The Cabin 2013

This year's annual trip to The Cabin was quite an ordeal.  As our family gets bigger, schedules get more conflicted.  In years past, we have stayed 2 nights and have all been together.  But this year, not everyone could come at the same time, so we stayed 3 nights and people came and went as they could.  Hopefully we will be able to coordinate our schedules better in the future.

But we did end up going!  And as always, it was an absolute blast.  We ended up staying in a smaller cabin the first night with barely enough room for all the food we brought!

The kids shared a big bed in Grandma and Grandpa's room upstairs.

Everyone was a little squished that night, but we made it through and moved into a larger cabin the next day.  So much more room!

Aaahhh!  Much better!

 

And the snowmobiles!  Of course we rode snowmobiles!  A2 couldn't wait to get started.

Grandpa happily obliged this cute little guy in his goal to be a speed demon.

Last year, A2 cried when we drove faster than 5 mph.  This year he begged us to go faster and faster.

 

And why don't I have any pictures of A1 on her snowmobile?  She was WAY too excited to hang around for photography.  Just like A2, she begged to go faster and faster.  And this year was the first time in 3 years that I got to go snowmobiling (pregnancy and breastfeeding really put a damper on fun, you know).

 

However, the best part of the whole trip was playing games with family.  Erin stayed inside for most of the trip because she had to take care of her new little one, Molly.  Isn't she a doll?

So I stayed inside quite a bit and played games with Erin and Molly and Grandpa (after he was done driving A1 and A2 faster and faster).  We also got some serious movie-watching in.

 

And what about L2?  What did he do at his first cabin trip?  Well, he mostly just hung around with the adults.

How we love the cabin!  I sure hope everyone's schedule works out so we can all get together next year too.

Christmas 2012

Christmas was so fun this year.  We decided to stay in Oregon and let the party come to us.

My parents brought my youngest sister (yay for Aunt Meggie!) and spent the weekend before Christmas at our house.  The kids were so happy to see Grandma and Grandpa!

When A1 heard that we would have visitors for Christmas, she made a gift: she wrote her own version of "12 Days of Christmas" and presented it to each of them.

A2 was especially glad to see Aunt Meggie (she's his favorite person, and the feeling is quite mutual - I feel a little bad for Megan's boyfriend that he has to compete with such a cute little guy for her heart).

On Christmas Eve we skyped with R's family and opened a few presents with them.  It was so nice to see them and share some time even though we are so far away.

Can you see Grandma and Grandpa J?

opening presents while skyping

And Christmas was wonderful with just us.  We took our time, we tried to focus on what was really important, we even took a break in the middle of opening presents to share with others.

our Christmas (yes, that is a bike for A1)

L2 was completely adorable opening presents for the first time.  He seemed to instinctively know that wrapping paper is for tearing!

Hoping that you had a merry Christmas and were able to focus on Christ's birth and find joy in the season.

Family Picture Outtakes

Jon Woodbury is an amazing photographer and makes family pictures look like no big deal; these people always casually look this good and he just happened upon them like that.

Yeah, right!

We had so many problems with our shoot; I'm amazed it even happened.  So I will share our problems so that you can feel in good company if you've had a rough photo shoot before.  Don't worry; you're in good company.

It was raining!

It was cold!

We were supposed to be fishing!

Some of us had car trouble (I'm amazed these two are still smiling after the rough time they had just getting to the photo shoot)!

Some of us were being naughty!

Others of us were being naughty!

We were supposed to be fishing!

We were hungry!

We were tired!

We didn't feel like smiling!

And did I mention?  We were supposed to be fishing!

But our photo shoot came together, we had a good time, and now we have some awesome memories with photographic evidence!  Isn't that what family pictures are all about?

Preview to Jensen Family Pictures

The Jensen clan decided to go fishing this summer, as we always do when we're together during the warmer months.  This time, though, we took Jon Woodbury with us; he is an amazing photographer and can get the best shots of anyone in any location (he's not even paying me to say all that; he truly is incredible).  After he gets the shots, he does some magic with his magic photography tools (I believe Photoshop is involved somehow, but that could just be the dumbed down version that he told me because I wouldn't understand what he was talking about anyway) and magically makes his amazing shots look even more amazing.  R followed him around and took some of the same shots so we could compare his magic to our camera.  So while we wait for him to finish his magic editing (can you tell that I really have no idea what he does, post-session?), here are the previews for our Jensen Family Photo Shoot.

Grandma and Grandpa, the clan leaders

Don't I have a beautiful mother-in-law?

Steve and Tracie, the funniest couple I have ever met

Bridger, able to out-mischief even Dallen

Shaylie, the sweetest niece ever

L1 and L2

A1, the cutest little girl in the whole wide world

Emily - what a hottie!

Emily teaching the kids how to fly fish

Dallen, the biggest teddy bear of a brother-in-law you could ask for

Dallen with all the kids