Summer vacation with Curtis!

It has been a crazy, busy, fun summer so far!

Curtis came home for 2 1/2 weeks at the end of June and that's when most of the craziness began...

The morning after Curtis came home he got straight to work on cutting the boys' hair and putting the bunk bed together!  For the first time in 8 1/2 years we have finally taken the crib apart and put it into storage.  Poor Jack didn't like that too much.  He cried over losing his crib bed (the side was taken off so it was like a bed).  Although I think it helped that he is still sleeping on the crib mattress since we didn't have a chance to buy a twin size mattress yet.  So he has the crib mattress and the sides are surrounded by homemade cushions that I recently acquired from my grandparent's.  The cushions in the back had to be folded up so it looks like a futon.

We celebrated our 10th anniversary by eating at Tucanos with my brother Stillman and his wife Michelle (they were celebrating their 9th anniversary).  Don't worry, we are not drinking anything alcoholic, hehe!  It was some sort of tropical fruit drink and very yummy!  And Stillman introduced me to Tucanos' grilled pineapple and it was delicious!  Didn't need dessert after that!

Nothing like a father and son playing some ball.  They were warming up before Garrett's t-ball game.

A camping we will go!  Pit stop on the way to Stanley, ID.  This ride was really the first time I remember getting car sick in my life and that's the main reason we stopped here.  I was very close to losing what little breakfast I had on the side of the road.  And no, I'm NOT pregnant.

We made it to Stanley where we camped next to Redfish Lake.  They had a little play area, mostly these big beams to climb on and a tire swing.

The Sawtooth mountains behind us are just beautiful!

Nikki was having fun making faces for the camera.  Jack wasn't sure about riding this swing until we forced him to get on and then he loved it!

Jack just finished eating a few of his favorite cookies.  Oreos!

These two were crazy enough to get in the FREEZING cold water.

After having tin foil dinners and smores, we popped some jiffy pop popcorn.  And it was good!

I couldn't resist!  It's been so many years since I've been on one of these!

The next day we met up with Curtis's parents in Donnelly, ID at the SISCRA campground, which is very close to my grandparent's cabins.  We brought our new ladderball game and played a few rounds.  We ended up sleeping in that white tent his parents had set up and his parents were in their RV.  It was nice not having to get our tent out again.  We also played a round of Yahtzee where Curtis actually scored 2 Yahtzee's in 1 game!  Needless to say, he won!  We also played a fun little game that I think was called "Pass the pigs".  That's a good one to play with the kids because even they were winning against the grownups. 

Love being outdoors with my family!

We had a hard time getting Jack to cooperate for this picture but at least he's looking!

Having some fun in the lake behind my grandparent's cabin since there wasn't a good place to swim at the campground.

It was a bit windy that day at the lake so we didn't swim too long.


We played games, roasted hotdogs, popped more popcorn, swam in the lake, and visited.  It was fun being up there with my in laws!

This was the first part of our vacation.  Stay tuned for more!  Next will be our trip to Lewiston and Silverwood!



A few of my favorite things....my family

Here are some fun things that have been going on this past month.  Maybe now that I have been released from my primary secretary church calling I can get to my blog more often  :)

Nikki had a spring concert at school.  She was very close to getting a solo part but not this time.  I love watching little kids in concert.

Here were are after the concert.  Garrett was playing at his friend's house so he wasn't there and that made Nikki quite sad.  I told her next time I'll make sure he comes with us.

This little hair do was popular last week as almost every little girl in our culdesac had it.  It wasn't all on the same day.  One of us would see how cute this do looked on the other daughter's hair and then want to try it on our own daughter. 

Here is what Nikki (on the left) and Garrett (on the right) made for me for Mother's Day.  Nikki came up with how to make this little basket all by herself while she was at school.  Inside the basket is a coupon book that she made for me.  Loved it!

So we decided to do it for my mothers and grandmothers, only we used colored paper this time and filled it with a candy bar we hoped they would like.

Then stuffed them with tissue paper.  It was fun to do corresponding colors for each side of the family.  My mother in law and her mother got the blue and orange ones.  My stepmom and grandma got the green and yellow ones.

Last Saturday Garrett played his last 2 games of soccer.  In the first game he scored his very first goal!  He played so well in both games but he would get a little discouraged in the 2nd game when he was about to score more goals when each time his fellow team mate came up from behind him and stole the glory.  It will be nice when they get old enough to learn more team work  ;) 

All the kids who played soccer received a soccer medal and t-shirt.  Unfortunately Nikki did not get hers yet since she did not get to play due to an injured left ankle that has been swollen for 1 1/2 months.  But she'll get it at the team BBQ later.

I think this little guy would like to play too but we're not sure if he's ready for it yet......maybe.

If you can't go to the pool, bring the pool to you.....at home.....in the bath tub.  Ha ha

Nikki and I all ready for church Sunday morning.  I had Garrett take a picture of us and he actually did pretty well for a 5 yr old.  This is my new favorite picture of my daughter and me.

