Ely Family Sleep Over

My mom and dad like to have a "Camp Out" at their house every fall.  Those who want to can bring tents and  sleep outside, everyone else sleeps all over the house.  It is a great time for the cousins to bond and for the adults to get in some deep late night conversations.   We ate nachos and pie and watched silly internet videos, played games, laughed and talked and later the kids watched a couple of movies to settle down for the night.  

Watching Merlin with Papa

Tyson, Drew, Lucas and Nate

There was lots of snuggling.

 Gwen and Josh

Some coloring with Nellie and Daniel.

 Ryan- such killer eyes!

 Stratego with Madi, Laney and Heidi

Wrestling with Wilson and Tim

Chess with Justin and Lilli

 Jonah

Tim and Ryan

 Baby time with Emmett, Dandi and Josh  

Emmett is such as cutie!!!

It was a wonderful night, but sad that it may be our last one with everyone there.  Dandi and Aaron have moved to Colorado in the last week and will be gone for a few years.  And Sam and Josh maybe on missions when they move back.  I love that we are all so close and have such tight relationships.  Family is what it is all about!

Native American Dwellings Project

Nate and Drew have the beloved Mrs. Heck for their teacher this year.  They worked hard on their Native American dwellings projects.  They came up with the most original displays of all my kiddos so far.  I was really proud of their creativity and all the thought and planning they put in to them.  

 Drew

Nate

We set them outside to dry over night before they brought them to school.  The next morning we realized that Nate's had several new residents.  Some crickets had moved in to his, because of the flour in the paper mache I would guess.  We thought we got them out, but when he presented his display and gave his presentation on his research, another cricket popped out of the crack between the mountain and the back ground.  Surprise!

Great job guys!!

Elder Alger? Already???

For homecoming week, one of the spirit day themes was Angels vs. Demons.  Dysart High School's mascot is a Demon.  Sam decided to wear his suit to school and borrow his dad's old missionary tag for school.  He was an Angel.

I can't believe that in as soon as 1 1/2 years Sam will get his own missionary tag and be off serving the Lord in some other part of the world, Nebraska, Ireland, China, Guatemala etc ...  

He will be amazing where ever he serves. 

 I am so grateful for him and all my children and for their love of the Savior and others in this world.  Though they are far from perfect, they are quick to serve and love those around them.  

What more could a mother want?

Susanna, aka Miss Smarty Pants

Susanna surprises me several times a week if not daily with some new thing she has learned.  A few weeks ago, I was trying to get somethings done and she kept stopping me and asking me questions.  I decided she needed something to do so I could get my chores finished.  I gave her a composition book and told her to write a story.  She looked at me, confused.  I told her that since she was so good at writing and sounding out words that she could put some together and write a story with a picture.  I told her that she had to write some words before she could draw the picture.  She was SUPER excited that she could write her own story and got right to work.  She asked me how to spell a couple of words, but mostly wrote on her own.  She had some creative spelling, which I love, but really did a great job.

Deciphered: One day fat cat did slide and her name is Lizzy.

The slide is on the far left, blue with red boarder.   Lizzy, the fat cat is on the bottom right.

In the last couple of weeks she has surprised at different times by playing songs Daniel taught her on the piano from his lesson book, counting to 100 by 10's, counting to 100 by 1's (perfectly, only one hesitation at 79, but without help she moved on to 80 and finished), adding any combination of 2 numbers that add up to less than 20, subtraction with numbers 10 and under and reading more and more every day.  I have never had a 4 year old that was so driven to learn and was doing so much at such a young age.  I am sure that it is because she has 8 older brothers and sisters that want to teach her everything.

San Diego Wrap Up

We spent the day mostly all together, Ely's and Algers.  We started out at Point Loma.  We LOVE it there!  The museum is fun and the lighthouse, but the tide pools are our favorite.  Steve and Natalie took their kiddos to the aquarium, so they weren't with us in the morning.

Heath, Rachel, Emily, Jake, WWII guy, Caleb, Drew and Blake

 Drew

Jessi and her girls

Rich, Steph, Laura, James, Leilani and Jon

The Jon Algers

The James Algers 

(their other 4 kids were not able to come)

The Richard Algers

Laney and Gwen

The view of Coronado Island from Point Loma

The Tide Pools

We love hiking around on the rocks and exploring the pools.  The kids find all sorts of interesting creatures.  One of them found half of a lobster, a crab and felt other fishy things swimming around in the deeper pools.

Sam, Gwen and Rachel

Richard

Josh, Daniel and Rachel

Blake, Caleb, Drew and Nate

Jessi and Tori

Stephanie

Rachel and Tim

Nate

Tim

Gram Ely, Rich and Daniel

Nate, Jessi and Tori

There are trails you can hike around on to different tide pools and beautiful picture spots on over hanging rocks and cliffs.  So pretty!

Sam

One of the cool creatures we saw there, some sort of crab

Tim

Nate helping Lilli up onto the rock

Lilli and Nate

Sara

Nate, Drew, Josh, Sara, Heidi, Gwen and Tim

Drew

Josh

As we were walking back to the parking lot Tori decided she didn't want to go.  She said NO and sat down like this.  She would not be moved until Susanna came marching by saying, "hup, two, three, four, hup, two, three, four"  Tori jumped right up and joined the march saying, "hup, two, three, six"  So cute!

We took a lunch break and then met up again at the Mormon Battalion Visitors Center, this time just Algers. The Ely gang headed back home to AZ.

 

Sam and Emily finding gold

Jon, being a good uncle, showed Sam some wrestling moves.

  

We headed back to the camp site but stopped on the way, with just our kiddos, for a treat at Yogurtland!  Everyone was SO excited.  They know that Richard and I go there frequently for date nights and were thrilled to see why we love it so much.

It was a great evening again around the campfire.  We had a ball.

Thursday morning it rained while we packed everything up and then we got on the road, ready to get home and cleaned up!

It was a wonderful vacation.