The Ordyna Family

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Back to School 2012

Carson- 5th Grade & Nixan- 3rd Grade

This is Carson's last year in Elementary school...so this is most likely the last desk with his

name tag on it .

Here is TJ getting ready for his big first day.

I love his nervous smile in this picture!

Sage did not want to be left out of the pictures!

At the bus stop, right at the top of our drive way:

(Love it! We can watch for the bus to come down the hill right out our window....

so no waiting in the rain or cold! Bonus: Sage gets to watch the boys get on the bus each morning!)

Our Kindergartener:

There's that nervous smile again!

Waving good bye to the bus:

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

One of the big perks of house-sitting at my in-laws is that we are literally at the crossroads for most of our extended family and their extended families. So when they come to Utah to visit other family, we are right here to snag a little visit too! We were able to see all but one of Nick's (7) siblings and their families this summer. It was so great! However, after looking over our summer pictures, I realized that I seriously FAILED to get pictures of all the cousins together! Major bummer. Although I think I've learned my lesson and will get pictures next time we have company.

When Steve's and Jacob's families came to town, we took the kids to the Zoo:

Ah ha! There's a little cousin in this one! (Proof that cousins, were, in fact, part of our Zoo trip!)

Hooray for Rylan!

Look closely, that's either Allyson or Jocelyn in purple! (Honestly, I can barely tell those two girls apart! They both have beautifully long, wavy, blonde hair!)

Rylan makes it in this shot too. See, more proof of our visitors!

Here, cousin Ky and the boys have made an elaborate Lincoln Logs battle field.

Check out all that heavy artillery!

We also spent a day at Lagoon with Dan's family. That was sooo fun!

My boys LOVED having 4 extra boy cousins to go with them on all the scary rides!

Here I am with Sage on one of her first amusement park rides.

She wasn't too excited, nor was she scared...hard to tell what she thought of the madness!

Dan and Nick took the two older boys on the giant Skycoaster free fall ride.

I'll admit I was nervous for them! But the men enjoyed the rush.

I could tell that Carson and Nixan both felt super grown-up....we let them take off on their own with their two other cousins. They went on whatever rides they wanted and only checked in

with us adults when they got hungry, haha!

Paul and Cyndi came with their adorable twin boys and brought our niece Amanda with them....then us ladies went to the Relief Society general broadcast together.

I had to post this picture of Paul. Isn't he the greatest!?!

But why-oh-why did I miss taking a picture of the twins! Darn!

Monday, October 22, 2012

A First for Nick

Morgan Valley ~~Marathon~~ 5K!

Somehow I was able to convince Nick to run a 5K with me. I was kinda surprised he agreed...but jumped at my chance to do something like this together...we NEVER have before. There is always the issue of what to do with our young kiddos....and I never felt like running together was a worthy cause. Don't get me wrong...I've asked plenty of favors from friends and paid babysitters. But, I think, because of the years of Nick's rigorous medical training, that I always felt like I needed people I could call on for real NEEDS. I never wanted to burden "my people" with silly things like races...I mean...what if I REALLY needed them to help me out next week? So I kinda built this mentality of not ever really leaving my kids for anything fun. (Just ask Nick...it's probably one of his chief complaints about me, haha!) It didn't help that, years ago, Nixan got RSV at 8 weeks old and was hospitalized for 4 days. My Virginia friends went ABOVE and BEYOND in taking care of my family while I stayed with Nixan in the hospital. It was crazy and things were totally out of my control. I think I learned right then and there that there are times when you REALLY NEED your "people."

Whoa...got kinda side-tracked there...see...I feel the need to defend myself...it's not that I don't like to do fun things with Nick, its just that...

Anyways. One of the GREATEST perks of living in Utah is being so close to my parents. And you know what? I don't have any problem asking them to watch my kids at all! For fun things no less! We totally dropped them off the night before the run...they got to sleep over with Grandma and Grandpa...and Nick and I got a date that night and ran together in the morning. How sweet is that?!?

The race was a total fun run and we decided to each run at our own pace. Fortunately the Morgan Valley Marathon event took pictures of the races and the pictures were free to download. Next year I might do the half-marathon instead of the 5K. Or not. The first 6 miles are, like, straight uphill.

AT THE START OF THE RACE:

(Don't ask about the iphone in my hand...poor planning on my part...

and I was stressed the whole run, afraid I'd drop it and shatter the thing!)

This picture is kinda funny because it doesn't look like he's even running, haha!

But YES he ran the whole thing!

