day #9 of ca/ut trip

i will get these trip posts done eventually...

this one is the one that's been my hangup, so hopefully i can get them done a little faster now. on day 9 of our trip we went out to the farm to spend the day with my grandparents and my mom's side of the family. we had hundreds of pictures from that day so it was really hard to decide what to post. we had a great day eating good food, 4-wheeling, kite-flying, rope-swinging, bottle rocket launching, and catching up with our west coast family.

here's me, aaron and chubbs on the atv

my parents - isn't my mom so cute in her hat?

uncle sam taking the kids for a ride

kaylee on the rope swing in the barn

all the watkins grandkids

my parents and sibs - peter, me, pop, mom, betsy, alec and sam. peter never smiles...all our family pics have his grumpy non-smile - maybe he was born to be a marine. ephraim is missing because he was in basic training (he, too, is a marine)

the whole fam-damnly (sans ephraim and peter's wife, jenny, who is also a marine and was doing some sort of weapons training - i think)

the girls getting carted out of the barn

cute pic of tanner sneaking into the shed

the kids having fun with bottle rocket launching

cute emma-cheeks

tanner up to some sort of mischief

kaylee and her cousin claire

dallin got to ride in grandpa's truck and even got to be in charge of the stick shift - he was in heaven!

needless to say we had so much fun, ate too much food, and slept very well that night. Y

day #8 of ca/ut trip

well, we couldn't visit home without making a trip to old sacramento. lots of fun memories there! we walked along the cobblestone street, went to one of the many candy stores (that was probably the kids favorite part) and stopped by the kite store to pick up some kites for our trip to see my grandparents out on the farm. here are some pics from the old schoolhouse.

rare occurrence - dallin sitting still

cute girls

emma's artwork

tanner looking a little rough...

a wagon is as good as playground equipment

riding the carriage (he doesn't look like it here, but dallin was terrified to get in the carriage)

kaylee was in horsey heaven

again, kaylee is on cloud nine

after that, we went back to my parents' house. they are re-doing their whole front yard - sprinklers and all - so they wasted no time putting the kids to work. actually they were begging to help. why can't they do that with their chores?!?

later that night, one of my best friends, janicca, threw a get together so we could see everyone from high school. of course i was so caught up in talking and visiting with everyone that this was the only pic i got...two of my best high school friends - kristie, me, janicca - has it really been 11 years since graduation?!?!?Y

day #7 of ca/ut trip

so the next day, alec and lauren arrived from utah. then we went to betsy's apt. complex and swam. we always have fun swimming! if my kids have access to a pool, i won't hear the end of it until we go. here are some fun pics that day.

chubbs taking a dip

dallin - for him it was jump in, climb out, ad nauseum...

cousin anjulee basking in the sun

kaylee-girl

tanner getting ready to jump to daddy (you can see alec and his wife lauren in the background)

tanner and daddy

emma the fish

after the pool, we went back to grandma and grandpa's house to relax.

the kids went to the park with uncle sam. the shade is the best place at a california park!

can you see dallin peeking up over the beans? my parents have a great garden for exploringY

days #5-6 of ca/ut trip

so we spent all of day 4 in the car (again) on the long stretch of i-80 between utah and california. then we just hung out with family the next day. gramma and grampa took all the cousins (over the age of 4) to the movies in the morning and then we just sat around waiting for my brothers to arrive and eating way too much yummy food. we did get to finally meet claire (betsy's youngest). it was the first time in 5 1/2 years we had been to california, so we just wanted to soak it in.

don't you just want to chew on those cheeks??

betsy and a not-so-content claireY

day #3-4 of ca/ut trip

after our long drive across the midwest, we spent days 3 & 4 of our trip in cedar hills, ut with aaron's family. the first thing we did was celebrate dallin's birthday (again). he had a lot of fun with his cousins!

then on day 4 we went swimming at corey's (aaron's sister). they live in a gated community across the street from grandma and grandpa jeffrey's.

me and chubbs

oh yeah, he's cool...

janelle and her daughter, lauren

chillin' at the pool

big d

this is the last time aaron can have control of the camera when i'm in a bathing suit. there were an awful lot of pics of me and not enough of the kids...

cute mr. chubbsY

day #1-2 of ca/ut trip

yes, these posts are very late (see previous posts) so i will try to do the best i can at remembering what the heck we did every day. it was a crazy whirlwind trip where we did way too much, but still didn't do everything we wanted. the first two days we spent driving...and driving...and driving. we stopped for the night in north platte, ne (the kinda halfway point from mankato, mn to cedar hills, ut). we thought the room had 2 kings and a pullout, but when we got there the hotel was packed and we ended up with just 2 king beds (and we don't do kids in our bed - ever) so we crammed all 4 munchkins into one bed. got some cute pics of the kids sleeping...

sleeping kids are one of my favorite things!! of course kaylee and emma would probably die of embarrassment if they knew i had pictures of them sucking their thumbs posted (hehe). for some reason the picture of kaylee sleeping is mysteriously missing...hmmm.Y

dallin's 5!!! yippee!!

so, our third-born is now 5 - which is good news for both of us because he starts kindergarten in the fall (and did i mention we have all-day kindergarten here in mn??) he had lots of his friends over for some trampoline jumping, bubble blowing, balloon volleyball, cake and ice cream and a lot of fun!

of course, he had to start his special day with the traditional breakfast in bed.

then he got his first birthday present. "mom! dad! this is the coolest bike ever!!!!"

my attempt at green grass...

crazy kids!

watch out world...he's armed and dangerous!

the trampoline was the hit of the party

we had a fun day with all our friends!Y