The Weekend Adventures Continue!

The New England Adventures continue here with the Gentry Family! This weekend's Destination: OCTOBER MOUNTAIN in the Burkshires

This is Christian with "the guys" trying to start a fire. I am not sure why they thought they could do this with wet wood, no lighter fluid, no paper, and one Eagle Scout. Finally an 8 year old had to explain these "grown men" that the reason it wasn't starting was because the wood was wet. After a good 45 minutes and some dry fire wood we had FIRE! Way to go guys!
We took McDuff for his very first camping trip. Turns out he is little too vain for camping. He is just a bit spoiled and was not having all the dirt and bugs! I think he enjoyed his time a bit, but we're not sure camping is the buddies thing.
Of coarse we ladies just cheered our men on while they attempted to make a fire, we are so helpful!

Megan, you are NOT allowed to kill me for this picture! You look great, we all looked fabulous in the Great Outdoors!

There were some wicked cool thunderstorms while we were camping. It did help keep things cool but also a bit muddy! We had a great time!
My boys both came back with lots of unpleasant bug bites! Any suggestions on how to get rid of them quickly before C scratches his foot off?

Road Trip to Maine

This summer our goal is to try to see some of what the New England area has to offer. Yesterday we took a 2 hour drive with our pals the Hadley's to Maine! This was our first trip to Maine and we fell in LOVE with the quaint towns and the beauty of the homes; it is a place I could settle down and stay for sure.
The first stop on our road trip was the town of Kittery. They have an outlet mall there but that is not why we went! We went for YUMMIES Candy Factory! This small little "factory" has so much candy jammed into every corner. There was lots of candy there I hadn't seen forever, such as OH Henry bars, Fruit Striped Gum, candy cigarettes (a childhood favorite for some odd reason), the little plastic candy lipsticks, Chick O Sticks and much much much much more!!!
If you know anything about the Gentry clan you know they love their candy! They have an enormous sweet tooth! Christian was just like a little kid in a candy store, he just kept asking me, "Can we get this? Can we get this?" Who knew you could spend $25 on candy so easily!
I got me some RAZZLES, it is a candy that turns into a gum. I have never had Razzles before, but I saw them on one of my favorite movies, Thirteen Going on Thirty, and I always wanted to try! The best part of Yummies was when Lisa busted out her Harry Potter flavored Jelly Belly's with flavors like: vomit, sardine, black pepper, pickle, earth worm, and every gross thing you can imagine. I pulled the pregnant card so I didn't have to try any, but it was so funny to watch every one's reactions to the different flavors. Christian (no surprise to anyone) has the most dramatic reactions of all, especially with that sardine flavored jelly bean. Oh, how adults entertain themselves!
While getting a serious sugar high we headed to Portland Maine! This is one of the cutest places I have ever been. We stopped to get some pictures of this beautiful lighthouse and hike around a bit.

We don't make it to Maine often, so we decided since we were there we better try some LOBSTER! Christian had his first little guy(how can you just eat something that can look at you?); I tried some and thought it was okay, but a little rubbery for my liking.

Maine, thank you for a great day! You truly are a wonderful and beautiful place that I can see myself visiting again very soon!

Guess What?

Our Little "Beanie Baby" is due January 12, 2009!

Utah

Oh how I miss the Utah Mountains!
I went home to Salt Lake City with C to visit my family a couple of weeks ago. I forgot how WIDE the roads are and how much space there is in the aisles of grocery stores. Most of all I forgot how magnificent the mountains are! We were able to spend the day in the Spruces with my family going hiking and hanging out, it was so beautiful!

Hiking in Utah means straight up! Here are my two cute nieces and my sister-in-law with baby #3 on the way!

Here is my whole family.
2 parents
3 kids
2 in laws
1 fiance
2 grandchildren
1 grandma
(1 grand dog not photoed)

We got to hang out with lost of our family and friends, it was so great to see everyone! It is very difficult to fit everyone in with such a short period of time.

We also had the opportunity to go boating, swimming and eating lots of fried chicken, hamburgers and CAFE RIO!! I love all the Summer BBQs, there is no food better!

