Team Williams gains another player

What a week for babies!! Can you believe there is another to add to this mob. My sister Luisa had her baby on October 28th. A healthy baby boy named Malachi. This makes six kids for Luisa and I am so happy for her. I cannot wait to see her and all the kids. I wish we were moving RIGHT NOW!! Soon enough though and then all the cousins can play together, all 10 of them! I love you Luisa and wish you and Malachi and all the Williams our love and good thoughts. I hope I get to hold him soon.

Dress Rehearsal

For the past couple of weeks I have been talking up the next pack meeting to the kids because all of us would be going and wearing our Halloween costumes. Every year the boy scouts do a spook alley and all the cub scouts get to go. So I have been trying to get all the costumes made on time. As of yesterday morning Siobhan still didn't have a costume so I made her a dress for Pippi, finished the petticoat for princess peach and put the last of the snaps on the boys pants. The hats and gloves are waiting until this weekend. Of course Olive was not pleased with her dress and just ran in circles yelling,"It's too small!", Pete had to work late and came home 5 minutes before we had to leave and ate a really quick dinner while we put on the finishing touches. Then it was time to rush out in the first snowfall of the season to be on time. Don't they look great! I was really glad that they were happy with their costumes (except Olive). Too bad that Spook Alley was Tuesday night and not yesterday.

Don't Worry Pete

I want to start off by making it very clear that Pete and I are absolutely done having children. With that having been said I have to say that I LOVE BABIES. If I didn't have an 11 year old to show me the future I probably would have been ready for more. Not only do I love the actual baby but I really enjoy the anticipation leading up to it. This is why it's so good to be part of such a large family. It seems that there is always a baby on the way. My sister alone has 5 and one due in December. My sister in law is due in March as well as one of our close friends. But most exciting right now is Pete's brother and his wife just had their baby this past weekend. SO, welcome to the world Nathan, we all love you very much and cannot wait to meet you!

Sea Monkeys!

Last week Siobhan, or Soybean as the spellcheck calls her, went on a field trip to the Great Salt Lake and came home with a test tube of brine shrimp. Oscar was jealous and I promised I would take him to get his own sea monkeys. So this morning we set out to the lake. Please note binoculars, net and specimen receptacle. Olive had a nice ride on my back and Pete took this picture of us in front of Saltaire. They have shows here and whatnot. As an interesting side note Pete was also a security guard here a couple of times.

It was kind of cold and was probably a great time to go as it didn't really stink all that bad. However we did not find any sea monkeys but did find about a million brine fly larvae. Oh well. The sea monkeys must be back at the bottom of the lake, wearing their crowns and living in their mansions.

Is Nothing Sacred?

When I decided to start this blog my intention was that family could be kept up to date and see pictures of the kids since we live so far apart. It quickly became clear to me however that this is really for me. As Olive gets older I want to record every single moment since we won't be having anymore kids. Not just Olives moments but everyones. I love to take pictures and Pete is always impressed(?) at the amount of pictures I have. Since the blog though I take photos of EVERYTHING. The most mundane tasks are not safe from my camera. Board games, hanging out at the river, getting dressed, sleeping. It is all recorded so that I will always have these moments to remember. Some moments are just to important.

Who's the Boss

We are knee deep in Halloween costume preparations. The scouts have a Spook Alley next week and all the kids will be going. So mostly I've been trying to give them things to do to keep them occupied while I am sewing. Of course Olive's costume has been the most labor intensive and the most elaborate thing I've made. In accordance with Olive's princess type rules she will have nothing to do with it now that it's done. Why does she do this?!?

For Luisa....

Recently my sister advised me that we always look so happy and it seems that we are always doing fun things. This is a sample of how most days really are....

Start off with a little fighting over superhero suits.
Eat marshmallow fluff directly from the jar while mom is getting dressed.
(Go ahead and throw some on for good measure)

This is how I usually see Olive.
Fall asleep 10 minutes before we have to leave to pick the kids up.

Clothes

This is what you get from Olive if you pick an unacceptable outfit for her. This is my first hat of the fall. I was able to start and finish it while we were on our trip so this is the Yellowstone hat.

This shirt I am really proud of. It took forever because I lost one of the pieces I had cut out. Luckily Hans really likes it and I am glad I have a ton more of the flower fabric because I really like it.

Just a few more...

I wanted Mom to know we stayed in a great hotel in Jackson Hole. This can best be summed up in this picture of the curtains.
When I was packing for our trip I used a rubbermaid tub for all the kids clothes. Siobhan threw a pair of jeans and a t-shirt in. Hans and Oscar just wanted their camo outfits. Pete and I wore the same jeans the entire trip. Olive on the other hand pulled about 15 outfits out of her closet and brought three different jackets. If she doesn't like her outfit that I pick she tells me it's too tight. What a fashionista!
Hans loved the cabin so much that he asked Pete if we could get rid of our house and build a cabin like this.
This is the geyser right next to Old Faithful. It goes off once a day and we just happened to be there for it. I loved the rainbow at the top. Thanks for indulging all my vacation pictures. Everything is washed and put away and back to normal. Now it's time to get back to the regular routine. At least until the end of the year when Pete's store closes!

Yellowstone Act ll

I was really bummed that this picture came out blurry. But I was grateful there were nice people around that would take a picture of us all together. Hans is super shy around strangers so he would not look at the camera. Siobhan took this picture of us at the Yellowstone sign. I would have posted the picture of her and Oscar but they were fighting at the time.
There was a huge wildfire in Yellowstone awhile back and it seemed that everywhere there are felled trees. I loved how bare they are at the bottom and that they are so thick and grouped together.
This is on one of the trails we hiked. The steam is so thick in some spots but it smells really bad due to all the minerals. I bet it's good for you though with all the minerals.
These guys are everywhere and HUGE. I think they are the Yellowstone equivalent of seagulls. As I was taking this one two others were making there way t our car to grab a piece of Oscars doughnut.

Yellowstone

This picture best sums up my favorite part of our whole trip. I LOVED the buffalo. They were everywhere and they are beautiful. They just wander around and I cannot believe how close they get. I did learn that that they can jump 6 feet from a standstill and that they can sprint at 30 miles per hour. Amazing. We drove past the Tetons yesterday and they were really impressive. Pete has climbed the Tetons 5 or 6 times and has summited it also.
Last night we stayed in Jackson Hole. I was really excited to see this town and it was pretty neat. Not quite what I had imagined but it was a nice place to stay over and the elk antler arches were great to see.

The kids really enjoyed Yellowstone I think. This picture was just after Old Faithful had erupted . This is the Minerva terrace. These thermal springs and geysers are so amazing. I am in awe of them. I think I could have stayed in Yellowstone at least another week.
This is Old Faithful. As great as the eruption was I really liked the sound just before it blows.
This was our KOA Kabin. It was perfect. One double bed and another room with two built in bunkbeds. They have electricity and a heater. I think with kids it's the way to go.

This was probably the best vacation I have been on. It was really fun to go somewhere new, we visited three new states and I had all my family with me. So, be prepared because I will probably spend the next week reliving it. Missed you all!