Idaho falls Chukars

It's our favorite time of the year!! Summer, when our cousins from Texas come to visit. We spent the first night at the Idaho Falls Chukars game Tayden has wanted to go to a real baseball game for quite sometime. In fact, he recently became hooked on baseball and has been watching it on YouTube any chance he gets. So to be able to go with Coda and Gracie was icing on the cake. 

I didn't get either one looking at the camera, but this red headed duo are the cutest. 

It's hard to see, but Tayden was extremely excited about a play that had just happened. He wore his glove he whole night in hopes of catching a fly ball. 

There isn't anyone cache loves more than his Gracie girl. 

Justin and Echo. This is the last picture I got before my phone died, but my grandma, sister, mom and dad were there too. It was incredible having my whole family together. 

Surprisingly enough, Ky stayed awake the whole game. I was expecting to head home after the first few innings, but he hung tight. He was pretty good as long as he had something to eat or some space to move. He got a little restless around 9:30, but Scott was able to sit with him in some empty seats away from everyone and calm him down. 

We spent the next day recovering and hanging out. My dad took the big boys (Scott, Justin, Coda and Tayden) shooting, while everyone else hung out and relaxed. We finished the night with dinner at my place, ice cream and of course cards until the early morning. One thing I have come to love is playing cards with my family until everyone is delirious....or speaking Chinese. (Yes, I encouraged a round of straight Chinese. My brother was the only one to participate with me...we are just that cool. And funny!) We always end up laughing until we cry. 

We had one more day of fun in Blackfoot before Justin and his family headed up to Dubois for a couple days. It was full of water balloons, tramp jumping and good food. 

I used to say Justin married echo for me. But now, I can clearly see it was for me kids. She jumped on the tramp and played games with them for what seemed like hours. We love our Aunt Echo. 

And of course, the evening wouldn't be complete without a ride on the lawn mower with grandma. 

It was a fun few days and we can't wait until they come back next week for even more fun. 

Carni-Val

A couple weeks ago our neighborhood threw a fun little carnival. We got there a bit late, but just in time to enjoy some fun full man bubbles and snap a few pictures. 

Tayden loved flipping upside down. 

I love the way Ky is looking at Scott. He sure loves his daddy. 

Our neighborhood is the best and this little carnival proved it. 

Work Hard, Play Hard

Our project list has been a mile long for the past couple weeks. With the big boys room basically finished, the list is finally getting shorter. Saturday rolled around and we still had some things that needed finishing, but we were also in need of some good quality family time. So we struck a deal with the boys. If we finished cleaning up the trash (leftover sheetrock, trim and odds and ends from the basement construction) and got it ready to haul to the dump, we'd go on a big adventure later. And bless those hearts, the boys were a humongous help. They carried, they lifted, they loaded, and they cleaned until they couldn't anymore. We were so proud of our sons. 

So as promised, we adventured. We loaded up the car and took a quick day trip to Mesa Falls. I hadn't been for years and Scott hadn't been at all. It was awesome. The kids are such good little travelers and hardly need any entertainment outside of each other, so the ride up was so pleasant. The Falls were beautiful and worth the drive. It was an all around good time. 

We were having such a good time, we didn't want the fun to end...so we headed over to Island Park. I used to vacation there a lot with my cousins when I was younger and have told the boys countless stories about my nights at the cabin. Our thoughts were to show them around my old stomping grounds and see some pretty sights. My mom gave us the great idea of checking out Big Springs and so we did. 

It was even more beautiful than I remembered. We only saw a few fish, but the baby ducks made up for the lack of fish. Plus, there were tons of seagulls. And that lead to some pretty big excitement. As we were taking one last look at the fish the seagulls were flying in pretty close. Beckett was just sitting on the bridge, minding his own business...when bam...a bird dove straight into his face! It took everyone by surprise, especially Beckett! He practically had to push the bird off his head. He was fairly stunned and stood still for a minute processing what had happened. As I had my arm around him and checking his face, Tayden started yelling that the bird was suffering. Sure enough, the dumb bird was laying on the bridge gasping for air. Then, a minute later...dead. The bird died! It was the craziest thing and we laughed about it the rest of the afternoon.

