Hiester Family Antics: Archive Photos- Summer 2007

The Hiester Family in a nutshell - a big one, like a coconut or something

We are a family of a whole bunch of random people, thrown together in one small house, who all happen to look alike. Each member of our family was hand-picked by God... that's the only explanation for the saga that is our family. Here's the story from the beginning... My husband, Todd, was married before me. His wife's name was Carrie, and together they had 3 kids: Tyler, Kurstin & Elissa. Todd's parents were divorced and his mother remarried. Her new husband, Don, had 2 small children: Ally & Wesley. Their natural mother was killed in a car accident when they were 8 & 11. One year later, they lost their dad and Todd and Carrie took them into their home. 6 months after Ally & Wesley were added to the household, Carrie died of cancer at age 26. Her own children were 3, 6 & 9 and Ally & Wesley were 10 & 13. And Todd was alone with them. Think Lord of the Flies. So when I fell in love with Todd, I got these 5 kids as a bonus. We married about a year and a half into our relationship, with the kids as our wedding party. We made it all official with an adoption lawyer and lots of money, ensuring that we are LEGALLY their parents. They even had to take oaths saying they would perform the duties of sons and daughters, which I think means I have someone to change my diapers when the time comes! After 2 years of marriage we added Robben Carey to the mix. And now we've welcomed Livi Claire...the seventh, and final, Hiester kid (unless, of course, God has other plans). Todd and I are 37 and 35, respectively, and our kids range in age from 1 to 21. It's great because we're cool and always the youngest in a crowd of high school parents.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Archive Photos- Summer 2007

These are photos of a camping trip we took to Gags with Grandma Alice, Jassen, Crystal and Melody in August of 2007. I was pregnant with Robben... that puts a whole other spin on camping, let me tell you!

Uhhhh, who thought this would be a good idea? I can tell you it was not me!

The girls on a rock...that Elissa later fell down. She actually had a pretty rough time. She kept falling all over the place and getting scratched and bruised and banged up. By the third day, she finally fell into the creek and just laid there and cried until someone went to retrieve her :)

Todd and the boys made up a new sport: tree vaulting :) They climbed a high rock and noticed a flimsy-looking tree. Todd thought, hey, I bet we could jump off this rock and glide down while holding on to that little tree! And tree vaulting was born! They even got Grandma Alice to try it!! (So Todd's pelvis-breaking incident 2 years later wasn't so much an isolated event of risk-taking stupidity after all!)

The kids found a tree frog and passed it around to those brave enough to hold it... which was probably everyone but me :) I love Melody in the background, waiting anxiously for her turn, hands cupped in anticipation.