Family + Sun + Lake = A Ball Family Reunion!

 

We just got back from our second family reunion of the summer!!  This time it was my mom's side of the family and we went to Bear Lake and stayed at this HUGE house that fit all 59 of us comfortably!!  (well except the teenagers, we made them sleep outside in tents!)  It had a huge game room, a 'bar' room that was stocked with every kind of soda pop you could think of, 2 large hot tubs, 10 bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, billiard/TV room, 3 refrigerators, 5 ovens, etc., etc., etc.!  As expected, we had a jam-packed weekend and really enjoyed seeing everyone.  We missed those who weren't able to make it this time.  The best part about the whole trip was watching my kids play with their cousins.  I don't think they even knew Dan or I existed that week because they spent every waking hour playing with cousins and enjoying the lake.  We played hard, got lots of sun, and now we are ready to sleep soundly in our own beds!  I am so lucky to have such an awesome family! 

 

We had a talent night and here are some pictures I snapped.  The top pictures are of the guys doing their synchronized swimming routine!  It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen, I wish I had a video of it!  We had all kinds of so-called 'talents', I even did one with Tawni and Ashley and it was a hit!!  We also had a karaoke party in the soda bar, that's always fun!

 

And of course, what's a Ball reunion without the lake!?!  We spent a couple of days enjoying the sand, sun, clear water, and ski boats!  We all came back with a healthy dose of Vitamin D!

On our way out of town, we stopped at the Logan Temple.  It is amazingly beautiful!  The kids all thought it was a castle, and Olivia thought she should live there, because she's a princess, of course!

(Just click on the collages to see the pictures enlarged)

We Made it!

Well we made it to Boise, and have been busy busy!  It's really late, and I'm super tired from lack of sleep all week, but I wanted to post a few pictures of our first holiday in our new place.  The neighborhood we moved to has a beautiful club house with a pool, park and tennis courts and we found ourselves taking full advantage of it our first day here!  It's hard to justify unpacking when the sun is shining and you can look our the window and see the pool house!  I'll get to it eventually right?!  We had an awesome night on the 4th.  What's better than spending the night with family, lighting fireworks, and living in America?!  Hope everyone had a great 4th of July! (I'll post some pictures of our house when I get all these boxes out of here!)

This is the life!

This was the highlight of the swimming day!  The wall to jump off!

Jack loves his Uncle Jess

KJ has really gotten good at swimming this year, it'll be so nice to be able to go to the pool whenever we want now.

I LOVE this picture!  

Watching the fireworks in the front yard of my parent's house.  Their neighborhood goes CRAZY with fireworks, it was amazing.  I'm talking professional fireworks, not the wimpy ones I bought from a TNT stand!

Livie loved it!

My camera wouldn't focus on the big fireworks, so I didn't get to snap any pictures, but this one is far better in my opinion!

Yes, this is one of my 'wimpy' ones!  But the kids still loved them!

And I had to add this one because it was my last night out before the move and also my birthday night.  I went to dinner with Dan and then I went to get milk shakes with a couple of girl friends.  It was a lot of fun, as always with those ladies.  I'll miss you guys. :(

"Parting is such sweet sorrow" ~William Shakespeare

"For everything you have missed, you have gained something else, and for everything you gain, you lose something else".Ralph Waldo Emerson

This post is definitely bitter sweet for me.  As most of you know, we are ready to take a new path in our lives and we have decided that we are supposed to be in Boise.  We've been away from family for far too long and we are ready to reunite.  Whenever we are over there, the kids really have the best time playing with all their cousins and getting spoiled rotten by their Ninny and Papa and their Aunts and Uncle.  We're taking a plunge and hoping that everything else falls in to place!  That is the 'sweet' part.  The 'bitter' part is that we are leaving some really great friends behind and we will miss them dearly.  We've been here for over 7 years now and have made some really great memories with some of the best people around, but as the great Walt Disney once said, "We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."  

We just hope that we'll still get to see everyone every now and then!!  (We love company, just remember that!)

Some really dear friends of ours were kind enough to throw us a 'going away' party and here are some pictures we snapped!

   

KJ's had a fun time growing up with all these kids....he's quite the ladies man!! 

