Rudd Family Reunion 2010

May 29th- June 5th

Outer Banks, NC

It was one awesome week! Every day was filled with playing on the beach, digging in the sand, splashing in the ocean, swimming in the pool, laying out in the sun, and hanging out with family! I couldn't have asked for more. Due to an overwhelmingly amount of pictures, I'll try to stick to the highlights. . .

This is the beach house we rented for the week- 8 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, and walking distance to the ocean!

Even though we had our own private beach area within walking distance, I'd still say the pool was a necessity- especially for those of us home in the afternoon with nappers.

The hot tub came in handy too- especially in the early mornings when the pool was still a little too chilly for our liking.

And at night when the guys needed to relax from a hard day of playing!

But the majority of fun was had on the beach! From morning runs, to surfing, kayaking, sand castle building, swimming, wave jumping, sea shell finding, and relaxing- we played hard the entire week!

Mmmmm..... who ever knew sand tasted so good!

Everyone was able to make it to the reunion expect for JoSue who was home on bed rest with triplets in her belly (you were greatly missed Jo)!

Well, she was kinda with us- via cell phone!

Clark and Roxy came up halfway through the week and helped to really get the party started!

Matching pajama party: This was taken way too late at night, but luckily we'd just had a hair straightening party!

Notice the newest addition to the Rudd family (between Karlee and I)- Bobby's fiance, Amy! She fits in pretty dang good if you ask me! She'd probably pass as a sister before I would. We had a little bridal shower/ official "welcome to the family" outing for her with all the girls! She's super sweet and did great with all our grueling questions! We love you Amy and are thrilled to have you as part of the family!

During our week in Corolla, we had some pretty cool finds including:

1) A washed up bat ray. Spencer thought it was dead, but as Madi and I looked closer we could see it's eyes open and close and gills trying to breathe. Pretty cool, but super sad to watch, so I made Spencer throw it back to sea. No pictures taken- we had to act fast!

2) This awesome sea glass ring. Unfortunately it fell off on our walk home and was never to be seen again.

3) Our very own pet frog. Spencer and Curteis caught him, and while some of the cousins wanted to keep it as a pet, I couldn't stand the cruelty, so dad and Madi set it free.

4) Foxes would come out at night. Nothing exciting to note though, expect that we saw them.

5) Dolphins. It was so fun watching the dolphins from the shore, that several people headed out on the kayaks to get a closer look. Unfortunately I wasn't one of those people, but I heard it was awesome- seeing the dolphins up close, swimming beside you, watching them jump in and out of the water.

Even though Spencer and I never got to "swim" with the dolphins, we still had a great time out on the kayaks (thanks Calhouns)! Madi even ventured out with us once. She looks real excited about it huh!?

After her initial shock of the first wave splashing up onto us, and her yelling, "I never want to do this ever again!" She got over it and had a blast! We went looking for Nemo and friends, and by the end, Madi did not want to go back!

And speaking of overcoming fears, it was just last month that we went to Virginia Beach and Madi was freaking out about having to walk in the sand. Funny how just a couple weeks later we had a completely different child. She begged to go to the beach every morning, telling me how much she loved the sand, wanted to "jump the waves", and search for seashells. Here she is sprinkling "sugar" all over her body! Every day she left the beach covered from head to toe in sand, but couldn't have been happier!

Especially when she knew a could rinse off would come when she got home!

Spencer stayed cooped up in the house most of the week studying for the California Bar exam, but always took a break in the afternoon to fit in some surfing and play time with his girls. This was Madi's favorite time of the day- building sand castles with daddy!

Playing outside in the hot sun with little kids couldn't last all day, so we made sure we had lots of fun indoor activities for the kids as well. Story time was always a favorite. Notice Spencer in the back in his designated "study area"- heads phones on and all! I don't know how he did it, but he stayed up there, hour after hour while everyone else went out and played. And he kept on studying through all the craziness while everyone was in the house. He actually had a very productive week and stayed totally caught up with all his study schedule. Way to go Spence!

