S'mores, Bugs and Endless Card Games!

Every other year we have a Schaub family reunion and go camping at Woods Canyon Lake! It's a lot of fun and the first time I went back in 2007 Jeff and I were only dating, it was cool to go this year being married and having our own little tent! I'm so blessed to be in such a wonderful family!! Jeff and I were excited cause we went camping 2 weekends in a row, once with our ward then with his fam. Here are some of the highlights!!


This is our tent that Bishop Mooney and his wife gave us when we got married and left Fiesta Ward, they knew how much Jeff and I enjoyed camping! It was kinda small but worked out great, and I even helped put it up! :)

I love my nieces and nephews and I just want to play with them all the time, they are so entertaining to me!!

My husband's new toy is a bow, I know I was bratty about it when he first made this purchase but he worked hard to get the money for it and I have to admit he's pretty cute when he shoots it! :) I want to make him a little bag to hold his arrows in, but of course that would not be considered "manly" for him! There is an archery down the street that he has been able to go to and practice at!

My incredible mother in law Debbie and my niece Kate! Jeff was also able to get some great shots of the kids with our new camera! There were kids running around everywhere all the time and just having fun outside! Below are 2 of Jeff's cousin's kids and I couldn't get enough of them, sooooooooooo darn cute, Bryant and Claire!

Of course what would be camping without all the food?? Each day breakfast and dinner were assigned to a different family and this year we decided to do a dutch oven breakfasts, I think they turned out delish! I made a carmel pecan french toast thingie!

I had the opportunity to be involved in a Schaub family "tradition" that is initiated upon all new members of the family...it's called Ooga Booga! I was a bit scared but it ended up being really funny!! Here I am playing the game with my forks and chanting a song that I was told to repeat after someone...can't give you more details just in case any future Schaubs read my blog I can't give away the Ooga Booga secrets! They also play this toilet paper game that is similar to the game "Big Booty" where you have to keep the beat and of course Jeffrey is even good at that and won!

One of my fav things about the trip was that we finally got to meet baby Karlie from my last post!! She is so sweet and I could hold her all day long! Doesn't she kinda look like she could be ours?!?! ;) Hee hee!!

Last but not least I wanted to mention that we did have a pig at our campout, it was so funny to hear it squeal when Jeff's cousin would pick him up and take him back to their camp site! It was nice to have him clean the floors though with all of the dropped food. Of course we had to make the famous Schaub-ka-bobs and they were so yummy! It's pretty much biscuit dough wrapped around a dowel and then you roast it over some coals like you do with a smore. When it's done you fill it up with some butter and honey or jam and viola you have a tasty treat!!! :)

Road Trip To Rexburg Idaho!!

Granted this trip happened at the end of May it still needs to be blogged about cause it was so awesomely wonderful!! Back a couple months ago my sister in law Megan mentioned that she wanted to take a trip to see Jeff's other sister Kiki when she had her baby girl, so we made a road trip out of it and brought our well behaved niece Kaylie with us! Meg and I can't express enough how great it was to have Kaylie there, and not once did we hear her complain about anything, definitely one of the best road trip buddies I've ever had. Meg and I decided that all 3 of us need to go on yearly vacations now! This post might be picture overload...but if you want to see some cute kids keep reading!

This pic was taken right before we left in the afternoon for our 16 hour road trip to Rexburg!

We stopped in Paige Utah for the night and our hotel room was really nice, and very comfy! Ha ha...I shared a bed with Kaylie and she woke up in the morning and said, "Aunt Ellie you stole all the blankets and I was freezing!!" Whoopsies...Jeff says the same thing!! Some pretty scenery from Paige.

Kiki actually got induced the day we started driving up there so we were kinda in a hurry to arrive so that we could help out and play Mom's for a couple of days. Baby Karlie Kiani Weichers arrived on May 27! Unfortunately her stay at the hospital was a bit longer than expected cause she was born with pneumonia and later on the Doctor also found a small hole in her lung which might have been caused by CPAP which pushed air into her lungs after birth. Karlie had to stay in the NICU for a couple of days, and couldn't really have visitors, but we still wanted to go and visit Kiki. They had to send her to the Idaho Falls hospital that had better equipment to fit her needs. Obviously a lot of time has passed, and she did make it home safely with her fam and is doing much better now! I was really bummed that we never actually got to meet her but I'm happy that she got the care she needed.

At the hospital waiting with Kaylie and my little nephew Eli. Kaylie drew a picture for Auntie Kiki and I just had to post it. I love how kids describe things, if you look really close you can see she drew the baby in her tummy!

