Trying to keep busy.

We are all missing the cabin and all the fun we had. I feel so cooped up, even though it has only been a day LOL, and the kids have been on a serious TV kick since we got home last night.
Of course this means the little sibling arguments are back, mostly we hear the big kids telling Jericho "Get off me Bud, I'm not a couch" or "No Bud, my lap is little, get off" poor Jericho just loves them so much he can't help himself sometimes LOL.
I am hapy to say that Xander made it the whole trip without an accident...I think we can safely say he is potty trained, day time anyway. Jason and I were talking to all the kids today, we said "now that Hayden and Xander are both part of the potty trained kids club who will be next?" Lily pipes up with "Ooh pick me pick me!" We just busted out laughing...like we haven't been trying to pick her for a year now.

We needed to get out of the house today...so we headed over to Grandma's for a swim!

Silly girl :)

It was a bit chilly. Please don't tell me summer is already coming to an end...it just got here :(

Daddy and Lily got in of course. Bug had to show Grandma the swimming progress she made at the lake.

High flying Lily...she used to catch a lot more air when Dad did this with her at a year old vs 4 years old LOL.

With Xan and Haddie now potty trained and not in diapers, we put a swim diaper on Jericho but totally forgot Lily. She went in in her regular diaper. I noticed a while later, and asked her to get out and let me take it off. I told her J.Lo wanted her booty back LOL.

Haddie was demonstrating how we caught a fish on the lake :)

Silly boy LOL

Waiting for dinner the kids played a little 'Break the Ice' with Grandma. Xander still has a different game plan than the girls...he is all about the destruction.

A little after dinner horsing around before we headed home. My boys :)

Home again, home again.

Our last day of vacation...why are vacations always too short? And why the heck do they make check out so dang early??? We had to be out at 10, so we did another night before breakfast.
Slow cooker skillet!
You need...

12	eggs
32 oz	bag of frozen o'brien style hash browns, defrosted and rinsed
1 lb	sausage, bacon or ham (or any combo you like)
1 md	onion, diced
1	bell pepper, diced (use whatever color you like best)
1 c	milk, 2%
1 c	sour cream
1 tsp	dry mustard
1 tsp	garlic powder
	salt and pepper to taste
2 c	cheddar cheese, shredded

Directions

1 Cook meat, drain and crumble. Set aside. Save a bit of the oil and add onion and peppers. Cook until onions are soft.

2 Spray 6 qt. slow cooker with non-stick spray or use liner for slow cooker.

3 Put in half the potatoes, meat and vegetables in the slow cooker. Sprinkle with half the cheese. Repeat.

4 Mix together eggs, milk, sour cream and seasonings. Pour this mixture over the top of ingredients in crock pot.

5 Cook on low for eight hours.

 

It was pretty good...I think next time we will keep the hashbrowns out and cook them up by themselves, I like mine a more crispy and they turned out pretty mushy in the crock pot.

 

After breakfast we loaded up and headed home, the big kids were pretty happy to watch a movie in the car LOL. We stopped for lunch at Calamity Jane's again...this time with dollar bill in hand to add to the rest decorating the place.

The girls had a pretty funny, and totally inappropriate if taken out of context, conversation at the table during lunch. They were talking about what My Little Pony episode they wanted to watch first when we got home. One of their faves is a 2 parter, about a pony wedding or something. So in a restaurant full of people eating, my girls were arguing back and forth...and not exactly quietly, about which you do first "Number one first" "No number 2 comes first" "No it doesn't number 1 is first" LMAO.

 

The cats obviously didn't miss us too much LOL.

Oh some picks of obsidian that found its way to our house. Yup they jumped right in our car.

We had a ton of dirty clothes to get washed...I can't believe the kids went through that many clothes in just 4 days. We all came home with battle wounds...AKA Mosquito bites, and are pretty beat...I swear I always feel I need a vacation to recover from vacation LOL. What a great trip though...we are for sure going back in a year or two.

Posts from our trip day ONE, TWO, THREE.

Back away from the edge.

We were up and at em bright and early again today. Breakfast was waiting for us....love that make the night before then bake the morning of french toast! This morning was the first time since we got to the cabin that the kids even mentioned TV, the girls told Jason they want to watch My Little Pony when they get home LOL.
We decided to get out of the cabin and take a walk. There is a 7 mile hike that loops around the lake, we had no intention of going the whole way...but we did go about 1 mile of it. And surprise surprise our little Lily Bug was leading the way, and I mean charging ahead...it was so not like her hehehe. Way to go Lily!

Jericho was on lock down in the stroller, and not very happy about it.

The trio were racing...oh how can we bottle that energy.

You can't see it too well but that dark speck on the tip of the branch is a hummingbird. We got to see a lot of them along the trail. We were even treated to a hummingbird vs butterfly fight...the butterfly was winning when we left LOL.

When we got back to the cabins, David and Auntie Stacie had a surprise for the kids to see.

Such a cute frog :)

We made a new friend, meet Andrew the chipmunk...Alvin's cousin of course.

We headed to our cabin to make a picnic lunch. The trio played out in the back for a little while. It is so nice to be able to trust them....to a point. We told them they could not go near the water, and they listened! We kept an eye on them from the window, I snapped this pic. Xander walked over to the little wood bench and sat down to watch some ducks swim by.

We had lunch then tackled the Big Obsidian Flow. The flow was created 640 A.D., when the Newberry volcano last erupted.

Pretty cool history to this place actually, but we were most excited for our little rock collector...AKA Hayden, to see all the super cool obsidian rocks.

It was a pretty decent climb up, Jericho got a fun bumpy ride LOL.

My fear of heights was starting to kick...but it was really amazing up there.

Auntie Stacie and David had a lot of fun showing the trio the view.

This is about where I had a panic attack. As much as I don't like heights, I REALLY don't like my kids near any kind of edge they could fall from. I almost couldn't take this.

The obsidian and pumice and other rocks were really cool...and there was a ton of them. We didn't even make it all the way through.

A little group shot with Auntie and her uncooperative nephews and nieces LOL.

Crazy to think this is all from a volcano.

That obsidian can be super sharp. Poor Bug got two pretty good cuts and I got one myself.

When we left the flow area we headed up to Paulina Peak...or the top of the Newberry volcano.

It was an amazing view, but I was so glad the kids all passed out in the car on the drive there so they didn't get to see it.

Pretty high up there. I got to use one of the countries highest elevation bathroom. It was just a glorified porta potty, but what do you want at almost 8,000 feet :)

After all that we headed back to the cabin and went for a swim.

Lily and Jason went pretty far out, she is such a little fish!

So happy :)

She was turning blue but still didn't want to get out LOL.

Haddie actually got in the water a little today.

Jericho loved the water, but he stayed about knee deep.

While the triplets took a 30 min long shower...YAY they have found a new love for showers, this could make bath time so much faster, I ran into this guy. He was acting really tired...it is not often that butterflies don't fly away from you. So I wet a paper towel with some sugar water and gave him a long drink. About 20 min later he perked up and flew away :)

We took another walk after dinner, Hayden got to pee in the woods for the first time. She was so excited she ran to her Dad YELLING "I pee'd on the ground, I pee'd on the ground." LOL.

We were all a little sad knowing that tonight is our last night in the cabin...it has been so wonderful!
Post's from day ONE, TWO and FOUR of our trip.