Hukill's Hunks and Hunnies

First off, Hukill is pronounced hue-kull. Not that it matters since I one of the easiest last names now, but either way, that is how you pronounce my maiden name. Back to the story.

Every year my Grandma Hukill has a grandma's camp where she takes all of the grandkids. It started when I was two (I am the oldest grandkid, and favorite, by nine minutes). There are now 32 grandkids and great-grandkids. Luckily we don't all go every year, but this year was a bit different. My grandma wanted a family picture so almost everyone came out of California and Salt Lake. There was a total of 42 of us, I believe. It was crazy to get a family picture and you can hardly see anyone's faces because we were so large, but it was still fun!

We then went to my grandma's and she made breakfast for all of us. Now one thing you do have to know. Us Hukill's are major breakfast eaters. I believe that my dad flipped over 150 pancakes, and then there was bacon and sausage and people would have kept on eating if they hadn't shut the kitchen down. One of my cousins seriously ate 10 pancakes. He is just lucky he plays baseball and works out! It was crazy but a ton of fun. Thanks G-ma for feeding us!

Some of the family
My cute cousin Drew (can you tell it was a bright sunny day?!)
"Luke" and Troy
Jonathan and Bree
(he is the one that ate 10 pancakes)

Lake Powell numero dos!

We ventured out to Lake Powell this past week, but this time it was with my family. Unfortunately we had to bring the kids (just kidding). It was a lot of fun, but at night it was bloddy hot! My G's were sticking to me like nobody's business and when Makenna had fallen off her bed for the 15th time, I went to move her and she was DRENCHED in sweat! Poor little thing. I am talking about myself, not Makenna. :) I did survive though. It was fairly relaxing since I had my nannies there to take care of my kids for me (thanks Mom, Dad and Bree!) so I actually got to read a few pages of my book and take two naps while I was there!!!

I am so glad that we were able to go. I love out ghetto houseboat excluding the nasty bathroom. But then again, at least I am lucky enough to have a bathroom to go potty in. Who cares if the freezer NEVER works and that only one engine worked. It doesn't matter if you can hijack the boat right out of the slip because the key is in the ignition and the glass door "handle" (which is duct tape) is broken. At least there is "air conditioning" and lights. Makenna found the lake to be a perfect bathroom for her and let everyone know that that is where she went pee. It was funny.

I think Makenna's favorite part of Lake Powell was that I let her skinny dip for a minute. I was giving her a bath in the clean lake and so I would soap her up and let her jump in. She LOVED it. But then again, who doesn't love skinny dipping! :) She swam all day long for the three days we were there. She loved jumping off the back of the boat, and also tubed and jumped off the top of the houseboat! She is a brave little girl.

Gavin was only worried about three things at the lake. Cookies, juice, and sand. He is a smart little fart and would go ask different people for cookies, so he got them ALL DAY LONG. At one point, he had three in his hands. I think he only ended up with four new bruises on his head and no scratches so he did pretty good for himself this trip. He loved playing in the sand. We set an umbrella up for him, and he sat under it and dug in the sand for hours. It was really cute.

Brent didn't get any concussions this go around and got LOOOOONG naps on the beach with Gavin. Since it was so hot in the cabin of the boat, Brent had Gavin sleep on his chest for his naps on the beach under a canopy. It looked very uncomfortable, but they both slept for two hours, so it couldn't have been that bad (maybe that is why Brent had a permanent kinked neck).

Thanks Mom, Dad and Grandpa for putting the trip on! It was a ton of fun and can't wait to do it next year!

Heading out to the lake

Dinner in Page

My Dad and me
Kenna jumping off the houseboat
Naptime
Hiding in the closet
Naptime again
Swimming (obviously)
He has three cookies in his hands
Heading home
Still heading home

Can we say dirty?!

The Martin Family reunion was this weekend and it was a lot of fun!

It started on Thursday up in Pine Valley and ended on Sunday. Like I said, it was fun but man was it DIRTY! And it didn't help that I hadn't showered since WEDNESDAY! That is right. I went FIVE days without showering. I think my hair started forming dreads (even though I did comb it), I could almost braid my leg hair, and the bottom of my feet are still black (but they always seem to be black). Either way, it was fun!

We stopped in Veyo to eat dinner, but there was only a one man show up at John's Gourmet Cafe, so we went to the Red Dog Cafe in Dammeron Valley, and it was GOOOOD!!! We got to PV about 6:30 and it was roughly 100 degrees still I think. We set up our trailer and chilled the rest of the night. My kids were bouncing off the freaking tent trailer walls by 10:30 that night. We had to throw them in the car to get them to sleep. They FINALY fell asleep and on to Friday!

