Our Family Vacation

We went on a family vacation a few weeks before school started. We had to wait to go until swim team was over. The day before we left we went to the awards night for the Loomis Basin Dolphins. You bring your own dinner/picnic and then the personal best awards and coaches awards are handed out. This year we bought the hot dogs and hamburgers that the team was selling. I didn't have time to pack a picnic as we were leaving the next morning. To our surprise Julia won the 6 and under girls most improved award. She received a trophy and coach Lizzie said some might fine words about our Julia. We were so pleased with her efforts this year and all that she accomplished she was even in the newspaper. Check out this article that ran in the Loomis news (front page), Auburn Journal (front page), and Placer Hearld ( page 3) click here There was a picture of her, but now it doesn't seem to be coming up. Anyway check her out!! She loves being a celebrity.
The next day we packed up and headed out on our 5 day camping trip to Collins Lake, which is near Marysville. We (Tom and I) are genius' when it comes to planning a camping trip in the Summer, we choose the hottest place near us and then go there. At least there was a lake for the kids to swim in. As is turned out it wasn't as hot as they were predicting, but it was hot enough.
I was very organized this year, or so I thought. I kept saying boy I have packed well, I just hope I'm not forgetting anything. Well, the minute we got there I realized that I hadn't packed the hot dogs, hamburgers, or sausage. I had to buy hot dogs and sausage at the little highway robbery store there at the entrance to the lake. We had friends from our ward go with us. Both families had a ball and we want to camp again, just not at the dirt pit we were at this year. :)
My mom and dad brought us dinner on Sat. night of our trip. I didn't have to cook and the kids loved seeing their grandparents.


We swam, played at the playground, rode bikes, ran from our camp to the Watfords camp, ate tons of smores, and slept on the ground. Who wouldn't love a trip like that. Now to get ready for our last camping trip of the season. We are heading to Plumas/Eureka State Park with the Bates and Techau's for Labor Day weekend. Could someone please remind me to pack the frozen items? :)

The First Day

Well, yesterday was the first day of school, and we, here at the Hay House, had 4 children going to school. Macie and Thomas are in 5th and 4th grades. They will be in a 3 teacher rotation and since Thomas is in the 4th/5th combination classroom he will be rotating with the 5th graders. We will see how this will go because as we all know brothers and sisters together in the same group of students doesn't always go well. :) Julia entered 1st grade at a different school. She is in a K/1 multi-age classroom (that's fancy speak for combination of two grades in one room). She has some of her friends from Kindergarten in there and some new ones to make. All is well on the 1st grade front. She starts school a bit early at 7:50 and gets on the bus at 7:10. I have to say that we were rock stars this morning and had breakfast, a good one at that, and she was ready to go waiting for the bus. One day down and many more to go. Matthew is at the same school as last year and his hours are 8-12 a.m. everyday. Now, what is a family to do about getting all these children to all their places on time. The daddy has valiantly accepted the job of taking Matthew to school before he goes to work. This means an hour change at work, but his job is very flexible on time to start the day. After Julia and Matthew are off to school then I can take the other children to school. I plan on walking them up to school and then taking Henry on an extended walk. Wow, a lot happens around here before 8:15 a.m. Now that school is on I guess I need to start thinking about Christmas, yes I said it. :)

We had some very special visitors yesterday morning. Ali came and did hair for first day viewing and Emily helped with dressing. Gram and Pa showed up because afterall it is the first day. :) Thanks for all the help getting us up and out on time. We love all of you!!!
Backpack time came and Macie got a plain black pack. It wasn't up to her liking, she wanted something a little more jazzy. So we went to town and jazzed it up. I think she may just start a trend. Nice job Macie. :)

She also looks like a fashionista. Before going school shopping Macie created 3 different outfit drawings. We were on the hunt for the looks that she created. We weren't able to find the exact colors, but we got the looks that she wanted. Maybe she has a future in fashion. :)

Here are the other children with their first day outfits. You might ask why Thomas doesn't have a fashion shot of his own. Well, he is a boy need I say more. :)

It's been a while

I haven't blogged in a while and I really don't have a good excuse for it except that a house full of 5 children, swim season, and Julia and me being sick with the flu for 3 days kept me busy. I got sick the night before my birthday and then Julia showed up sick. Tom had to take Macie and Thomas to the swim meet and then I took 7 loads of laundry to the laundrymat. Matthew had a show at his gymnastics class and then he turned 4 on the 25th of this month. The other 3 kids had swim champs this last weekend over Matthew's birthday. He is such a sweet little boy that he didn't even complain that his birthday was spent at Sierra College pool. Mom and Dad took us out to Home Town Buffet for dinner on his birthday so he was very pleased with that.
Macie had a great champs she came in 39th out of 144 swimmers in the 25 Yd Back stroke and she was 40th in the 25 Yd Free stroke. In the 100 Yd IM she came in 61st She had her best times in the free and back. Thomas made his best time in 25 Yd. Back and Julia made her best time in the 25 Yd Back with her time being under a min. She was 58.86. I loved it! They all did so well. :)
Tom's company had their annual summer picnic at Donner Lake on Sat. the 18th. We had a ball. The gang loves going to Donner, playing in the water and participating in the company picnic games.
Julia also lost her top front tooth to offically make her toothless. Then a few days later she lost one of the bottom teeth. She is rich with quarters. :)
Here are some great shots of the days since I blogged last.








