after our trip, Jeana bought the soundtrack to the movie and all the kids sing along, even Simon.

I found a new place that could suck away all my money: Yogurt Land. If you haven’t been there, it’s like a frozen yogurt buffet, except you don’t keep going back.

On Presidents Day before we drove home, we went out to Red Rock Canyon and went hiking. It was a blast. There were some stressful times when the kids ventured to big drop-offs, and times when they were a bit more conservative and safe.

Because I’m a show-off, I had to do this:

The result was 4 subtitled videos that were projected up on the exterior wall of a cabin for a family of about 25 people to sing along to. I picked songs that I figured most of the grandchildren (my nieces and nephews) would know and actually sing along to. That was easy because I have a few songs that I play all the time that our kids dance and jam to.

What I did NOT expect was the comedic relief of Kate to come out in the filming. I was cracking up when I was making the final edits of the movies, and when I showed Jeana, we were rolling with laughter. There are some clips that must not go unnoticed, and to that end I have produced a quick sequence of the highlights for your viewing pleasure.

One thing I didn’t notice until just barely was the part when Audrey jumps off the chair and doesn’t make the landing. That’s about the only subtle part of the sequence.

To see the full length films check out the Songs of the Day:

• I’m Yours
• Hey, Soul Sister
• Hey There Delilah
• Any Dream Will Do

This year we opted out of our normal summer trip to Utah and Idaho and after another year of daily reading, we set out for Port Aransas, Texas.

Our cottage was called the Dark Horse, and it was conveniently located only two blocks from the beach. It was a cozy little two bedroom place with no carpet. At first I thought that was odd. Maybe the flooring option is obvious to you, but it took me a visit to the beach and back to understand the wisdom of the vinyl flooring.

The first day of the beach was full of excitement and anticipation. After all, we had been waiting for this day for two years. The suspense built and built until Kate and her eczema skin touched the salt water. We quickly dropped our expectations and resigned ourselves to focusing on building a sand castle and other non-water activities.

After our first day (really only a few hours) at the beach we headed back to Dark Horse and attempted to clean the sand off of us. There was sand everywhere, and the grittiness on the bottom of my bare feet reminded me that I wouldn’t be clean until we returned home.

Somehow we got the kids to sleep all in the same room and then we got to bask in one of our favorite BBC-produced chick-flicks: North & South.

Day 2 began with the normal morning routine plus a helping of sunblock to prepare for the exposure. Simon smacked his face on the corner of the kitchen table and to soothe his pain he thought it would be a good idea to rub the sunblock in his eyes. That, coupled with the intense brightness of the sun, led to a morning of drooping his head, squinting his eyes, and struggling to see. Awesome. This day was going to be so fun!

Based on Day 1′s results with Kate’s sensitive skin, I knew that I couldn’t just take off running into the waves with her. Instead, we setup our gear close to the water, and eased into beach play. Little by little, we got in the water, and eventually Kate was playing in the water with Audrey. Surprisingly, she was enjoying it pretty much the whole time.

My time with Simon and Kate hanging out on the sand gave Jeana time to play on her own and to help Audrey try some new things on the boogie boards.

Kate was in heaven gathering sea shells and finding sand dollars. Simon did much better the second day keeping the sand out of his eyes and off his face. He (and I) hated the water in our eyes though. I took him out in the waves and he kept getting pummeled by the water and was going nuts with it in his eyes.

Audrey was a skimboard hog, but I enjoyed watching her trying to figure it out.

I think the best part of this trip to the beach was the sense of adventure that we got to share as an entire family. None of us had been here before so everything was new to each person and we each got to explore in some way. Jeana stayed in one afternoon while Simon took a nap, and I took the girls shopping for souvenirs. Ugh, it was so hot getting in and out of the car so much, but we found some fun t-shirts to come home with.

