Nebraska Here We Come

This year Jason's family decided to have a reunion in Nebraska.  Jason could only get 3 days off, so he made it a whirlwind adventure.  We left on a Wednesday and drove 14 hours to Custer, North Dakota.  There is a lot to do in that area.  I swear if I spent a week there I still would not get to all the things. 

 Fist thing Thursday morning we started out at Jewel Cave.

 It is the 3rd largest cave in the world, it was amazing.  Hard to get pictures of because of the low lighting and my skills as a photographer are very limited!

 Over 700 steps, and we only saw a tiny, portion of the miles and miles of cave. 

 They had a Junior Ranger craft that my kids crashed and made animal tracks.  The two extras are my niece and nephew, two of  Jason's brother's kids.

 We then took a drive to visit Mount Rushmore.  Always worth seeing, it was sooo hot though!

 This is my favorite picture.  This lady came and asked us if she took our picture then would I take theirs.  I said sure.  It wasn't until later that I realized this is the picture she took.  Where is Mount Rushmore?  Good question!!

 Thank goodness Jason's brother was willing to save the day and took another for us. This time with the actual monument in the picture too.

 I collect smashed pennies from wherever we go.  The kids are getting into doing it as well.  Beckett had to do it all by himself.

 Next we took a train ride.  It was about an hour each way, and I have to say it was my most favorite part of the day.

 I decided I like trains rides.  The kids thought it was boring, but there was such pretty scenery, and wildlife and some cool historic things too. 

 Jason kept letting Beckett stick his head out, and later got in trouble for it.  It made for a cute picture though.

Beckett liked the ride. 

The next day Friday we headed to a Mammoth dig site.

 The kids got to be "junior excavators" and dig up some bones.

 Dillon got really frustrated at first, because Truman found a bone before he did.

 Soon enough he found one, unfortunately he and Elleree found the same bone.  It was so large that they each found an end.

 Beckett sat on the side and played with a rock.

 I think the kids really enjoyed this part of the museum..

 Then we went on a tour of the actual dig site.  It was pretty cool.

 They have remains for over 60 mammoths.  These are not the Wooly Mammoths we are used to seeing but some sort of ancestor that is larger and has less hair.

 They don't remove any of the bones because they are too heavy and don't want to damage them.  So they just dig around the ones they have found. 

It was seriously just a huge sink hole.  I circled Jason and the kids so you can see the size of just a portion of this site. 

It was a neat little museum.  After that we headed the rest of the way to Nebraska.

July 4th 2013

We had a pretty uneventful 4th of July this year.  We had plans to invite people over, but everyone we invited already had other plans.  We thought we might go somewhere, but never did.  So we hung out with ourselves.  That morning bright and early Jason woke me up to go sking.  We skied and tubed until the afternoon.  We did it just long enough for Dillon to get a sunburn that got blisters and for the other boaters to come out after the parades.  Then we headed home.

That night we had a BBQ and set off some fireworks.

 I don't know about you, but my kids get really excited about the fireworks.  It's like Christmas, almost.  So we have to waste time until it gets dark.  We played with chalk.

 We got the snaps out and played some hop scotch with a little variation on the rules to make it fun with the snaps.

 I had to make Beckett his own little hop scotch.

 This is Trumans master piece don't ask how you are suposed to read it.  It made sense to him.

 We set off some of our own fireworks

 Always an impressive show.

 Dillon was the only one who would let me get a picture with the sparklers.

 We then went to our back porch and watched the show.  You can't really tell from this picture, but we could see like four different people setting them off.  We have a great view. Some time around 10:00pm my parents showed up and got to see the rest of the show.

Then we went and set off some more of our own fireworks.  I would have more pictures, but my camera battery died and so here we are.  The end of the show.

Thanks

A little while ago Jason's mom took our kids for a few days so we could have a little time together. This would have been not such a big deal but she already had Jason's brother's three kids and it was just her.  So she had 7 kid runnig around her house.  She is super awesome and I appreciate her for doing it for us. 

It has been a really long time since Jason and I have gotten away.  We ended up in Lava and stayed at a bed and breakfast there.  We basically just hung out and relaxed.  It was so nice!

We visited my brother and Jason's sister. 

The only picture I got of the whole weekend were these two.

 Anyone recognize this house?  It's a little rough looking now, but it was our first house.  It was tiny, but perfect.  It had less then 500 square feet and was only two blocks from ISU campus.  We lived in it for 3 1/2 years.  Dillon came home to this house and stayed for about 4 months before we decided to buy another place.

I loved this little house and have some very fond memories of living there. 

Anyway it was the best weekend ever! I just wanted to tell Kay thanks for taking the kids!  She ROCKS!

Caught in the Act

Beckett is cracking me up lately. I swear if I had had a blog with Dillon and Truman I would have put pictures of them at this age too.  I did do it for Elleree.  This age is just so funny.  They are becoming so independent.

 

 Beckett has discovered his pockets and likes them.  All my kids I swear have gone through this stage it makes me laugh.  He does everything with one hand in a pocket. 

 He is eating in this picture, with one had in his pocket.  

The other day he had a cut on his finger and comes to me crying.  I asked him if he wanted a band-aid, and said it  would make it feel better.  He said yes.  So I put the band-aid on and and he shows me his finger and says "this not feel better, get it off".  I thought they made everything feel better, apparently not.

