Cousin Campout Reunion

I have a lot of cousins. A lot might not even describe it well. Matt was quite overwhelmed when we were dating. Family parties are not a quiet affair on the McDonald side. We are all so excited to are each other, and usually talking loud, someone (and usually a couple someone's) are trying to scare others, we have lots of babies and don't mind being crammed into one room. We are cousins. They are all like that great friend that we could not see each other for months, sometimes years and the conversation picks right back up and it's like we just saw each other yesterday. It's a grand old time!
So my Dad has 10 kids in his family, which explains why there are so many cousins. Can someone help me with how many we really have?!? (Andrizzi girls?Sisters? Someone help me out...) Our amazing Grandparents had all their kids pretty close together, and taught their kids to love one another and to stay close. And it's been passed through to us and hopefully onto our children.
My Dad's younger sister Kathy organized the FIRST ANNUAL COUSIN REUNION. And what a great time it was.


Thursday night we met at Kathy's to kick the festivities off. Our cousins from Arizona came up, which it was SOOO good to see them and how much they have changed. The crazy thing about the whole 10 kids thing is that our aunts and uncles were still having kids the same time we were. So Saige and Milo aren't that much younger than my cousins. And to say that my kids enjoyed it is to put it lightly. They both had the time of their lives.








All the kids and of course Aunt JoJo, then braved the night in a huge sleepover on the lawn, Saige was invited and will remember it FOREVER. Thanks JoJo. We then all headed up to Heber Girls Camp, where all the cousins were invited to Campout with Grandma and Grandpa. No older parents were invited and it was such a great time to be with our cousins!!









After a chili dinner we all enjoyed just chatting and playing card games, hiding Holly's phone, eating fake spiders, listening to me try to sing, my sisters Irish dancing,



making s'mores, going on a hike with uncle mikey and Susanne, and the bet ghost stories ever told. My favorite might have been when Jack Sparrow came and told all rhe kids stories.





It was just a magical time that you could only appreciate with cousins.






























Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for a wonderful weekend. We missed the last day so I hope someone else will fill us in. Love all you cousins and let's make sure there is a second annual cousins reunion next year!! ( thanks Aunt Kathy for all your hard work!!)

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Bed time talk is my favorite

As Saige and I were bedtime talking, I asked "If you were to pick your most favorite thing to do tomorrow what would you pick?"
Saige replied, " I just cannot stop thinking about Easter Mom! Why doesn't he wear pants?"
Oh I love this girl so much. Her mind never stops, she remembers EVERYTHING!!!, and she has the best sense of humor.
Thanks for the laugh tonight Dieet, I hope you think of something fun to do tomorrow, after you figure out about the Easter Bunny's nonexistent pants.

Ray Ray.

June 18th could not come soon enough. Brandi Carlile and Ray Lamontagne came in concert together and we were lucky enough to get some tickets before they were sold out!! After a long week of getting ready for the Grilling Gala we had at Gygi's, it was just what I needed to make the perfect ending for a long day.



Candace and Connie were kind enough to head over early and save our spots. Although they were getting daggers from EVERYONE because 5 of them were saving 4 blankets worth of space! We got there just as Brandi was starting and it was so much fun. If you haven't listened to Brandi before I highly recommend her.
My sisters are all huge fans and I have listened before but there is just something about hearing them live that makes you realize how good they are. Staci described her once to me as a female Johnny Cash. And her versions of his songs yesterday were perfect.



We got together with some of our most favorite people, and danced the night away. Ray was worth all the wait and I wanted the night to go on forever. He has such an amazing voice, which made me wish I could sing just a little!!(my dear sisters quickly reminded me that yes I cannot sing at all!)



There is nothing better than being with your sisters to celebrate the night. They both have a way to help me relax, have a good time and put all my cares away!!



Matt had always been a huge fan, and has gotten our kids to love his songs. They requested them by name and I even catch them singing the songs through out the day. I would have loved to have them there but it was also great to just have my hubby by my side without kids pulling at us!



It was a great kick off to a hopefully exciting summer! Thanks Ray for your sexy voice and heartfelt lyrics. You truly are amazing and one of a kind. We love you!!

Wednesdays. Wednesdays. We love Wednesdays.

When Candace was teaching this year, we were lucky enough to get Josie over at our house on Wednesdays. Now that it is Summer we don't get Josie anymore (boo hoo). But Candace and I decided we would still try to get together and do something fun with our kids cause she is MOVING all too soon. (again boo hoo).
We decided to head over to a splash park over by Bonnie, who needed a break from her overactive 2 year old Ella and is due all too soon with little baby boy!! So we met Bonnie, Mimi, Candi, Ella and Josie at Herriman's splash park.


We and about all of Herriman had a fun time.





"Superhero Saige with super powers of throwing huge rocks!!"



After splashing for hours and playing on the playground we decided to eat some delicious watermelon!!











Oh how we love summer! Please stay forever!!!!

4 baskets of Strawberries and 6 bananas later....

Saturday with our Bountiful Basket we got a flat of Strawberries. I was hoping for not so ripe so we could slowly eat them on our cereal and enjoy but they were the most delicious red and sweetest things. After looking at them FRUIT LEATHER was calling my name. (Have you ever made fruit leather? I was fortunate to buy Matt a food dehydrator for his birthday one year, but I have used it WAY more. We will do a post on that later...)
But they sat in my fridge and I just didn't get to it! So our sweet friends Macie and Jocelyn came over to play and we decided to dip them instead. What a better activity than fruit and chocolate!?!







These girls are serious pros. We carefully melted the chocolate ad they let their creativity run wild!!











Each girl ended up with about 4 plates of chocolate dipped strawberries and bananas. And a little bit of a sugar rush. Thanks for coming over girls!!

Have grill will travel.

Sunday we had Adam and Natalie over for dinner. Adam had some white tail that needed to be eaten and we decided that it would be a great day to grill. Got everything out and ready, Matt went to turn on the grill, and couldn't get it!! How do we have a BBQ without a grill?
Well thanks to Adam and his traveling grill- everything worked out great!





I'm sure for a small fee he'd be willing to come to you too! As long as his little Weber's wheels can make it!!!



But we did enjoy this so it was all worth it!!! Thanks Adam and Natalie!

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Ruining my lawn reputation

Don't know if it could be that for the past year we have completely neglected our yard or the thought that I might be sneaking a few of these bad boys in:






Our chances of winning yard of the month are going out the window. Ha and I would take pink flamingoes over some Award any day. Now to get Matt to agree.....