What you can do with a little time on your hands...

Since I'm not working now, and since my very good friend Amanda was expecting a baby boy, I broke out the old sewing machine and got creative:

"Stud-Muffin" and Future Missionary Onesie

They were so fun to make and I LOVE how they turned out!

The Olde Oaks Boys

A few weekends ago we took advantage of this great house we're living in and hosted the First Annual Olde Oaks Boys Reunion.

Left to Right: Gavin, Jeremy, Taylor, Russell, Brian (B.O.), Ben, Rob, Autrey.
Missing this year (but there in spirit): Dave, Big Al, Andrew, Aaron, Jayson, Will.

Growing up, Rob was close friends with a a group of about 12 guys who all went to our local church.  Then, at BYU, a lot of these guys lived together or played on the same Ultimate Frisbee team (they were even the Intramural Champs one year).  So, they share a lot of memories. 

Box Hockey in the driveway

Most people drove in Friday night, and after the wives went to bed, the boys stayed up late playing some old school N64 Bond and reminiscing. 

 

Saturday morning we slept in, had waffles for breakfast and then went outside to take advantage of the perfect Houston spring weather. 

We had some intense games of volleyball in the backyard--luckily a few guys were wearing shoes and could retrieve the ball that kept flying into the woods.  After volleyball, a few brave swimmers tried out the chilly pool, and then it was time for lunch!

During lunch, we did a few blind taste tests to figure out if it was really worth it to buy name brand items.

• The Potato Chip taste test pitted Lays brand Sour Cream and Onion against the Walmart brand.  Verdict: Pretty even split (I may have skewed the results with my lack of poker face...)  
• The Root Beer taste test featured Barqs vs A&W vs Walmart.  Verdict: Walmart was the overall favorite, with A&W in second.  
• The Vanilla Bean Ice cream taste test: Dreyers vs Blue Bell vs Walmart.  Verdict: Walmart was the winner, with Blue Bell in second (!!!!)  Dreyers had a pretty distinct taste, which some people liked, but I couldn't believe how hard it was to tell the other two apart!   
• Overall taste test verdict:  Save your money and buy Walmart brand!  Who knew??

A few hours after we'd all digested, we went to Collins Park to play some Ultimate Frisbee in the last hours of daylight.   Then, went to the Hill's house to watch some BYU basketball. 

The 2nd Generation of Olde Oaks Boys

Sunday morning church came early after that full Saturday.  After church and lunch, people started to head home, and we collapsed on the couch.....and started dreaming up the next Olde Oaks Boys Reunion!  It was so fun!

South Padre Island

Now that we're settled in sunny Houston, it's time to get caught up!

After 2 months of studying for the TX bar with all of these fun books, and as a reward for surviving the actual 3-day marathon exam, and before beginning "real life" as a lawyer,

we decided Rob had earned some serious R&R.  So we hopped in our trusty Camry and headed down to South Padre Island, an island of white sand beaches and very little stress. 

We spent about 4.5 days playing paddle ball on the beach,

and soaking up the sun by the gorgeous pool, taking breaks for me to shellac Rob in UNO and have him return the favor with a game (or three) of Sequence. 

We went for quick dips in the chilly ocean,

Enjoyed long walks on the beach,

And by the end of our stay were (mostly) ready to get back in the car and see what "real life" is going be like!

An Ellis Christmas Extravaganza

Christmas 2010 was the first time in 5 years the entire Ellis tribe had been in one place!  And the family has GROWN!

The breakdown this year was:

• Adults: 2 parents + 9 kids + 6 spouses = 17 adults
• Grandkids: 5 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 5 = 18 grandkids
• Grandkids ages 5 and under = 13 (!!!)
• Total # of people under 1 roof = 35  

When you are multiplying like we Ellis' are, it was a big blessing to be able to find a roof big enough to cover us all!  We rented out Springhaven Lodge in Springville, UT for the week, where there was more than enough room for everyone.  Even when "Springhaven" got renamed "Sick-haven" half-way through our stay because of a flu-bug going around, people could be quarantined and had plenty of space to recover.  :)  (Hence the occasional picture of a person wearing a hospital mask.)

Enough of the Texans must have been dreaming of a white Christmas, because we got plenty of snow up in the canyon!

Snowmen were built

Snowball fights were had

And a killer, sled-eating run was created

Christmas wouldn't have been complete without:

Plenty of Christmas cookies (thanks Grandma KK!)

