Sunday, August 30, 2015

11 months and going

Audrey is on the move and keeps growing!  This little cute smudge faced kid is, like I always say, so happy.  I love getting her out of bed in the morning because she lights up the room when she smiles.  It's the sweetest thing.  Audrey walks full bore now.  Eats pretty much everything.  LOVES stuffed animals and Tanner.  Gets into everything she can, including the toilet and garbage (have to really watch her!).  And is learning how to squeal and throw fits, comes with the age ;).  Love love love her.
Our garden really boomed this year, and I was so grateful for helping hands when it came time to harvest frequently.
We also found a leopard slug in our tomatoes, yuck!!  It was huge.  Cami tried to cage it and keep it alive... but that didn't work.  Oh darn! ;)
By the end of the summer, the kids really got creative with activities.  Including homemade spider webs!
Before school started we went on a couple day outings.  One was to Jubilee Lake with some friends.  The kids had a blast paddle boarding, finding a rope swing, and playing with friends.  We also saw a huge forest fire billowing in the distance!  I'm not going to lie, I was a little worried.  It was smokey on the way home, but that's about it.
Craig and Scarlett were buddies
We also hit the Portland Zoo, (money saved up from our garage sale).
The Eagles have landed!
My mom came with us, and I'm kicking myself that I didn't get a picture with her.  But I loved having her with us.
Audrey was a trooper
Craig too!  He walked, actually ran most of the time, so excited by it all.
To say the least, he was too pooped to eat dinner.  Sleeping at Wendy's
Also, it's soccer season!  Carson got to start his first year.  And the first thing he said was, "I'm sweating so much!"  And he counted the drops of sweat coming down his neck on the way home.  He's such an aggresive little bugger.
Cami's first practice she got an Nike imprint on her leg from a ball being kicked hard at her.  It lasted for a few days!
Alex is playing too, but I haven't gotten a picture of him yet.  Jeremy is coaching his team so I don't take him too and from.  But we will get a pic soon!

Friday, August 28, 2015

Peaches and Luau

Summer brings all kinds of yummy fruits, and peaches was one of them.  But I couldn't just can them, we needed to enjoy them! ;)
We also had our mother daughter luau for activity days.
It was fun to put together :)
PHOTO BOOTH
HAWAIIAN HAYSTACKS FOR DINNER
GAMES
SOCIALIZING
THE GANG
I LOVE these girls

Monday, August 17, 2015

Yellowstone 2015

For our family trip this year we ventured out to Yellowstone.  To say the least, it was so fun. We traveled up one day to Rigby, ID to stay with some family (Tanelle Allen), toured a portion of Yellowstone the next day, hit Bear Park and Jeremy's sister's wedding in Rexburg the following day, then traveling home on our final day.  It was a trip well worth taking!
YELLOWSTONE
Firehole Falls
Bison Crossing 
The colors in the hot springs were beautiful!
Prismatic Springs
Waiting for Old Faithful
There she blows!!
Taking a dip in Yellowstone Lake
It was freezing!!
On our way out, just before hitting a lightning storm, our view consisted of this... GORGEOUS!
AT BEAR PARK
A white elk.  They say there are one in six million.
Bears were everywhere!  This one had an itchy butt ;)
This one had a liking to the front of our van.  In fact, he came up to us, started licking the front of our car (bugs must have been tasty), and started scraping at our license plate!  Jeremy quickly backed up to discourage him.  Then he went to my side of the car and stood up and pawed our side mirror to say hi ha!  It was pretty exciting :)
Within seconds he ripped most of our license plate border and started to bend the plate itself.
Evidence of his muddy paws
My little 'cubs' in front of the bear cubs :)
At the petting are.  Pot belly pigs make me giggle.  
Craig insisted on doing this :)
They had a few childrens rides for the kids to go on.  Jeremy was such a good daddy and took Audrey on the train :)
Cami was so sweet too.  She went along with Craig on every ride to make sure he had lots of fun.  Craig was SO SAD when we had to leave.  I wish we could have stayed an hour longer just for him.
We also took a curator tour and fed the bears.  Most of them are black bears so we tossed lots of bread and bagels out to them.  It was pretty funny.  We were like the ice cream truck.  They knew who we were and where all the stops are! :)

CHELSEA'S AND BRANDON'S WEDDING
Later that night we got to go to Jeremy's half sister's wedding in the Rexburg temple.  These two are so special and we were so glad we could come and be a part of it!  The sealing was beautiful and loved many of the things the sealer said to them.  It was a special day.  
We also got to see little Allie and the family who adopted her.  They came all the way from Arizona just to be apart of Chelsea's wedding. So Sweet!
Congrats Chelsea and Brandon Sandal!
We were so happy to be done driving when we got home.  Audrey was impressively good for the whole trip.  A few fussy moments, but a chocolate cookie solved those problems ;)