Well I only have like 32 pictures to upload....

Sheesh, when I get this far behind I don't even know where to start..... So far July has been a lot of fun! Lots and lots of family time, and lots of time in the car. First we went to Lagoon with my mom and dad, and brother and sisters. Nathan made it back from Iraq safe and sound, and he and his family drove to Idaho (the long way... for their whole trip they drove through 15 states and Canada.... with 4 kids 1st grade and under.... they should get a medal or something!). My sisters and their families came as well. Lagoon was so fun this year. The kids are getting older, and aren't quite so much work. (This was from my persective.... if you were to ask my mom about Lagoona Beach.... she would totally tell you a different story!) Anaya loved the Lady Bug and Dinasaur Drop rides (a kiddie version of The Rocket....). McKay said his favorite was the bumper cars! The older kids all liked the new ride Wicked. We went to Lagoon right on the 4th... so there were fireworks that night at Lagoon. The crowds were great, the weather was awesome, and kids had a blast! We were going to stop in Soda for Rik's reunion, but got going late from the hotel and missed it...



The following week we went to Canada to the temple to watch my grandma and her kids (my dad being one of them) and husband (Nathan was the proxy for my grandpa) get sealed. We also got to go through a session with her. The Cardston temple is really pretty. It looks really different than some of the other temples I have been in..... If temples could be male or female... this one would definately be male. I guess I should start at the beginning of the trip though. We left on Thursday of last week... after looking all night for my birth certificate... which never did show up! I was a little worried that they wouldn't let me back into the USA without it (Rik let me know that it was nice knowing me....). I took anything else I could find to help prove my citizenship, hopped in the van, and hoped for the best. Then we went to leave and the van was totally dead.... so we had to jump it to get it going, then we hopped in the van and really hoped for the best. We made it there and back just fine, and had minimal problems at the border... phew! We stayed at the Days Inn in Lethbridge. The rooms were a little small, but we didn't spend much time in them, because the hotel had a pool with a waterslide. So the kids swam every chance they got.





My kids were more than a little attached to Melanie's baby Mason. I think if we could have come up with a way to smuggle him into our car and take him home, the kids would have been over the moon!! That would have been fun to explain at the border! Here's Malia and Mason:



Here's some pictures at the temple:






And here are the cousins after the sealing:


We left on Saturday afternoon (after some more shopping for Canadian junk food). We made it as far as Great Falls, Montana. We stayed overnight there, and got up and went to the water park there. It was a nice park! And the price was nice as well! The worst part was trying to drag Rik and the kids away when we had to get back on the road! The park had a Flow Rider so you could body board.... my older kids (Rik included) loved going on it. Rik is ready to build one in the back yard I think....





We got home about 9:30 Sunday night... My mom and I still had to get in our weekend clean at the office.... that kind of felt like torture!

I put some more pictures on my Bebo page. I noticed that the pictures of the kids in the hotel swimming pool didn't turn out all that great, and I don't know how this happened.... but I didn't get a single picture of my grandma with me or my kids.... We might have to run right back up there for some more pictures! As soon as I find my birth certificate!

Malia left for girls camp Monday and Rik started his new job today (Tuesday). So we jumped right back into the real world. McKay was saying how fun Canada was (the whole trip was Canada to him) and we asked him if he wanted to move there (just teasing him). He thought about it and then said that he would miss August (our next door neighbor) too much. So I guess we'll stay. Fun couple of weeks though!

I read the 4th Ranger's Apprentice to Rik on the way to Canada... and loved it even the second time! Good series of books! I finished the first Fablehaven today. I enjoyed it as well. I think I'll try to start the 2nd one... but only if I can get the garage cleaned out tomorrow! Counting down to August 2nd!!!

Oh, since I had so many pictures to upload, I posted them all smaller. But you can click on them if you want to see them bigger.

Ranger's Apprentice

I just finished reading the 4th book of the Ranger's Apprentice series, and I'm still all keyed up from reading it, so I'm having a hard time falling asleep. And since no one is awake for me to tell how much I loved the books....I hate that.... I thought I would write it down. I loved all four books, but really liked the 1st and 2nd, and the 4th book is awesome! That last book had my heart racing at parts, laughing out loud at some of the humor, and tearing up by the end.... nothing better than that. Kayden is in the 2nd book and Rik is reading the 3rd book.... and by "reading" I mean right now he gripping the book, but his eyes are shut and the lights are out (must be some kind of "Ranger Skill" to read with your eyes shut....) Apparently all the yard work he and Kayden did today made him kind of tired.

