My family has been talking about doing a yearly family vacation for awhile now. It was always too expensive for someone to drive or take time off, not kid friendly, and we could never seem to get all of us together all at the same time. This year, my parents' ward had a service auction for the young men/young women and people could donate services to it. Someone auctioned off their cabin in Wallsburg for a week and my mom thought it would be the perfect family vacation for us. Not too far away, and lots of fun for everyone. It was awesome!
I didn't get a picture of the entire cabin, but it had a nice wrap around porch with a swing, tons of land to run around, a basketball court, mountains to hike in the backyard, and no cell phone service inside the cabin! It was nice to have a break from the outside world for a few days. The cousins all had so much fun together.
Baby Claire was a celebrity for a week. I don't think she was ever put down! With 5 little girls wanting to hold her along with aunts and Grammy, she was pretty spoiled! One day I let the nieces help me give her a bath and pick out her outfit and headband. They were in heaven!
We played hearts a lot while we were there with Kevin and Bethany. Me and Kev also did a lot of random 90s music trivia. Good times.
The cabin also had a big fire pit that we roasted marshmallows every night at. Smore's anyone?
Behind the cabin was the nephews favorite place to hike that they named "lizard rock." They found a few lizards up there and hiked to that spot atleast 10 times a day.
Kaitlyn, Halle, Katrina, and Kate-my cute nieces
James and I chillin by the fire pit-me with no shower for 2 days=not attractive!
Carter and Kale
Each of us took a night to cook dinner for everyone. This was Shauna's night of chicken divan. James of course had to take it to the next level and make a 7 course meal on the night we were all together. It was delish!
The big boys were into battling each other on 2 computers. We got them to come out and play every once in a while!
I eventually got suckered into hiking up to lizard rock. Here is a bunch of us up there. My backside was sure sore the next day!
James and Carter at lizard rock
The cabin also had a hot tub that the kids LOVED. It was a good way for my boys to get most of the dirt off after a long day of being outside. We had so much fun doing relay races, playing horse, doing a quiz by James including "you know you're a Tenney when", 4 dogs providing hours of entertainment, reading people magazine, talking and laughing A LOT! Thanks for all the fun Mom and Dad!
Monday night my family decided to all get together for dinner and a bike ride at Willow Park. We had a great time. They also had a fun playground to play on too. My boys were exhausted by the time we got home, which equals a successful summer day!
I didn't go on the bike ride since I had Claire to watch and no husband there (he's in Kansas for training). So I sat with my pregnant sister and chatted. It was great! My mom was so nice to watch out for Carter on his scooter and turned around early because she could see he was getting tired. She's the best. Carl took Preston with him in his bike trailer with his cousin Ryan. He loved watching the world go by.
Mike Budge played a game of tag with the kids on the jungle gym. He is the biggest kid of them all! My mom joined in the fun at the end, and everyone was out to get Grammy.
It's things like this that kids remember. I love that it wasn't anything expensive or extravagent, but we all had a great time just being together. My kids are still asking when we are going back. Thanks for a great night family!