I wasn't able to get any pics of Karlie cause I never had a chance to see her since she was in the NICU and things were a bit crazy at the hospital the first time we were there, but I did steal some pics of her off Kiki and Meg's blog...

These are some recent pics of her when she was able to go home and be with her family after we had left! We had a welcome home party for Kiki and the kids made her this poster and we gave her a mini baby shower! karlie and big sister Kate! I love how Hawaiian all of Kiki's kids look, they have the most beautiful features!!

There is one word to describe my sister in law Megan: INCREDIBLE! She seriously amazes me with her drive to better herself and to love everyone around her. She was the PERFECT mom for the kids while Kiki and Jared were at the hospital. I just wanted to give her a personal shout and tell her thank you so much for making our trip so memorable. She was on the go right when she woke up and took care of all the cleaning, laundry, cooking, and other house chores for everyone. Meg has many many qualities about her, but one of my fav is that she is a fantastic cook! When we were there it was like we had our own personal chef! I only got pics of 2 of the meals that she made and boy were they were delish! The crepes and this bolognese sauce (spaghetti sauce) were some of my top fav!! Meg even went far and beyond her call of duty and cooked home made noodles from scratch, she actually has a noodle maker!!!

I tried to do my part as well and hung out with the kids a lot! There is a park right by their house, so we went there one day and they had so much fun. My nephew's Enoch and Eli are professional bug and rock hunters and could play in the dirt all day long! We made a new rule while we were there and it was that since it was summertime and they were out all day long playing, that meant bath's every night...no exceptions! :)

I miss my nephew Eli sooooooooo sooooooooo much. He is an absolute joy to play around with, he gets me all hyper to the point where I even love chasing him around the house! I think the cutest thing about him though is that he is such a cuddle bug and he will sit on my lap and just twirl my hair in his fingers, I guess that is something he has always done since he was little. He played the funny face game with me on my camera, good times!

Sad, but Meg and I only really got this one pic together...now I understand how busy and demanding it is to be a Mom! Poor Kiki was still swollen even after she had come home, we wanted to spend as much time with her as we could, so we propped her feet up and put her near the kitchen where Meg and I could still talk to her while cooking. We had wanted to do a session at the new Rexburg Idaho Temple, but there wasn't enough time so we just drove by it and I got a pic at least, so pretty!!

While in Rexburg I was able to visit 2 of my really good friends Heather and Ashley! It was so fun to spend some time with them and their families, and to have them show me around Rexburg a bit. I grew up with Ashley in Sierra Vista and she has always been a HUGE example to me! She is just one of those people that I want to be around all the time and she catches on quick to my sarcastic ways! It was the best to meet up with her again. We even worked together at Cold Stone in high school! I love ya Ash! :) She is another one of those unbelievably talented people who just shrugs it off like it's not big deal to come up with a million creative things to make daily. I have a blinkie on my side bar for her Make It and Love It blog where she for free demonstrates how to make crafty things, so check it out! She also sells some of her own personalized crafty stuff at her Etsy Shop, I recommend going to both! I was so excited to finally meet her kids Connor and Elli!!

Then I got to reunite with my old non-stop LAUGHING friend H-diggity! Oh Heather...you made my college days so memorable! I think most of the times I have wanted to pee my pants from laughing so hard was because of you! Right when I saw her we started laughing!! :) You are a complete joy to be around and I wish we lived closer! Only with you would I eat chips at a nasty Mexi restaurant make up a lie, and then pick up and leave to go to a better restaurant...still makes me laugh! Heather also took me to this place where she claimed they had the best cupcakes... and she was RIGHT! So yummy!!! Her daughter Brighton was so adorable! Side note for Heather: my cupcake key chain broke too...then I tried to super glue that one thing back in and it didn't work so well...:'(

I'm so thankful that I had the opportunity to spend some time with the Weicher's family in Idaho, it was an awesome trip and I can't wait to go back!! We made pretty good time on the way home and we were even able to stop at one of the Dams, I forgot the name of it, but it was really cool! How many of you out there like V8 juice? Kaylie is a faithful V8 juice fan, so Meg stopped and got her some on the way home!

In closing we had a great achievement happen while on our way back to Arizona...KAYLIE BLEW HER FIRST BUBBLE WITH GUM!!! WE WERE SO VERY PROUD OF HER!! Now she is even blowing and popping bubbles without using her hands and she can do it all with her tongue! I'm happy to share that I did get this on video...it's worth watching to see her expression at the end! Thanks again Meg and Kaylie for the rockin' road trip we had...I love you both so much! :)