Utah!...in July...

I'm finally getting around to blogging again and no matter how much I tell myself to just start from now, I can't, my OCD swings and says I have to catch up first. So, here is our trip to Utah this last July! First though...cute Carter! He turned five and is the best! When I asked him what he wanted for his birthday dinner, he said, "top ramen". Nice...and for dessert..."orange julius"! I can handle that. We love Carter and can't believe how fast this kid is growing up!
We took a lot of pictures, but only of random events. So, sadly, I didn't get any pictures of Connor and Michal's family. Our trips crossed for about a day and it was so much fun to see them! We went to downata hot springs in Idaho. It was so fun. We even got Mason to go down the slide. Once he did, it was all he would do! They loved it!
Here's a shot of a bunch of the gang at the clubhouse, getting a little something to eat after a good swim! Look at all those fun kids!!
We also went to Lagoon! I had never been before and neither had the kids. We had so much fun! We decided to make it a summer tradition when we go to Utah. Forget the little State Fairs, we are going to Lagoon. Seriously, the kids were in heaven. Mason and his cousin Alex went for a little drive.
This is Carter and his cousin Caitlin. Carter had a good time with Caitlin there at Lagoon. He wanted to do all the rides with Caitlin!
Here's everyone on a fun train ride around Lagoon. Mason was also on the train, but he was sitting by me and I was taking the picture. Tyler seemed to be enjoying himself...um, he pretty much slept a lot...
Even Joel got in on some serious roller coaster action! Funny. Actually, we spent the whole day doing kid rides and at the end of the day he ran with Chad and Troy and Will to do some "big boy" roller coasters. Sadly, he didn't have a lot of time...the kids were so done! Next time maybe I won't have a tiny baby and I can do the rides too!
Carter and Mason loved this little roller coaster and seriously did it like 30 times. They would get off and run right back in line...round and round...they were so cute to watch on it! Mason especially made great faces!
We went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house with the Fetzer's (Joel's sister Laurel's family). It was really neat...though, I have a hard time going with kids. I feel like I spend the whole time..."Don't touch that!", "Stay by us", "Are you kidding me!? Stop touching that!", "How could you already be so hungry, we just ate!". By the end of the tour I'm not so happy about eternal families...
Seriously, it was such a fun trip! Here is Mason and his cousin Andrew...I mean what else are you going to do after a swim in the pool, play the piano of course. We love going to see the Thompson family! The only one we missed out on was Cami's family...they came a little after us! Bummer. We are already looking forward to next summer...get ready for us Thompson's...
On the drive home we stopped in Pendleton, OR and saw my good friend Shelly. Her parents were so nice and let us stay at their beautiful house over night. This is wicked-awesome Shelly and her super darling little boy Tate! He is too cute...she is holding Tyler. That about sums up our super fun summer trip to Utah! Maybe in a month or two when I get around to blogging again I can tell you about Halloween...Thanksgiving...maybe even Christmas...yikes!

Shafer Fam Vaca...uh, last July

Well, this is old. I still wanted to post pictures from it though. Last July the Shafer Fam had a vacation together in Gleneden, OR! It was so much fun. We started it out with Tyler's baby blessing. We were so grateful to all those who came, especially Joel's parents, who had just been here and came for just the weekend. It was great though.
I'm not going to write a lot, just let you enjoy all the pictures. To sum up...we played at the beach. Went to the Newport Aquarium. Played some Wii. When we got back the guys went to the Ape Caves and did some exploring...even through the unkown. We just had so much fun being together. Maybe I'll write a little at the end...you know...to sign off...


sweet Tyler


Mason has sand all over his face. Sick.
Doug made a serpent in the sand...what a nut!











I love this last picture! Is Oliver just so darling!? Look at those eyes, just a ginormous (how do you spell that?) lovebug! I could just eat him up! The kids just love to be together and they play so well together. We really had so much fun and miss everyone so much! Good times!!

MIA...

Man, have I been failing in the blogging business or what...sorry...we are still alive...and due to my OCD, you are only getting a few pictures from last May.
Everything has to be done in order. Tyler looks nothing like these pictures anymore. He has grown out of that newborn look. How I miss him being a tiny little baby. These are pictures from when he was between a week to three weeks old. It's so weird how fast time goes by...
Carter and Mason have been so good to their new brother. Carter is always making sure we haven't forgotten him or left him behind and Mason just smothers him with love, literally! Actually, it's kind of funny, but Mason loves to smell Tyler. He sticks his nose on Tyler and sniffs. He's a nut.
My brother Ben and his family came for a week shortly after Tyler was born and the kids had so much fun together. We were very grateful to Whitney who single-handedly took care of Tyler's chord. It was sick, but Whit was brave.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Tyler. My babies all look like little snapping turtles when they are brand new. I love it! It makes me sad when they grow out of that look.
Joel's parents came to see us as well. I would have posted the picture of all of us together... but, hmmm, Mason was flipping out, Carter was annoyed to have to stand for a picture, and I still looked about 6 months pregnant. I thought this picture of them was great though! We were so grateful to have them come and be with us. We always love their visits.
You should see what Tyler looks like now...he's pretty cute, but then again, I'm his mom. If I ever get around to blogging again, maybe you could see some pics from our Shafer gathering and our July Utah trip. Good times. I have to admit, part of my lack of blogging is because we finally got a digital camera and I don't know how to get the pictures on my blog from my camera...I know, I'm way behind...no worries, I'll learn. I have to go to bed...my head is splitting!

