Kite Festival

We were able to attend the annual Kite Festival. The weather was perfect for flying kites this year. In the past it hasn't been windy enough, but this year was perfect. Only problem was getting tangled with other flyers.

Parker was the best kite flyer in the family. He was able to get our Butterfly kite to stay up the longest.

Dad was very patient with the kids. Making sure they each got turns and got some good flying lessons.

Houston Trip

The winter's here are long and cold and I complain about them all the time. My sister, Sallie, called me up about a month ago and said that airline tickets were on sale from Salt Lake City to Houston and we should go together to visit our Houston sisters and take a reprieve from the long winter.

I loved the idea of a getting a break from winter and a short vacation from being a mom. Rob was super supportive and re-arranged his work schedule and with a little help from neighbors and grandma I was off to Houston!!

Sallie and I flew in on Friday afternoon and Jenni picked us up from the airport. We grabbed a bite to eat and then we were off to have a two hour horseback ride at Cypress Trails. Sorry, couldn't take pictures of that activity....hard to hold a camera and the reins:) We were very sore afterwards and spent the rest of the evening in the hot tub trying to recuperate (could have posted pictures of that, but pictures of us in swimming suits don't go public)

Saturday we spent almost the ENTIRE day at the temple. Long story there....but we got all dressed up and headed up to the Houston Temple.

First we had to stop to get lunch. It was such a yummy italian restaurant (sorry, can't remember the name)but we had the best waiter ever! Shout out to Vinny from New York!!

Here we are in front of the Houston Temple. Now there are a few silly pictures below, and that's just what happens after spending more than SIX hours in the temple with your sisters:)

Can you tell who is the oldest?? Clue, she is the one on the end who is acting the most behaved

Gorgeous flowers. The temple grounds were amazing! It was so wonderful to see all the flowers and spring growth (everything is still frozen here in Idaho)

Whoa!! Watch out for Bonnie's hair flipping thingy she would do before pictures!

Okay. Everybody's hair is fine now.

The whole crew for Sunday Dinner.

All the girls!

Monday before we flew out we took a trip to Galveston Island. So many of the houses are built like this one because of all the hurricanes and ocean storms. I only posted one of the houses, but seriously there were tons of houses built like this.

Sisters at the Gulf Coast

The Idaho sisters LOVING the feel of the beach and warm breezes!!

We decided to splurge and go on a guided segway tour of Galveston Island. It was so fun!!! Sallie and I had never been on one before. It was pretty dang fun, and at times, hilarious....here we are racing on the bay side of the island.

Elizabeth, Jenni, Sallie, and Bonnie

Learned lots of Galveston history while on our tour. Learned a lot about Hurricane Ike's damage and about famous people who visited the island. Alfred Hitchcock stayed in the house behind us and used a photo of it in the beginning of "The Birds" movie.

Here we are riding on the Gulf side.

Posing at the end of the pier. I could have cropped the guy on the right out, but it was too funny to just keep him in it. I don't think he was too impressed with us crazy tourists.

Even though it was a short trip of only two full days, and two travel days, it was so worth it. I think it safe to say we all had a wonderful time. We missed having Julie with us, but hope to have her join us next time.

Family Vacation

Several weeks ago we got an email from Mike's family, Rob's brother who lives in Minnesota, saying they were going to come out to Utah for a few days to visit family and friends and spend a couple of days in Zion National Park. We haven't been to Zion since Parker was about two years old, so we asked Mike and Dana's family if we could drive down to Zion and vacation with them for a couple of days. It was a good way to visit with them, since they live so far away, plus we got to enjoy beautiful Zion together.

Here are several pictures from our trip.

We were driving around the Park looking for a place where the kids could get out and walk around over rocks and go exploring. It was our last day there and we had a nine hour drive ahead of us, and we were lucky enough to find this spot. We couldn't even see the cave from the road, that was just a lucky bonus that we found the cave and a great place to run around. The two little ones loved throwing rocks in the water. Glad they were so easily entertained.

Parker poses in the cave

Garrison and Addison playing in the water

G exploring

Everyone exploring

I love this picture of Addie and Parker. It looks like they are walking thru a desert or something. But, it was just amazing rock formations.

This was Rob's favorite rock formation, so we had to have Parker pose in front of it. Rob said it was like a rock parfait with all the different layers and colors.

Had to post a picture of the mountain goats we saw. We also saw deer and wild turkeys throughout.

The boys pause for a picture on our hike to the lower Emerald Pools. G is just taking it easy.

Parker and Addison behind the waterfall at Lower Emerald Pool. The wind was blowing and the waterfall kept blowing all around us. It was a pretty wet area, but lots of fun.

Me and Addie

Dana and me

The cousins all pose on a huge rock we found on our hike.

Jessica, Lauren, Parker and Addison

Mom and Dad with G

Parker posing like "The Thinker" statue. Remember "Night of the Museum"...."I'm thinking...I'm thinking....I'm thinking"

Group photo

Cousins on the Zion Park bus

Kids sitting around waiting for the bus to take us into Zion. Right behind our hotel.

On our drive down to Zion's we stopped to stretch our legs and took a tour of Cove Fort. It was a really interesting tour, we had a good guide. The kids were really fascinated with how the pioneers lived.

It was such a wonderful vacation. It was a little cooler in temperature than what we had hoped, but it wasn't as cold as Idaho. The kids traveled really well and had a great time. It was a wonderful trip and I can't think of anything that we would have done differently.

