What time is it? It's Bean time...it's a vacation..

It's that time again for a vacay with the Beaners. Are you tired reading about them yet? Too bad! We decided to meet in Phoenix since we figured it was October and the weather would be to our advantage. Within minutes of checking into our house, I almost stepped on TWO scorpions! What a way to start a vacation. I think one of the best parts of this trip was "the wager". Now, we met the Beans in Iowa where Jon and Aaron did Podiatry school together. This is where the wagers started. All because Jon was a Bears fan and Candace was a Packers fan. Every year they have a bet on who will win and whomever loses has to do something agreed upon. One year it was a NASTY shake...and not a good kind, it had everything in it that they could find in their fridge. He almost barfed...or maybe he did. It was so long ago I couldn't remember. This year the bet took on a new meaning. If the Bears lost, Jon would have to wax his chest, if the Packers lost, Jon would be doing her makeup "really bad" and posting pictures all over facebook. Not really a fair bet if you ask me, but I am not the one betting so it's all on them! Well, the poor Bears. It seems that they just can't catch a break when it comes to these bets. Oh gosh, it was so flippin funny! Poor Jon! I would totally put up pictures of the "wager" but I don't want to embarrass him. Let's just say we have it well documented and I really think I could do this for a living. Don't worry, the kids were already in bed when we started bring out the wax! We went to the zoo, went out for dinner, went to a GHETTO inside amusement park. The kids loved it, and didn't care that it really wasn't that great.
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On Saturday night we met up with the Freestone's. He also went to school with Jon and Aaron and we all lived in the same apartment complex. It was so good to see them and their not so new baby.

Can you believe all these children belong to only three couples?

Darrick and Rebecca

Zach LOVES Candace

Don't ask!

The other best friends

These two are seriously so cute together. They are little besties too! Don't you just love the picture Aliece drew?

Can't wait to do it again!

Welcome to the Family Ricky!

My brother and Richard adopted a little boy Ricky. He is so cute and fits right in with my kids. The first time I met him he ran up to me and buried his face in my hair and wouldn't let go. He stole me heart right then and there. Welcome to our family Ricky!

Girls Camp Aug 2011

My fearless Asst. Camp Director! LOVE HER!!

In August was our Girls Camp for our Church. I was called as Camp Director and I have to tell you I was SO excited! I always seem to miss the cutoff for going to camp when I work in Young Women's. I am either pregnant, just have had a baby, or moving to a different state. This year was my year and I was a leader, which was even better! I was looking forward to the crying, fighting, teasing and then of course the Make up testimony meeting where everyone is your best friend again camp. This was not how it went, it was amazing and my girls were THE BEST! I have to say sometimes I think we had a little too much fun, whether we were bombing other wards (we made paper mache bombs and filled them with candy and threw them into unsuspecting tents from other wards at midnight and 1 in the morning). We were indeed "The Bomb Squad". The camp theme were variations of SWAT team, 007, you get the idea. Justin Bieber was our mascot for the entire week of camp, he got "bombed" and his song was pretty much a constant staple to our dance parties. Of course these parties consisted of me dancing like a lunatic while the girls all laughed at me. Gotta love it! I even got the "I didn't know you could dance Sister Williamson, you know, for an old person". Oh man, I have now passed over to the dark side of ma'am, lady and no longer is it Ms. or Miss. Anyways, these girls were amazing and we had so much fun together, especially my Asst. Camp Director. We are two peas in a pod and seriously we were the loudest ward there, and of course the messiest. I can't wait till next year, I have already told them they better not replace me because I am going whether they call me or not.

Everyone together! Do you like our shirts?

Bieber getting "bombed".

You can't go anywhere without Jacob with these girls. This was also placed on the latrine door.

These girls seriously bring out the young girl in me. I sometimes felt like one of the young women instead of the leader. So here's to camp next year! Can't wait.

Zach's Birthday

Happy Birthday ZJ!!!

My Zach turned 7 in September...yes I know I am really late. I am actually writing this in December. DECEMBER?? I just can't keep up with the happenings of the family and blogging. Not enough time, or its just not a priority to me. We ended up going up to Santa Fe with our friends, the Reitz's, to visit El Rancho de las Golondrinas. The kids made these fun masks and it was fun trying to keep up with 6 kids running through the adobe homes.

These are our good friends, we met when we were all newylweds living in Lexington Apts. (which we named Mormon Manor).

Saying Goodbye is so hard...

I recently was in an accident and we have to say goodbye to my trusted van. This van has been with us through it all. Our trips around the US, our different residencies, bringing babies home, hitting sidewalks, the milk spills, the soda spills, the throwups. You name it, this baby has been there. I know it's dumb, but I will miss you!

P.S. I couldn't put the whole picture up because my liscense plate was in few and since this is a public blog, I didn't want to do it!

Haircuts!

Hannah has been begging me to cut her hair. She has been growing it out for awhile now and is tired of the tangles. I have been putting it off because her hair is so beautiful! Well, we finally did it! We cut 10 inches off to send to locks of love.



Everytime I looked at Ella I thought of Hannah when she was a little girl. So, I decided to do some bangs on Ella.

Lake Powell 2011

My newphew!

My fishermen!

Francois!

Grandpa Williamson

Aunt Jean

Grandma Williamson

We actually got to Lake Powell this year! Jon's side of the family has gone every year for, well since forever. We were able to go the year before we were married and a few years after until we started having kids, moving to various places of the US and just not being able to make it! We were so excited to be able to go back again! WOW! Was it different than we were used to. It was probably because instead of it being laid back and carefree, no kids, and doing whatever we wanted. EVERYONE now had kids. It is now all about them and making memories! It was still a lot of fun, but a little more taxing. I don't think as a kid that you realize how much effort it is to go on a vacation or camping or pretty much to the grocery store without first PREPARING. Now, as an adult and mother to four beautiful children I have to say that vacations are not what they used to be. I know this will change as they get older and become more independent but until then we will just enjoy this stage in life. The kids had a BLAST and I found out Jake was a little fish! He loves to swim and swam almost all day long, every day! Zach was content sitting in his chair, fishing with a soda in his hand. He even caught two fish. The first one he reeled in and ran away when the fish showed up and the second he pulled to the shore and got a little closer. He was my little fisherman. Hannah and Aliece were inseparable, even sharing a tent together and swam all day long. Ella did so good and wandered around with some adult following her and found out she liked the water. It was so nice to be back and we can't wait to go next year.

Lemonade, Lemonade, get your Lemonade

It finally happened. The kids have been begging to do a lemonade stand and mom broke. This "little" lemonade stand took a lot of work.....FOR MOM! The kids were in charge of making posters, making the lemonade, selling and everything HOWEVER, mom was right behind them "helping" them with everything. They did this with their cousins and atleast they had fun because they made NO money.

Our first and almost ONLY customer. Mom and Aunt were among their best customers buying everything a few times over.

They told Jake to stand in front and look cute...he got a litte tired acting cute. The one time he was dancing around, a customer came and he started yelling, "I did it! I did it! I'm cute!".

These little boys are trouble makers. Don't let the cute smiles fool you. All in all, they had fun and made a few dollars each. Of course, we started with them paying for their supplies, however if I made them pay they would have still owed me money because they didn't turn a profit. Chalk it up to life experience!