A fully-costumed nativity production with:

A Heavenly-Host of angels

Mary and Joseph (4-day-old Tennyson couldn't play baby Jesus b/c his dad had the flu!)

3 very Wise Men

And Shepherds to be "sore afraid"

There was plenty of hanging out,

Playing games,

Doing crafts,

Sleeping,

 

And then on Christmas morning there were more presents under one tree than I have ever seen in my life.  And once the first present was unwrapped, there was more extremely fun, Christmas-morning-chaos than I could have imagined!  (I come from a family of 4 children, and I'm the only one married...we can't even come close to competing!)   

Later that day, to continue a personal Christmas tradition, John couldn't just enjoy the beautiful scenery surrounding us....

He had to actually be a part of it in his annual Christmas-day Polar Bear Plunge!

The lake was off-limits so he had to make do with a stream.  It was still pretty cold!  :)

I'm pretty sure Christmas 2010 at Springhaven is going to go down in Ellis family history.  I'm glad we got to be a part of it!

Getting in the Thanksgiving Spirit

What better way to start the season than a trip to the original Plimoth Plantation?

The Plantation is set up to start with a little introductory video about the English settlers and the natives living in the area.

Then, we walked over to the Wampanoag Village, filled with real, live "Native People" who showed us how to make a canoe,

I wanted to get one of those sweet loincloths for Rob, but he wasn't really interested.

how to weave/stitch/knit,

and how to cook a freshly skinned rabbit with beans, cranberries, and grains.

Then we walked down the road to visit the original Plimoth Settlers, all still alive and kicking.

We spoke with a blacksmith and his son,

I also wanted to get Rob some of these sweet bloomers but, again, he wasn't interested....wonder why?

we listened to a fiery sermon from the resident preacher,

played with some guns,

and then left to visit the Mayflower II.

It looks a lot bigger than it is!

We couldn't believe how small the Mayflower was.  There were over 100 passengers living below deck during the grueling 66-day journey across the Atlantic.  Then, the passengers had to keep living on the boat during the winter while they were trying to figure out where to put their settlement.

One of the crew on-board described that the Mayflower was the 17th century version of a U-Haul, and the pilgrims were considered to be cargo and were treated that way.  Life in Europe must have been pretty bad to justify taking that trip!

Before we could leave, we had to walk over and see the ROCK....

...which ended up being extremely under-whelming.  It's probably about the size of a small dishwasher.  So I don't really understand why it's such a big deal, but we can now saw that WE'VE SEEN IT.  Which is really what counts.

Five years later...

Christa and I first met five years ago today. Most of our family/friends already know the details of that fateful day in the library. (If not, you can see the link on the right). That day was the beginning of a miracle.

C.S. Lewis said "This is one of the miracles of love: It gives a power of seeing through its own enchantments and yet not being disenchanted."

I'm not extremely articulate (one of the reasons that Christa usually writes our blog) and I don't want to get all mushy. But I wanted to create this tribute for Christa:

Three little Wiggies came to Cambridge

Even though we're happy to be back on this side of the ocean, we've definitely been missing parts of our England life, like how we could just walk down the river and hang out with the Wiggintons!  

So, after a summer of missing this cute face,  Rob and I were thrilled to hear that the Wigginton's had booked tickets on the Fung Wah to come see us for a long weekend.   Once they got here, it felt like no time had passed...especially for Rob and Talmage.  They were still bffs, as usual!

 "Oh, hey Rob, old buddy!  What a funny coincidence meeting you here...inside this tunnel slide!"

And, since it had been over a year since we'd been able to go, we HAD to take the Wigginton's (and my sister, Katie, who was also in town) down to the North End for some pizza from Regina's...

...which really is good enough to fight over.

And then we forced them to make room in their stuffed bellies for my favorite italian treat: a cannoli from Mike's.

After one bite, Talmage was ready to dig deep and eat whatever cannoli was sent his way.

Here he's already had almost 1/2 of a big cannoli, and he's making the sign for "MORE!"

Because there is a lot more to experience in the greater Boston area than the excellent food of the North End, we also did some historical sightseeing.  We toured the Longfellow House, home to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (also, previously home to General George Washington while he was commanding the Union troops).

Later we drove out to Lexington and Concord to learn about the beginning of the American Revolutionary War...from the lips of Paul Revere himself.  Who knew he'd been aging so well?

We were so happy to see the Wiggintons again!  Thanks, guys for making that loonngggg haul up to see us!  We'll have to plan another reunion before too long.