For me the highlight was horse back riding with Parker, Jessica, Lauren and Dana. It was gorgeous views on horseback and just wonderful to be back on a horse.

Parker's favorite was hiking and exploring around the cave.

Rob's favorite was hiking to Lower Emerald Pool and trying to avoid getting wet from the waterfall.

And our craziest moment was swimming in the hotel pool during a rain storm. It was the only night we had time for swimming and my kids were determined to get their swim time in. It was windy and raining and just plain crazy that we were outside, but the rainbows were beautiful and so was the sunset. Garrison would not be out done by his siblings. Even he got in the pool, but he only lasted about 10 minutes before I pulled him shivering from the pool.

Broken Bones and Summertime

School starts in exactly one week. I am SOOO looking forward to a nice regular school schedule and, hopefully, less fighting amongst the siblings.

We have had a packed summer and lots of family time. We had intended to go to Oregon to visit my parents and spend a few days at the beach, but Parker broke his arm pretty badly right before we were to go, and the doctors told Parker his summer was officially over. No swimming, no skateboarding, no rollerblading, no bike riding, etc etc... The only activities allowed were reading, video games, and t.v. watching. It was hard to spend so much money on a trip that would require a lot of time in a lawn chair for Parker, so we postponed our trip to next year. Besides, I had a lovely trip to the ER myself for a gallbladder attack. I meet with doctors about that next week...I might be having surgery for that in the near future....we'll see.

Here's Parker's cast. He broke both bones right above his wrist. He was riding his rip-stick when he broke it...he had gotten his rip-stick for his 9th birthday from us back in June. He is actually a very good rip-stick rider. I've even taken him to a near-by skate park. But, just an unlucky fall that day. He'll have this long-arm cast on for another 10 days, then he'll get another short-arm cast for a couple more weeks. It was a pretty serious break...I'm looking forward to getting the bill from the on-call Orthepedic Surgeon:) Luckily, he's left-handed.

A good chunk of our summer was spent with Rob's family. His sister was expecting a little girl with a congenital heart defect, and we spent a bit of our summer preparing, and wanting to support her family thru the upcoming birth and life of their daughter. As most know we have also lost a young daughter to a serious birth/brain defect, so we knew what it could be like to have an unhealthy baby and some of the trials that come with that. We were blessed to enjoy our young niece, Merideth, for a few days, and we took our family to visit her and spend time with her and her family.

Garrison with Grandma and Merideth.

Addison, Parker, and Merideth.

Me holding Merideth

Rob with Merideth

We all enjoyed being able to spend time with her during her 9 days here on Earth. I also have to say, that although it was difficult at times because Merideth's circumstances were so close to our own when we lost Paige, it was a real blessing to feel able to give support and love to someone else. We had felt such love and support from our family and friends during our time with Paige, and it was nice to be able to turn around and give what we once received. In some ways it was healing for us. Like being able to hold Merideth and pass her around and truly enjoy spending time with her, something we really couldn't do with Paige because of her health issues, and also being able to be a splurging aunt and buy some cute little outfits for her to wear, again something we really couldn't do for Paige. I am grateful that Merideth's family was so willing to share her and allow us to be a part of her short life.

Although death can be such a difficult and sad time, it's also a time when family draws close together. Though, there were many tears, there was also time for laughter as family was able to gather together and cousins were able to play together.

Here are the terrible two's! I mean the adorable two's!! Senika, Natalie, Garrison, and Bethany. Cousin's all born in 2007!

Addie and Kira enjoying snow cones.

Parker eating a snow cone in the tree....and after seeing this picture is it REALLY surprising Parker broke his arm???

Rob and his sister Julie. Such silly siblings!!

All the cousins playing around the tree!!

And staying at a hotel is ALWAYS a vacation for the kids. The kids LOVED playing in the pools at our hotel stays!

And of course we had a wonderful 4th of July! We did our usual activities of parade, and fireworks. We also got to enjoy time with my family, as my sister's Julie and Sallie (and their families) came and spent some quality 4th of July time with us.

The cousins doing snake/worm fireworks

Kylie, Emily, Matt, with Uncle Reid (Garrison in the background)

Parker and Addie at the parade

Garrison at the parade

Another fun summer activity that we were a part of was the local production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat". Rob played the part of the oldest brother Rueben, and Parker was a part of the kids chorus. It was a very time consuming activity as the boys had to attend a LOT of rehearsals. But it was a great show and they had a great time being a part of it.

Parker with some of the other kids in the chorus

Rob with his parents and grandma after the first show. Yes, Rob made the "Reuben" sign all by himself...very creative:) Also you can see grandma has some of the confetti from the show around her neck. Rob loves to talk the producers into making confetti a part of the show. It is a real crowd pleaser, as you can see Addison enjoyed it very much.

Did I mention that I helped with the stage make-up? So, even I was a part of the show. Rob has tried to convince me that I should be on stage with him...but that is SO not gonna happen! But, I do enjoy being a part of backstage:)

We also got to "host" our nieces and nephews for a couple of days as they got ready to attend the local EFY.

They were a bunch of crazy teenagers!!

I realize this was a really long blog entry, but wanted to catch everyone up on our summer activities. But, what we did the most this summer was just "hang out" with our friends and family, eat lots of popsicles, and play in the yard.

Garrison

Addie

Parker and friend

Parker and Carson

Addie and G

Even I got to hang out with some of MY bestest friends!!!