Making Up For Lost Time

Fourth of July Fun! (on the 3rd)

This summer Matthew participated in summer band so that he could be in the 4th of July parade. He sacrificed sleeping in many mornings (so did I!) But in the end I think it was all worth it. We enjoyed watching him in the parade and he had fun marching in it.

We even had some of the guys from Star Wars come.



After the parade we went straight to the park for Matthew's concert in the park.

The kids got to play in the jumpy castles and slides.

After the park we enjoyed lunch at Eric and Lynne's and lighting off our fireworks in the backyard then sitting on the back steps under blankets and watching what we could see of the county fireworks. Oh, how I love the 4th of July in Rexburg. I'm practically in tears posting this. Hopefully, we can go there every year to celebrate!

It's Been a Busy Month...

It all began on July 17th when we fed the fish at Warm River

trying to take advantage of some of

our favorite scenery in Idaho

luckily the fish were happy to see us

and we're gonna miss them and the
beautiful drive through Ashton...

The next day we celebrated my (ahem) 33rd birthday(it's ok, I'm not sensitive about my age but sometimes I think, wow, it's kind of weird how old I am!)

and also my wonderful sis, Michelle's birthday (she's lucky- she's only 23!)

we miss these guys! (a whole bunch!)

On July 19th we took one last trip to Yellowstone for awhile (sniff, sniff)

and had a perfect day
we visited my favorite part- the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

and did something we'd never done before-
swam in the freezing river by the hot (really, really hot)
springs and created our very own hot tub!

and had so, so, so, so much fun!







(here's the part where we moved back to Arizona and it was so stressful and crazy and total mayhem for about a week that we just want to forget most of the things that happened (like cutting my toe and having to get stitches or leaving a day and a half later than we planned on) and I didn't take any pictures the whole time and we're just glad it's over so we can forget the whole thing except for the part where we had so much wonderful help from all our lovely ward members and friends (but I'm kind of still embarrassed they had to see our home in such a state.) We were only in that ward for 10 months but it is going to be hard to beat!)






Moving on to AZ...




The kids built a Lincoln Log town (they took about a hundred pictures and it's pretty funny to see them from their vantage point, like looking out the windows from inside the buildings, etc. But we don't have time for all of them here...)

chilled (as much as we can in this heat) with Grannie and Otter Pops

Rex' went to his first day of preschool

(his shirt was all wet cuz he got toothpaste on it:)

Gracie celebrated her 9th birthday

(seriously, is she only 9?!?!?)

(Krispy Kreme's was a huge splurge and that won't be

happening again anytime soon, but it was seriously so good!)

She received all things girly,

which included tons of earrings that she has been coordinating

with her outfits and wearing to school every day.

(Those flowers are for her hair, not her ears.)

played at the splash park to have a little fun before the first day of school

(All five of them are in this picture, can you spot them? It was the best I could do.)
had their first day of school

(Thankfully all went well.)
and played in the sprinklers!

Whew! Now, I bet you'll agree we've had one crazy busy month and this wasn't even all of it. We also had a visit from my sister Tara and her family, cousin sleepovers, too much school shopping, family dinners, played in the wonders of the irrigation, AND Kris went to Rexburg and back to retrieve the rest of our belongings that wouldn't fit in the giant moving truck in the first place! I'm exhausted just thinking about all of it. Hopefully now things can calm down a bit around here and I can get back to blogging!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Can you see the double rainbow in this picture?

A couple of weeks ago we saw this amazing rainbow in our backyard. We were all so fascinated and excited by it. I'm pretty sure it's the best one I've ever seen and it was right in my own backyard. Then when we were camping last weekend we saw one at night in the dark after the rainstorm, it was so interesting.

Rainbows bring good luck, don't they? So hopefully these are signs of good things to come. As many of you already know we are moving back to Arizona. We have been pondering this for awhile and lately have felt strongly that this is where we need to be. We are excited and sad, nervous and calm all at the same time. Things have been quickly and smoothly falling into place for us and it looks like we will be down there by the end of July. We will miss all of our friends and family here but look forward to seeing old friends and family in Arizona.

Four Wheeling Fun

This weekend we were invited to go camping and four-wheeling with some friends of ours. Of course it had to be rainy and super windy the first night we were there and we debated coming home but we were troopers (although at this point I don't think we'd qualify as happy campers) and decided to stick it out. Good thing, because Saturday turned out to be a perfect day in spite of my crankiness due to lack of sleep from the night before. Anywho, we had a great time playing in the creek (well, the kids did) and going on some rides. The boys went first and rode to the top of a mountain and then the girls took their turn. It was about a three hour ride and was tons of fun. I had never been 4-wheeling like that and it was a blast! It definitely appeals to that thrill seeker in me.

Rider Rex!

Dirtbike dudes

Gonna have to get him one of these...

Boys' ride

Creek fun

Sexy Rexy

Jai-Alai anyone?

Girls turn

At the summit

We made it to the top!

Girls Rule!

Cool old mining stuff on the mountain

Gorgeous canyon

Such a beautiful view on the way out

Mr. Joe Cool

T-Ball Time

Owen had a fun little season of summer t-ball. I'm not sure if it had enough action for him though. He's disappointed that he's not playing soccer this summer. Maybe in the fall...

Here's the team