Lewiston and Silverwood

As promised here are more pics from our time with Curtis home and our vacation around Idaho.  This time it was up to northern Idaho to visit my brother Stillman and his family.  We also decided to try out a new theme park that none of us have ever been to before.

The drive up to Lewiston was absolutely beautiful!  We had pulled over right here to take this picture in Grangeville I think.  I just couldn't believe how beautiful everything was and why I had never been up this way before!

I loved the yellow fields.  I believe those are canola plants.

Our first outing when we got to Lewiston was to the Zany Graze restaurant where there was a clown making balloons for everyone who wanted one.  Nikki had the penguin; Jayden had a motorcycle; Jack had a dog; Alex had an orca (killer whale); and Garrett got a train.  He was the best balloon artist we have ever seen!

The next day it was off to Silverwood theme park near Coeur d'Alene and the first ride we took was the train since it was about to leave anyway.  This train ride is a lot better than the one at Lagoon!  It takes you back into some beautiful scenery and buffalo, and halfway they stop to have a little train robbery show where they had everyone putting their hands up!  It was pretty funny.  They did a good job.

Here's where we stopped and that's one of the train robbers, who knocked out our conductor inside that little shed.

At the train depot.

And what's a trip to the theme park without riding the carousel?

Getting ready to watch a fun magic show featuring Nick Norton.  We were in a dark room and yet Jack is still wearing his sunglasses.  Funny kid!

This is the first roller coaster Garrett and Nikki have ever ridden.  They were scared by the end of it but by the end of the day Nikki was addicted to the big roller coasters.  Although next time we'll start with the kid roller coaster, which we found later.  All the kids enjoyed that one.

Who said an elephant couldn't fly?

Love this shot of Jack and Daddy on the ferris wheel.

I think this was Garrett's favorite ride.  Because the lines were pretty short he rode this one lots of times.

Having fun together!

You WILL get wet on this ride!

In fact, you may get soaked!  I was glad Garrett and I sat out on that ride.  We stayed nice and dry.

We wore these kids out!

Since we hadn't eaten dinner yet we stopped at Texas Roadhouse in Coeur d'Alene.  Jack was so tired he slept the whole time we were there.  No need to order anything for him.

It was a very fun day and so glad we went!  Now time for the long ride back to Lewiston, which was about 2 hrs.

Even though I took a lot more pictures than this, that's all the pics for today.  I can only post so many.  Hopefully I will get more pics posted sooner next time.

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!