Idaho - The finale

I am so happy that this is my last post from our month in Idaho. Now I can move on to other things. This is all the random things we did that didn't make it on the other posts. This first picture is at the 4th of July parade in Idaho Falls. Dylan wouldn't get off his chair to get candy, but Cassie sure did love it. I had to stop her from trying to be in the parade herself a number of times.

The kids and I went with the in-laws to their annual Rotary club picnic at Tautphaus park (or however you spell it). The food was sooooo good. I ran into some college friends and that was really neat to visit them. I had never been to that park and it was so much fun. Perfect for little kids. The zoo was the perfect size with a wide variety of animals, and the kids loved the little ride they had there. Cassie was a little unsure of the airplane ride. It actually went a lot faster then I expected and her little body kept shifting from side to side. I kept calling her name and she could never spot me because it was going around too fast and that frustrated her I think.






Kind of a blurry Dylan, but he loved this carousal ride. Cassie and I are in the back. She didn't love it as much.



Okay, this is the worst ride I have ever been on. Seriously. It is called "The Octopus" and Dylan kept wanting to go on it. I knew he would not like it, but he kept insisting and since he couldn't go by himself, I had to go with him. It was actually really fun at first. Both Dylan and I couldn't stop laughing. It is one of those spinning rides and if the car gets caught just right, it will spin and spin and spin and spin. We weren't spinning too bad at first but after a while, I could tell Dylan was getting a little sick and scared. So when we came back around to the guy handling the ride, I told him we were done. (we were basically the only riders). So he goes to stop the ride and our car got caught in just the right spot to start spinning, and it kept spinning. Spinning and spinning and spinning and spinning. It was bad. I couldn't even look at Dylan, but I could tell he was trying freak out, but couldn't because we were spinning so fast. I covered his eyes so it wouldn't make him "as" dizzy, and told him it was almost over. But it wasn't. It kept spinning and spinning and spinning. It seemed like forever. I had enough time to compare this sick, nauseous, horrible feeling to about everything I have ever experienced. It topped the list. If I was a barfing person, I would have barfed 5 times, but I didn't. Neither did Dylan. We just both felt very sick until the next day. I feel sick right night just remembering it. Ewe.




Cassie eating fries at MacDonald's. Candace and I took the kids there after a long day of shopping in Layton.


Dylan loved being with his Grandpa. He would follow him around everywhere and wanted to mow the lawn with him everyday. He is also wearing Grandpa's hat above.

Dylan finally warmed up to his uncle Mike and he was a good little helper. Uncle Mike gave him one of his bandannas and Dylan just loved it. He pitched right in to help.

Cassie, Cody, Dylan and Kaitlyn. We spent a lot of time with Christie and her kids. It was fun.

Nate's parents took us through the Yellowstone's Bear World, near Rexberg. The kids loved seeing the bears and other animals. It was a little freaky to me.


Yeah!!! I am finally finished these long posts. I promise to make them shorter in the future.

Idaho - part 3

While we were in Idaho we went to the Whittaker yearly week at Island Park with almost the whole fam. It was a lot of fun. We did plenty of boating, golfing, eating, playing Settlers, and just hanging out and having a good time. We also went to the Playmill theater in West Yellowstone and watched Footloose one night. It was really fun. We sat on the front row with the kids and they did pretty good considering how close we were to the actors/actresses. What a fun little theater it is. I didn't take a whole lot of pictures there, but here are a couple at the lake. Nate was showing off on the knee-board.

Idaho - Part 2

We chose a good month to be in Idaho because Mike (Nate's brother) and Natalie got married in SLC while we were there. It was nice to be there for it. The whole wedding weekend was fun. Here are a ton of pictures from the event. I took a lot of Dylan because he looked so cute. This is the first set of church clothes I have ever bought him, and he has never had a tie on before. Sad, I know. As you can see by his "gentle playing", I had to wash his clothes right after both receptions.

The the most important part of the wedding: the bride and groom.

I was going to comment after each picture, but I am too tired and lazy at the moment. I think my favorite part of the wedding was watching all the little girls run around in their white dresses. They all looked so cute and they had so much fun together.

Idaho - part 1

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of our month in Idaho. I have so many pictures to go through and I have been so busy since we have been home. Here are a few of some friends we were able to see:

This is Dylan and Tevin. They were the very best of friends when we lived in UofU student housing. What fun memories we created there! We visited our old stomping grounds a couple of times while we were in Salt Lake and it was so good to see everyone and how much their kids have grown. Lyndsay and Saia (Tevin's parents) even bought us pizza and we had so much fun reminiscing. Thanks guys, for a great time!

Cassie on the slide that she was too small to go down last year when we lived there.


Dylan and his cousin Katelyn, who played very well together, but I am afraid they fought more then they played. They must get something from their mothers! (just kidding)


Katelyn again, always posing.

Dylan, Cassie, Mason, and Gordon hanging out on the couch. These are Mike and Jennifer's offspring. Yes, I used the word offspring, Jennifer will like that. They reside in Smithfeild, Utah and will likely end up there. Jennifer once knew more about me then she cared to know.

So, I will get around to posting more pictures in a couple of days I hope. I have tons of wedding and Island Park pictures so hang in there!

A funny thing that happened today: I finished getting the kids bathed and dressed this morning (because they wanted a bath in the morning for some reason), then sent them free to play while I hurried and finished getting myself ready. It had been quiet for about 5 minutes so I decided I better go check. Well, I found the garage door open and the kids were playing in the middle of the road in a lake. Yes, a lake. It rained so hard last night that there was a ton of water everywhere. The drains are all covered here because of new construction (they don't want all the dirt going down the drains) so the road was covered completely with water. The kids were running through it laughing so hard. They were drenched from head to toe. I just dropped my camera yesterday and it broke, so I couldn't take any pictures, but it was so funny. (minus them being in the road part).

Back in Michigan

We made it back to Michigan at 1 am this morning. I am very glad to be back in our home and getting settled in. I will post more on our month in Idaho later. But first of all, here are my likes and dislikes about our drive:

Dislikes:

1. Lots and lots of orange cones (construction).
2. Crying children.
3. 1800 miles in the van in 2 days.
4. Feeling like I gained 10 pounds after eating 6 fast-food meals and sitting on my butt for two whole days.
5. The time zones, which caused us to lose an hour of time each day, hence the 1 am return time.
6. More crying children.

Likes:

1. Spending time with Nate and the kids (when they were not crying).
2. Getting to see so much pretty scenery (minus Wyoming) and cool sites, such as: The Mississippi, the worlds largest truck stop, the worlds largest fire works store, the home town of John Wayne, the John Adams Archway, etc.
3. No break downs on the side of the interstate, despite the large tire that we ran over going 85 m/hr.
4. Watching proudly as Dr. Nate rushed to the scene of an accident to see if his doctorly skills were needed. They weren't needed, so we kept going.
5. Pulling into Saginaw and realizing that I probably won't ever have to do that drive again with small children. (I will fly next time, no doubt about it)

Leukemia

My brother-in-law's Leukemia is back. Again.

It is hard being so far away from my family and not being there with them through these hard times.

Please pray for Lani (my oldest sister) and Casey and their 3 wonderful children.

They are one of the strongest couples I know and have been through so much together. I hope they can make it through this one more time, and hopefully the last time.

Playground

My friend Cora took these pictures at a playgroup we had in June.

She just emailed them to me and I thought they were so cute and I wanted to share them with everyone. I didn't even know she was taking them! Thanks Cora!

Cassie loves this ball so much. It goes everywhere she goes.