California in the Winter

We were able to travel out to grandma and grandpa Bedke's house this past month. It was a lot of fun. The weather was really nice compared to the cold cold weather we are used to in Indiana. The best part about traveling out there was that all of the Bedke brothers and sisters were able to be there. At one point everyone in the Dave Bedke family was there, except Nathan Jones. We missed him a whole bunch but got to see him on the webcam later on in the week. Hopefully everyone can get together soon enough. All of the kids had so much fun. We would put the babies down for the night and then play games and tell old stories about each other. It was fun to learn so many different and strange things about each other during the wee hours of the night. Many of us went to bed with our cheeks and stomachs hurting because we had been laughing so much. Neil says that he learned more about my family in those couple of days than he had learned in the three years that we have been married. That just makes me laugh! We video taped a game so that mom and dad would be able to see what fun they missed out on while they were on their cruise. They say that the next cruise is in 2011 so all of us kids have put that on our calendars and are planning to crash at mom and dad's house again!
Once grandma and grandpa got home we had so much more fun. Standing on grandpa's hands was a favorite for everyone!

Probably the funniest part of the trip was our idea to get a picture taken of all of the grandchildren. I think our goal ws right on: get a picture where everyone isn't screaming. We didn't care if any of them were smiling, we just wanted them to all be looking at the camera at the same time! I think they did a pretty good job. The lady taking the pictures said "I've done seven adults at once and that was a feat, but I would have to say that seven children under 3 is a bit more difficult" We appreciate all of the work that went in to the pictures. The kids are cute enough to make any picture cute by just being in it!

Chelsea, Christopher, and Andrew were so good and took the boys (Blake and Brendan) out to feed the horses each morning that we were there and the boys were awake when it was time. They fed horses and picked oranges even before they changed out of their pajamas. I think they thought they were in heaven.

Brendan fell in love with Amber and her seven brand new puppies!

These three older boys had so much fun together. We made teddybear cookies for Family Night with them. They had fun rolling out the dough, cutting the cookies, and then decorating them with frosting. Oh yeah...they liked eating them too! Don't worry Kaleb, you aren't too far behind these boys. It won't be too long before you're running around and making lots of noise with them. Eliza had fun with Anna. They helped each other get a couple of bumps on the head.


Toy Story...need I say more?

And the grand finale...and I might get in trouble for posting this: