The Bryant Family Reunion part uno

It’s in less than a week!!! My whole family will be trekking to California for the Bryant Family Reunion. This is my dad’s side of the family.

The oldest generation includes Loya (my Grandmother –named after a specific grand rock in Yosemite), Barbie, Wayne, and Herwill (deceased just over 4 years ago).

These brothers and sisters have an amazing history with National parks- Grandmother’s dad was one of the settler/ trail-blazers for Yosemite. In fact, there’s a plaque there for him. The history continues down the family line, as my dad was born in the Grand Canyon over one of the summers his family was there.

We’ll be staying in King’s Canyon –linked with Sequoia & Yosemite- and my wing of the family (all my siblings & kiddos) will be camping! This sounds like a GREAT time, however, with little children, we could be asking for a lot of stress!! Mary and Allen are heading to CA early to spend some time with Allen’s family. Benny will be a vacationing pro by the time he gets to the campsite. Rachael and family are coming –and they’re still camping in spite of poor Rachael being 8 months pregnant! Next, Dave, Lex & Noah will be bringing Lexi’s younger sisters Desi and Kimi. Ella LOVES to play with these girls and it’s exciting that they’ll have the opportunity to see a different part of the country and hang out with all of us. These girls come to lots of family events, and have become part of our family. Sarah is hitchin’ a ride with Rach, but she’s boarding in a cabin with Granny. Mom and Dad are taking Granny and will be picking up Grandmother (who lives in San Bernardino, Ca) –they’re staying in cabins as well. We will be taking Chaedon along with the girls, which will be GREAT! Just like Kimi and Desi, I’m thrilled that Chaedon will get to see new things and spend some good quality time with all of us. We’re leaving next Wednesday, and the lists of stuff to bring are becoming INSANE!! *By the way, this picture does NOT do any justice to the size of the Sequoia Trees there*

So, I’m throwing it out to you, my faithful blog-readers! Do you have any suggestions on A- camping with babies, B- stuff that you’re pretty sure I’ll forget to bring along, and C- car/ entertainment suggestions for 3 kids on a 12+ hour drive????? Any additional suggestions will be helpful and appreciated!

Angels with dirty faces

Spaghetti Festivo! Look at the little angels I got to bathe last night!

Actually, this is mixed veggies & blueberries & apples & spaghetti. The schmere on the nose is the blueberry...
Spooge on the mouth. Kids are awesome! Yes, that is Shrek 3 on the TV. I basically record the stuff I want to see on the DVR and catch up in the AM while doing my make-up. It's the only time I get to myself! Night-time TV is a thing of the past! Ya know, these girls will only be little for such a short time, it's nothing to pay to get to spend the time with them. :)

Rachael

Rachael is my big sister. Yesterday was her birthday, so I thought I’d take a moment and write about her. Rachael is aka Mach: which is a standard progression of a nick-name from my house-hold. Hence, we have Mary-Chewy (I spelled that right) and Sawa-BO-nana. I have often been referred to as Tha-Becca, so I’m certainly not exempt. Rachael has been a bit of the mother-hen of our brood. Mom was busy having lots o’ kids, and I think she kind-of took on a bit of a mothering/ worrying role herself. We used to fight quite a bit as I was growing up. Girls’ camp was no picnic!! We had to make pacts to keep our fighting to closed doors! As we got older, I remember my FAVORITE activity was zooming around doing errands for Mom with Rachael driving the family Ford Tempo (Lil’ Blue). We’d listen to righteous tunes and feel the wind in our hair as we hit Albertson’s and perhaps Burger King (back when whoppers were $1.00 apiece). Rachael earned her degree in Finance, and went on to serve a mission in Ireland. I went my own way too. When she came back something had changed. We went from being sisters –to being friends. I eventually married and moved to SLC, and she was there too –being single and fabulous- working for an excellent company. She’d come over and hang out with me all the time, and we really developed a strong friendship bond that is as strong as ever today. She bought her own home after some time, and made it possible for me to get out of a BAD marital situation, and I moved in with her. Since then, I’ve remarried, and of course moved away from SLC. Rachael has had boarders in her home ever since… Bless her heart, she married a wonderful man from Samoa –whose culture is to take care of family, and it’s never been a problem for them to have lots of us in and out -gratefully! Dad still rents a room from them during the work weekJ. Rachael has changed a lot from her relationship with Seuao. She has become much more easy-going, and of course, had Lily –the feisty and adorable one! They’re expecting number two in September, and we are so thrilled for them. Rachael is crazy-talented with the piano & French horn. She’s quirky –and doesn’t seem to have a lot of design sense. We complement each other as friends! She loves deeply and is a very loyal friend. Rachael, you’re my hero –and I’ve said it before; I love you and thank God for you. Happy Birthday!

OKAY! I stand corrected.

Fine, you win Donnie! It was totally worth it to camp "higher" over the weekend. I'm glad we wound up where we did... Debbie and Donnie set out to get a campsite and got one quite easily at Red Bank -just above Tony Grove. It was FANTASTIC! This was our view.
During the day, a baby bird fell out of its nest. Ella got to help take care of it! :)


Campfire times! Here is Ella and me!

Here's Ella and Daddy!

This is Debbie -my goregous Mother-In-Law.

Ella kept herself busy climbing trees!

Chef Lance -making a spantastic dutch-oven.

Okay, I'm a terrible mother. Amidst all of my running around, I neglected to bring something warm for Mia to wear when we came up. :( Here's my poor cold baby (who wasn't feeling the blanket around her shoulders) with Ella's sweatpants draped around her like a bib!

Wacky Ella.

