Crazy Hair Day for my crazy little kids! Love them!

Mommy...I really want my ears pierced!


Are you ready??

I'm soooo excited!!!

Ready...set...Go!

I love my new earrings!!!!

Riding...

Riding is one of the most relaxing things in the world to me. It's kinda like doing the dishes (my favorite chore) but it's fun.... I love the warm water running - I'm a cold wimp. I love the way the noise of the sink lulls out all of the other sounds in the house...i can actually think without being distracted:). I love the instant gratification of it all...the kitchen is perfectly clean...I LOVE a clean kitchen...okay back to riding...:) When we ride, all that you hear is the quiet roar of the bikes...a good place to think. It's usually warm and It's always beautiful! Don't you love my comparison :) Well, there there is nothing that I would rather do than go on a Saturday ride with my family. Yesterday - we went for an afternoon ride...it was 71 degrees outside and perfect! We went with our favorite riding companions and between the 3 families, there were 9 kids! We always are quite the sight!!


Just starting out...Jordan is on the white quad and Garrett has the blue helmet on.


Our favorite place to go is Box Canyon. We're just getting ready to go in! It is narrow and there are lots of boulders to climb over...the kids love it!


This is where we like to stop for lunch. Notice the cross at the bottom of the hill. A man died here in November. Opps...not good!


These are the view's that I love. Pictures don't do it any justice! Can't wait for next Saturday!!!

Houston...we have a problem....

THIS

OR THIS???

Yes...we have a bit of a problem at our house...we are divided :)! Don't know how

we're going to make it the next 3 months....good thing we love each other!!! Even little Garrett tells me every day who HE'S going to vote for! (I haven't had the heart to tell him he has to wait another 13 years.) It makes our nightly dinner conversations a little bit more exciting than "What's the best part of your day?..." We are a household full of strong opinions that's for sure! (Go Obama!!!) oops.....

Best Friends

Mara and Emily are best friends. They can play for hours and not get tired of each other! Mara came over this morning and they spent 45 minutes washing my sliding door with water:)! I have to limit Em to water or she will go through a whole spray bottle of window cleaner in one setting! Love those little girls!

The Rest of the Trip....

Interestingly enough, we had a definite routine at the Lake. Every day was the same...Here was our schedule:

- Wake when the sun rose.

- Eat breakfast

- Go out on the boat and knee board, wake board and ski.

- Come back to camp and eat lunch

- Go for a swim

- Go back out on the lake to tube

- Come back to camp and eat dinner.
- Fish and play in the sand until it was too dark to see :)

- Light up the lantern, play some competitive UNO, eat oreo's and pudding.

- Go to bed!

It was pretty funny - because there was never any change in our routine...all the kids wanted to do was be on the BOAT!

The big kids exploring on their rafts.

Emily making cake...her favorite thing to do!

Mark and the boys swimming.

Mud fights - the kids had LOTS of mud fights!

Don't you love the sand in the braces?

Nicko fishing....

He caught one...actually -he caught quite a few!

My little Garrett!

more to come....

Lake Powell Day 1

I know these days, I'm a little slow on the bandwagon...but I'm finally getting around to posting our annual week in heaven. This year was a first for our little family. We were ALONE!!! It was a little strange at first and definitely a ton of work, but once we were there and all set up it was an amazing week. We felt like we were all alone in our little world. Here is our camp - Mark made our shade structure and it held up perfectly all week. The first day there, we spent most of the day setting up camp and then relaxing....

Camp

Camp view from our tents.

Mark and the tents - Jordan and Nick shared the little one - the rest of us in the big one. Lucky for them, their little tent held up the best! One night, we had some crazy wind. Mark was up half the night holding up the tent. Finally it calmed down and he went out to check on the boat only to find out the the anchor had come up. We had to wake up Jordan and Nick - it took a few minutes as they were zonked! Nick stood outside our tent and held it up off of the girls and Jordan came down to the water with Mark and I to help with the boat! It was quite the night!!!

Notice the potty tent! I love that thing! :)

Funny...

My Nicholas:

"Mom...I've decided I never want to become a famous person! Do you know why? (continuing without waiting for reply :) ) I never want to end up on that show - (in a deep voice) "Where are they now?""

My silly boy!

Emily Ann is Three!!!!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

Okay...it's been so long since I've blogged, I think that I've forgotten how :)....I haven't know where to start -so here goes:

We have had the BEST summer! I am dreading the return to school in 2 1/2 short weeks. Usually, I'm at least ready for our "schedule" to return, but this year I'm NOT!

We just returned from Hermiston and had an awesome visit with my family! Except for a visit to the mountains, we didn't leave Hermiston! I got used to driving 25 mph wherever I went and loved how it took less than three minutes to get ANYWHERE! The kids were constantly swimming in "shammy's" ( as Em would say) little pool, having air-soft wars with their cousins, family kick-ball games, sleepovers, visiting the park, eating TONS of ice cream and enjoying 2 weeks chore free! I loved the nightly 1:00 a.m visits with mom and laughing with my sisters! We really missed Mark and were so glad to have him join us for the last few days!

The one day that we did leave Hermiston, we went on a hike at the north fork of the Umatilla River. It was beautiful!

The trail was dense and full of little blue butterflies.

Little Em - yes don't you love the cast! On the way to Oregon, we stayed at our good friends - the Seeley's. On Sunday morning before we left, Em fell down the basement stairs. She broke her arm! Poor little thing! She's a trooper! Second broken arm and she's not even three!!!

My little cutie.

I love this picture of Mark and Garrett. We waded in the Umatilla after our hike. It was amazing there! The water was a little cold but felt so good!

Jordan and Nick crossing the river on the slippery rocks.

Jessica!

The boys were showing us their brute strength!

They make me laugh!!!

Em is strong too!!!

EMILY...

We went once again to the Dr. this morning to find out that Emily has pneumonia. He lungs are full of junk!! On top of that she has asthmatic symptoms so her breathing isn't so good. We're on day 6 of high fevers and feeling yucky. Now she is on some major meds and we hope to see some good improvement. She is going back to the Dr. on Wednesday morning - so hopefully we'll see some results by then! She is such a good little patient! It's amazing how happy she is being so sick. Everyone else is well (thank goodness!) and we'll be glad when daddy gets home!!!

Sometimes I Wonder....

It's been quite a week at out house. Mark has been gone and Em has been really sick. I had to teach Relief Society today and Em still had a high fever (5 days and counting...). So, I stayed home until I had to go to R.S. and left the kids to keep watch over the baby. Jordan has been babysitting for some time now and does a great job...but today while I was gone I think that they must have decided to party. When I got home it looked like a tornado had hit it...there had been some attempt to pick up, but unfortunately, they didn't cover all of their bases. When I went upstairs to change my clothes I found large lids to the rubbermaid containers, all of the couch accent pillows and some big quilts. They had been sliding down the stairs on the lids! Then I found Emily's mattress in the hall with all of the sheets and blankets off (no the bunk bed has NOT arrived yet - hopefully this week). I have no idea what they were doing with the bed - nor do I want to know!!! Needless to say I was not a happy mama! We spent the next 30 minutes digging out from the mess and they were trying to make up for their "fun" time! When we were done, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Nick sneak out to the backyard. This was what he was doing...I love that little boy!