Other favorites:

1) Coloring

2) Movie and snack time

3) And lots of play time with cousins!

This was taken before church on Sunday. Thanks Gram for the matching Sunday dresses! Oh, and I have never in my life seen a church building so incredibly packed before!

And of course, a Rudd Reunion isn't complete without a talent show! Clark won the award for best talent (in my opinion) with his amazing magic act!

Bobby and Amy were a hit with the kids- singing the ABC's forward and then backwards!! Talk about talent!

Madi did a pretty good job too. I didn't get a picture, but the video is pretty good. She preformed America the Beautiful (but of course insisted on singing I am a Child of God first). Afterwards she sang her "Miss Madi had a Dolly" song. The actions were non-existent though. We packed her doctor kit in the move and it kinda put a damper on the whole song!

And of course, a week on the beach makes for lots of fun photo ops!

Group pictures:

The guys

The gals (we miss you Jo!)

Papa and Gram with their 9 grandkids (and 3 more on the way)!

And the whole group- walking home from the beach.

What a fabulous week! Thanks everyone for the great time and all the memories!

11 months

What a month it's been! Elle's entire 10th month of life was full of visitors, packing, moving, traveling, flying, new houses, new beds, fevers, a trip to Urgent Care, followed by a mysterious rash that covered her entire face. She's been so clingy, needy, and fussy this past week that I'd forgotten what a trooper she'd been the whole rest of the month. I had to remind myself how chill and easy going she'd been with all the change- up until about a week ago. But a full week with a clingy, impatient, demanding 10 month old just about put me over the top. Luckily, just yesterday, she all of a sudden was back to normal. She's now back to being happy, playful, and content with exploring and playing alone. We're thinking (and hoping) that all her fussiness was/is just due to teething. Though I'm sure we haven't seen the end if it, I'm just glad to see that she's feeling a little better.

Aside from all the drama, Elle's biggest accomplishments this month have been: being able to push herself up to sitting (started days after turning 10 months), and crawling (which started a little over 2 weeks ago). Since then Elle's become quite the little explorer! She doesn't really have the desire to stand yet and usually just sits down when I stand her up next to something. I'm pretty confident that walking won't be happening for awhile.

Along with crawling Elle surprised us with some first words. Aside from her regular dada, mama, and gibberish language, she chose "dog" to be her first real word. Here's some proof- fast forward to 1 minute, 30 seconds where she points to Kody and says, "dog". It's pretty clear, even with the binky in her mouth.

Elle claps about almost everything. At first all I had to do was say, "Yaaay". Now I just start singing, "If you're Happy and you Know it" and she'll clap her hands. I love it!

Other news of the month:

-Being on the west coast, with no humidity, took all of Elle's curls away. I'm super sad about it. Her hair's getting pretty long and hangs in her face most of the time- pig tails have become a necessity.

-Elle moved up to the "big girl" car seat a week ago. No pictures taken yet- but don't worry, we've got a long 10 hour drive ahead of us this weekend. I'm sure I'll get a car seat picture then.

-Still taking great naps, 2+ hours morning and afternoon.

-Has developed quite the little temper. Hoping this is just a phase.

-Still nursing. I'll be introducing whole milk in a couple of weeks! I got her a new sippy (the straw kind) this week (well, I actually got it for Madi, but there were two cups in the package) and she loves it!

-Water is Elle's preferred drink of choice. She takes after her mama with wanting her water bottle with her all day long.

Happy 11 months Elle! I can hardly believe that you turn ONE next month!

Had to Share

The past couple of days have been a little rough. This adjusting to a new time zone has really been torture. Or maybe it's not just the time zone, but a whole new house, new beds, etc. I counted- Madi's slept in 7 different places over the past 2 weeks- no wonder she'd been quite the little biscuit. We're still trying to figure out why Elle's had a fever for 2 solid days now. Needy, clingy, dramatic little girls can really put a tired mom over the edge. But it's videos like this that make it all bearable!