TOWARDS THE END OF THE RACE:

Ha! Just noticed something funny. The same little boy next to me at the beginning of the race, is now pictured next to Nick towards the end of the race!! There were a lot of runners...what are the odds that that'd be the same kid!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

4th of July

Waaaaay back in the early spring time, long before we knew we'd be moving, Nick requested some summer vacation time off to spend in Utah. We wanted to spend the 4th of July with extended family (lets be honest, UT does this holiday the best!!). Because it would be our family's summer vacation, we wanted to doe some really fun things. "Stadium of Fire" was one of Nick's suggestions. So I patiently waited for the event to update it's website, announce the band(s) that would perform, and begin selling tickets. And when tickets went on sale, I got us some great seats...and Mom, Dad, and Stephen too. We were looking forward to seeing the Beach Boys and celebrating the 4th with family. But life can be ironic. With the job change and move to Utah, Nick's summer vacation changed too. Gone was his day off on the 4th. So HIS great idea of "Stadium of Fire" turned out to be a great idea for HIS family, but not for HIM. Bummer! :(

We had a great time though! :)

Chance was super cool and offered to watch Sage along with his newborn Kate so that Anna could come with us! (Not gonna waste Nick's ticket!) The moms sans daughters:

My favorite photo of the night:

Kage this picture is for you bud!

Scotty McCreery (winner of American Idol) was the opening act...he really did good, we thought.

And the Beach Boys...can you even get more American than that??

For a bunch of old guys, they ROCKED it out!

They don't call it "Stadium of Fire" for nothin'!

This camera had a hard time focusing...there was sooooo much smoke in the air from the bazillion fireworks. But I can't get enough of this picture....it capture's my father's fun personality....right between Carson and Nixan! Yep. We were photo bombed!

2012 Allen Family Reunion

I think one of my family's favorite traditions is the family reunion. The kids love getting together with their Ordyna cousins and their favorite Allen aunts and uncles (they're all favorites...at different times and for different reasons, haha!). For this reunion, my siblings and their family's all gathered at the Allen family homestead in Perry. We went on outings during the day and stayed up waaaay too late each night playing games and visiting. As always, it was a blast! Like the last reunion, this reunion had some new family members....Chaz and Sara's Rayce, & Chance and Anna's Kate, & Sage joined the rank of cousins. And this was Christy's husband Adam's first Allen reunion too. Sadly, uncle Kage was unable to attend due to his Air Force Academy commitments. But he was missed!

Anyways, it's fun to look back and see how the Allen family has grown and changed over the years. My in-laws have large pictures, taken at each reunion (covering the last 10 yrs) hanging on the walls of their family room....it is always a favorite of visitors to look at each picture and "awe" over the new additions and changes in the big family. I'm not 100%, but it seems like the Ordyna family is close to (if not AT) it's final number....so now the reunion pictures might start getting smaller. With grandchildren reaching the college and mission age, there's sure to be less people in the pictures soon. Kinda bittersweet, right? But for now, our Allen family is still in the thick of the growing phase. I really like being apart of two families....in the Ordyna family, we're the young ones....in the Allen family, we're the OLD ones, haha!

Here's some of the fun things we did together. Funny how I didn't take pictures of our evening antics....those were probably the best times, but it was the daily outings that got the pictures!

Promontory Point:

Notice Dad participating in the re-enactment, right in the center of the picture (Golden Spike--joining of the two railways). He was chosen from the audience for this role....and he ROCKED it!

East Canyon Reservoir:

Left to Right: Nick, Chaz, Chance, Christy, Anna, Jessica, Me, Mom

Nixan, Uncle Jacob, and Carson....don't you love my boys' hair? Windblown much?

Our little sand gnats!

Hot Springs:

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

CUB Scouting at it's Best!

When we knew we'd be in Utah for the summer, Nick (almost immediately!) began to inquire about the boy's new cub scout pack....and if we'd arrive in UT in time for them to attend Camp Kiesel with their new dens. This camp is pretty awesome...and the very same one Nick grew up attending as a cub scout himself. He has such fond memories of this place and I knew he wanted the same experiences for his boys. Fortunately we arrived within days of cub camp and both Carson and Nixan we able to attend. Nick's new job hadn't started yet, so he was able to attend with Carson. However he had to work the day Nixan went (so we, sadly, don't have pictures of Nixan at Kiesel).

Here's the camp (more like FORT!), up in the beautiful Utah mountains:

Tiny Carson on top! Every boy's dream fort, right?

A fort complete with BB guns (see Carson taking aim):

And bows and arrows!

Here he is doing some serious leather-work!

Watching and doing fireside skits:

Then there was our first pack meeting with our new pack. It was held out our cubmaster's home. Here's Nixan with his awards:

And Carson receiving his:

Then, the highlight of the meeting...FISHING! What a cool fish pond to have right in your own yard! I'm jealous (not for the fish, but for the beautiful property!)

Future cub scouter....not at all afraid of the slimy, wiggly thing: