We did a lot of swimming this summer and spent a lot of time with cousins!
Ethan learned to dive and went off the high dive for the first time.
Ireland and cousin Savannah
Ethan, Savannah and Matt
Cousin McKenzie made a slip and slide and entertained the crew. (Ryan, Ireland, Ethan, Cy and Elle)
Love this picture of Caleb and Ethan
The crew plus cousin Emma
Ireland and cousin Avery 
We went to Iceberg for a shake at Ireland's request. I ordered 2 mini shakes for the 4 kids to split. (Ryan and Caleb are usually good with just a few bites of ice cream.) Here's the mini size... 
I said to the cashier, "Are you sure these are minis??"... Yes, he was sure.
Notice how you can barely see Ethan around the "mini" shake. Is it a wonder many Americans are fat??
Yes we are 38 years old! I can't hardly believe it! I still feel like I'm 20 something! We had a great time at my reunion. Here are my friends from high school that I still see regularly. Don't they all look great? I was impressed that most people looked pretty good and have aged nicely.
In the picture above...me, Shalmarie, Laura, Tricia, Heidi and Nicki
The next night we went to Scott's 20 year reunion. It was a lot of fun too. Pictured above is Scott's long time friend who lived right across the street, Dorian (and wife Stephanie) and another long time friend, Dave and his wife.
Here are some of Scott's friends. I think they went to school together from elementary on.
Here is Scott and my mom (our realtor) at the house we are closing on in 2 weeks. Let's hope all goes well. We haven't had the best of luck with the house hunt, but after 10 offers and several months of looking, we finally found the house we love.
It's been a busy summer!! My blogging has been scarce. Here are lots of pictures of what we've been up to in June and July. We've had a great summer so far...
We hiked the "Y". Here's Ryan on the "Y".
Scott and Caleb on the "Y".
Ethan was a trooper. He hiked all the way up without complaining (I think that's a first). Ryan and Caleb had the exhausting job of being carried all the way up.
Here's the muscle man that carried Ryan and Caleb up the mountain.
Little Ry Ry looking very innocent.
Ethan flexing his muscles--they are so big, I couldn't fit them into the picture.
Chad and Bren blessed their baby Olivia while they were out in Utah. Ireland couldn't get enough of baby Olivia. She is a sweet and easy baby! We wanted to kidnap her.
Ireland and Savannah--two peas in a pod.
Scott, Ryan and Caleb (and Lance) in Durango, Colorado for our family vacation.
Family picture by the lake where we stayed just outside of Durango.
Handsome Ry Ry with two big mosquito bites that caused his head and eye to swell.
Ireland and Ethan
Ryan made friends with a little wood man in Purgatory. (Lauren in the back)
Ireland and Ethan on the bungy trampoline in Purgatory (this place reminded me of Park City--we went on an Alpine Slide there too)
The family in Mesa Verde checking out the Indian ruins. Lance and Steph got everyone matching shirts in the flattering color of bright mustard. There was about 35 of us wearing this shirt that day. When the Hackings went on trips long ago, they wore similar shirts so Doug and Janet could keep track of all of them. So we had to keep the tradition alive.
Ryan, Scott and Caleb at Ireland and Savannah's birthday party.
The cutie birthday girls and Ryan. They turned 9 a week apart.
Another update...we are still in limbo waiting for our house to close. We have been having a great time in Utah. The kids LOVE their cousins, aunts and uncles and grandparents and have been spoiled seeing them every day, vacationing with them, going to movies, swimming and sleep-overs. I will post pictures soon!
Just a little update...
Being the creature of structure that I am, I am a little out of sorts right now. We are in the midst of getting ready to move in 2 weeks so we sold most of our furniture and next week we are loading the truck with what's left. I feel like we've been in the process of moving for the past 6 months. January we got our house ready to sell. We sold it in February. Moved into a rental house in March. Went to Utah to find a house in April. Went to find a house in May. Moving in June. Hopefully we'll find a house in July and be in it in August. I don't ever want to move again. Luckily the kids have been great and Scott is worry free. If I could just sleep at night instead of mulling over the houses on the market, life would be better. We'll keep you updated.
Here's the skinny on the house situation...we are 0 for 6. Yes, we've made 6 offers and had no luck! The housing market is ridiculous right now.
House #1--great house, near train tracks that haven't been used in years, found out city is going to revitalize the tracks to use for the Trax system. We pulled out of that offer
House #2--owners decided to rent it instead of sell it and hope the market gets better next year so they can sell it for more
House #3--waited 1 month to find out there was a lien on it that can not be taken off for some reason, so it cannot be sold. Note: It was built at the end of 2007 and has never been lived in
House #4--next door to house #3, has been sitting unoccupied since 2007, found out our offer was accepted while I was on the runway flying to Utah to look at houses again because nothing was working out. Pulled out of the offer because after looking at houses again we realized it was priced too high for the market
House #5--looked like we were going to get an acceptance then they decided to try to refinance.