Speaking of Rik though, and the Ranger books... Saturday night at about 12:30am, he was up working on stuff for church and I was down stairs getting some laundry done, and I heard the doorbell ring several times... I knew it had to be some really bored teens playing pranks, but I heard Rik's chair back up and the back screen door open, and yep, I knew he was going to run them down.... A little while later he ran back home (in his bare feet....) and he started telling me what happened by saying, "Well, first I used my "Stealth Ranger Skills" so they wouldn't see me. And I followed them through the neighborhood, watching them ring more door bells, hoping that they would end up at their house. Then they saw me, and my "quick as lightening Ranger legs" kicked in and I was after them....." You get the idea of the super hero story I was hearing from Rik. He ended up running them right to their house... so he rang their doorbell, and had a little talk with their parents. I guess Rik was a little keyed up from reading the books as well.

I have to tell you though, I am SOOOOO far behind on my laundry now.... totally worth it, but I can not start another book until I catch up, and that might not be for a couple weeks.... So please, don't recommend any books to me... and definitely not any series of books, as I have to read every book in the series all in one sitting. I did manage to make dinner for everyone today though... which is unusual when I'm way into a book.... it was take and bake pizza from Albertson's.... So I could read while I was making it....phew!

Just in case anyone is wondering, I have already loaned out the 1st book (true sign of a good book), but she's a fast reader and I should have it back soon..... should anyone else need to have mountains and mountains of unwashed laundry, give me a call next week, and you can borrow it. Night!

Fun weekend for the girls.... and Kayden too

Taisha and Malia spent last Wednesday through Saturday in Soda Springs. While they were there, they performed for the Relay for Life walkers. The girls loved it (especially the pre-performance make-overs thanks to Alana). Kayden went to Youth Conference, and also got to enjoy a couple days without Malia and Taisha to torment him.


Just a quick update on the basement: Both bedrooms are sheet rocked, and we picked up mud, tape and corners today so things can get really messy! It looks so different with the sheet rock up.

We are going to Lagoon on the 4th and coming home on the 5th by way of Soda Springs for Rik's 20 year class reunion (sheesh.... I'm like married to some old guy....)

June 2008

Here's a little re-cap of the last part of June:

Yesterday was the last day of baseball games. Both Taisha and Malia loved playing this year again. Kayden is not a big baseball fan (he likes basketball), so he didn't play. I co-coached Taisha's team with one of my neighbors. Taisha was at a dentist appointment when we had pictures, so she's not in them, but I got some other pictures of her playing.





Rik got me a new camera for my birthday. Here is the first picture that was taken with it:


We got the tomatoes and cucumbers planted. The cucumbers were peaking through the dirt yesterday. If you look really close though, you can see that a dog or cat got into my garden last night, and pulled out some more carrots! I have one more spot for another tomato plant (I'm just sure I can find an "early girl" variety to put in that spot...) I also got some flowers planted on the side of my house.



Matt and Deborah and the girls came up last night. It was so fun!! Matt worked on Rik's car again, well that doesn't sound fun, but he is amazing as usual, and the thing runs like it's brand new. I sure wish Rik got some of the "mechanic" genes, but I think Matt hogged them all. Taisha and Malia ended up stowing away in Matt and Deborah's car, so they are in Soda for a couple days of fun with the cousins and the mosquitoes.

Kayden and Rik get to go to Youth Conference at Island Park tomorrow. If you do the math, that means I will only have 2 kids left home. And those two live outside with the next door neighbors. They have had so much fun playing with all the nieghborhood kids. McKay and Anaya get along really good with the two little girls that live next door, and I have LOVED having them outside playing. They play until they are exhausted.

I'm reading the 2nd book in the Ranger's Apprentice series, and really enjoying it. I can't beleive that we are heading into July already! June has flown by!

Loving the warm weather!

Here are my really happy kids after spending the last two days outside. If I was to take a picture of myself, I would look exactly the same way!! I love that they are outside playing all day! McKay and Anaya are several shades darker... despite getting covered in sun block every morning after their bath. Kayden, on the other hand, is nice and white.... apparently there are no harmful UV rays coming out of the computer screen. Phew, that's good news!


The garden is loving the hot weather too... all except the carrots that the kids shoveled up. The garden is the best sand box ever! I'll try and get those re-planted tomorrow. I think it actually might be warm enough to plant tomatoes and cucumbers now too.


There were professional photographers along the marathon route, and the pictures are online. We were looking through them though.... and they were hilarious!! This was the only photo that Rik thought was maybe ok... Even funnier than the pictures of Rik, was Taisha doing an impersonation of Rik running like in the pictures. He's so picked on here!

WooHoo Rik!

My inner blogger is having a hard time getting into the summer groove so far. With Rik and the kids home full time, I don't have much access to the computer, and I'm still working out my day to day routine! So I'm going to do another power post to catch up on the first couple weeks of summer break.

