Two weeks out west

 I left Boston airport with five kids at 8 p.m  bound for Portland, OR for a two week vacation in three states. Brent joined me three days later after working for a few more days.

Kennon had flown out a week earlier and met her cousin Katie for EFY Tacoma.   It was so amazing for her and we will be sending all of our teenagers to this awesome program.  

Then she attended the Fielding Reunion at the Cameo Heights Mansion, one of the top ten Bed and Breakfast in the country and owned and operated by my parents. Please check it out and you can be a guest at my parents home if you are in Eastern Washington and want to have a truly beautiful experience. 

Sadly we missed the family reunion by a week but still enjoyed dining at The Vine in Mom and Dad's dining room and staying in the English Tudor Suite.  Well, at least as much as you can enjoy it when you have six kids tearing through a luxurious bed and breakfast not exactly designed with grandkids in mind. 

Before heading to Washington we hung out with our cousins in Portland and visited the new visitor center at the LDS temple there. Marcus took a sweet picture with his hero President Thomas S. Monson. 

We met Ciana and Dave and six cousins at the temple on their way home to California. They had just been at the Fielding reunion without us and made a detour to say Hi before their ten hour drive. We hadn't seen each other in two years so it was a fun reunion. We went to the visitor center and visited while the kids played in the back of the truck Bryan and Jenny let us borrow for our two week stay in the west.  We hated leaving our sweet set up at Bryan an Jenny's. They have an awesome guest suite that is better than anything I have ever before stayed in. And though we haven't hung out with them in 6 years we had no problem reconnecting just like old times. 

Marcus is fascinated with the farm life and can't believe that he was so close to being a farm boy if it weren't for Dad's mid life crisis and his decision to convert from farmer to dentist. He went right out to pick apples off the trees surrounding my parents bed and breakfast. He brought his cousin buddy from last summer, Laura. Of all people we saw, Marcus loved his cousin Laura the best. Three times this last week he has looked at me and said, "Mom, don't you just miss Laura?"

After all that apple picking he was pretty upset that Mom made him throw away the little green apples he had picked.  I saw the tractor out spraying that morning and decided it wasn't worth taking any chances. 

This kid just might love being a farm boy. He kept telling us that he loved it. . . every single place we went in the west.

Every morning my parents are busy in the kitchen preparing breakfast. It's funny for me to see my Dad spending so much time in the kitchen. It was a rare occurrence growing up. So were the wine racks in the kitchen.  :) Camille helped him prepare fruit trays. Savannah and Mom were busy whipping up lemon waffles that were out of this world delicious. 

 Over at the Casper farm there was a party planned to welcome us. 

Brent's family held a BBQ/Swim party at Grandma Casper's old place now rented by Brent's brother Brad. After two years away it was so wonderful to be back at a place with so many warm memories. These are just a few of the Casper 1st cousins. There are 51 total. A few great grandkids are also in the picture. It's all a blur in that family who the cousins, aunts and great grandkids are. That is one thing I love about it. Some of my kids Casper cousins are more like sisters to me than nieces.

These are 5 of the 9 siblings Brent has along with his 81 year old Mother.

From left to right Brad, Brent, Linda, Teresa, Mama Jo, and Jill.

Brent's Mom met her 51st grandchild- Calvin for the first time at this party. It was wonderful to have Brent be with his Mom. I wish I had a picture of me showing up late for church that Sunday and finding Brent in the row with his arm around his beautiful mother.

During the party Brent and the kids left to tour our farm. This is above the orchard overlooking the Columbia River. It's really sad to come home and see all the beauty that we left behind. Farm AND Family.

I really wish that I didn't have to choose just one life to lead. 

We actually spent very little time in Washington. We spent the majority of our time in Oregon with Brent's brother Bryan and wife Jenny and then six days in Idaho at Priest Lake at Brent's parents cabin.

We get one week a summer that is ours to reserve. This year we invited my sister Candice, My mother and Grandma Pieper (I am still looking for a picture of her on this camera) and my niece Chelsea with her family of 5. 

We were surprised and delighted when they brought up jet skis. The cabin boat broke last summer so the jet skis were a big hit. We invited them initially just for their company alone but may invite them back next year just for their equipment. :)

That's Camille on Brent's back this time.  He always insists on skiing with passengers. He's even skiid with me on his back before. We should head to Sea World and join their show team. 

Camille was hilarious because she wouldn't let go. She was barefoot skiing by the end of this ride and still had the back of his pants in her fist. 

Our nephew Cory also came up and was a great help with these two second cousins Chelsea's Brooks and our Calvin. 

Calvin got his first two teeth in Idaho. He didn't sleep as well but besides that was his usual happy self. He is now 8 months.

The last evening a storm like nothing I have seen at Priest Lake arrived. Just as it began us ladies decided to take one last dip in the lake, as we would be leaving in the morning. From left to right -Savannah, Kashann, Chelsea, Kennon, and Katie. 

