1st Day of School!!!!

Today was the first day of school for the 2008/2009 school year for me, Tasha, and Bethanie. We were very excited to go and have our new experience!!! My day was pretty easy, I just had to get the area in my room ready and dejunk some stuff.

Today was Tasha's first day in High School!!!!!!! I can't believe she is that old. She is such a beautiful young lady. I am so very proud she is mine!!!! This is her in her first day outfit. She is lovely!!!

Today was Bethanie's first day in Jr. High. She was excited and scared all at the same time!!! She is turning out to be a very beautiful young lady too. I can't believe she is in Jr. High. It was just yesterday it seems that I was putting her in kindergarten!!! OH MY!!!!!!!

Everybody had a great experience and we all arrived home safe and sound!!!!!!!!

Some much to say where to begin!!!??

We have done sooooooooo many things this past little while that there are a ton of pictures so make sure you scroll through all of them!! This first picture is of Doug and I outside of the Mayan restaurant in Salt Lake City (SLC). We went there this past weekend for family vacation. It was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast too. Everybody got along and there were no fights!!! It was one of the best family vacations we have ever had!!! So look through the pictures and enjoy the story as the pictures go through!!!

We are soooooooooo cute!!! So in love and this was also on my birthday!!!!!

This is Tasha and her new friend Kyle (also Ryan, Alex, and Mariah's cousin on their mom's side) They got these tattoos at the Youth Jam in Idaho falls. All of the kids except Ryan got one. The tattoo says "Kind to be Kool" They put the 2 above it!! What a bunch of wacky kids!!

This is the kids making there fairy houses at the Youth Jam!! They had lots of fun doing this!!! They were made out of Styrofoam cups and pipe cleaners, sequence, pine cones, glue, and whatever else you can think of that is crafty stuff!!!! In this picture is Ryan, Mariah, and Bethanie.
They had hula hooping too. Bethanie and Alex did this. They were the only two that would do it. Bethanie dropped her hula hoop once and Alex never dropped his at all!!! Alex is a good hula hooper!!!!! Kyle told him that girls like boys that can shake their hips!!!! Alex doesn't care too much about girls right now, so he didn't really care. :) :)

You go Alex!!!!!

Our Young men, and Young women went to the open house of the Twin Falls Temple. So it was... Tasha, Ryan, Bethanie and me. We stopped at the Shoshone Falls and had lunch with the whole group!! Wow was that pretty!!! It was a really hot day though. The drive down and back is about 2 1/2 hours. It was fun though. I had a van full of fun youth!!!!

Here is our group in front of the temple!!

The Shoshone Falls!!!!

So another thing we did was go to the open house of the new pier overlooking the Snake River here in Idaho Falls. It is on the opposite side of the river from the falls and temple. They are building up this area with businesses and it is looking very pretty!!! They had a grand opening ceremony for all of it and so we went to it. Here we are on a horse carriage ride!! It was miniature ponies that pulled the carriage. It was fun!!!

Here we are on the pier that over looks the snake river!!!

Then one day we followed Pam and her kids to this cool free water park in Rexburg!!! It is at Porter Park. The kids had a very good time. We stayed here for about 2 hours. This was a lot of fun!! I have tons of pictures of it but I already had to put so many pictures on here I didn't put the other pictures of this. Come and visit and you can see the other pictures!!!! :)

This was a Nascar exhibit that came to Idaho Falls. You could go and drive these cars and they simulated what a real Nascar would be like!! The kids loved it. You have the big screen in front of you that you watch and see where you are going and you drive like crazy. The car moves and everything to feel like you are moving too. The kids liked it so much that I forgot my camera and so we all had a turn on the cars and then we drove all the way home and got my camera and went back and did it again!!!! It was free too!!!! I can't believe how many free things I have found for all of us to do this summer!!!!! :) :) I live free stuff!!!!!!!!!!! In this picture it is Alex. We all had a turn doing it. There are two cars and you race against each other!! FUN TIMES!!!

This was a trip we took to Gem Lake her in Idaho Falls. We went Kayaking and Canoing. The kids loved it!!! Alex and I are a good duo in the Kayak!!! Carlton Judkin, our neighbor, took us because he has the Kayak that he made, and we borrowed the canoe from Bro. Coombs!!! It was a really windy day but we had fun any ways!!! We had a Bald Eagle land in the trees right next to us. That was fun to see and watch him. He stayed by us for a long time!!!