Right as we pulled into the parking lot, we noticed Blair and Wendy pulling in behind us, so we all ended up going together.  It was a good thing they were there because we found out that we could only have two kids in our boat.  So, Kate rode with them at the beginning for a little while and then Audrey did at the end.

Simon started out brave and standing, but by the end was whining and burying his head in my lap.

Audrey started out scared and cautious, but by the end she was brave enough to stand up.

And Kate was just a delight the whole time out there.  She really was so stinkin’ fun and cute and helped Audrey (her older sister) to be a little braver.

We had so much fun looking at all the turtles on the lake.  There were tons of them all lined up on the logs.

After our canoeing adventure, we all went to Flip Happy for some delicious crepes.

Then, I made a path of hearts coming from each room and meeting up in front of the stairs with the first clue.

When they woke up in the morning they followed the path to the first clue.  The clues led them to their bathroom, the computer desk, the kitchen table, the ping pong table, and finally up into the extra bedroom where they had heart shaped cookies waiting for them.

After the hunt, we headed downstairs to a heart shaped pancake breakfast made by Scott and a fruit bouquet of yummy, yummy berries. He also gave me some yummy chocolate with personalized wrapping of pictures of my family. It was really cute and I’d put a picture in if I had one, but I don’t, and it’s all been eaten by now. It ended up being a really fun day.

The assembly was in the morning, so the whole family went to drop Audrey off at school…which means Kate had to wake up way too early.  She was a very cranky girl for most of the morning.  After trying to entertain her for a couple of hours, I decided we needed to get out of the house, so I loaded her into the jog stroller and took her running.  She threw tantrums for the first ten minutes of the run and then pulled her hat down turned her head and zonked out.  It was a very enjoyable run after that.  These kinds of things just don’t happen any more.

Okay, I just have to toot my own horn here for a couple of things in these pictures.  First of all, that sweater Kate is wearing – pretty darn cute, I’d say.  I knitted it for her for Christmas.  Poor Audrey; I’m still working on hers.  She was given a ball of yarn for Christmas with a note saying it was going to be a sweater too.  She got really excited and said, “Are you going to teach me how to knit?”  It’s amazing what little things will excite your kids when you do a homemade Christmas.

Now the second thing I have to toot my horn about is I went running being just two days shy of 37 weeks.  That’s longer than I’ve ever continued running with the other pregnancies.  Just to qualify things – my running consists of a run/walk combination with the run part being extremely slow…but still.

Okay, one more picture to add.  Since you can’t see my belly very good in that picture and I try to avoid belly shots for the most part, I decided I should at least have one picture documenting my hugeness.

Considering I avoid pictures, it’s amazing that I agreed to be the front prego for this yoga add.  Jamie found out about a fitness place opening that needed models for some adds.  She got picked and then told them that she had a friend who teaches yoga and is pregnant and asked if they wanted me too.  Then later, Brenna also got added in.  So here we are in all of our glory.  We still haven’t seen Jamie’s pictures though.

Since I’ve already gone off on quite a tangent from what this post first started as, let me continue on just a little bit longer.  Just FYI, it’s okay for pregnant people to call themselves huge.  It is not etiquette however for someone to say something like, “When’s the baby due or should I say babies?”  It’s also not okay to say, “I don’t know much about pregnancies, but when I saw you, I thought, man is she having twins?”  It’s also not okay to say, “Do you have twins or triplets in there?”  Yes.  All of these things have been said to me.  My brother, Brad told me that the proper reply to all of this is to say, “What are you talking about?  I’m not pregnant,” and then walk off.  I’ll try that next time.

Scott and Kate came out and helped us and it was so fun.  I think Scott and I did most of the cleaning and Audrey and Kate mostly just sprayed each other with the hose or begged Scott to spray them with the hose, but at least it brought a smile to everyones face, right?

Who would have thought being sprayed by a hose in January would be fun?  I can’t get used to this Texas weather.  It’s 78 one day and 30 the next.