House #6--Bank owned, won't take anything less than what is owed even though the realtor said the appraisal won't support the amount owed.
I think we are in the lead for the worst luck buying a house. Actually, it seems lots of people are in the same boat. The market is crazy. Good thing we have a couple of tents and some sleeping bags.
I think the plan now is to rent for a month and try again once we are out in Utah to find a house before school starts. I'll keep you updated.
Caleb, Ryan and Alyssa's birthday party...
Birthday party at Grandma and Grandpa Hackings with lots of cousins...
slightly less extravagant cake...
All tuckered out and sleeping with his sword (just in case).
Fun at the zoo with the Hancey's...
Ryan brought home some of his art work from preschool today. One of the items was particularly funny. It was a picture of Scott, me and Ryan and what he had said about us (the teacher wrote out what he said). Here it is...
My mommy's name is Rain, but I call her Mom. She has long, blackish hair and blue eyes. She wears glasses and ladies skirts. She cooks chocolate chip cookies; that is her favorite thing to eat and mine too! Mommy works at my house; she cleans dishes. Mommy plays games with me and she runs for exercise. Her favorite TV show is "Tom and Jerry". The best thing about my mommy is that she speaks her own secret language.
My dad's name is Ryan, but I call him Daddy. He has longish brown hair with red eyes. He's 8 big--all the way up and he's got muscles! He wears work clothes because he works at an office way up on a hill in the woods. He drives cars. Daddy cooks cookies and likes to eat cheese. He lifts weights and he runs; sometimes he gets me and we fall down. His favorite TV show is "Tom and Jerry". We like to play checkers and ride bikes and play with the remote control rocket ship. The best thing about my daddy is when he flies in the air!
Scott and I had a good laugh about that. My favorite part is that I wear glasses and ladies skirts and I'm pretty sure we don't even own a checkers game. Funny!
By the way, still waiting to hear on getting the house we want. We should know soon. I will post pictures of April events soon.
For those who check this blog regularly (the 2 of you), sorry about the lack of posts! It’s been a busy past couple of weeks! We settled into the house we are renting and then left for Utah for 10 days. We were welcomed into Utah by New York’s weather! It snowed, was freezing cold, and there was lots of whipping wind, almost the whole time we were there. Weather aside, it was so great to see family from both sides and the kids loved playing with their cousins. Cy and Ethan and Savannah and Ireland were inseparable. Ryan has talked non-stop about Emma and Micah. It felt like home. We’ve loved living in Vermont and New York, but Utah is home to us. We are so excited to move back. With that said, the house hunt was not fun. The house prices are pretty great, but the hassle of dealing with all the short sales, and bank owned homes is not great. A lot of red tape and waiting. We came back to New York without knowing if we’d have a house to move into in a couple of months. We’ll keep you posted.
By the way, our USB port is malfunctioning so I’ll have to post pictures later.
I forgot to get all my email addresses off my email site before it was shut down. Too many things to remember when you move! Anyway, please email me at our new email address stentmd@gmail.com, so I have your email address.
Thank you!!
Our house sold very quickly so we have to move into a rental house for 3 months before we make the big move. The moving of stuff has gone well, but Scott and I are ready to sell the kids on ebay. Word to the wise...don't move if you have a 2 year old. Have I mentioned that Caleb is almost 2? He has been CRAZY! Scott has had to load stuff onto the trailer while holding Caleb, otherwise Caleb screams at the top of his lungs. He unloaded the trailer with Caleb in the back pack (more than once). It seems the chaos and lack of structure this week while moving has put Caleb over the edge. Ryan, Ireland and Ethan are slightly less crazy. Slightly. Here's a couple of pictures of them when they weren't acting crazy.
Ethan lost his two front teeth this past week. Why do kids look so adorable without any front teeth? I love it! Unfortunately the tooth fairy is a little retarded and forgot to come after the first tooth was lost. At about 2 am Ethan brought me the little baggy with his tooth in it and told me that the tooth fairy forgot him. I told him that the tooth fairy would surely bring him some money by morning. Luckily the tooth fairy did leave a pleuthera of coins by morning. A couple days later, Ethan lost the 2nd tooth and decided that he wanted to keep the tooth instead of get a bunch of coins. So the tooth fairy was off the hook. Good thing, because she's not so responsible. Well, the tooth ended up splitting in two (?) and Ethan no longer wanted it, so he put it under his pillow, and what do ya know, the tooth fairy didn't show. Ethan is not impressed with the tooth fairy that's for sure. I told him to give it another try tonight. Let's hope she will remember!