Moving

We officially moved out of our townhouse on Friday, May 28th. You'd think there wouldn't be much to say about moving- it's crazy, stressful, super annoying, and shouldn't be talked about for a long time afterwards! But with a pretty smart 2 (almost 3) year old, I knew some prep would have to come before the moving truck arrived. So moving actually started a couple of weeks in advance at our house. I checked out books at the library (The Berenstain Bear's Moving Day) and talked with Madi on a pretty regular basis about what was going to happen. Of course she had several questions and lots of concerns. Her main concern was about all her "things". She wanted to know what was going to happen to them and what she could bring with her. I assured her that she could bring all her most favorite things with us to California. Then we talked about all the things that her grandparents already have at their house and so we wouldn't need to bring them. We sat down one afternoon and made a list of Madi's most favorite things that would for sure be packed into her suitcase:

-blankies

-Penny

-clothes

-favorite car (which oops, we forgot to bring)

-purple baby

-"Sally" book

-movies (Baby Dance and Letter Factory were specifically mentioned)

-purse

-backpack

-sippy cup

Then began the, "Maybe we should bring ______." Most were outrageous suggestions like the door, t.v., chair, light, etc. So after explaining that Gram, Papa, Boppi, and Grandpa Al have those things at their houses, she got a little better. Then the questions were just, "Do they have _____ in California?"

I figured we'd resolved most of the moving concerns and were good to go, but then one week before moving day the bed dreams started. Terrible night terrors with Madi yelling, "No, don't take away my books (other favorite items can also be inserted here)." I could tell it was going to be a very stressful week for Madi.

Lucky for us, my mom was at our house the entire week (we could never thank you enough mom). I honestly don't know how we would have managed without her. She's seriously a packing machine. I was the annoying sidekick-questioning her every move: "Maybe we shouldn't pack that yet." "Oh wait, I think we should wait to pack this." "How are you going to pack that?" The majority of the week I walked around the house in a complete daze. I'm really good with cleaning and organizing, so when our house turned completely upside down I felt like I'd lost all control. So basically my mom packed the entire house and I packed my bedroom and the girls room. Thankfully both girls did surprisingly well with all the packing. They somehow managed to keep themselves completely entertained for 3 days straight (thank goodness for great imaginations).

Oh, and I should probably mention here that Spencer had started his Bar classes at the beginning of moving week, so he was gone the majority of the day. This of course made us extremely grateful to my mom for being more than willing to help us move. My mom really is amazing! She not only packed the majority of our house, but she also helped with the girls when I took an attempt at packing.

Madi loved spending quiet time with Gram.

My dad flew in the night before moving day and my plan was for him to take Madi away from the house the next morning to do something fun before the movers arrived. I'm still not sure what caused it, but Madi woke up Friday morning with a super high fever. She was needy and clingy, but I still had a lot to finish before 8:30am. Luckily my dad was a champ and wisked Madi off to Target to get some special surprises (Tylenol meltaways being one of them).

The moving guys were in our house, wrapping and hauling by 8:30am. It was so incredibly awesome to have actual movers. They were careful, strong, fast, and very thorough. I don't think we'll ever go back to moving it ourselves. I went outside numerous times to admire their great packing job. Ya, and one of them even posed in the picture for me!

Pretty much everything went super smooth. Elle was a dream. She stayed in her bedroom the entire morning- completely content with some books, baby, her giraffe, and a box of Kix.

She played, she ate, she even took a great nap. Then when she woke up it was all over. Everything but suitcases were gone. Madi came home to an empty house. She seemed fine, but due to her fever we changed plans and decided to keep Madi overnight with us at the Musgraves' instead of our original plan of sending her on with my parents to stay at our cousins house.

I called the Dr and arranged a morning check-up for Madi which luckily I never ended up taking her to. She woke up Saturday morning completely better and back to her normal happy self.