The storm's damage was extensive and we lost power for several hours. This live power line was down right outside our back door and a tree blocked the road. It was just like being in New England.

When we found out the power was out and we wouldn't be doing laundry or washing dishes anytime soon to get out of there we decided to head out to take some family pictures. So here's all of us.


 We found out that our kids travel very well on the red eye flight. They ALL slept the entire five hour direct flight from Portland, OR to Boston, MA  and it went by in the blink of an eye- East Coast to West Coast!  Unbelievable!   This is coming from a mother who has driven the distance three times and seen all that can happen from the east to the west in the course of a very long drive. Many diaper changes, multiple car sick throw ups, cooler spills, fights, arguments over hotel or no hotel, way too many $2 plan trips to McDonalds and Wow, I just feel so grateful to have avoided that this time around. I am glad we can afford the red eye . . . finally.

Goodbye to the West! Until next time. We are already looking forward to Summer 2013.

Caroline's Baptism

Several months ago Caroline made a plan. Her eight birthday was approaching and she had her own ideas about this big event. She wanted to be baptized like her sisters were but her favorite person would be the one to do it.  (Incidentally later in a conversation about this favorite person. . . Grandpa Fielding she let me know that he was number one and Grandma Fielding was #2. So were was I on the list I wondered out loud. She counted in her mind and then told me that I was #5. Grandparents first, then Calvin, Dad and finally I squeeze in at the last minute to make it into Caroline's top 5.)

So she came home from church after a lesson on baptism and asked for her Grandpa's number. Then she took off upstairs for a private conversation. Then later on in the afternoon my mother called telling me that they working hard to get Grandpa out here to baptize Caroline but she didn't think that she would be able to come.  She also wanted to know if Brent was okay with Grandpa doing his job. So this is how her parents found out that her Dad wouldn't be the one to baptize his last daughter. Ultimately Dad was okay with it and the decision was made to bring Caroline to Grandpa rather than visa versa. So May 23rd came and went and Caroline just kept on waiting. Waiting for her July trip to Washington. 

Grandpa surprised her and picked out and purchased a new white dress for their big day together. Grandma said he just came home with it. 

Here is her father giving his daughter in white away. 

She sat by Grandpa and held his hand during the meeting. Often she snuck in a kiss. Either on the hand she was holding or she just whipped her head around and planted cheek kisses. She was just so happy to be with Grandpa and have everyone come and see her get baptized. 

I felt she was as prepared as she could be at this young age to choose to follow Jesus her whole life through. She asked me to let her speak at her baptism and with out any prep she got up and went on for a good five minutes about this and that beaming from ear to ear. Just in case we couldn't tell she let us know that she "feels so Happy!" She also let us know when she stepped into the water that it "feels like a hot tub" and that of course brought a huge smile to be go down into a hot tub with Grandpa to be baptized.

What a special day for our girl Caroline!

There was Grandpa, 3 Grandma's and tons of cousins and aunts and uncles in attendance. 

And even a rainbow.

After TWO YEARS we finally took the whole family back to our roots out west. 

While there Marcus learned to ski around the lake.

He had a little help from Dad

Kennon is spending about a month away from home - here and there. First she and Savannah went to a girls camp here in NH with other mormons. Savannah loved it. Kennon was anxious to move on to the next thing and was happy when I picked her up a day early so she could catch her flight to WA. This week her and cousin, Katie are at EFY (especially for youth) another Mormon Camp in Tacoma, WA. I've spoken with her once and she seemed very upbeat especially about how there are "guys that escort us to everything". We are missing her here and anxious to meet up with her in a week when we head to WA. 

Kennon seems to be calming down a bit and liking us more lately. I mean even before she left. I've heard that high school is much better than middle school for girls and I am hoping that is true. She even surprised us and planned an evening picnic a few weeks ago. The walkway was lined with candles and the christmas lights were hung in our trees. This is the kind of stuff that she used to do so and it was fun to see the old Kennon again.

 Mosquitos are pretty bad here at night so I don't know if we will make a habit out of it.

I don't like mosquitos, ticks or . . . poison ivy. They all are a part of our lives now in a big way if you you don't take proper precautions. Recently I have been schooled about poison ivy. 

I decided one day that I was going to get the weeds out of a rock wall. Brent had told me to spray it because it was full of poison ivy. But I had gloves on and wasn't planning on touching them. I made Savannah help me. A week later I was really complaining that my "mosquito bites" were horrible. A few days after that those mosquito bites started blistering and forming lines across my arms and legs. Then finally my chest and back broke out in a rash. A Dr gave me a prescription of prednisone later that day and totally relieved my itching. Before that I was doing a lot of internet research about getting rid of the stuff and came across a warning, "Do not pull out Poison Ivy by the root or you will get a Wicked Rash!" So true!

The steriod pills are working out so great though. I have tons of energy right now when I go running. I actually was feeling like a new woman on my last run after 20 minutes feeling great running in 80 degree temperature. Then I remembered the six performance enhancing drugs I took a couple hours before my run and realized that this wasn't all me after all.