Starting School and September CA trip- NorCal

The three oldest girls began school at a local Classical Charter School this September.  Kayla is in 5th grade, Elise is in 3rd, and Ava is in 1st.  

 

Words cannot express how hard it was to let go of homeschooling, while at the same time how exciting it was to say hello to a new chapter.  The girls are all enjoying the new school, and I am enjoying some time to spend with the littlest ones without the extreme pressure of all the schooling on top of it.  

And just a week after we started the kids in school, we headed out to California to take the family vacation that we had planned months and months earlier.  We packed up children and school work and flew first to Sacramento.  

We met our dear friends at In-N-Out Burger to begin our trip and then headed to their place to hang out for awhile.  It was so good to see them and catch up on life and let the kids play together.  

There's so many of them now!  

Next we headed up the hill to my grandma's house.  

What a wonderful, familiar sight.  

I've been coming to this cabin for as long as I can remember.  

And every time it is peaceful and wonderful.  It is another home.  

And it truly was for Chris and I as we moved in with my grandparents for several months about a year and a half after we got married.  It was a nice time filled with many great memories made with grandma and Kayla when she was just a baby.  

So we settled right in and it felt just like home.  

Unfortunately, the travel left some of the kids completely wiped.  Kolbe spent a couple days feeling out of it and just sleeping a lot.  I don't blame him.  Every time I come to Grandma's, I feel like I can finally just let out a huge breath and all the stress that just weighs me down and take a long, peaceful nap in the mountains.  

We had to visit some old friends from the Foresthill Catholic Community.  Ron and Marcia are always so hospitable and have us over and let our kids swing on their crazy swing and look for frogs in their pond.  

 

 

Pat and Eric and Becky and family joined us too to hang out some more.  It was a fun night filled with laughter and good food.  

When I was a girl, I got to get my ears pierced with Grandma.  So I asked Grandma if she'd be interested in coming with Kayla to get hers done.  Luckily for us, Grandma's hair stylist does ears, so she was able to pierce Kayla's ears and it was hardly a trip and Grandma was able to come.  

 

A little hesitant.  

But she did great and said it didn't even hurt.  

All grown up

The girls experienced a little piece of tradition one of the nights we spent at Grandma's.  We brought out the old BINGO game.  When I was little, Grandma and Grandpa would bring BINGO and big bags filled with candy for each of us to win when we eventually got our BINGO.  We didn't do the whole big bag of candy thing as their is always plenty of dessert at Grandma's, but we did play a rousing game of BINGO.  

It's a beautiful thing to see your kids doing the things you remember doing as a kid and enjoying so much.  I may have teared up a little.  

We took a trip up to town to the cemetery to say hello to Grandpa as well.  

Rest in peace. We love you.  

And before we left for the next leg of our CA trip, we made Grandma take a bunch of pictures with us.  She is alllllmooooost 90 in these pictures.  Just one month shy of it.  Doesn't she look amazing?  She is.  

All the earrings ladies!

A wonderful visit in Northern California.  Thank you, everyone, for all the wonderful fun and new memories made together.  We miss you!  See you next time (or in Colorado if you want to take your own trip!)

Week 18: #52HikeChallenge-- End of the Road

We got a week behind in our 52 Hike Challenge because we had some weather, sickness, and family busyness take over the last couple weeks.  We still got out for walks here and there, but we wanted to only resort to counting those as our weekly hike a few times not make it a norm.  So we walked, but vowed to still get out for some actual family hikes to make up for the couple weeks where we only got out for a brief walk or two.  

And the hike we went on the day before Mother's Day should really count for two hikes anyway.  We hiked the last segment of the East/West Trail and it was a long segment.  Just over 7 1/2 miles.  We pretty much figure that it's a good rule of thumb to keep our distance to the age of the youngest hiker. Ava is 4.  Her birthday is in October, so let's be generous and say 5--so 5 miles.  

 

 

We went 2 1/2 miles further than that.  We went the distance of our oldest kid hiker's age.  And they all rocked it.  

