Raod Trip

On Saturday, July 7th the boys and I set out on a 2 1/2 week road trip.  The first leg of our trip took us to Reno.  We were excited to see lots of friends, and stay a few days with Sasha, Kevin, Bear and Lola.  The boys did a great job on the 7 hour drive (thanks to lots of snacks and DVD's)! 

We were able to go to church on Sunday and see everyone from our old ward - it was great to catch up with friends that we hadn't seen for a year!  After church we went to Castiblanco's for dinner, and then after that we had a girls' night at Sasha's.  Lots of fun, food, and conversation.  We ended up leaving Reno on Monday evening and making the three hour drive to grandma and grandpa Hoyt's house.

Fourth of July - Part II

The evening of the Fourth, we had a big party at our house.  Ron, Kathy and Marcus came along with the Darrows and the Symons, so I think we had just over 20 people here.  We BBQ'd and had lots of  good food, the kids played on the slip and slide, had water gun fights, rode bikes, and ran around outside.  We did our own fireworks show towards the end of the evening, and then were able to watch the Twin Falls fireworks from our backyard.  It turned out to be a great Fourth of July!

Fourth of July - Part I

Our Fourth of July started with a stake breakfast at a park near our house.  We had only been to our new ward a handful of times, so we wondered if we would know anyone at the breakfast.  All I knew was that I wanted to go and have a free breakfast before heading out to Buhl for the annual 4th of July parade.  We got to the breakfast around 8:30 and the park was full.  We saw a few people who we recognized from church, had a great big breakfast, and Hoyt and Jett were able to play a few games and run around before we headed to the parade.

After the breakfast we went to meet the Darrow's in Buhl for the parade.  While it is a very small town parade, the kids love it and collect at least as much candy as they do at Halloween!  By the time the parade ended, everyone was hot and sweaty and ready for some "down time".  Here are some pictures of the first part of our Fourth:

Birthday Girl

The actual day of my birthday was pretty low-key this year.  Ryon had a busy day of work, and I was getting Jett ready to have tubes put in his ears in the next day.  (We had some pre-op. things to do)  When Ryon got home that evening I informed him that we were going to Café Rio for dinner, because I wanted a salad for my birthday dinner.  So we all hopped in the car, enjoyed a dinner out, and I was thrilled because I didn't have to cook or do any dishes!!

For my birthday Ryon got us tickets to see Montgomery Gentry at the Twin Falls Fairgrounds later in June.  It turned out to be a great concert with awesome fireworks afterwards.  Here's to a great 38th year!

The boys and I ready to cut into my "birthday cookie"!  You can
tell that I had a pretty laid-back day......not a stitch of make-up
on my face.  I'm proud of myself for posting this!!  :)

Filer Stake Trek

One of the activities that I refused to "give-up" when we moved to Twin Falls was our participation in the Filer Stake Handcart Trek.  We had been asked to be a Ma and Pa on the trek in June, and even though we officially left the Stake in May we promised that we would come back for the trek.  While Ryon thought I was crazy, because we had so much going on with the move, I refused to back out.  I knew that we might not have the opportunity to do this again for a very long time, so I was determined to go. 

Every Wednesday, for two months leading up to the trek, we met at the stake center to meet with our families.  We got to know each other, made a family flag, made seats for the tops of our five gallon buckets, learned dances, etc.  There were nine children in our family - five boys and four girls, plus our "baby" (doll) that we carried with us throughout the journey.  We had such a wonderful time working with our kids, and while a couple of them made us nervous about how they would act on the trek, we were amazed at how well they all did.

The trek was three days, Thursday through Saturday.  The first day we walked 6 miles with our handcart, day two was 9 miles and day three was 4 miles.  We were out in the south hills outside of Twin Falls and it was dry, dusty and the sagebrush was plentiful to say the least!  It was a chore to push and pull a handcart through the terrain, but our kids were amazing.  They never complained and were always willing to help push or pull.  We had some amazing experiences including the women's pull, the burial of two babies in our company (I had a hard time with that), testimony meeting, and the dancing and devotionals every night. 

When we arrived back at the stake center Saturday afternoon, I don't think I had ever been so dirty in my entire life!  All of the kids were exhausted, but they were so happy that they had chosen to go on the trek.  If I were asked to do it again, I would say "yes" in a heartbeat.  (The people in charge of the trek told us not to bring our nice cameras, so I took a disposable.  Looking back, I kind of wish I would have had a nicer camera to document the trek, but these will have to do!)  Here are a few pictures from our adventure:

        

We Love to Read

Every night we have to read quite a few books before these two will go to bed!  I'm glad they love to read but some nights, I have to admit, that I wish one book was sufficient!!

The "Big Top"

Our friends, Karen and Randy Stoker (who lived down the street from us in Filer) called us to see if we would like some tickets to the circus that was coming to town.  They love the boys and had some free tickets that they thought we could use.  We gladly accepted and spent an afternoon at the circus watching the acts, eating cotton candy, getting "up close" with the elephants and much more. 

Hoyt was in awe, and Jett actually lasted about 45 minutes before he started running around and could care less about what was going on!  Ryon and I took turns taking Jett for long walks, but Hoyt could have watched the circus all day.  When we came home that night he proudly told us that he wanted to be in the circus when he grew up!!

Say "Cheese"

I thought this was a good picture of us with the Falls in the background.  We had a great Sunday afternoon playing with our cousins at Shoshone Falls park!





Visitors!

The first week of June we had some visitors arrive at our new house!  Noelle, Kyle and the kids came from Pocatello and Seth, Cathryn, Austin, Madi and Parker came from California.  We had lots of fun!  Seth and Cathryn were on their way to drop Austin off at BYU, where he will be redshirting for the football team this year.  He will then leave on his mission, and after he comes home will be playing football for BYU.  We are all so excited!

The first morning they were here, Hoyt and Landon snuck down to the basement where Austin was sleeping with their swords and shields saying, "Let's kill the giant.....let's kill the giant!"  It was hilarious.  I guess to a 3 and 5 year-old, Austin really does look like a giant! 

While they were here we went to church (Ryon and I had to speak in Sacrament Meeting that day), had a big family dinner, went to Shoshone Falls, and played a little family football.  Hoyt thought it was pretty cool to play football with Austin; in fact he tackled him a few times!  We are looking forward to a summer full of visitors in the new house!


The entire clan (minus Landon) at Shoshone Falls