Friday we just hung out at camp the whole day. We did drive to the general store to buy a $1.50 20 oz. Diet Pepsi but it was worth it! :) Gavin ate a lot of dirt, Kenna played in the river, and we sat around a lot and tried to relax!!! We had to cook dinner that night and made some yummy dutch oven pizza! I then gave my kids bucket baths in the freezing spicket and got them ready for bed! Luckily my kids fell asleep REALLY fast that night so I got to play cards the rest of the night with my sis-in-laws which was fun once I started winning :)

Saturday we headed down to Gunlock Resevoir and got to go on the lake thanks to Brian and Jamie. We ate pancake chicken and dutch oven potatoes that night and then played more cards while it sprinkled over our whole camp. (By the way, Veyo's gas station has delicious ice cream)

Sunday we ate, packed up and left! Thanks Keng & Gloria for the fun trip!!!

Girls Night with Annie

Kenna and I had a girls night out with all the ladies on my side of the family! It was a lot of fun. We ate at the always fabulous Panda Express for dinner, followed by store bought candy for dessert, and then off to the play at Tuachan. We got there at 7:30 thinking it started at 8:00, but no, it was 8:30 so we had to keep the girls (Kenna and Camryn) entertained for an hour before the play started.

By the time it had started, most of our treats were gone, Makenna had changed seats three times and spilled a 32 oz. Diet Pepsi. The good news is, she sat the rest of the play and LOVED it! Her and Camryn have been singing, acting, and dancing to Annie for the past week now. They switch off being Miss Hannigan and Annie. They are so cute and I'm glad she loved it, which made me love it even more!

Getting ready for the night

Best friends!

Sandy and Annie

My little orphan

Freezing picnic

We had the annual Staheli Family picnic up at my Grandpa's farm this weekend. It was fun, but as usual the weather was very funky. In the past 26 years we have been doing this, I remember it being nice and warm, ummmmm..... probably four times. No joke. I swear it is always either, raining, snowing, just bitter cold, or so windy we are eating sand in our dutch oven potatoes instead of salt and pepper. It is always fun though and we are glad we get to do it.

This year was no exception with the weather. It was SO freaking cold. Gavin was in a sweatshirt and a heavy coat, Kenna was in her snowboarding coat and beanie and gloves, I was in a winter coat and Brent was in a jacket and froze his little tush off. We had a campfire and four canopy's to protect us from the rain. If it wasn't raining, it was windy and cold. It didn't stop the kids from having a blast and doing the Easter egg hunt. There were a lot of kids there and even more Easter eggs. I'm not sure how many eggs were hid (I don't think anyone did) but Makenna found 50 candy-filled eggs and Gavin had six. Almost all of the other kids had WAY more than 50 so they made out well. Thanks Grandpa for letting us come up there again!

Not "real" hikers

We are not the hiking type. We don't have Nalgene bottles, Teva's, granola or cargo pants (I think that is what hikers have and no offense if you have these items), but instead had cans of Diet Pepsi, flip flops, candy and jeans. Even though we don't fit the steriotypical hiker brand we thought it would be fun taking the kids hiking. Since we are blessed to live in a place with so many different hikes, we thought we would start easy and move our way up.

Our first hike was the Red Hill. I didn't know that hiking is what it was used for. Back in the day it was for the bucket run, senior sunrise, making out or bumper jumping. Either way, B and I decided that we would take the kids hiking. My parents had this old school backpack that they used when I was a toddler so I got to sport that sweet hunny around with Gavin. We had a picnic on the top of the rock and had a good time! Maybe we will try The Subway next week... Anyone care to join us?! :)

My Valentines Day

As I was blogging today, I realized that everyone wrote about their "love day". So I thought I would blog about mine! This is how it went. We were in Salt Lake City for my cousin's blessing.

1. Makenna and Gavin both woke up at 7:00.
2. I was STILL on my period. (first one in two years and it lasted 10 days! TMI, I know0
3. Went upstairs (we were in SLC) and got my kids breakfast.
4. Brent was on the phone for probably 3 hours.
5. I went shopping with the other 1,000 people in the little store for four freaking hours. Three which were in traffic.
6. Got ready to go eat dinner with my WHOLE family. Grandmas's, grandpas, aunts, uncles, parents, siblings, husband...
7. The orange chicken tasted like beef jerky.
8. Lost in Phase 10. (I hate losing)
9. Went to bed! *wink wink nudge nudge* HAHA! :)

Exciting right?!

Draper Temple

We went up to SLC this past weekend to go to my cousin's blessing so while we were up there, we thought we would take Makenna to the Draper Temple open house so her and Camryn could "get married". They decided that they would get married to each other since they couldn't find Prince Edward. We got to ride a bus, go through the temple and they even had refreshments after! It was a pretty neat experience to be able to take her through the temple.

