One down several to go!

Well our first official vacation of the summer is now over. Sad huh? I always hate seeing vacations end. We started out the trip going to Idaho Falls. We got there Thursday night. It was cold. Sharon was a little disappointed that our rooms were not in the tower and that the swimming pool had no water in it. Then the big ticker was when we playing card games in our room, someone called to complain that we were too loud. We were only laughing. But we survived. Plus we all know Sharon she is never pleased with anything. We love her anyways. In the morning the kids chased the ducks and we saw

the Temple there it was beautiful.

Then we were off to Bear World. That place is way cool. A little expensive but lots and lots of fun. We saw lots of Bears, the kids thought that was way cool. Kelsey filled us in with all the facts about each bear, for a minute there I thought Natalie was in the car with us. Ha Ha

Then there was a petting zoo, baby bears, we fed the fish, and the kids rode lots of rides. It was really cold and we couldn't keep Brooke off the rides she loved them.

Sharon thought that we had a little set back at Bear World because she locked the keys in the car. She wanted to know why Tom was not upset or worried about how we were going to get back in the car. Thank goodness for On Star. The money is well worth it. We call they unlock in about 30 seconds. Sure could of used that feature about three years ago when we went to Yellowstone with JB and Ashlee. But that was a better story to tell.

We were finally off to Yellowstone at about 1:30 in the afternoon quite a few hours later then Sharon had planned. She likes to rise at 6:00 AM and get the day started. I say that we are on vacation and I want my kids happy not tired and grouchy. So we thought we were compromising when we said we would call and let her know when we were up and moving. Instead she was knocking on our door at 7:00 to see if the kids wanted to go see the ducks while Tom and I slept. Little did she know Tom and I were up getting ready and it was our kids were the ones sleeping in. She couldn't believe it.

Driving into Yellowstone we hit a huge snow storm, that didn't stop us from getting ice cream in Ashton.

We checked in at the hotel and the kids were so excited. They couldn't wait to go swimming. So that is what we did. My mom has a pool it even has a slide, that my children won't use, my kids like the pool but they like to have there life jackets on and we forgot them so we had to use the arm floaties. I wasn't sure how it would go. They loved it. They were up and down that slide like you couldn't believe. Brooke was a little animal. It was hard keeping up with her.

We ended up going into the Park that night and we saw a bald eagle, a black bear, it was far away so the kids couldn't see that one and then we saw the cutest baby elk. I bet it was born that day it was so tiny. Very very cute.

The next day we went into the park early and drove around for about 10 hours and saw next to nothing and it was snowing so hard that we couldn't get out and hike or anything. We took the kids to fire hole were Derek said the water was freezing cold. Then we did get out and brave Old Faithful. We sat out in the freezing cold and just as it started to go off the wind was blowing so hard in our direction that all we could see was smoke and no water the kids were not amused at all so we headed back for shelter.

After a dissappointing day of looking for animals we decided to head home for more swimmin, food and games. Our kids were excited but they were troopers in the car and enjoyed looking for animals as much as there dad.

We were leaving the next day but we couldn't go home empty handed so we woke up at 5:45 and drug our kids out of bed to look for animals one last time. We started out for Hayden Valley. We had a slow start but then it was all worth it we saw a wolf and a grizzly bear with his baby cub.

Yellowstone is so beautiful. We loved it it was a great get away.

Feild Day is Over

What a week!! I am so glad that it is over. Field Day was a success. It all started the night before when Brooke started feeling sick. She had a temperature of 102. I didn't know what to do, I called my Mom and she sounded horrible, she was sick too. So I hoped that Angie would be okay with my sick child, seems that no one else could run field day, no one else knew what was going on. I hoped this wasn't a bad start for the next day. Then in the morning when I got up to rain and dark clouds. I was a little concerned. But when I got to the school Tom, Brett, Chad, My Dad and the Hobbs were ready to work. We got the field set up in no time. I really really appreciate all your help. Thank You Thank You Thank You. There is no way I could have done it with out you guys. My volunteers started showing up right on time and field day was under way. I received a ton of compliments and I felt that all went well. The favorite games were Clean House, a wet sponge throwing game, The Hula Hoop game, and tug of war over the pool especially one on one. Everyone got wet but they had a blast. K-4 were troopers it was my 5th and 6th graders who wimped out. Thank you to all that helped. I was so exhausted I picked up my children from Angie who said they were just fine and that Brooke didn't even act sick, what a blessing. Came home unloaded the truck, took a shower, ordered pizza and was fast asleep by 6:00. I slept until 7:00 am the next morning it felt great.

Friday was the last day of school. Hip Hip Hooray! I sent Kelsey off to school. Ran out the door to go get Mrs. Brewer a gift. We had to hurry it was short day. We made it back in time, barely. Mrs. Brewer was an awesome teacher. We absolutely loved her. I cried when Kelsey said goodbye. But that is no surprise to any of you that know me. Summer is here hope it warms up. Now our next venture is Yellowstone next weekend. Although Glen went last weekend and Yellowstone Lake was frozen over I do not think it will be to warm. I hope we see a lot of animals.

Memorial Weekend

Memorial weekend is supposed to be sunny right? Well not here in Utah. We started out the weekend with a Chick-fila sandwich and taking the kids bowling. It was a blast. Derek was doing awesome and staying ahead of Kelsey then Kelsey got her first strike and it was all over for Derek. The tears just started flowing, but what was really cute was that even though he was crying because he wanted a strike he ran up to Kelsey and gave her a big high five. They are so competitive with each other, but I am glad to see that they can be happy when the other one succeeds. Saturday was filled with tasks and errands trying to get ready for field day and being ready for sunday and the next week. I am in charge of field day this year at Lakeside Elementary, don't ask me how I got roped into that one with only a child in kindergaten, but it happened. Field Day is fpr the entire school and it is all day long. I have 18 games for the kids to play. I will let you know at the end of the week how that one goes.

