Up Up and Away

My boys and their planes. Every chance that Jamie gets he goes out flying with his friends. It is great because they live in BC so it is always so much fun and he always takes two of the kids with him. This time Darien and Stefan went with him.
Stefan was so excited that the day before when he found out he was going he came into the kitchen and said to grandma "I need a suitcase for my plane ride" this kids is so darn cute.

Darien was excited because he got to fly the plane. I can see him and Jamie going together one day to get their pilots licenses together.

Stefan enjoyed it so much that he even fell asleep. So cute!! They flew to Chilliwack for lunch then just flew around for a while. A great afternoon for them all.

It Never Gets Old

Even though we are getting older and time passes it never gets old seeing these friends. I love the fact that even though we only get to see each other maybe once a year, we can get together and chat about where life is taking us. These are friends that will never be forgotten. Thanks ladies for another great night with some yummy food. Can't wait for next time.
P.S. keep up on the blogs. It is the best way to stay connected, along with a little bit of facebook. LOL

Othello Tunnels

Can you guess what we are doing? LOL Boys and their guns. All of them had one and off we went to fight the war or do some hunting depending on were their imaginations were taking them.
We made our way out to were the bus was being fixed in a hope that we would be able to take it, but it wasn't fixed yet and they still needed a couple of more hours so off we went to do some exploring. We made out way to the Othello Tunnels in Hope.

We didn't realize that they would be closed because it isn't open season yet, but really did we let that stop us. LOL No we found the way that everyone else uses. There were no signs that said do not enter there was only a fence. So we went around the fence. LOL

Once on the other side we walked through the four tunnels. The first one is the longest and darkest and the kids thought that was cool but a little scary.

The hike was amazing. It had been raining for a couple of days so the water was flowing really well.

These tunnels are where the old steam trains used to come when coming to the coast. It was so neat and you could still see the soot on the top of the tunnel.

It was a great hike and the cousins all really enjoyed playing and exploring together.

My boys were so excited when they found this tunnel and that it actually went in quit a ways. My boys went in and wished that they had a flash light. Darien went in the farthest and of course came out the wettest. Now all they talk about is going caving. I can honestly tell them that I will never do that. I am too chicken.

It was a great way to spend the day and we managed to take just enought time that when we got back to the bus we could take it to moms. What a great afternoon.

Party Animals

These kids love being in the water and what better place to go than to Grandma and Grandpa's hot tub.
The tub was a little too small for all 7 kids at once so they had to go in shifts.

Every night they had to go for a dip in the tub. LOL

Jamie Has Friends Too LOL

I am totally kidding. But it was great because Jamie go to visit with one of his best friends while we were home. Jamie and Bryce have been friends for at least 16 years. And now that Bryce has moved back to BC it means that we will be ablet to see him more often.

Darien and Bryce played a great game of Janga.

I will always be thankful to Bryce for sharing the gospel with Jamie. He really changed Jamie's life for the good. (that is what Jamie says)

Bowling With The Cousins

This was a fun night. We went bowling with Jamies brother and his kids. They all had so much fun.
I love this action shot. I am sure you can imagin the sound of the ball landing on the lane. LOL Yes it was loud.

Stefan's first time and he was hooked. Don't you just love the curly hair. (just like my dad)

One more action shot. I love the lean, hoping to control the ball with the way he leans and the hand it the back pocket. So very cute!!!

These were some very tired little kids by the time the evening was over. But they had a ton of fun and boy are they cute!!!

Our Adventure Begins!!!

We were going to leave Thurs. morning but after backing the bus up we decided why not leave Wed. night. So with the kids in their pj's we were off. They were all so excited about the trip and sleeping in the bus. It was great. They sat back and watched a movie and when it was over they were off to their bunks. LOL They slept so well and we continued to drive until Jamie got tired. We pulled over to a turn out shut off the bus, turned on the heat (we were in the mountains and it was a little chilly) and settled in for a good nights sleep. LOL
It was great. We woke up the next morning and the boys were still sleeping. Jamie climbed in the drivers seat and we were off again. The boys began to stagger out of bed for breakfast. We had cereal and juice without even stopping.

This was the best day of travelling. It was so comfortable and relaxing. Until........

we lost airpressure. Yes, it is a bus and it runs completely off airpressure. Without it we have no breaks and that is not a good thing. Jamie noticed that the pressure was going down and not coming back up so just before heading down the steepest part of the Coquihalla Freeway Jamie pulled into a turn out and boy are we thankful that we did. We were there for the next 4 hours. I wish that I had taken some pictures but unfortunately the stress of the situation was just too much. Put we did stop in a great place for the kids to play. They did some rock climbing and were able to stretch their legs. Thankfully, even without airpressure we still had eat, food to eat, place to go to the bathroom (very important to the only girl on the bus LOL) and movies to watch. Finally a tow truck showed up on to discover that he could pull a semi but not a bus so we had to wait for the next size up tow truck to come. LOL Yes we are a bus!!! Anyway, it took both trucks to hook us up and both to get us to the bottom of the hill and to a repair shop because of the size of our family we had to travel in different trucks.