He is into his sunglasses too.  He always puts them on upside down, I guess they are more comfortable that way.  

The other three are always trying to get him to say or do something in appropriate.  I swear this kid would have a chance of being a good kid, but he has three older siblings that are making sure that doesn't happen.  Okay maybe a mom too.

Lagoon

 A few weeks ago we went to visit Jason's brother in Utah.  They have year pass to Lagoon, so we decided to join them one day. 

We started out at Lagoon a Beach, I didn't get any pictures of that because it is awfully hard to pack around a camera in the water if you know what I mean. 

 Then we ended up in the amusement park.  It was really, really hot like 100 degrees, so there not very many people there, considering it was a weekend.

 I took the two younger ones to the kiddie land and Jason took the boys on the "fun" rides.  I hate roller coasters of any kind, so this arrangement is always fine with me. 

 I was actually really impressed by their kids rides we only had to repeat a couple, and we were there for like 5 hours.

 This boat ride killed me.  These two got into a knock down, drag out fight on the ride.  Beckett bit Elleree twice and I swear she was trying to gouge out his eyes.  No kidding if the boat could have capsized it would have.  The kid running the ride wouldn't let me get in to stop them so I all I could do was scream at them to stop.  Meanwhile other parents were laughing so hard.  I mean don't get me wrong had it not been my kids, it would have been dang funny, but it wasn't.  They both came out with bruises and bite marks.  Needless to say they didn't ride together on another ride after that.

 I didn't  get any pictures of the older boys, because I didn't really see them all day. I think they had fun and didn't get into too much trouble. 

 We all went up on the Farris Wheel.

 

It was a good trip and I'm glad we went.

Sum Sum Summertime

The kids are out of school and driving me nuts.  Thank goodness for a few kids in the neighborhood and Netflix that keep them busy.  I am just trying to get them to swimming lessons on time and keep the house from being destroyed in the process.

 We have gone to the greenhouse, where they have this awesome sandbox.

 My uncle Scott gave us this pool that we set up.

 Unfortunately it is missing a few key components, like the filtration system and the ladder.

 So sadly we had to take it down about a week later.  If you had seen it after a week you may have thrown up in your mouth.  It was pretty gross, but fun while it lasted.

 We have been to the drive-in.  Which are both closing in Twin Falls after one last season. Apparently they are no longer going to make 35mm films, and Twin Falls is not willing to put the money into going digital.  It's a sad day.

 The neighbors brought over their slip and slid.

 We are the only ones who have a nice hill to slide down.

 Pain to mow, but fun to slide on. 

 Even Beckett tried it out. 

 Chewy our old dog is still kicking and thinks he has to be a part of everything.

 The kids have helped me with yard work.  Well maybe "helped" is not exactly the right word.

This spring/summer I have also had my friends Jamie and Katie come and visit me from Idaho Falls and Rexburg.  I miss my friends sooo much.  I am grateful to have such good ones.  I have had a hard time making any here and it has helped immensely to know that I do have friends even if they don't live near by.

Truman's Calling

I think we may have finnally found Truman's sport.  Yes we have tried soccor, football and basketball.  But none of them seemed to fit his style.  This spring Jason signed him up for baseball, I was not pleased.  I was looking forward to a little break from running to and from something.  Alas, it is not to be.  

 He is actually really good at baseball.  I for one hate baseball.  It is boring to me, and half the time I have know idea what is going on.  I always tell Dillon to get my attention when he is up to bat. 

 This game speaks to Truman.  It doesn't require him to move that often, with is right up his alley.  He can just stand there, and that is what he is supposed to do (well unless the ball comes to him).

 He seems to have a natural hand eye coordination, which he didn't get from me.

 He only has to run in short bursts and then sit so he loves that.

Oddly enough he can hit the ball really well.  Most times he comes home, I guess that scores a point right?  Anyway he really likes it, so now I am stuck going to baseball games too.  Yuck!

The Big Reveal

Okay so it's really not a big reveal, but I finnally finished Dillon's room.  I forgot to take before pictures, so all you get is the after.  His room looked identical to Elleree's before I painted it, so if you really want to see what it did look like refer back to that.  

 If you know Dillon he is a huge sports fan, and loves, LOVES the Nebraska Huskers.  Side note here for like the first five years of my marriage I thought Jason was just saying Huskies wrong.  I had no clue that they really are the Huskers.  Then I had to ask the stupid question of "what is a Husker?".  That is like blasphemy in Jason's family.  I know better now. 

 So I wanted it to be sports, with a little sophistication.  Okay, I just didn't want it to be ugly.

 I don't think it looks too bad.  Once again Jason thinks it would look better with the trim and doors painted too, but I wasn't going to go there.

Dillon has nooo idea how hard I worked on it, maybe someday he will appreciate what an awesome mom he has.

Preschool

I am a slacker of a mother and have not blogged about Elleree's Preschool, which ended like over a month ago.  Anyway, I got some cute pictures of the little program they did.

 Her teacher is the lady in this photo, Mrs. Warrner, and she is the best preschool teacher ever.  When Elleree first started going to preschool she cried, by the end she was fine.  It had a lot to do with her teachers.

 She insisted on doing her own hair, these pictures are taken with my phone, but it looks awesome.

The little girl next to her in the green is her best friend Ivy.  She is super cute!  Preschool has been a very good experience for Miss Elleree, and I think she is ready for the big time.