Just tryin' to keep 'em alive...

I'm just here trying to keep all the living things in this house alive today! We've had a rough couple a days. I started throwing up Saturday night, Sunday morning it hit Ben and Sunday afternoon Tucker got it! We spent all day Sunday in our cave of a house not knowing what time it was, but Ben and I taking turns sleeping! Gotta love days like that.

Trying to keep him alive, he wants to eat so bad but everything is coming back up!

Then I looked over and saw this and realized my plant is really sick too. So, watered this baby to keep him alive!

Oh, and we inherited two fish from some friends; Cooper & Pinky. I looked on the mantle and noticed that their water was brown and murky and like half way down the bowl so they could barely swim. So, I had to wash the bowls and give them clean water and I fed them.

It's a lot of work trying to keep everyone alive around here! Hopefully after all of this, things will start picking up around here! :)

Uncle Terry's...

Here is the whole gang at Uncle Terry & Aunt Debbie's:

This is our second annual Folmar/Pyper reunion at Uncle Terry's and we had so much fun! Uncle Terry is my mother in law's only brother, only sibling for that matter. So as you can see we outnumber the Folmars by quite a bit! :)

Elle on the lion in front of their house...

Taylor doing her nasty scream. I love the look on my mother in law's face in this picture, she's horrified! :)

Here are Tyler and Mae Caroline...

And Uncle Terry himself...

They have the best pool/picnic area.

Everett eating a cookie in the pool...

Baby Elijah & Aunt Lynlee. This child is so chubby, I love it! He was 5 months old while we were there so I brought down some 6-12 month clothes for him that I had found. He's already into 18 monthers!

Aunt Meg & Elia...

Tucker & his daddy...

Jonah caught a little lizard in the pool...

Uncle Jeremy seeing how high he can get his cannon ball splash! Not bad! :)

And I found a male model while we were there...

Once again, we had a fabulous time catching up and playing with our cousins. I love that Tucker gets to get reacquainted with his 2nd cousins every year. Elle is his same age and they always have fun together!

Six Flags over Georgia...

One day we picked up and headed to Six Flags. Here are some more pictures of our fabulous trip. We seriously had SO much fun and it was so fun being together!

Taylor wearing Aunt Meg's glasses...

Super Aunt Meg. David dared her to jump out with her cape on at an unsuspecting family as they walked by and salute them. And sure enough, she did it! :) It was hilarious! :) I love Meg!

These two boys were so cute all day in their matching capes and holding hands. I love it!

Part of us getting ready to head out on a ride...

Here are Tucker & Ben on a kiddie roller coaster. It doesn't look like Tucker is enjoying it all that much. But I think he's enjoying it more than that guy in front of Ben! :)

Of course, Thunder Rapids. We took up one entire ride. You can see Tucker (with his little cape on) looking back and not wanting to look forward! :) He was so brave and wanted to ride all the rides, not that he enjoyed them all. I think he saw his older cousins trying them and wanted to be a part of it! :) I was proud of him for at least trying!

This is what Taylor did when she saw her dad from the side lines... (after eating a pop sickle)

Best buds...

Uncle Ben and all of the grand kids...

Me & Sophie were a force to reckon with in the bumper cars! :) We had a good time!

Aunt Meg won some animals for some of the kids. Taylor, naturally, thought that they all should belong to her.

We were there seriously until they shut the gates and kicked us out! We were having so much fun! We of course, had to stop at the carousel before leaving...

A picture a day...

If a picture a day could keep the dr. away, then I'd be the healthiest woman alive! We were in Alabama for 13 days and I want to share a picture a day of our trip there.

Day 1:

My father in law has a client who owns a floral shop. He gets free flowers whenever he wants! He came home on our first day there with $400 worth of flowers. We spent hours arranging them and trying to do them justice! None of us are florists, and you can tell. Still, they were beautiful!

Day 2:

To the park! There is a beautiful river running through downtown Wetumpka. In fact, the movie, 'Big Fish' was shot in Wetumpka. We went down there and played. 115 degrees isn't so fun when you're outside in the heat of it! We ate and played and then ran home as fast as we could to the nice A/C! This little girl from the moment we got off the plane went straight to grandma and didn't want to have anything to do with me the whole time we were there. She was grandmas little shadow and always wanted to be held by her. I thought it was cute, I just didn't want grandma to get burnt out of her by the end of our stay. I'm glad to say that that didn't happen! :) We joked all week between us that she was 'our' daughter.

Day 3:

No trip to Alabama is complete without a tractor ride/nature walk with grandma. This time the kids were lucky enough to pick peaches right off the trees in their garden and eat them on the way!

Day 4:

Bubbles in the shower! Tucker looks forward all year to be able to take showers with his cousins and play. They have so much fun! :)

Day 5:

Treasure hunt!!! They boys have really been into finding treasure at grandmas house. They know that her house is old and there is a story that says that a previous owner of the house had lost her (really big) engagement ring somewhere on the grounds. They are always looking for it. So, we whipped up our own little treasure hunt. Grandma and aunt Lynlee hid jewels while I made a map. A little dirt and wrinkling of paper and a lighter around the edges and there you have it! :) The boys found the map and finally found their loot! I will post more pictures later!

Day 6:

Cute little cousins. These little girls are only 4 months apart. After SO many boys, it's nice to finally have some girls around!