We were taken to a barn. Yes, a barn where we met the biggest Red Neck ever and all his friends were red necks also. LOL They were great and out bus spend the next Four days in Hope BC. While we waited for it to be fixed.

Our journey didn't end there. We had to find a way to get to Langley to stay with my mom. Apparently we were all over the cb radios because it is not very often that you see a family of 6 stuck on the side of the road in a big purple bus. We had alot of truckers honking and waving at us and even a few road crews stopping to visit. LOL Any way we were going to rent a car and drive to my moms but a trucker stopped by the "Barn" and offered to take us in his truck to Aldergrove. So we did. We all piled in with three days worth of clothes and off we went. Finally arriving 8 hours after we broke down in Aldergrove. We were all so happy to get there. Jamie was a little stressed but we made it to where we were wanting to go. LOL just not the way we had planned. It just wouldn't be a Brown trip without a little bit of adventure.

Here we are in the back of the truck. All the kids fell asleep. So cute!!!

At the end of the day the kids had a great time and only remembered the adventure we had.

Brotherly Love

This is so typical of these two. Darien and Stefan have this great bond and they are always together. So cute!!!

Happy Birthday J

So while our husbands were away having a great time in New York City, watching college basketball. The wives decided to have a party and sleepover. We celebrated Miss. J'r birthday. The turned the big 2. So very cute!!!
The cake was awesome.

Big blow to get the two candles out.

Really could we get anymore kids. The answer is yes, but will there be more NO!!! LOL

Fun Outside

This really is my favorite time of the year. Just being outside without having to bundle up it great. My kids love to be outside and I love taking pictures of them. It just doesn't get any better than this!!!
Lets pull out all the toys. We were even getting things out to of the shed.

My little warm blooded man. Just had to take off his sweater. He figures that he is always hot. :)

This might be a scary sight but one day it will be a reality. They will be driving. LOL

Darien can't wait to drive. Infact he talks about it all the time. This is the closest he will get for a couple of years.

What A Beautiful Day!!!

This was by far the best day of the weekend. I can't tell you how special it was to see the joy on Keagan's face. This day was all about him and it was great.

There really are no words to describe the joy and love that I have for this little boy. He is making great choices in his life and he has a very special spirit about him. He is full of love for the gospel and his family. I am so thankful that I have the blog so that I can look back on these days and remember the special feeling that we had. The joy of watching Jamie baptize Keagan was wonderful. It never ceases to amaze me how far we have come over the years and all the blessings that we enjoy but the greats joy is seeing our children grow and the choices that they make. (At least for now the choices are good. LOL We will have to wait and see what the future holds) I wonder sometimes if Jamie saw this future when he was just newly baptised at the age of 19. Amazing how life changes!!!

I do know one thing for sure he wouldn't change anything and he knows that he has been very blessed. I love looking at family pictures and I look forward to seeing how those pictures change over time.

As always my mom is so supportive and made the journey out for this special day (sadly Jamie's mom was not able to be there but she was missed) My mom even gave a talk. Keagan was so excited when he received his first set of scriptures from my mom. It is tradition. :)

By pure chance this all happened at the same time that my brother and nephew were out visiting. It was great to have my big brother there.

After a wonderful morning it was time to head back to our house for some fun with family and friends. We truely are blessed to have super supportive friends. The Hansons even made the journey up to support Keagan. We had a real house full. There were 16 children and 9 adults.

Good food, good friends, good laughs. Really does life get any better thant that. :)

We celebrated Keagan and Cassies birthdays as they are only days apart.

Really this was a wonderful and busy weekend. When I think back on this day I can't help but smile thinking about how wonderful it was. Happy Birthday my wonderful boy. You bring so much joy into our lives. I look forward to watching you grow. I love you!!!

More Birthday Fun!!!

This was the big night for Keagan. I am really not sure what he was more excited about his birthday party, becoming a cub or being baptize. Either way this was an amazing weekend and so much fun.
This child of mine is one in a million. He has such a great personallity and I love him to pieces. I am happy to say that we are seeing the old Keagan coming back and I could not be happier. He is doing amazing. He is so handsome and I love this picture of him.
For our childrens 8th birthday we like to do something really fun as it is a big deal for them. So this year he chose the best thing ever. We rented out a gymnastics club for the night and it was so much fun. We had our dear friends and family come for a fun filled evening.

There wasn't a single child there that was bored. It was great because we have an in at this club so we were able to just have a free for all and play on every piece of equipment there.

It was even fun for the adults who got in on the action. Uncle Patrick is here showing us his great moves. It was so funny.
The kids and adults were having races to the foam pit. Uncle P and E managed to race but in the end the kids always won. I even attempted to do a front flip into the foam pit. I had no idea that it made you so dizy. LOL

Jamie and Uncle Keith having a ball. I think there was a little bit of pushing going on towards the end. LOL

Of course you can't have a party without a whole lot of yummy food and drinks.

Auntie Renea made the cake with lacrosse as a theme. It was delicious.

What a great evening. It was a late night but I would do it all again. I love it when everyone leaves with a smile on their face.