Shopping Trip

This was one of my Saturday activities - helping Tracie find a wedding dress. Don't worry, this isn't the one she picked out so I'm not giving anything away. But doesn't she look pretty? Mission was accomplished.

Green Canyon Camping Trip

Last night we went on our last camping trip for the year. Darren had the idea to camp at Green Canyon Hot Springs (which is only 40 miles away) and go swimming. The camp ground is the best kind - it's grass so it's not as dirty! We got there around 5 pm, set up camp, cooked hot dogs for dinner and then went swimming for about three hours. Kevin did his first front flip off the diving board, Ethan did his first jump off the diving board (with a life jacket) and Jake and I played in the shallow end while Darren helped the bigger kids. Then we went back to camp to make smores. Each one of the kids actually asked to get their pjs on and go into the tent (I know that's not exactly asking to go to bed, but close enough). I can't say I got a great night's sleep. I was a little cold but I don't think anyone else was. And, of course, when you sleep in close proximity to Ethan you get to hear him moan. This morning the boys were awake first and not very quiet. Hopefully, they didn't keep any of the neighbors from sleeping in. We packed up after a cold breakfast and came home. Here are a couple of pictures.

Kitchen phase three

When it rains it pours. Third post of the day. After posting last weekend's fun pictures, here are this weekend's work pictures. Friday morning Kristi came over and we painted the kitchen cupboards. We were hoping to just put primer on them and then paint but the guy at the paint store said we had to sand them first. Sanding took up a good part of the day. Once we were able to just paint it went pretty fast. But Darren was also kept busy all morning helping the roto rooter guy fix our bathroom sink. Thursday night Darren tried everything he could to unclog the sink but nothing worked so he called the roto rooter guy Friday morning. Of course in an old house it's never just unclogging the sink. I don't know everything he had to do but Darren went to the plumbing store about 10 times to get new parts. We ended up with a new sink faucet, too. And the killer is this: when we got our new kitchen faucet it cost $750 because we bought the faucet from the plumber and paid him to install it. That was very naive and stupid of us so don't ever do that. This guy charged us something like $250 to install the new faucet, fix all the broken parts, and unclog the drain. Darren had to buy the new faucet but at the store's cost not the plumbers jacked up price. And the plumber Friday was there for a longer amount of time than the one that did the kitchen. So shop around guys. Anyway, everything is working great now and here are some before and after shots of the kitchen.


















Phase 1: removing the wallpaper (Kristi has been involved in every phase. Isn't she great?)














Phase 2: Painting the walls deep copper. ( I love the names they give paint colors)















Phase 3: Clover honey cabinets.

Lagoon

Last week we went to Lagoon with Carrie/Sam and family (including their niece, Melissa), Carl, Tracie and Jeff. I hadn't been since before I had kids so my kids had never been. It's a fun day but also tiring. We were going to drive back to Rexburg that same night. But we didn't leave until 10:00 pm and we were all tired at that point so we crashed at Rose and Dave's. Thanks, Mitchells! Anyway, here are some photos from the day. I realized I didn't get any pictures of people on the crazy rides like Wicked but there were lots of them that rode them. Kevin was the biggest daredevil of them all.
















Me, Carson and Ethan on Music Express.
















Kevin, Me, Ethan, Jacob and Tracie waiting for the Tilt a Whirl. Jake wasn't a big fan of the ride. The whole time he was crying and saying "I scary". But he survived.
















An action shot Darren took on the Tilt a Whirl.















It looks here like Jake is pulling faces at Jeff. But he is actually pulling faces at himself in the reflection of Jeff's glasses.














Carson and Ethan on one of the kiddie rides.














Parker on one of the kiddie rides. I tried to put Jake in the back seat. He kept saying he was scared but I knew he would like it so I walked away. When the worker came around to make sure they were seatbelted in he told her he didn't want to ride and she let him out. Oh well, I tried.

Hogle Zoo

Last week we took a summer mini vacation. The main reason we went was to go to Lagoon with Darren's family. But we had to have things to fill the day when others were at work so we went to the zoo on Friday. Tracie joined us on our vacation and Rose and her kids and Curtis/Shandy/Dexter came to the zoo, as well. I realized there are no pictures of animals in these but the people were cuter anyway.
















Jared and Kevin on the train, being silly, of course.
















Ethan and Heather on the train.
















Some of the group at the bird show.

Family Fun Night

This past Saturday we went to The Riot Zone for miniature golfing and go cart rides. Here are some pictures of our fun night. (We have to keep up with the Indiana Clarks and show our put-put pictures, too.
















Ethan showing off his skills.

















Darren was smart to not pay for Jacob to golf because all he was interested in was playing in the water.





















Kevin finishing up a hole

















We didn't keep score but Darren beat all of us.

















Jacob in the water again.





















Darren teaching Ethan how to hit a golf ball.
















Darren and Ethan in the go-cart. Kevin is right behind them.
















Refreshments! We tried out a new dairy in Rexburg. They have really good ice cream cones.




















Jacob really wanted pink ice cream.

24th weekend

These are just some pictures of our weekend (24th of July weekend). The 24th of July is not a holiday in Idaho but my parents and Ben came up to Idaho to celebrate their holiday. On Friday evening Mom, Tracie, Jeff, me and the boys stopped off at the St Anthony sandbar to have some fun. Tracie was the only one with a swimming suit so she got to be in there with the little ones. I had never been there before but it was fun so is probably somewhere we will go again.















We also stopped at Mesa Falls on Friday. Here is Kevin posing in front of the waterfall.















Kevin and Jacob on the stairs at Mesa Falls. I had to run to keep up with them. It should be twice as hard for Jake to climb those stairs since he is the shortest but it seemed to be no problem for him.















Dad and Ben looking at the falls.















Kevin coming out of the waterslide at the sandbar.















My second attempt to get him coming out of the water slide.