Happy Birthday Elle

I'm back. Its been a very long time, but I'm back and I'm ready to catch up. Is anybody even out there anymore? Or did you give up on the Wildthayn blog? Because I would like to print this blog and make a book, I'm going to try and pick up where I left off.

Seven years ago, we brought this tiny little girl to a home away from home at my Mom and Dad's house. Then we went even further from home to Oklahoma with Jarin to do C-5 training. When she was nearly 2 months old, we finally returned to our home in Fairfield, California and greeted many anxious friends who had yet to meet the newest Thayn.



I blinked, had two more babies, moved 2 times, and now she's 7 years old!! She's toothless. She loves to read. And she is so excited about her birthday breakfast in bed!!



We took the kids to Chuck E Cheese to celebrate Elle's birthday. Fun times!!


Elle requested a chocolate cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory for her birthday cake. That's my kind of girl!!

A-MAZ-ING!!!

I made a "deal" with Elle that if she read all the Magic Treehouse Books this summer, I would pay her $50. That's 28 chapter books!! She ran with it, sometimes reading 2 books per day!! She even read a few of the Merlin Mission books. She finished the last book on Monday night and we dug out $50 and payed up. I think that was the best $50 I ever spent!!

Great job Elle!! Congratulations!!

Dragon Hunter

I just ordered my very own copy of Dragon Hunter the movie. My brother worked on this movie and we are super excited about its release.

He also brought us Glad I got a sword today, part 1, part 2, and part 3.

So, maybe there's a dragon movie party in our future... what do you think?

Happy Birthday Jarin!!

Happy Birthday Jarin!!!

Jarin had a birthday a couple of weeks ago. After traveling for a month, he's back at work, but I'm still just happy to have him back in the country!! We planned to have an evening at the beach, but it was rainy, so we played Guitar Hero, had steak and potato dinner, and ate peanut butter chocolate birthday cake. Yummy!!

Jarin's cake was inspired by this cake from my friend April. Aside from the chocolatey candy goodness, there is a Ghiradelli brownie layer, a dark chocolate cake layer and Peanut Butter Cream Cheese Frosting. Heaven!!

New Mexico 2009

This is the same trip as the Colorado 2009, I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. We went to New Mexico with Papa and Nana and met up with some family friends. I grew up with their children, but they had their grandchildren and a couple of adorable girls with them and the kids just hit it off famously!

Elle and Leah had such a great time playing. This was after the 4th of July parade in Eagle Nest.

Natha and Hannah became instant friends too (also at the parade)
Speaking of the parade, in Eagle Nest, NM in July, it was chilly (note the bundled up kids.) Some of the parade floats had people spraying water on the bystanders, which is fun in places like Florida or Arizona, but it was cold. So, Jarin kept grabbing water bottles and reaching right up onto the floats (only Jarin can reach) and drenching the sprayers while they were looking elsewhere. It was awesome!! They looked so shocked that someone would get THEM wet. Of course they retaliated and Jarin got even more wet, but he had his warm coat, so it was fine. And funny.

4th of July fireworks. Also a chilly night. Refreshingly chilly. Loved it. Bob bought tons of huge fireworks and my husband instantly turned into a pyromaniac. He totally made our holiday!! Thanks Bob!!



We went horseback riding through the beautiful mountains of Angel Fire, NM. I LOVE seeing my parents on horses. I don't know why, I just do.


They put Jarin on this tiny horse named Spirit. I just giggle every time I see this picture. He could have put his feet down and helped Spirit along, Flinstones style.


We went to a cowboy night at Lake Eagle Nest. Hannah and Natha won the 3 legged race.
Jarin won the hoola hoop neck contest. Ha!!
Elle was being such a sweetie, I just had to take her pic in front of the lake.
Look at all those cute boys on the front of the wagon with Jonathan, the trail guide.
Hannah and Natha spent countless hours outside building forts and playing.

Colorado 2009

We made our annual trip to Colorado this summer. After 3 1/2 hours of kicking the lady's seat in front of us and playing peek-a-boo with the people behind us, both boys fell asleep for the last 10 minutes of our flight. Perfect. So glad we didn't drive, because they would have been kicking MY seat for 32 hours.

We took the kids to see the Sky Sox play the Salt Lake Bees in baseball. I think we arrived during the 5th or 6th inning, which is perfect for small children. It was an exciting game, but the best part was the crisp cool mountain air.




We went to the North Pole amusement park in Woodland Park. What a cute place to take kids! It has great little rides and is really clean. We all loved it.







We sent Nana in to see if the haunted house was too scary for the kids. It was too scary for the kids. I just giggle every time I see this picture of my silly mom. It reminds me of all the crazy stuff she did with us kids when I was growing up.

My mom and dad just moved into a new house and are still in some transition. Jarin helped my dad hang "Moe" on his wall. Moe was much too large and took up a great portion of the room, so Dad returned Moe to Dick's sporting good's and brought home "Larry" instead. Mom says Larry fits better, but I haven't seen it personally.

I have pictures of the rodeo somewhere too, but those will have to wait since I can't find them.

Savannah, GA

We left our home 4 weeks ago, and have had many adventures since. Here are a few of our adventures...

We met up with our friends Ed and Becce Berg (and kids) in Savannah. Everywhere we went with our 7 kids, people just stared. Weird. Anyway, we climbed to the top of the Tybee Island Lighthouse. 178 steps to the top.

The boys were not excited about the height. Once we got to the top, I realized that I prefer my loved ones on the ground level. It seriously made my stomach do a little flip thing inside.
We took a dolphin cruise through the intercoastal waterways near Savannah... they let the kids drive the boat.

We're always game for a good tourist trap. All the food here was boiled, stewed, or baked -nothing fried, and no salads. The food was actually ok, but the highlight was feeding the alligators.

On the second day, we took the trolley tour through historic Savannah.

We ate at a pirate restaurant, which was supposedly very haunted. I felt a little sorry for the waitress who had a party of 10, with 7 kids. She was a pretty good sport though.

We stopped at one of the city squares to walk around and let the kids play at the park.

I took our kids to the Coastal gardens, which included blackberry picking. The berries were SO SOUR!!! It was hilarious watching the kids eat them.

The last night we were there, we did a horse and buggy ride around the city. Can you believe they fit all 11 of us in one buggy?