Papa and Mia :)

My beautiful little girl. *I don't think I ever see her without a ring of whatever it is that she's been eating around her little mouth. I'm blind to it anymore. We can get home from a trip shopping, and it might dawn on me that we've been everywhere with spooge on her face. Oh well. At least here while camping, it's all part of nature.
Like father, like son.

During the weekend, on Saturday, my sista's came to Logan, in celebration of Rachael's birthday. We had a fun girlz' day -hitting the Farmer's Market, then Papa Kelsey's for lunch, watched a chick-flick at my home, then hit the salon for some fun pedicures. My toes look fabulous! What an excellent weekend! I'm grateful for some good family time. My favorite part of the whole weekend was Saturday night when everyone went to bed. Lance and I froze and cuddled -it was such a sweet moment. I'm so blessed.

A drive in Logan Canyon

Debbie is my mother-in-law. She is one of the most beautiful women I have ever met, with a tender and sweet heart –who always wants to help people. Debbie actually volunteered with CAPSA for a while and received a recognition award from the state for her work. I love spending time with her. Well, she and Donny decided they want to go camping this weekend. “Donny wants to go high” she told me –which means FARTHER AWAY for me (the runner to and fro with babies, getting forgotten items, etc.). We took a spin up Logan Canyon yesterday afternoon looking for a good site. We drove pretty slowly, checking out every sign, turning into different grounds and scouring the tags posted at each site for dates and availability.... NADA!
After driving through Tony Grove (one of the prettiest parts of the canyon, in my opinion),

I was pretty nervous about gas (had just under 1/8th of a tank left), so we couldn’t go much “higher” –they were considering Sunrise Campground –at the top of the canyon before you begin the descent into Bear Lake. Well, we found some that were available at Guinavah-Malibu
but I guess Donny refuses to go there. *We can’t figure out why, I love that place! Oh, well. I think that after our 3-hour excursion, there will probably be no big family camp-out this weekend. It’s all for the best, though, as I have lots o’ plans with my family and Rachael’s chickfest birthday bash! It was awesome to spend the time with Debbie, though. We listened to a TON of my tunes and regardless of potential criticism (there was none) I was belting out the songs as I drove. I actually find driving therapeutic. As I looked at the 60K miles on my trusty Corolla, and knew I put pretty much every mile on this car, it’s all been quite enjoyable. I like to drive. Thanks for a great afternoon, Debbie, even if we don’t make it camping this weekend!

What the heck, Lexie?!

No pedicure with the girlz? Where's the love for your toes, schweet cheeks?!

A better camera!

Lance got us a new camera off of ebay -it actually takes some shots with eyes open! Here are our fun tester shots!

That's one-a-spicy-meatball!

Confession: I’m not much of a cook. I have a few recipes that I cook quite well, and I guess you could say that when instructed (and when I have the energy to pull it off and when it’s simple enough) I can cook something, however, it’s not my strong suit.
We didn’t grow up on gourmet food, and didn’t know it either. I’m quite satisfied with a casserole that includes rice, cream of mushroom soup, and maybe a can of tuna. It’s strange now, how I’m seeing that cooking is no great joy to me, and it’s a huge chore. Honestly, I’d rather be cleaning than cooking something.
Now, this is not to be confused with BAKING. I love to bake –cookies, banana bread, etc. Perhaps it’s because I prefer the end result (mad sweet tooth), but I haven’t really figured out why I can’t seem to embrace the love of the cooking art. Maybe young kids are a contributor to the chaos that makes being in one place for an extended period of time hard to manage… But alas, I know too many excellent mothers who make excellent meals.
Regardless, I have a few signature dishes that get me by. Pictured above is my famous lasagna –YUM! I can do biscuits and gravy, spaghetti, home-made mac-n-cheese (although Lance doesn’t agree with me that it’s a main course, and he prefers a mac-n-cheese with a tomato base: hense: my “Italian casserole”), and the new chicken pockets. I might be able to fit each of my recipes on 1 to 2 pages of “The Joy of Cooking”, which looking at the limitless possibilities (and not relating AT ALL to Remy from Ratatouille), doesn’t much constitute even a drop in the bucket.
My apologies go out to my dear little family, who will have the same meals served time and time again throughout their lives. Eh, at least I make up with it by being an excellent social schmoozer, snaggling us a dinner appointment here and there with other chefs much more talented than myself.

The Mommy Who Stole Uglier Frog!

Every kid in my home likes toys a lot, but the MOM, who picks up all the toys, does NOT.
As I sat with my Mommy feet nervously rubbing: I must find some way to keep Ugly Frogs from coming!
For tomorrow I know, Ella will wake bright and early with thoughts about toys –and then all the noise! All the noise for toys… toys made for BOYS!!!
It was quarter of dawn, both the girls still abed both the girls still asnooze, when I found Uglier Frog sitting outside.
His vulnerability struck me, and we took a short ride. Off to the trash heap the Ugly old toy, and I said “Buh-bye baybee, say land-fill, ahoy!”
Ella puzzled and thought, how could it be so? He left without warning! He left with no good-bye, he left in the night; did Uglier Frog die?
And what happened next? Well in my home they say, that Mommy’s toy-loving heart squoze out NO REMORSE that day!
And now that my burden didn’t feel quite so tight, I delighted in the knowledge that Lance should see my plight: no more Ugly toys, and we’ll all have peace, and me, Rebecca –herself, her mind will be at ease.

RIP: Ulgier Frog: 2008-2008

4th of July Weekend!

We had a fantastic weekend! The girls were dressed in their 4th of July best! We went to Lance's parent's home to watch the fireworks, we had a great dinner, and some even better family time.

Max the dog was excited to watch them too!

We went to the Boy Scout Breakfast the next morning and met up with Rachael and Lily (who was also dressed in her 4th of July best!). Lance went golfing, we hit the Hyrum parade, it was a great weekend! I love summertime!