Michigan Family Vacation Extravaganza...

In case you haven't been reading any previous posts, let me make it very clear that I love family time. Not like, not tolerate, not appreciate...LOVE. As in, I don't think there is anything better on Earth. Moving to the middle of nowhere (ie West Virginia) I have realized that there is nothing more important (especially when G wears his mother's white visor on the boat at family vacation).  I couldn't have better in laws and I loved every day we had together in northern Michigan.

Seeing as I married into a golf family, I participated in the 18 hole family scramble.  I admit my attitude wasn't the best on the last 9.  Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I spent a lot of time in the trees and far from that frustrating hole. I just haven't caught the golf vision but maybe someday, until then I will support G in his valiant efforts to become the big dog...

Every couple was in charge of a dinner and activity which made for a wide variety of options each evening after we finally put the offspring to sleep. 

A few activities included family four square tournament:

A poker challenge where Kody took it all:

A "protect your egg being dropped from the top of the stairs with only 20 straws and 10 pieces of tape" game (duh, don't act like you haven't played that):

 An 11 pm capture the flag game on the golf green where our house was located:

 

A girls afternoon in Petoskey including shopping, lunch, gelato and talking (please ignore my hideous bangs in this pic, it was windy, I'm not making excuses, it really was windy):

Boating with Kerry showing all of us up with her tube standing trick of impressiveness and Esther turning out to make all the boys look bad with her surfing and wake boarding skills:

 Family Truth or Dare (my contribution and participation was mandatory):

 And plenty of eating, sitting, Olympic watching, game playing, more eating, and just being together:

(No, we do not encourage kissing cousins; although this is a nice change from Jaxon chest bumping Liv whenever no one was watching...)

Savannah is yet to be thrilled with Liv but it doesn't matter because they are forced playmates for the rest of forever so we'll keep working on that bond at future family events...

The grand magnum opus finale was the blessing of Hudson Alexander the Sunday we left...

I always love the classic bro shot. Who inherits 6 quality brother in laws when they get married? 

Oh, I did and I love it :

 (Liv wasn't being blessed, she just really likes attention while Hudson practiced sucking on a straw:)

I'm telling you, if you don't know these people you are missing out.  I love my family like crazy. It was a needed week of what matters most.

 

While we waited to move in...

We had 12 days before we could actually close and Garrett had to start residency and slept over at a residents home meaning Liv and I were homeless.  Luckily we are now a 58 minute plane ride to Zion so Liv and I stayed at the all inclusive petting zoo/homeade bread/family festivus and enjoyed every minute.

There is nothing I love more on Earth than family time. It was so fun to stare at Em's protruding belly, eat mom's best dinners, sit on the porch swing, and enjoy the visitors center of guests, friends, and families that walk right in without every knocking. I'm definitely not the only person who considers this a home.

Liv was an instant celebrity and fell asleep exhausted every night from so many animals, wagon rides, attention, and action.

The week would not have been complete without a class, "Whack a cracker" competition with the Korean foreign exchange students who were home as well as a new edition of "Toss the Tortilla on the Plate" championship:

If you have not played either of these games, you need to.  Not more than once, but at least that before you die.

Goodbye West Virginia...Forever.

I think de ja vu is so weird. There's de ja vu when you have no idea why you are feeling like you have been somewhere or done something before and then there is logical de ja vu where you know EXACTLY why you feel like you have been somewhere or something before...because you have.  The photo above is one year old. The only difference in the Penske truck we rented in June of this year is that Liv is no longer a noodle neck teradactyl shrieker 2 week old baby and G and I have both gained weight.

  After a week long voyage across the country we finally arrived at our new home in Aurora Colorado:

 After we wasted a good 4 trees signing a thillion papers, 2 dirty diapers and dinner at Panera Bread we were on our way:

G was so excited about owning the home that he was looking at the door instead of the camera.  As soon as we got there we just laid in the backyard grass, OUR grass and felt very mature.  The inside of our house still resembles a giant garage sale with boxes everywhere but we are slowly making progress.  We are ridiculously excited to be in Colorado. We have a guest room and no guests so anyone is welcome. We make good french toast.

Better Life Fix the Car Song...

Friday we had to take the car in for a little check up (meaning the novelty of the clunking grating sound in the back when we turned was wearing off) and on the way back we heard this song.  I was loving it. We rolled down the windows and I told G that it was our song of the day (I always like to have a theme song for anytime we go anywhere or do anything, it makes every event much more official, especially thrilling things like getting the car fixed).  I told G that Colorado was going to be a better life and he said that our life depended on what we do not where we go (of course he said something like that) but agreed that maybe we could change the lyrics to a "better place"since he's super excited about Colorado too. 