I love these women!  And Alex, I'll miss our laugh fests (I'll turn up Mika and think of you!)

My friends know me very well to send me parting with LeCakery cupcakes and anything that has to do with Halloween and Candy Corn!

This is a sign someone made me to put in my new front yard! I love it!  And I'll be visiting often!

Once a week we get together for Baseball night and all the kids have a blast playing with each other!  This is the kid 'baseball gang'!  I took this picture tonight so we can always remember these fun moments with some of our favorite people. 

"Good-Bye Bend, Hello Boise!"

 PS- To any of Dan's patients who might be reading this...no need to fear, he's sticking around and will still be working here!!

IRONMAN #1581 & reunion!

I have to brag about my Dad a little bit for this post because I am so proud of him!  Last Sunday (Father's Day) my Dad competed in the Coeurd'Alene IRONMAN and we all went up to watch him.  All I can really say about the whole thing was that it was so awesome and inspiring.  All he wanted to do is finish it, and he DID!!!  He actually did much better than he even hoped for.  We were all so worried about him because before the competition he had a bone in his foot and a muscle in his neck that were both bothering him.  We got there at about 6:30 am so that we could be there when they shot the start gun at 7:00.  It was absolutely crazy downtown with tens of thousands of people from all around the world, loud music and speakers, but there was a certain buzz in the air and everyone was all pumped to be there cheering on the competitors.  I personally, don't know how it is even physically possible to do this race.  When the gun went off, it was a mad dash of 3,000 people to get in the water and all you could really see was a mist up and down the water course from all the swimmers.  The swim portion is 2.4 miles.  It looked like the course was never ending, I can't imagine what it looked like from the water!  That is a long time in the cold lake water.  Dad swam it in 1 hour and 35 minutes.  We saw him get out of the water with a smile on his face and we knew that he was feeling okay.  We ran to the transition tent to watch him get all ready for the next leg of the race which was the bike, the longest part of the race.  We cheered him on as he got on his bike and rode away for his LONG bike ride all over town and up in to the country hills.  The Bike portion was 112 miles, and he did this in 6 hours and 48 minutes.  (Can you imagine being on a bike for that long?!  That's how long it takes me to drive to CDA from Bend)  It was fun going to different points along the race path and to be there cheering him on, my kids loved it!  He got back to the transition tent and then still had to have enough energy to run the 26.2 marathon.  It was crazy watching some of the competitors get off their bikes and their legs just gave out from under them from riding so long.  I couldn't help but get teary eyed for the ones who just couldn't go on or the ones who didn't qualify on time and had to drop out.  (there were 2,153 finishers)  It began to rain pretty hard for the run portion and it was getting down into to the cold 50's.  This part of the race is where we got to see the most of him.  Our whole Smidt family clan stood on a bridge to watch the run and so we got to see him go under the bridge 4 times and we drove the car to certain points along the course to cheer him on!  After he passed the bridge the last time, we all hopped in our cars and drove down to the finish line and I think we all had tears in our eyes when we saw him cross the finish line after 14 hours and 11 minutes of hard core endurance!  What an accomplishment after working hard for this for a solid year.  I am so proud of my papa.  Now he can check this off his 'Bucket List'!  

Dan had to try the finish line for himself! 

What a stud!  He's a grandpa to 5 and he still beat some of the young guys!

Hugging his mom! 

(This is how we found him after the race!  Getting foot rubs by the family.  He wasn't complaining!)

Family came from all over the country to watch him in the IRONMAN and so we had a family reunion the week after the race.  It was fun to see cousins from all over that we really don't get to see very often.  During the week we had family pictures, spent a day at the beach/park, played Lacrosse, hiked Tubbs Hill and then swam in the lake, went swimming in Nana's pool, had game nights, celebrated my birthday, went shopping, had a skit night, and had fun just hanging out with all the people we love most.  I am completely exhausted, but had such a fun and memorable week.  

We all jumped in the lake after our hike.

Brian entertained us in the evenings in his famous 'Blue Sweater'!  He's single ladies....!

My cousin Ryan and I share the same Birthday, so we got spoiled one night together!

Family Picture with Nana and Pops.

KJ loved spending time with his cousins Jayden and Spencer

cousin sword fights