Yesterday at church I was officially released from my primary secretary church calling and my wonderful presidency presented me with these beautiful flowers.  I left them in the pot and they are now decorating our front porch.  Getting released was a bitter sweet thing.  It will be nice to lessen my responsibilities.  I have now been called to the nursery and will probably be with my little Jack.  It will be fun!

Sunday evening I decided that we were going to just have pancakes for dinner, so Nikki helped.  She made the syrup all by herself under my direction and then she helped with some of the ingredients for the batter.  And I think this is the first time I have let her try pouring the batter onto the griddle by herself.  She even flipped pancakes and took them off for me.  It was nice to have an extra set of hands for a change.  And great that she is learning these things!

After most of the pancakes were already done and the batter almost gone I told her she could do whatever she wanted with the batter.  So she got a little artistic on me.  She made me laugh but it was cool and fun at the same time.

She took some of her artistic pancakes and got even more creative.  Later she had added eyebrows and other things too but I didn't get a picture of those.  So cute!

Tonight we had a "Going Away Party" for my brother Stillman and his wife Michelle (and kids).  It was so great that our other brother, Phillip, showed up and joined in the fun.  We hardly ever see this guy!  We had all my siblings there except Derek.

I bought my first Costco cake just for this occasion.  My kids picked out the caterpillar picture and the words say "Good Luck!  We'll Miss You!"  The cake was delicious I might add!

My nephew Jayden wanted the head of the caterpillar.....so we cut it out for him.  I think he ended up just eating the frosting and not the cake!  Cute kid!

At one point we were talking about exercise and push ups.  My sister Melissa wanted to see how fast Phillip could do push ups and she even did some along side him.  You guys are so strong!

This was just too cute not to post.  My little nephew Lehi resting on his daddy's shoulder.

This picture should have been first since it happened earlier this month but I thought Curtis would enjoy seeing the beautifuly rainbow, the view from our home.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures again!  It's been a busy month as usual but fun!

Easter 2012

Well, I didn't get to the Easter post as soon as I thought I would but where I'm feeling a little under the weather today and not feeling like doing much I thought it would be a good time to do it.  Easter was a very busy weekend for our family.  Saturday morning we went to our ward Easter breakfast and egg hunt.  I am so glad they did the breakfast too because it just doesn't seem worth it to go to just an egg hunt where it's over in 5 min.  As it was we were there for about 1 1/2 hrs.  Then we went home to get Garrett and Nikki ready for their first spring soccer games.  Later we drove over to my sister Tamara's house to have an Easter dinner and egg hunt with my family.  I was already exhausted by the time we got there.  Then I left my kids there to be babysat while I went to the annual Sugar Ball with all of Curtis's family (mom, dad, brothers & sisters in the area).  It is a work party put on by Amalgamated Sugar Co.  My father in law earned his 30 yr award that night.  The last time we went to one of these was either at his 20 yr or 25 yr mark but I can't remember.  Anyway, we talked, ate dinner, and painfully waited for the raffle drawings.  Amazingly I won a $25 gift certificate to IHOP!

Easter morning I was still so tired that I wanted to take things slow.  And since the boys had forgotten about the Easter bunny coming that morning I decided to take advantage of it by having them eat their breakfast of cereal before reminding them that the Easter Bunny hid their baskets somewhere in the house.  After church we rested for a little while and then my sister Tamara and daughter Katelynn came over to enjoy a walk in the beautiful warm spring weather and then came back to color eggs. Towards the end of coloring, Nikki spilled the green color on her side of the table.  Just as we were finishing cleaning it up, Katie spilled the blue on the opposite side.  We decided we were done after that.  It was still fun though!

This was just after the Easter breakfast and egg hunt at the church.  All you see in the baskets is candy because they had everyone return the eggs to be used for next year.  Smart idea!

At Tamara's house.  The kids loved coming down the slide after finding eggs up in the playhouse.

Here's what Nikki found!

We were trying to get a group picture of the kids and Jack was too busy looking in his eggs to look up for the cameras.  Later we had to take all of the chocolate candy out since he can't have them because of his milk allergy.  Maybe some day that will change, we hope.

Here are the kids Easter baskets and gifts.  I bought them the "Puss In Boots" dvd and had it stored in my sock drawer for almost 2 months waiting for Easter!

Jack got a little puzzle that has a wind up toy car that goes around on a little track on the puzzle.  He loved that!

Garrett got a suction cup basketball net and ball.  We couldn't get it to stick to the walls so we stuck it to the sliding door and it worked!

Nikki got these ball catchers where you pull the trigger and it shoots the ball to the other person to catch it.  Can you see the ball?

All the kids ready for Easter church services.  We were glad to have another chance for Nikki to wear her nice white dress.

The kids got creative after church with their plastic eggs.  They built boats for their eggs and 1 boat had a trailer where they were pulling stuff for going camping.

And if they're going camping they'll need a tent!

Finally, the egg coloring!   And Jack just can't wait to take that egg out of the green coloring!

Nikki is old enough now that she did all of her eggs by herself....except our little mess towards the end when she spilled the dye.  My sister helped Garrett with his eggs.

Everyone say "happy Easter!"

The kids admiring their beautiful eggs.