While we were on Family Vacation it was my birthday. I put my shorts on to go down to breakfast in the hotel, and then we came back up to open presents. So this is how I look first thing in the morning on my 41st birthday!!!!! I also pulled my hair back in a half pony tail so that it wasn't sticking out so much!!! This picture Tasha took while she was torturing me and not letting me open my presents. I finally got to and I got a beautiful necklace and earings, and a picture frame that has 3 places for pictures and it says FAMILY on the top of it. My necklace was 3 hearts linked together and then 3 pairs of earrings. I loved them all!!!!! Then we went to the Spaghetti Factory for lunch and the Mayan Adventure for dinner.

This is the outside of the restaurant and the inside is a cross between the rainforest cafe and Indiana Jones ride at Disney Land. It has a diving show that the kids love. It is Mexican and American food on the menu. The kids love this place!!! They all found things on the menu, that they loved!!!!

This is one of our family pictures we took outside of the Mayan. We are all sitting on a big ol' serpent!!!! We all took pictures of it eating us too!!! We only had to wait about 30 minutes. We thought that was pretty good on a Saturday night!!!

This was a Rec Center we went to and we all played and swam!!!! This is a section that just has water spraying out all over and you can play in it. Back behind is a lazy river area. There is a lap swimming area and a deeper pool area to just play in and then this next picture is of the huge water slide that we all LOVED!!!!!!! We had so much. When we got done swimming we went in the gym and Alex played basketball with some kid in there and the girls found a kiddy area that they played in too. Everybody was super tired by the end of this day!!!!

The fun Water Slide!!!!

Then on the way home on Sunday we went to the Layton Hills Mall and walked around and looked in stores. Then we stopped at IGGY'S for lunch. Iggy's is a sports bar and grill. It has huge big screen TV's all over with sports on them. Alex was in heaven. The day we went the summer Olympics had started and so we got to watch that on the screen!!!! Everybody found something on that menu they loved too!!!

Ryan, Alex and Mariah go home in 4 days and then school starts soon too. So summer is almost over!! :( But we are still having fun and loving the little bit of summer we have left!!!! I hope you got through all of this and enjoyed our story!!!!

The "Twilight" Books

O.k. I am hooked on the Twilight books!!! Tomorrow night at Midnight the 4th book comes out and I can't wait. I only own the 1st book and borrowed the other two to read them!!! I don't know if I will by this 4th one or wait and borrow it too. I don't know if I can wait that long!!!!! If you haven't read these books you just have to do it!!!!!! They are so amazing!!!! I would get right out there and get them and read them. You better hurry too, because the movie comes out on Dec. 12, 2008!!!!! They are a must read!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eating a fun summer treat!!!

The kids were playing in the pool today and playing on the trampoline. We gave them an Icee treat. They all picked blue raspberry and this is the result of that. They all have these great blue tongues. We told Mariah that it made here eyes look bluer. They were having a lot of fun with this. They also had really blue mouthes that made them look like they were freezing in the 90 something degree weather today!! Oh what fun summer can be!!!!! :) :)

The Grand Tetons!!

This is one of my favorite places to go!!! I love the Tetons!!!! We had the opportunity to go there this past weekend and spend Friday to Sunday there. It was so much fun!!! My dad was there from Washington and my sister and my niece were there from Wisconsin. So we went and spent the weekend with them. We had such a very good time!!! Here are some pictures of the weekend!!!!

On our way into the park we saw this huge heard of bison. We stopped on the side of the road to take pictures and video tape it. I have been coming up her for years now and haven't seen this big of a heard for ever!!! It was exciting to see them. This is just one that I took a picture of. There were some people stopped and they went right up to the fence, but I was not about to do that!!!! Are those people crazy!!!!!???

This is our campsite. I purchased that tent right before we left and it turned out to be a really nice one. it is a six man tent, but probably 4 people comfortably could fit in it. We shared a camp spot with my dad in his motor home. It was beautiful up there.

This is the view we had from our campsite!!! Isn't is spectacular!!! We stayed at the Colter Bay Camp ground. We didn't see any deer this time, but we figured all of the generators from all the campers was scaring them away. Hopefully next time when we take the kids up we will see some. This is a view of Mt. Moran.

This is my niece Nikki!!! She used to live by us when she was little and I was in High School. I would take her all over and spoil her rotten. It was so much fun. My sister Cheri would tell me she would remember that and when I had kids she would pay me back. But, she moved away before that ever happened!!!!! Ha! Ha!!!!!! But seriously I have missed them a ton and it was good to see them. Nikki is married now and trying to have her own babies now!!! Wow I can't believe how time flies!!!!!!!!!!

This is my sister Cheri. Nikki's mom. She is my oldest sibling. It was great to see her too and get to know her better again and for her to get to know Doug better. We all got along really well and had a really fun time!!!! She is doing well and very happy and that makes me happy.