Day 7:

These two are so cute! BFF's! I love it! We went to the zoo and as usual these boys were inseparable. They are inseparable the whole time we were down there! Tucker loves him some Jonah!

Day 8:

Auntie Meg finally arrives! The boys had so much fun watching movies, reading books and playing angry birds on her I pad. Those I pads were the hit of the summer!

Day 9:

Stuck inside due to bad weather, but we still had a great day playing with cousins inside! Tucker, Jonah & Everett; I love these boys!

Day 10:

Two words: Six Flags! Two more words: 25 people! It was crazy but it was Oh so fun! :) We had a blast! The big kids got to do big kid things, the little kids got to do little kid things and we just had so much fun and had a blast being together. Ben's family members are big roller coaster riders, so they were all in heaven. We had a great time. Here is Ben with all of the kiddos.

Day 11:

BBQ/Family get together with his aunt, uncle and cousins! Here are all of us, in all of our water logged glory! :) We should have thought about doing the photo before the swimming, but we were too focused on that yummy pool! :) Oh, the pool is heavenly in that heat! :) I love his aunt and uncle and cousins, this is our second year in a row doing a little reunion BBQ and it is so much fun! These are Ben's only cousins! In this picture about 85% of us are Pypers, but the other 6 people are the Folmars! :)

Day 12:

Nature Hike with Aunt Meg. Complete with walking sticks. Love it!

Day 13:

Our last day was spent packing and getting ready to go, but I had to snap this picture of these cute matching girls. I think it will have to be tradition that they get matching outfits. Here is the one from last summer:

This year these two little girls lucked out and got all new wardrobes thanks to their grandpa! He loves to shop and he loves to find deals! And boy did he find some cute outfits! He seriously came home like every day with one or two outfits for them, most of the time matching ones. Too bad they live in Alabama or we could match Taylor and Kaiya the same every day! :) We love our Kaiya cousin, she is too cute!

Once again, we had a wonderful time in Alabama and had a wonderful summer! We were sad to have all of our visiting come to an end, but it was SO nice to come home and just be home! For those of you paying attention, that is 11 states: Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Alabama, Georgia & we flew out of Nashville to go home. We went up there and visited with Ben's brothers family for a bit and flew out of there, so Tennessee! Here is a map of our travels:

We miss everyone so much, but it is OH so good to be home! :)

Chica en Chicago...

We drove down to Chicago on Monday morning, July 4th. We spent the day with Jason & Kayla there and then they dropped us off at a family I know from Chicago from my mission and then we stayed Monday night with them and they dropped us off at the airport the next day.

The list of things on the docket for Monday were:

to go to Giordonos Pizza:

{sadly, this is the only picture I got as my children were MONSTERS in the restaurant and we wanted to get out of there asap! I didn't get a picture of the delicious thick crust pizza that Chicago & especially Giordonos is famous for!}

Next stop, Navy Pier:

{This is the place where Ben proposed 8 years ago, almost to the day from when we were there! I love Navy Pier, it will always be a special place for me! :)}

Navy Pier is the Pier in downtown Chicago on Lake Michigan it has a whole bunch of fun things to do, like mini golf, a Ferris wheel, a whole bunch of vendors and restaurants. So, we just had a great time walking around and playing.

Tucker & I rode the Ferris wheel, just like Ben & I did after he proposed! :)

Navy Pier, from above...

I love this city, the beautiful Chicago!

Me & Tucker...

That afternoon they dropped us off at the Hurtado Family's house. I love this family so much! They are members in Chicago and I spent a year in their ward in Chicago as a missionary! We became tight! :) Hna. Hurtado is a great friend of mine still!

This is Tucker and their youngest son, Iver. He was about a year when I was a missionary and I called him my novio (boyfriend) and I called him Gordito. He was so chubby and cute! Now he is this tall and skinny cute 11 year old and he was so cute with Tucker, playing with him and being so nice! What a cute cute boy! :)

And this is Taylor & Isis. Since we were there the night of the 4th, we got a great show just right outside in the back alley way! :) Fireworks were going off all night all around us!

And this is Taylor eating her first Arepa. It is a typical Venezuelan food that is so so so delicious! It is essentially a thick homemade tortilla/bread thing filled with delicious meat and cheese. I couldn't make it if I tried probably, but Hermana & Hermano Hurtado know how it's done and they were fantastic! :)

Hermana Hurtado runs an in home day care and so the next day the house was full of kids, which Tucker loved! :) He had so much fun with his new friends. I'm glad he isn't shy, he really enjoyed his time with all these kids. We went to a little inner city park just a few blocks away from their house.

After the park we headed back to their house so Taylor could take a nap before we headed to the airport. I went in after a while and found her like this:

Here we are before going to the airport, wit the whole family...

Ilan, Zaida, Isis, Taylor, Me, Iver, Ivan and Tucker...

And just to show you what gordito looked like when I was a missionary, here we are Christmas day 2000 with Hermana Bytheway, my companion.

I love this family!!!

Me, Taylor & hermana...

I was sad to have such little time with them, I wish I had had longer. But I was excited to get down to Alabama and have fun with our cousins! :) Next time our trip to Chicago needs to be longer and Ben definitely needs to be with us! :) I missed him in Chicago!