West Yellowstone and More

This past weekend the kids were out of school for Thursday and Friday and since all the Hawkins grandkids were, the Hawkins ladies decided to take a trip to West Yellowstone. We of course picked the crappiest weekend to go. It was snowing and cold and we could barely see Old Faithful through the snowy, cloudy sky.....but....the kids didn't know any different and HAD A BLAST!!
Kiana, Oakley, Macady, Rhett, Laiklie, Dallin, Ciara and JD.
The plan was to drive to West, go through the park, and sleep in Jackson Hole. The problem was though, the weather. Because of the storm the pass to Jackson was closed. So we turned around in the park and headed back to West Yellowstone. We were super lucky to find enough rooms in this hotel with an indoor slide for all of us. The kids swam for seriously 2 hours and then we FORCED them to get out!

This is Oakley at the bottom of the slide. Oakley is amazing! She would go down the slide and then stand at the bottom and catch her two cousins Kiana and Ciara that were too short to touch in the 4 feet deep water. She did it over and over again. She is a great cousin!

This speedy blurry dot on the slide is Dallin. He seriously went down every possible way to go down. He did some head first, on his back, belly etc. He LOVED it!

And here is Rhett. He was a little nervous at first and made me stand at the bottom of the slide the first couple times down, but once he figured out that he LOVED it and that at the bottom he was capable of swimming to the side of the pool he went down over and over again. He was the cutest because 1/2 way down the slide he would wave to us EVERYTIME over the side of the slide. Super cute!!

Here is Lu. She went down the slide 2 times on my lap. The first time she threw her head back at the bottom and gave me a fat lip....ouch! The 2nd time as we got to the bottom my feet slipped and we both went under and I couldn't get my feet under me and we were under it seemed like FOREVER!! She coughed and coughed. I asked her if she drank some of the pool and later heard her tell Rhett that she drank "half da pool!" She spent most of her time in the kinda nasty, kinda dirty hot tub. The nasty, dirty water didn't seem to bother her the way it bothered me. :)

THE CREW!

That night it worked out that I had Rhett AND Laiklie in bed with me. This is just one of the positions my sweet Laiklie slept in several times that night. She was flopping all over the bed all night. At one point I had to break up a "sleep fight" between her and Rhett where she seriously THUMPED him. I was so glad he slept through most of the attack! Crazy girl!

The next day after we got home Ryan decided he wanted to go to the Cabin for the night. This is Laiklie on the way to the cabin. She was making up for her restless night in West.

We rented a few movies and went in search of some deer and elk for the kids to see and mostly just enjoyed some family time together!

Now....here are just a couple other things we have been up to...

Dallin started taking a basketball clinic once a week and it learning some great bball skills. This is his cousin JD behind him....he was at grandma's this day so we took him with us to watch Dallin.

Oakley started playing in the band about 3 weeks ago also. I have a picture of her with her clarinet, but forgot to upload it. I will post pictures of the Christmas Band Concert. Should be good! :) She has also started her Christmas Choir with the school. It makes for some early mornings and long days on days she has band after school plus homework, but I have to remind myself all the time that she is growing-up and can handle it. She loves it and never complains about any of it. She is also clogging again this year and her team has actually moved up to be an advanced group. The dances she is learning are seriously AMAZING!! She is a great little clogger!

Yesterday for FHE we ran to Grandma Hawkins house to "paint the pumpkin!" This is something we do every year. The kids love it.

You can see in this next picture the girls ducking trying to avoid the rain. It came a little too soon so they all rushed to the house and I stayed out in it and finished the pumpkins face. High Five Natalie!! Way to take one for the team! :)

You can see we have been crazy busy, but loving every minute of it!