Turkey Day is over

Well, as all of you know, Thanksgiving has been over for a week now and the Christmas spirit is in full bloom. I thought I would catch up on how fun our Thanksgiving was!

First off, I love the rain so I was stoked that we woke up and it was dreary! I went to Wal-Mart with Makenna to get a few items and surprisingly it wasn't packed at all. I should have done my Black Friday shopping on Thursday and then taking my receipt in and got discounts the next day! :) Back to Thanksgiving.

We headed to Grandma Staheli's house for our first meal. It was at 3:00 and we ate about 3:15! That is pretty dang good timing for Staheli's. My aunt Janalyn made a beautiful and delicious turkey, and my grandma made the rest of the food! It was so dang good. By the end of pie, Gavin could barely scoot around he was so full. And that is not an exaggeration. He was moving SO SLOW! It was so cute. We let our food settle and then headed to Grandma Martin's for the next meal. They were all done with eating by the time we got there but we got the dessert (it's the best part anyway) and pigged out once again. We hung out until the kids started having melt downs and then packed up and left! I went to a movie with my family while Brent went home with the kids and started putting up Christmas lights. I saw Four Christmases and it was a pretty funny movie! I would recommend it to all. I went home and tried to work off my food and junk that I ate and then went to bed full nice, plump and full! Here are some pictures to enjoy (for all those (most likely three people) that are still reading this novel).

Dora Saves the Snow Princess

SO HAPPY!

Well, it has finally come and pass. Dora Snow Princess has aired! Makenna has been counting down since September for it, and she has finally watched it! I had to keep reassuring her that it would be on after Halloween and then when she figured out that Halloween had passed, she didn't understand she had to wait three more days for it. Monday did come and now she has watched it and is in bed! It was so cute to see her get all ready for it. She grabbed her blanket, Diego pillow and Dora doll, had me grab my pillow and blanket and Brent grab his and we layed on the floor to watch it! The only words she said during it was "Daddy wake up! Don't fall asleep." It was pretty funny. Either way, I'm sure it will be the only thing on our TV for awhile but thats OK! Thank goodness it is over though. (for the night at least)Gearing up for the big show

Way into the show

LAS VEGAS IN APRIL!

OK, I know that this post is a few months past due, but our scanner is FINALLY working so I had to get this picture on! EVERY single time I look at it, I laugh my butt off! I think it is so DANG funny!

Back in April, my family went down to Las Vegas for one last little trip before my brother headed off on his mission. We rode a few roller coasters and MY favorite one was "Big Shot" which is the one that shoots straight up off the Stratosphere. I believe the sign said it was 1,016 feet up. Brent is not so fond of heights, and he claims he had a sinus infection that made him not want to go even more, but we finally coaxed him to get on the ride. He was next to some random guy and kept saying "I think I'm going to throw up." I think the dude was pretty scared he was. He kind of looked like it but I couldn't stop laughing. So they don't really tell you when they are going to launch you up, but you knew it from the words coming out of Brent's mouth. Luckily the guy didn't get offended and I thought I was going to throw up because I was laughing so freaking hard. He was screaming like a little girl (no joke) and saying some words I won't repeat. HIL-ARE-I-OUS! This picture was taken before the words started flying.

Martin Family Reunion

25 people.
A cabin cabin.
Lumpy beds.
Bathroom that smelt like butt the whole time.
DELICIOUS FOOD!
Too much junk...
Guitar Hero.
A great time!
Enough said!

My favorite place on Earth!

We went to Lake Powell last week and had a BLAST! I'm so sad that we are back. I absolutely love Powell. I love the anticipation of gettng there, the drive, the smell (except the bathroom), the sun... everything! I could ride on the ski boat all day long (and did before I had children to worry about). I'll even hold the flag all day (as long as my dad is driving) just so I can stay on it. I have gone every summer since I was two and dream about it on a regular basis (seriously)! Kenna loves it too. We usually stay on the houseboat, but since there were 40 of us this year we decided to hotel it and let me tell you, that is the way to go! I loved being able to organize my bags at night (I know I'm weird), clean Gavin's bottle, and not worry about bats flying in my hair. I didn't even care that I got to shower and shave my pits (it was wonderful though), but we were all refreshed to go to the boat the next mornng. I could have stayed for three weeks doing it that way (if I didn't have to pay for the hotel!) Makenna loved the tube, jumping off the houseboat, swimming and Faithe! She followed my 12 year old cousin around the whole time! She was really patient with Kenna though so it was fun! Gavin slept about 1 hour each day and that was it, but he barely made a peep! He was so good! Brent fished a lot and finally got to relax a little bit, and I got to hang out and eat all the junk my mom brought and drink Diet Pepsi! It was so fun and I can't wait until we get to go back! Enjoy the pictures!

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