Someone pushed the bird into the river. Beckett had a moment of silence and watched it drift away. 

He's lucky it only left a small mark. I thought for sure we'd be dealing with a gushing head wound. 

It was such a great day, bird collision and all. It was just what the doctor ordered! 

Day trip

I had the awesome opportunity to see my friend Melissa and her kids. She was in Utah visiting her mom so the boys and I took day trip to see them. It was just what I needed. Melissa is a life long friend and though I don't see her often, when I do it's like no time has passed at all. 

The cute kids 

When Melissa and I met we had three and a half kids. I had Tayden and Beckett and she had Hannah and was pregnant with Paige. We have since added Cache, Kyle, Sam and Jonathan. 

We took advantage of the grandmas (my mom drove down with me) and had a mid day girls date to grab a drink. We sat and talked and talked and talked. It was so good. It felt like being home. She is my soul sister. 

Saying goodbye was hard, as it always is. But there's always a next time with Melissa and I'm so grateful for that. 

Hair cut

Apparently, I wasn't cutting Caches hair just right and he felt the need to step in. 

As I was judging the back of his neck to make sure his hairline was straight, he grabbed the razor and said let me try. Before I even had a chance to process what had happened, this had already happened. He cried after I scolded him, but then he was quite proud of his handy work and showed it off at church. Did I mention that?! Yeah, I was cutting hair right before church. Guess that's what I get for working on the Sabbath. 

Flower Power and a Map

For Mother's Day my sweet husband put up shutters and a flower box. The before and after pictures are awesome.

Then, to make an even bigger difference...my flowers! I've kind of become a crazy flower lady over my plants, but I just love them so much. 

Yay for home improvements. 

And one picture of my kids, because well, it's my kids. 

We got this awesome map from Target and they have really enjoyed coloring it. 

Yay for Target and happy kids. 

Saying Goodbye

A couple weeks ago I said goodbye to my childhood home. My parents have lived in the same home for nearly 30 years and recently sold it. Saying goodbye was harder than I expected, but I'm so excited for their new journey of building a house.

The kids and I went down to check it out one last time. My kids were hungry and parents had taken most of the food out of the house. My mom had one watermelon left, but not knife. So, she went all caveman and smashed it open. My two little boys were in fruit heaven. 

Look how filthy caches knees are! He spilled something on his clothes, stripped down and then played in the uhaul most the afternoon. He was happy, so I was happy. 

I love the way Kyles nose is smashed into the watermelon. 

I really wanted a nice picture in front of the house, but what can you expect with a seven year old photographer. 

Not picturesque by any means, but I'll take what I can get. 

This old house holds many memories for me. I'll miss the creaky step heading to the basement, the sink that overlooks the backyard and the way sun shone in through the middle window every morning warming up the perfect patch of carpet. It was a great place to be raised and will always hold a special place in my heart. 

July 4th 2016

This Fourth of July was great. Scott's little sister and her husband, blessed their baby Sunday. Then we headed down to Inkom for lunch and a sleepover at grandmas. We got up the next morning, had breakfast, attended the parade and played at the carnival. On the way home we stopped at my parents house for a quick BBQ. We had planned on hitting up the big firework show in idaho falls, but the kids were so bushed we just took them home and did a few small firworks in the driveway. It was a whirlwind weekend and so so fun. 

I forgot my camera, so we took a few and enjoyed the rest of the day. My mother in law took pictures, and I thought I emailed them to me, but didn't. So, the few from my phone will have to do. 

The kids are professional wavers. 

Kyle was so tired, which worked out, because he was more than content to sit in his stroller. 

Six people, looking in completely opposite directions. It's the best we got, so I'll take it. 

We also did a few impromptu fireworks with our neighbors. 

Sparklers without shoes....Beckett and Cache learned the hard way that it's not a good idea. 

The fourth is one of my favorite holidays and this year was no different.