A New Baby!

Hi Everyone. We would like to introduce you to Tyler Spry Thompson*: the newest member of the Thompson Family. He came Monday, May 11th at 3:15pm weighing in at 8 lbs 6 oz and measuring 20 inches in length. He also has a surprisingly large amount of hair (for our kids anyway). Kadi is doing well. She went into labor Sunday evening at around midnight and we arrived at the hospital in Vancouver, WA at 5:30am. 3/4 of the laboring at the hospital was pleasant and easy going (epidural), but the last 1/4 made this probably the most difficult Thompson delivery (no more epidural...none). Looks like we have another stubborn kid...he wouldn't come out and was even sideways when he did finally do it. Kadi did an amazing job. I compared it to her finishing her own marathon. We're excited to get to know this guy and have him in our family.
*name possibly subject to change

A little Easterness...

This Easter was a little quieter than we have had...we are usually in Utah with all the Thompson cousins, but this year we missed out. We took our trip earlier due to Joel's school schedule, anyway...we had a good time with just us...and Grandma and Grandpa.
We hid Easter eggs around the house and the kids had fun searching for them. Once Mason discovered what was inside the eggs he was no longer interested in finding them, just opening the eggs he had to eat all the treats. It was a cold day as you can see...overcast and cold.
Sunday the boys wore their new Easter outfits. Thank you Nini! They look so handsome. They have darling plaid shorts to wear with it, but it was too cold that day. I'll have to post another picture when it's warmer and they can wear the complete outfit...I know, I'm really the only one who cares, but still. Anyway, I can't believe how big our kids are getting...even Mason who still seems so small to me, is getting to be such a big kid. My how time flies. Hope you all had a great Easter!

Spring Break!

We just had the most fun trip! We went to North Carolina and Virginia for Spring break! First
we went to Raleigh, North Carolina to visit Joel's brother Connor and his family. North Carolina was beautiful.
The weather was perfect. It was sunny and warm the whole time. The kids seriously had so much fun together.
Mason and Ashlyn had a great time together...they were good buds. Carter was so happy to have Dylan to play with. Cute little Corbin did a great job of keeping up with the older kids. I can't believe how big Corbin has gotten. Connor and Michal really live in a beautiful area. They took us to two different parks that were super cool. Joel got to play some tennis. We have missed their family and it was so much fun to be with them.
Connor and Michal were nice enough to let us borrow one of their cars and we drove up to Richmond(actually Henrico), Virginia to visit with my brother Doug and his wife, Jackie. It was so much fun to see them. We got to go to Doug's school Virginia Commonwealth where he is studying to be a dentist. It was cool to see where he's at and a little bit of what he does. I think he looks like he'll make a great dentist. They took us to an animal park...Maymount Park(or something like that) and we drove around Richmond a bit.
The kids had so much fun with Uncle Doug and Aunt Jackie. They loved all the attention...Carter especially loved playing Mariokart with Uncle Doug. Joel and I really loved the area. It is so pretty. We went to eat at Five Guys...which is a great burger place there. They took such good care of us and we loved seeing their home and area and meeting their awesome friends. Hopefully no one was too bugged with me and my slowness...one downside to traveling while
pregnant I guess is swelling...I don't know, I've never swollen before...it wasn't fun or funny. I wish we would have gotten some video
of these guys trying to get up into this tree. It was hilarious...seriously. After a quick weekend with Doug, we drove
back down to Raleigh for a couple more fun days with Connor's fam. They have this super-cool trail right by their house and the kids
had fun riding bikes and throwing rocks in the creek. It was seriously such a fun trip. We were taken such good care of by everyone. We hope we get to go back and visit again soon...we loved the area, but especially the company. We are already missing everyone. The rest of the Thompson family is going to North Carolina in the next couple of weeks. We are sad that we won't get to see everyone, but we were grateful that we got to see Connor's fam and Doug and Jackie! We hope the rest of the Thompsons have an awesome time!
Though the travel days were long it was so worth it. Our boys are pretty good travelers. They did get a little restless at the end of some of the flights, but for the most part they were great. We didn't even have any problems adjusting to the time change! This is what my boys looked like on the last flight...sweet huh! Sadly there isn't much lap left for them. I would say that was the worst part about the traveling...me...being over 7 months pregnant...