Eva--a deserving post

Eva, my oldest daughter.  She sparkles.  She shines.  She loves me and we're best friends.  When she was asking about her childhood I looked it up on the blog and at 7 years old she was only tagged in 6 posts!!  Of course that's because I use Facebook and Instagram but we thought it was time for some Eva highlights and stories.  Since we just got back from Utah we'll highlight that trip a little bit.  It was Eva's first flight.  All three of the others flew as an infant for either a wedding or a funeral.  It was so exciting.  Although today marks a week home, Eva asks to return to Utah several times a day.  She loved it.  She loves her family.  

 Salt Lake Temple

 Eva loves collecting things.  When we went on a nature walk she'll pick one of every flower that she likes.  Paige and Sawyer followed right along with her collecting with her.  Eva finished with three golf balls, sticks, and tons of flowers.  The flowers of Utah are so different from what we're used to.  While we were there, she was also the "Queen" of their secret fort.  She directed efforts to decorate the fort with rocks and flowers.  

 When we were in Provo, Matt and Robyn took us to Bridal Veil Falls.  I thought it was just a waterfall to see but when we got there people were walking in the water so we hopped in too.  I took this shot right when Eva got in.  We weren't expecting the water to be so COLD!!  I think she looks pretty shocked.  She loved it and wouldn't be outdone hiking either.  She hiked just as high as the boys did!

 Luckily, Aunt Becca is magical with all things beautiful.  Eva got her hair done in Becca's style and it took her three days before she took it down.  It took me bribing her with pink face masks to convince her.

 Our pink face masks.

This is just a silly picture we took at the dentist office trying to compare eyes.  She is such a beautiful girl.  I love watching her grow up.  

so let me get this straight

Matt and Robyn are moving to Denver.  They're selling the car and Matt is driving the van out west.  Lance and Katie are coming to East Tennessee for a wedding.  On their way home they will leave their car at our house and ride with me and the kids in the van back to Pelham.  Dad will meet us at their house in Pelham in the truck and leave that for Lance to drive for a week.  Dad will then ride with me in the van back to Tuscaloosa.  Meanwhile, mom is meeting Robyn halfway between Tuscaloosa and Little Rock to bring Jacob, Nico, and Benjamin back home with her.  Robyn will go back to Little Rock for the movers to pack up the house then come down later in the week (how?).  I'll spend a week in Tuscaloosa.  Rachel will drive up (or we'll take a day to drive down) to visit with Hannah and 3 week old Sarah Grace.  Brent will drive Lance's car down from Knoxville on Friday.  Lance will drive the truck and Katie will drive her car down to Tuscaloosa on (Saturday?).  Lance and Katie will drive their two cars separately back home on Sunday dropping off Robyn, Jacob, Nicolas, and Benjamin at the Birmingham airport so they can fly out to Denver.  Brent will ride back home with me in the van with the kids.

Why?

For grandma to have all eight grandkids together, and maybe take a picture.

Thanks Grandma for the extra beach pictures

these were some of my favorites.







oh and also, thanks for another beach trip.

The great outdoors

Amazingly, I convinced Brent to go camping with our friends the Kramers. He's not really a camper. In fact, he slept on a blow up mattress in the van but still, he went. We had so much fun. Even Brent will confess to that. We had running water and bathrooms, picnic tables and sites right next to the car--not exactly primitive but roughing it. Jackson, who is nervous about standing on the stage at church climbed this rock and told me to take a picture. He was very proud of himself. He also go to try a hand at fishing which he'd been wanting to do for a while.
Brent's fish. Can you see it?
....and....the salamander. What can I say beside I told you so. He's gross.

Have you ever noticed how the world is perfect when you're at the beach?

i took a break today.

thanks julie, becca, and britney. awesome!

vacation

We went on another vacation. This time to Destin, FL. While the weather didn't fully cooperate with us we still had fun. On the way down we stayed with my sister in Montgomery and decided to take Jackson to see the capital.