Since our move 2 weeks ago Madi's had a couple of sad moments, asking about her toys and her bed, wondering when she'll see them again. One afternoon at the beach, after waking up from a nap, Madi says to me, "I miss our house. I just wanta go home." Wow- totally broke my heart. She kept telling me that she was ready to go to California, "cause then the movers will bring us our stuff." Hopefully now that we're here, with lots of toys to play with, she won't miss her things as much. It's just hard to respond when I'm not even sure as to when or where we'll be moving.

REWIND- Family visitors and Graduation Week

Now that we're finally settled here in California, I've had a little time to sort through the hundreds and hundreds of pictures that have accumulated over a 3 week span, and get an update started. Getting behind in blogging is seriously the worst. If it weren't for all the pictures I have, I'm pretty sure all these events would go undocumented!

So now I'm going to rewind 3 weeks ago, to May 19th, when all the graduation fun started. Spencer's parents and Jocelyn flew in on Wednesday. Lindsay flew in Thursday. After Lindsay's "surprise" pick-up at the Reagan airport, we headed over to the "airplane park" for lunch.

After lunch we headed into the city to hit up the American History Museum. My favorite part is all the hands-on kids science exhibits. I'm pretty Madi wasn't the only one who had a great time!

And of course a trip to the American History Museum wouldn't be complete without stopping by the kitchen of Julia Child herself (especially if you're a woman in the Jenkins family)! I had to make the picture extra cheesy- just my way of spicing up the site seeing experience!

We spent Friday in Gettysburg. After meeting Abraham Lincoln outside the museum, Madi looks down and says, "Oh look, he's holding the Book of Mormon. Is that Joseph Smith?"

After lunch we left the museum and did the complete 15 stop driving tour of the battlefields.

This was Madi's second experience of the driving tour- I can't blame her for the lack of smiles. It was a little long in the car (especially with kids) for my liking. It sure was gorgeous though!

On Saturday everyone headed into Baltimore, but I stayed behind with the girls. I think the 12 hour day spent in Gettysburg did us all in and we were in desperate need for some naps! That evening I picked my mom up at the airport. Due to a headache, she stayed behind with the girls while the rest of us headed into the city for a pre-graduation reception at The Organization of American States Building right across from the White House. It was a super nice event with amazing food!

The next morning was GRADUATION!!

The day was awesome (much to my surprise)! Seriously- it helped to go in with low expectations about spending hours stuck inside an auditorium with little kids- at nap time nonetheless! It was probably good that I went in thinking realistically because then I was able to be very pleasantly surprised. The girls were angels! With all the family there I had more than enough people to help keep them occupied. I even got to listen to most of the speakers, enjoy cheering on Spencer and watching my girls loving being with grandparents, aunts, uncle, cousins, and friends. Thanks everyone for all the help!

Suiting up in the parking garage.

Pep talk beforehand about needing to be "reverent" just like we are at church.

I love how much Aunt Joci loves my little girls!

Big thanks to Lindsay and her nice zoom lens!

GO SPENCER!!

The whole ceremony was actually a lot shorter than I thought it would be. I made sure I was the first to see Spencer and give my congratulations!

The girls were both dying to be held by their Daddy. Seriously- they acted like it'd been ages since they'd seen him.

Then off to another reception and more pictures...

BIG thanks to our family and friends for all your love and support! We couldn't have done it without all of you!

And an especially big thank you to all the family that traveled so far to come and support.

East Coast to West Coast and a Happy 6 Years!

After a glorious week on the beach, Spencer, Elle, and I left the Outer Banks yesterday morning (8:15am), drove up to Virginia, parked our car at my cousins (1:30pm), hung out for a bit, got dropped off at the airport (3pm), and then flew across the country- arriving in Oakland at 10pm! We finally got to my parent's house at 11:30pm (ya, that's 2:30am EST!!). We literally left our bags by the door (so unlike me) and crashed. What a day! Not the ideal way to spend our 6th year wedding anniversary, but at least we got to spend it together.

Madi and my parents fly in tomorrow night. Then hopefully come mid week I'll be feeling a little more settled and be able to get a long update finished for the past 3 weeks of fun!