Malia has already completed two volleyball camps since school let out! The first one was really awesome. She learned a lot. The second one was also a lot of fun, but there were so many girls that there was no way to get the one on one technical help like she got during the first camp. Taisha also did the second vollyball camp and loved going. Baseball games run on Mondays and Wednesdays for both Malia and Taisha.... we've had games cancelled because of rain and even had a SNOW day!! Can you believe that! The wind has blown for every game. I seem to have wind blown bad hair just about everyday!

Rik is changing jobs, so his last day at Docutech was Friday May 30th. He doesn't start his new job until the middle of July. He'll be working for Insei. He is still doing some contract work for Docutech, and would like more contract work to do on the side. I wasn't sure what to expect having the whole family home every single day all day long..... but so far, there hasn't been a single day like that. Everyone is in and out and running every direction, which is good, because that makes it less likely that I will go crazy or something like that.


Speaking of Rik, he ran his marathon and survived it! I was really proud watching him run through the finish line. This was his first marathon he has ever run, and the Teton Dam race is a hard marathon. He ran all 26 or so miles in 4 hours and 20 minutes. He has trained the last 14 weeks for this race, and he says it is the hardest thing he has ever done. We're still waiting for the official results to be put on the web site, but we think he got 6th for his age division, and 85th out of about 183 full marathon runners. Hopefully they get his exact time and placement up on the results page tomorrow. Rik told us to be in Rexburg by 10:30 because we wanted to cheer him on, but I wasn't really sure where I was going so we left extra early to get there.... only we didn't know that they were re-doing the road from Rigby to Rexburg (although... that road was horrible... so about time!!), and there was this huge air show in Rexburg that day, so the traffic was terrible. It took 15 or 20 minutes just to exit off the freeway to get into Rexburg. I was sure we missed Rik running through the finish line, and was really disappointed. We found the park, and ran to the finish line right as Rik was running through. We had made signs to wave at him, but didn't even have time to pull them out! Everyone has been asking Rik if he will run another marathon. I think this is a little like asking a woman who had minutes before given birth, if she is going to have another baby..... Maybe ask him again in a few months. Kayden was asking Rik if they could run it together next year.... For now, this video will show you a little how Rik has felt today (only he did tape up really good before the marathon, so no bleeding!):

While we were at the park the kids took turns climbing the rock climbing wall. Taisha and Kayden climbed as quick as they could to the very top and rang the bell, and Malia tried... but she doesn't do so good with heights.... so she got part way up, her hands started sweating, and her whole body trembled (visibly.... even from my line of vision) and she decided to get down on solid ground....



Anaya had a bad sleep the other night, and was up and down and fussy all night. I don't have very many nights like that anymore, and my body didn't like that too much. The next morning I was asking Anaya why she was up and crying the last night, and without hesitating, and in her "duh mom, you should just know this stuff" voice, she said, "I had nose hiccups all night!" There are just some comments that totally take me off guard.... and crack me up. Anaya turns 4 in August, and I really don't know what I am going to do when I don't have life through the perspective of a 3 year old keeping me laughing.

Today we got up early and drove to Soda for two baby blessings. Ana and Dave, and Pono and Michelle both blessed their babies in Soda. It was so fun to go and see the babies and the family... and holy smokes the food was yummy!! I didn't get any pictures, but I saw lots of cameras snapping away, so I'll try to steal some pictures and get them posted. I was so glad things worked out so we could go! (Thanks for all the help....you know who you are!)

We took our primary kids to the Idaho Falls Temple Visitor's Center for an activity last week. The visitor's center was recently renovated, and is beautiful on the inside.




I took one week off, and last week started back up with my summer piano students. I would really like to try and get Kayden's eagle project done over the next month, and hopefully we can get the basement all done while Rik is home as well, or at least the kids bedrooms. Quinn, Rik's brother, moved in today for a few weeks. I think we are trying to see how many people we can fit into the house before I crack... hehe.

Malia's birthday party

Malia had her birthday party tonight. I sent them on a photo scavenger hunt around the neighborhood. It took them 2 hours to find almost everything on the list and get their picture with it. I sent Taisha with them to be the photographer, and she took some cute pictures! Then they came home, ate (BBQ hamburgers), and made picture frames. They played Capture the Flag, had cake, opened presents, and phew, barely got everything done before it was time for everyone to go home! Malia loved it, and I'll tell you what.... easy party to throw together... (we finally got around to delivering invitations last night.... I started working on what we were going to do late last night, got everything this morning, and had it all together by the time the party started....)

School is all over with, and I love having a little freedom in the schedule... but I don't have the routine down yet. I have this constant feeling that I am forgetting something.... but it's just because I'm not used to my day now that everyone is home. Baseball games have started up, Malia heads off to volleyball camp tomorrow, and the kids have had lots and lots of friends over (yes, that is desperation to have the basement done you hear in my voice....) Rik is all done with his big training runs, and is only running 6 - 10 miles a day.... only 9 more days until the big marathon. I have some more pictures of my sister's baby... I'll try to get them up tomorrow...