I love this shot of Sam.

So honestly, I think my favorite part of this beach trip was Jackson playing with his cousins. We don't get to see them a ton but I think he absolutely loved having them around all the time. They did it everything together: swim, fight, take a "nice warm tubbie"(hehe nico), fall asleep watching little einsteins, had a sleepover with grandma and papa, stayed up late, and more. This is all 5 grandsons.

A Barnes Beach Trip

A Barnes beach trip is very different from a Hutchison beach trip. Although I was reminded of this throughout the week at Hilton Head for different reasons none hit me so hard as when I just sat down with the intent to post and I realized I don't have a single picture. I have a couple goofy expressions of Sam laying on the floor at the condo when I thought "oh no I haven't taken any yet" but then never brought it with me to the beach. I'm sorry mom. I'm sorry to anybody who was curious as to just how gorgeous Hilton Head is. Because it is gorgeous. I'm used to Florida beaches which are lovely but different from this. My favorite part of a Hilton Head beach are the tides. I love going out at low tide when there is so much wet sand to play it. You can ride bikes on it which was shocking to me when I first saw it. Also I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or a truth but the waves seemed bigger at hi tide which I'm sure would have been fun if I hadn't been holding a sleeping baby. [ah sweet sam--the only time my children sleep in my arms is under conditions of EXTREME exhaustion but it is blissful b/c it's so rare]. Another difference was in how my family vacations vs. how the Barnes do. My family is all go go go. We all get ansy being in the condo and consider the day almost a failure if we didn't get to the beach twice. My parents come home at like 8:30am after some intense exercise, calling us all lazy for sleeping in so late. Brent's family takes it all slow. It took me a couple of days to get used to this (I was a bit of a crank--sorry fam) but after I relaxed a bit I enjoyed it tremendously. I did coax Brent and his mom to ride bikes with me that we rented for the kids to ride in which was way way fun. Maybe even my favorite part of the trip. Jackson loved playing in the sand and was tentative but willing to play in the waves. We put Sam in their bathwater-temperature-pool and he loved it too. Brent even dunked him several times although I had to look away for that part. my nerves will be the death of me. all in all it was a way fun trip and we thoroughly enjoyed it. despite the lack of pictures. oh oh if you read this much you might as well know there will be a romantic-picture-less post tomorrow (or soon).

Mr.and Mrs. Lance Hutchison

Y'all I know it doesn't look like it but we tried. We combed his hair multiple times. We tucked in his shirt again and again. We practiced and practiced walking the aisle. He still ran up on the stage and stood with the bridesmaids. Then did jump and jacks. I kinda laughed when Katie said we should have candy to bribe him to his seat but in the end that was all that worked.

Aren't these pictures amazing. I haven't seen a lot of them but my mom emailed me these and I thought they were stunning. The whole weekend was so nice. Katie did an amazing job planning everything and it came off perfectly. Katie has been here for all of the other sibling weddings. They've been together longer than anybody else. We're just so happy for them.

Unfortunately, I'm a little bitter towards traveling currently. We've done a lot for all of these weddings this spring and it's all been fine except for the would be last hour of our trip. After an 8 hour drive we thought we were home free once we passed crossville. We then hit dead still traffic. After waiting in it for about an hour we pulled over to feed Sam. Lucky we did b/c while I was feeding him our car overheated. Some hose broke. Brent was able to buy the necessary quick fixes at the gas station and then re-route the gps so we could find an alternate way home. I love that guy and his brains.

Our Utah Trip

Some stories are just better told in pictures.

We had a blast! I don't have any pics yet of the wedding because unfortunately, that was the day we forgot to carry the camera with us.

Grandma's house

Something I neglected to blog about was Jackson going to visit Grandma's house after Sam was born. I cried when they were leaving cause I felt guilty about sending my son away...

It looks like he was miserable the whole time!

We miss you daddy!!

But we're doing the best we can to deal til you join us.