Sure, there was some complaining at points and Chris and I had some extra work pumping them up and keeping them motivated throughout the long hike, but they did it and they did it with less whining than some of the 2 mile hikes we have done in the past.  Every day is a new day, every hike is a new hike.  Some days the kids respond better to the encouragement, some days they struggle more.  Lucky for us, the day we chose this very long hike for kids, they were having one of their best days and despite their weariness, they pressed on.  

  

 

And honestly, though it was long and quite warm and we were all tired and sweaty, we had a lot of fun together.  We looked for wildflowers.  Those sweet little white ones in the picture above were my favorites of this hike.  Kayla liked the purple ones in the picture below.  

 

We discussed lots of family memories.  Chris and I told the girls a bunch of stories from when each of them were little and the things they did and said that made us laugh.  The girls kept asking questions about themselves as babies and wanted to know all the things.  I love the little twinkle they get in their eyes and the huge grin when we tell them about themselves and the funny things they did when they were younger.  

One of the fun (and crazy!) distractions was that we spotted an ostrich running around in the distance.  We walked past a ranch of some sort and the only living thing we spotted on the property was an ostrich running back and forth, back and forth.  But the kids love looking for the ostrich (the black dot most of the time) on the ridge running to and fro.  Check out the video and you can see the craziness too.  :)

There we are at the end of the East/West Trail going east!

All in all with the spurs and extras, hiking the East/West Trail out and back in segments was probably a 25 mile family endeavor.  Way to go, Team!!!

We knew from the beginning, of course, that this segment would be a fairly long hike so we brought along crackers and fruit snacks to distribute here and there along the way.  Every couple miles, the girls each got a fruit snack and in between the snacks, we filled the time with fun together chatting, encouraging, counting our blessings, sharing our memories, and looking for wildlife.  God is good and these hikes have definitely been a fun way to spend time in God's creation and growing closer as a family.  

Trip to Cincinnati 2016- Saturday Family Day

On Saturday we had a big get together at Chris' parents house with ALL 9 of his siblings.  Most of them are local and many are still at home (he's the second of 10), but one brother is a few hours away.  He drove in Friday night after work and everyone was able to be together for most of the day on Saturday.  

It's been nearly 11 years since I met Chris' family, and 8 years since they all officially became my family.  And that is exactly what they feel like.  When we arrived at Chris' house on Thursday afternoon, it was truly like coming home.  

His parents' home has been part of my life for long enough and I have so many fond memories there with them, that it isn't just Chris' childhood home, in so many ways it feels like my home too.  And his family truly feels like my family.  I have watched most of his siblings grow and mature, some of them from when they were really really small. Chris' family warmly welcomed me into their lives and I'm so grateful for that.  I've been so blessed to marry into a family where I'm not just Chris' wife; I'm a daughter.  I'm a sister.  I'm family.  

Ok, well now that I've gone and made myself cry, let's get to the pictures from the fun day Saturday with all the fam.  

 

 

Up on the top right there is Sophie playing with a toy that her grammy played with as a child.

The guys all got together for a lively game of football in the backyard.  

 

One of our nieces, Gianna, riding around in a car while the football game was played.  Sophie got tired and the pack-n-play was occupied by another sweet baby cousin, so Grammy put Sophie to sleep on her shoulder and watched the guys play from the dining room window.  So much sweetness here as Grammy cuddles her granddaughter and watches her sons play football.  

We all had a lovely lunch together and of course, dozens of pictures were taken.  

Chris and all his brothers and his sister

Bissonnette side of the family grandkids:

7 lovely gals and a handsome little man

Gianna, Elise holding Kolbe, Kayla holding Therese, Ava, Sophie, and Emiliana sitting in front. 

All the girls

 

shenanigans

3 generations of Bissonnette firstborn sons

Richard Omer, Christopher Richard, and Kolbe Christopher

A rare family photo

And in the evening 6 of Chris' brothers agree to watch our kids so that Chris and I could go on a double date with Chris' parents.  We took Kolbe of course.  It was the first time we've ever really spent time one-on-one with them as a couple and it was really fun.  We went out to a little burger/sandwich place for dinner and then looked at a few things at Carters.  We ended the evening with a little ice cream at a local ice cream place called Aglamesi's.  

Truly a wonderful day spent with family.  So so blessed to have married into such a great one. 

Linking up for a weekly writing Link-up over at Revolution of Love blog with Bobbi.