Thanks Chris for checking up on our family every Friday. We are on vacation as of the 29. So I will not update until next week. Enjoy! :)

The 4th of July

What a blessing to live in America. Even with things the way they are we are truly blessed to live here. We went to the parade in Grass Valley. This has been a family tradition for many many years. My mother and father used to go to this parade when they were little, and when I was little we tried to go as much as possible. Of course, when we moved to Roseville 33 years ago we started going every year. Now we take out little gang to the parade and they love it. It wasn't too hot this year and we enjoyed it more than in years past. Then we went to Aunt Jacci's for some after parade food. We feasted and visited with cousins and played. Then onto to home and a great BBQ dinner and home made chocolate ice cream. And who could forget the fireworks. Matthew had a ball this year. He was literally break dancing in the street. We laughed and laughed at his performance. He is quite good despite it being so funny. I think I love the 4th of July so much because it is so close to my birthday and as a child I would anticipate my birthday with such excitement. What better way to start the it's my birthday coming up mantra then with a big celebration. It is also in the middle of the summer and summer is full of adventure and fun. Anyway I hope you all had a Happy 4th and I can't wait until my birthday. :)
The Hay gang before we went to the parade.
Henry enjoying some Grandma time.
The gang and their 2nd cousins. My cousin Shae has 4 children and here are 3 of them with our gang. Charlotte, Landon, and Ava.
Sparklers anyone? The gang loved doing sparklers. I remember loving those as a child also. F U N




One of our fantastic fireworks. :)

Another Summer Adventure! Six Flags

Well, yesterday we went to Six Flags with Grandma, Auntie, Uncle, Emily, Ali and Ashley. Grandpa stayed home with Henry. Thank heaven Henry didn't come. We wouldn't have had as much fun. Sorry Henry, but you are 2 and quite the runner. We would have had to lock him in the stroller and he wouldn't have liked that at all. We saw the whale show, dolphin show, visited the butterfly house (man was it hot in there), experienced the shark experience, saw walrus', petted a sting ray, rode lots of fun rides, drank soda and ate popcorn and cotton candy. What a time we had!!!! I had packed a lunch and dinner. We fed the kids before we went into the park and then fed them after we came out. They were troopers to wait until 8 for dinner, and walk the many miles we walked. Ali took Macie on many of the "scary" rides. Thank heaven I didn't know about it because I would have been very nervous. Thomas helped me out with the two little kids and rode rides with them. We didn't get home until after 10 with Julia and Matthew snoring away in the back seat. Matthew had a great day of potty training. He is now able to say when he has to go, well all except number 2. He does withhold it until he gets home. We have had 2 accidents today. He just won't go in the toilet. Oh well, he is getting there. It was hot yesterday, but not as hot as the previous few days. Wonder what summer adventure awaits us next week? :)

Shark Boy or Thomas Hay

I just had to post this picture. It is soooo funny. We went to Folsom Lake with family and friends. Our friend Patty has a seedoo and invited us to go jet skiing with her. We jumped at the chance, and when I told my mom and Dad they wanted to come as well. My sister, her husband, Ali and Ashley wanted to come and join in on the fun. Everyone who wanted to got a ride on the seedoo, even Matthew. Julia rode with me and Auntie rode with Macie. We all a ball and took out a picnic. This is one of the many adventures that we plan to have this summer. I wish Tom could've come with us, but someone has to work to pay the bills. :) Our next adventure was on Saturday with all of us getting up early to go a swim meet and then onto Kelly's house for food and onto a football game that Brad was playing in. It was an alumni game. His team lost, but I think he had fun playing with his old friends. Saturday turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far and we literally baked. It was 106 degrees out at 5:30pm. We had been out in it since 7:30am. We were fried and are paying the price today. I am finally feeling better at 3:00 in the afternoon. The kids had a ball with a hose that had been turned on. They were able to cool off. We got home around 10:00pm. Everyone had fallen asleep in the car. Matthew is being potty trained and did exceptionally well. He loves being a big boy and going on the toilet. I'm just wondering when the training will be over and the trained part can begin. :) He is often heard saying "I potty training" all with a big smile.

Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my Dad and my husband, who is a great father to our children. We had a nice day with us getting up and making Daddy a breakfast fit of a king. The kids loved it and it was really fun eating breakfast together at the table. We then got ready for church and headed there. The 4 oldest kids were to sing with all the other primary children to their Dads for Father's Day. I say were because Matthew went up on the stand and looked out and said or should I say yelled I don't want to sing. He was brought to me and I picked him up and escorted him out of the chapel. He then, on the way out, yelled I want to sing, I want to sing. Well he had already been up there and I wasn't going thru that agian so no you don't get to sing to Daddy. Oh, well maybe next time. :)
We then went to Grandma and Pa's for dinner. Pa was making his own Father's Day dinner which consisted of spaghetti, ribs, potato salad, watermelon and homemade ice cream made by the Hay gang. What a yummy dinner and surprisingly the gang loved it and ate many ribs. While at Grandma and Pa's Henry decided he had lots of work to do. These pictures show just how "busy" he was. :)




Everyone else had loads of fun hanging out and eating at Grandma and Pa's. We ate berries off the raspberry bush and Emily did toenails and fingernails. Even Matthew got into the act.
I love my Dad and am so blessed to have him. He is the best. He is always looking out for us and taking care of us. He is also up for any fun adventure that we try and think up. I am also very blessed to have Tom. He is a great husband and the kids love their daddy. He, too, is up for fun times, but mainly he loves to wrestle and have dance parties with the gang. They love having the dance parties and watching America's Funniest Home Videos with him. He also has taught them many fun songs that they just bust out and we smile at each other and can't believe they actually sing and like those songs. All in all it was a fun day.