Christian thinks he is some sort of pirate type karate kid on our boating expedition on Echo Reservoir.

Going tubing! I love being on and near the water, there is something so calming about it!

Here's my dad giving C the low down on how to get the wake board on. After 27 tried C did make it up (for about 3 seconds). He did improve and hats off to him for trying! He was pretty sore the next day!

Thanks Lori for letting us use your boat! We had so much fun!

Here is Pop and I, he is my cute great grandpa!
Below is my grandma Lucile who I am named after.
I love to see my family! I miss them so much!

Thanks to everyone for making our trip so enjoyable! We miss all of our Utah Peeps lots!

California Dreamin'

From Utah, we drove with Christian's brother Jeremy and his wife Marcha to California for the Gentry Family Reunion! This is held biennially and this year was held at Pigeon Beach Lighthouse in CA. We stayed in a quaint hostel there; it was such a beautiful place to stay!

Christian loves teaching all the nieces and nephews bad tricks and acting like a 2 year old.

Here is the Gentry clan, all seven children grown up with mom and dad. It was really neat to have all of the family together this year.

We did lots of fun activities like watch sea elephants fight each other and bury themselves in sand. These sea creatures are massive and were so amazing to watch.

We had fun in the tide pools finding star fish, crabs and other sea life.
David got the courage to pick up this little crab who did not want to be picked up. He was pinching David's fingers in protest!

Here is the whole family:
2 parents
7 children
6 in laws
9 grandchildren
2 grandchildren on the way
(1 grand dog no photoed)

The Gentry family is always fun to hang out with! Thanks for all the good laughs everyone!
I would say the trip was an over all hit, minus: Jeremy's speeding ticket in a construction zone, Julianne and Brad's van breaking down in the middle of nowhere, Julianne and Brad's refrigerator breaking while they were gone, and Kasey (the newest sister in law of only a month) having to have her appendix out the last day of the trip.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

Kara and Alisha, two of my dearest friends that I have known and loved since I was five years old, came to visit last weekend! They made the long travels from Utah to have a great GIRLS WEEKEND!
Here we are in all our Beauty!
Alisha, Kara and Laci

I showed my girls a great time. I took them candle pin bowling @ Saccos. I just got through telling them how hard it was, and to not expect to get a strike because it is humanly impossible; low and behold...what do you know my very first time up I knocked down all 10 pins with one ball! That NEVER happens!

Friday we enjoyed a day exploring the history of Lexington to Concord. Above we are at Louisa May Alcott's home, the place where she wrote Little Women. Below you see we found ourselves a hunky minuteman to tell us about the first shot of the Revolutionary War. Who fired the first shot? We may never know! He was a cute little guy and it was fun to have our very own free tour guide.

Alisha informed us that she faked having a good time all day just so she could go to the RED SOX game. Can you tell that we are seriously excited to see the game? Jazz hands!

The next day was a serious heat wave!!!!! It decided to be 95 degrees the day we walked and walked and walked around all of Boston. We saw all the sights that Boston has to offer and enjoyed some delicious pastries and sea food. Then we hopped on the Liberty Clipper for a Sunset Sail. The Captain jumped overboard and I had to take over the wheel, nobody was injured and we all made it safely back to land.

It was so much fun to have Kara and Alisha visit. We went 90 miles an hour the whole trip and I think we saw all that we could in the short time they were here!
Christian was a good sport to let three wild girls take over his house. Dave is also a champ for planning this trip for his beautiful wife and taking care of the kids while she was away!

McDuff Turns Three!

My little Boy is all grown up! McDuff celebrated his 3rd birthday yesterday! Doesn't he look cute in his party hat and shirt?

To celebrate Duff had a few friends over for ice cream and cake. He also opened his presents and got a new squirrel and some greenies. It was a very happy day for the cute boy! It really blows my mind to think that Duff has been in our lives this long; he has brought us so much joy and laughter. He has also been a great tool in meeting so many of our neighbors, they just love him.
Happy Birthday Buddy! We love you!