This is my dad and his wife Kris. This was taken on a walk that we took around Colter Bay. It is called the lake shore hike. It takes you all around the lake. It is very pretty. We were however attacked by mosquitoes. They were every where. I made sure to spray Cheri and Nikki because they had shorts on, but didn't think to spray down Doug and I. We were attacked something fierce. Doug got it worse than me. Still we survived with only a few bits. Thank Heavens!!!!

Cheri found this little skinny tree leaning against the other tree. She said, "Hey dad her is a stir stick for your fire!!" We all look up and there it was. I couldn't even get the whole thing in the picture. It had a perfect point on the end of it. I bet if dad could have figured out a way to get it back to camp he would have. Dad is always looking for the perfect stir stick for the fire. Look who is also in the picture but my handsome Doug!!!!!!!!

This is a view of the Tetons from Jackson Lake Lodge. It is a beautiful view. It panoramic around the mountain range. I love this view and this place. I worked up here the summer of 87 and 88. Now Doug and I love to go here and visit and hike. We come here every summer.

This is back a camp. My dad has a traveling marble game. That is what we call it. We have one at home too that the kids and us all love to play!!!! We played the first game and it was Cheri, Nikki, Me and Doug. Cheri quietly won. I got second Nikki got third and poor Doug got last. So Then Cheri and I played Dad and Kris. I won this time, Cheri got second, Kris got third, and Dad lost. Sorry dad!!!! It must have had something to do with that blue color!!!! That is what color Doug had too. Better luck next time everybody!!!!!!!

This is me and Nikki. We realized the second day there when I couldn't find my sunglasses that we both had the exact same pair!!!!! That is sooooo funny. I told her wise minds think alike!!! She laughed and said that must be true. So we just had to take a picture with both of us in it with our sunglasses on!!!! Besides aren't we cute together!!!!!

So our trip was complete and Doug and I had to go home. It was fun and I am glad that we got to go up there together. I wouldn't have missed it for the world!!!!!!!!!!!

Girls Camp!!

Girls camp at Darby!!! We survived without getting eaten by bears!!!!! It was a great week and I had so much fun!!!! The girls had fun and all was safe!!! Our theme this year was Patriotic because of being right before the 4th of July and so we did stuff with stars and red, white, and blue, and the flag. Our theme this year was, "Stead fast and Immovable like the North Star!!!" We had so much fun!!! The weather was great mostly and just a bunch of good girls and good leaders. This photo is the first day of just the leaders. You always have to take it on the first day it is the only day you still look good!!! :)

Sister Trane figured out that you could put your fingers together and make a star!! It takes 2 people and both of their hands and one more persons fingers. I thought this was a cool picture.

This is our whole group!!!!! We are so adorable aren't we!!??? The Stake Leaders had white shirts, the YCL's ( Youth Camp Leaders) and Young Women Leaders had red shirts, and the girls had blue shirts. So we were red, white, and blue!!! Everything went good, and everybody had fun!!!! I am glad to be back home in my own bed though. I am glad to be able to take a shower and blow dry my hair. I wouldn't trade girls camp for anything though!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!

4th of July

Well what is better than having a water fight on the 4th of July!!!!!!!!! Nothing I tell you!!! Nothing!!!! The lawn needed mowing and so Doug mowed it and I was hosing off the grass on the side walk and "accidentally" sprayed him. So next thing I know he was coming around the back with his new squirt gun he got for Father's Day and he was squirting me!!! Well, I had the hose in my hands with the spray nozzle on it and I just sprayed him back!!!! :) I was squirting him and getting him nice and wet when all of a sudden my water was gone. Tasha had turned it off!!!! So I quickly ran back over and turned it back on and squirt her and then started squirting Doug again. He finally came over to me and stole it right out of my hands and drenched me but good!!!! So this is us when we were done!!!

Here is Tasha all wet!!! She didn't get it too bad, because she had the camera in her hands.

Here is Doug and I!! Notice I am the wettest!!!!! It is not fair that I can't fight back very much right now because of my surgery!!! NO FAIR!!!!!!!!!

This is Bethanie in the Parade. She graduated from D.A.R.E this past year and so she got to walk in the parade with all the other DARE students from all of the other schools!!!!! It was fun to see here in the parade. Well, that is really the only reason we went!!!!!! Yea for Bethanie!!!!

Pam was in the parade too with her cheerleaders, but we were not fast enough with the camera to get a picture of here. I did have the video camera on and hopefully got something on that!!!!! Way to go Pam with your Cheerleaders.

We hope everybody had a happy 4th of July!!!!!!