I love moments like that where you feel like you just get infused with a bolus of hope in your blood and you just know and feel like your life is so ridiculously blessed and that things are going to get even better.

 "Daily hope is vital, since the "Winter Quarters" of our lives are not immediately adjacent to our promised land... Those with true hope often see their personal circumstances shaken, like kaleidoscopes, again and again. Yet with the "eye of faith," they still see divine pattern and purpose."
--Neal A. Maxwell, "Brightness of Hope", Ensign, Nov. 1994

Carpet time at the Open...

This is not just any ordinary box you're looking at.  This is a moving box. Why? Because we are moving. Soon. We be permanently resigning our West Virginia citizenship in less than a week and I am so excited.  I'm trying to think of things that are a bigger hassle than moving and I can come up with very few.  Maybe having a baby while crossing the plains in the middle of a blizzard with a bonnet on or having motion sickness on the Santa Maria with Columbus but other than that, all I can come up with is moving. It is what we call tremendously inconvenient in every way.  We have started the process that should have been started weeks ago.

Part of this process includes us desperately trying to hold on to our deposit by steam cleaning the carpets while watching the US Open of course.

I love the Rug Doctor. I love remembering what color our carpet is supposed to be. I love that if I was loaded I would probably hire 50 oompa loompas to come in and pack and clean this whole house because the thought causes my unorganized brain complete overwhelment to the max. I guess overwhelment is not a word because the spell checker is questioning me but overwhelment is the state of feeling completely and totally overwhelmed.  If anyone wants to drive with Liv and I for 28 hours or help G drive the big bird truck or feels inclined to pack or clean....you are more than invited, right now.

On the green...

Saturday night was G's night off in a long time which meant we needed a little something to commemorate.  We decided to try out the driving range and we are not sorry we did.

This was no Riverwoods.  We went to this big shed where a man that could easily have qualified for bingo night at the nursing home without showing any ID was waiting and thrilled to have some business.  The man goes out and hand picks up all the balls for his job.  I don't know if he thought G was the next Tiger Woods (minus the cheating on his wife part) or what but as soon as we got our bucket of balls, he set up his lawn chair and watched him while saying, "There ya go!" after every one.

Liv and I set up a picnic blanket with our cheese-its (PS why do they spell those with a "z"?) and soaked up some summer sun.

Liv is into using her mouth lately.  I think she thought she could fit a whole golf ball in but she fell short. I hit a few and then let the master do his work with his Father's Day driver...

This is the man in action and the bag of cheese-its/cheez-its in case you were wondering.  The broccoli forest behind is typical West Virginia. It really is one of the most beautiful places on Earth even though I can't wait to kiss it goodbye.  I think golf is growing on me. Slowly. But growing.

Father's Day....

Pa day.  Basically a really great excuse for G to get some new golf toys and breakfast.  This year I attempted "rounds and rounds" which are basically a Seibold family tradition of glorified pancakes made with fancy beaten egg whites and cooked in a spiral shape.  If you can't cook rounds and rounds, you don't deserve to marry a Seibold and can never hang your head high in a Seibold kitchen.  This year I decided to attempt and it turned out more like "blobs and blobs" than "rounds and rounds" but G was very gracious about my efforts.  Liv loved them.

(I made sure to remove the actual rounds and rounds so that I would not have to be embarrassed prior to taking this photo)

Liv even kept her hair bow on for the special occasion except for it was so high it looked like she had flowers growing out of her head. Oh well.

 There really couldn't be a better father.  I know moms have the stereotype for being the most nurturing and concerned and naturally a caregiver but I am afraid that is not the case in our home.  When Liv was a newborn, G wouldn't even leave her car seat out in the living room in case a spider crawled in it.  G checks on Liv on a 5:1 ratio while I drool during the night and Liv never fails to shriek with delight and her legs quiver and shake the second he walks through the door each day.  He instantly hits the floor the second he gets home because even though he's not as expressive and flaps his arms and shakes his legs, I think he's just as excited to see his twin too.  Fathering to G isn't a side job or something he does after he's done studying or watching ESPN highlights, it's who he is and what he loves more than anything else. I think G should write a parenting book and then we could pay off our student loans.  

After the dinner of his choice and a Father's day dance (thank you Everclear, "Father of Mine") it was time for all glory, laud and honor and gifts of adulation.  Since G's driver was bought last month, his tokens of appreciation to open were quite meager.  Liv was the most thrilled with the uptown "Axe" deodorant since the Old Spice that I bought on sale is like lighting a match in your arm pits.  After the Father's day Spa, I brought in G's pillow which was cooling in the natural West Virginia breeze outside (cold pillows are one of G's favorite items)

 I was just relieved that the squirrels respected G enough on his big day not to poop on his pillow....

Happy Dad Day.