Sunday was Grandpa Richards 67th birthday. He was so cute. Kelsey gave Grandpa the present the first time. Derek wanted to give Grandpa the present so we re-gifted and Grandpa was a great sport

Then we sang to Grandpa and Marissa for there birthday's!

Grandpa Richard is great we love him so much. What a great picture of him blowing out those candles isn't it?

We were also able to go to Grandpa ad Grandma Ross's grave sight and Amanda's and Grandpa and Grandpa Steed's. And we will get to Grandpa Eddie's this week. Our kids were very good and full of questions about the graves. They were very cute.

Then on Monday we got up and wanted to go swimming at Grandma Shelly's house but it was raining so hard and it was so very cold. So we played the wii with the kids and did a little work around the house, as little as possible. Then we went over to the Steed's and had Manti Turkey. It was so very good. When the rain would let up for a minute we would run outside and ride the golf cart to see the pigs, horses and donkey. Brooke would live on that thing if she could. Silly Tom even jumped into one of the pig pens and three very large pigs charged at him. He is teaching the kids bad habits. Now everytime we go down there the kids want him to jump in I think he is a little scared Ha Ha. We found a baby Robin that had fallen out of a tree and it looked as if it was dying. It wouldn't even move you could pet it. Tom found a worm and broke it up into pieces and fed it to it, low and behold it started jumping around Tom put it on the tree branch and it hopped its way up to the nest, in flew mother bird and fed it another worm it was so cute. Then we started a fire and had some smores. Despite the cold weather we had a great weekend. We love being able to spend time together, but it does make it hard for me to want to send Tom back to work.

To end the day and weekend off we saw a beautiful rainbow. Hope you had a great weekend.

Colorado

This past weekend was really nice. Tom and I were able to go to Colorado with Rebecca and Brett and visit my sister Angie. My mom watched the kids so it was an adult weekend. Gosh when that happens you remember all the reasons you fell love it was so fun. We left at about 6:30 Friday morning and picked up poor Brett who had been working all night long. So he was planning on sleeping the whole way there. But what he wasn't expecting that we were so fun he didn't want to miss a thing, so he couldn't sleep. Ha Ha. We arrived in Fort Collins and went straight to the dentist office where Rebecca got a cavity filled and the rest of us got our six month check up and a good teeth cleaning. I also got yelled at for not flossing, typical dentist visit. We then drove to Denver and went to a Rockies game that was a lot of fun. Got home watched the end of the awful Jazz game and cried ourselves to sleep. The next morning the boys went golfing then it was off to the girls soccer games. They were so cute. Ran home changed in our church clothes and we were headed back to Denver. The last session at the temple was at 4:00 pm and we arrived at 3:50 just in the nick of time. The session was very enjoyable and it is always nice to attend with family. During the session it was so quiet and then you would hear stomach after stomach growling. We were all so hungry, we had been go go go since we got there we had not eaten all day. So off to dinner we went to The Claim Jumper, very good food I think we scared the waitress a little as soon as her hand hit the table with food. There were six hands flying at her to get the food as quick as possible. I think it was gone before she turned around. It was good. Then we went home changed our clothes and went in to Fort Collins and tried to pretend that we fit in with all the college kids. We got ice cream and had some great laughs. Then Sunday morning we got up and drove home. Short and Sweet that is all I can say. The kids didn't really miss us I think that they would prefer living at grandma's house. Kelsey did say she would miss the Wii if she didn't come home pathetic huh!!
Well we missed our kids but it is sure nice to the couple thing every once in awhile.

Long time

YOU GOTTA LOVE IT!

Sorry I am really bad at keeping this updated. We have had a great spring so far. Back in March we went to California for easter. We had so much fun. My kids were able to ride on an airplane. They thought that was the coolest. Then they absolutley loved the rental car that we got. They wanted to trade the Saturn in for this five seater Chevy Impala or something like that, Until we took a ride out to the San Diego Zoo and there was no movie to watch then they wanted the Saturn back. Kelsey, Derek and Brooke absolutley love animals so the zoo was the best. We gave them the option of Disneyland or the zoo and wouldn't you know it they chose the zoo those crazy kids. There were more then 20 of us at the zoo so that was fun. That place is massive. Then we had the awesome easter egg hunt and fun day at the park that we all loved. Thanks Kim! Sunday was really nice as always then we flew home monday morning which was also nice because we usually have to leave on Sunday which stinks so that was a great vaca.
Then the month of April was filled with family, birthdays, and lots of soccer. Kelsey was on two teams her saturday team was the red Ladybug Dragons, they couldn't decide on a name, then on tuesday and thursday nights she played with the Blue Thunder. Derek was also on the Blue Thunder team. It was so fun to watch the two of them play together they were so cute. Kelsey was a little scoring machine. She does really well and despite the two year age difference Derek kicked butt he was a great defender and got involved we were proud parents on the side line. Not to mention Kelsey and Derek had the most fans to every game. Grandma's and Grandpa's Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and even boyfriends. But I think Brooke was there #1 fan. She would yell on the side line as much as her Mom. Thanks family for all your support we love you.

The last game was a lot of fun. All the parents formed a tunnel at the end of the game all the kids ran through it including the other team and every single one had a big old smile on there faces.

We have also been able to go to some awesome play off games how lucky we are. I went to the last Houston - Jazz game with Mom, Dad, Rebecca, Chad and Cassie. Tom couldn't go because he was faithfully doing his church calling what a good man. He was camping though if it wasn't sports at least it was that. Then Tom and I were able to go to game three of the Lakers- Jazz series it was awesome. We also heard the American Idol sing the national anthem at that game it was fun.