Kaylee's Birthday and Fall Break

I was going to split this up into 2 different posts, but it was all one big weekend, so I'm just going to combine it!

Kaylee turned 9 on the 15th which is always around fall break, aka hunting break. (no...she didn't get a phone for her birthday...the picture above is her talking to friends that called her on her birthday! Check out that smile Monica and Katelyn! Thanks!) Right away Kaylee had it all planned out that she wanted to spend her birthday and the break in Wyoming with her Hoopes cousins...which of course includes the Stauffer and Kennington cousins. (We have such huge discussions trying to explain who the Hoopes cousins are and who the Gardner cousins are and where does everyone without those last names belong?! Some get it, some don't) ;)

We were going to leave Wednesday night for Laramie but at the last minute Kaylee really wanted to have a few friends over for a late night. They all got their zhu zhu pets together and had a great time! We LOVE these girls! It was a fun night!!



And it was the only time that I will let little rats run loose in my kitchen! :)






Then Thursday morning we left right away for Laramie. As a quick side-note, I need to explain our original plan and why it changed. Usually we would've had Daddy come and work for 2 days in Laramie while we vacationed. Instead we had to come without Daddy this time as he has just started work with a different company here in Utah. It was soooo hard to make this change, but we have been very excited about it!

Anyway, back to Fall Break!! My brother Dale is going to school exactly halfway between here and Laramie, so we took a little break to go see where he lives and well... where he lives! :) In other words, he showed us his dorm and his practice room! It was fun to walk around with him, hear how his piano lessons were going :) and have him show us around and meet some of his friends! It was also a great break from the van. I was just glad to be able to see him since I knew I would get to be with the rest of our siblings over the weekend.



GAME DAY GOLD!!



Fall in Laramie was as nice as ever! It was beautiful!

It was Homecoming weekend in Laramie so there was a lot going on. My mom was so great to watch the kids while I got to go to the Cowgirl Volleyball games Thursday and Saturday.



The kids had fun with Grandma and Grandpa. They played games, got into the dress-ups and played in the leaves!



Sweet Oakley usually has Grandma and Grandpa all to himself. He wasn't used to all the craziness! He was good to put up with us all!!



Then Friday was Kaylee's big celebration with everyone. She was pretty much spoiled! Thanks everyone!! She had the perfect birthday!!



My girls haven't really gotten into Justin Bieber just yet, but we all had fun checking out his calendar! Some liked it more than others! :)





Saturday morning was busy as we hopped around town cheering on cousins at a basketball game and a gymnastics meet.





Here was our between games, "Hurry, let's get a picture of all the cousins together!" Thanks to coach Jackson for letting his boy out of the team huddle for a couple minutes! Here they are...all 14!!



And what cousin reunion wouldn't be complete without a show!!





It was a terrific weekend! It was so fun to be able to see EVERYONE! It had been way too long!