Famous TV couples

Second post of the day. I go for a couple of weeks without posting and then have to catch up. Last Saturday I was supposed to do the games at Tracie's Idaho Falls bridal shower. But my family and me got sick so Darren took the refreshments and games down for me and gave them to Tracie's roommate to do. I felt bad leaving it all on her shoulders but there was no way I could have gone. I also stayed up late the night before preparing the games for the shower and was disappointed I didn't get to see the fruits of my labors. So I decided to just post it on my blog. Here's the game. I will list the last name of several couples. You have to fill in the first name of the guy, the girl and the TV show. You get a point for each name (girl, guy, TV show) Let's see who watches the most TV. (And no cheating - I got these off a web site so that would be easy for you to do, as well. But you can't do that: - ))
Heffernan
Mariano
Ricardo
Cleaver
Brady
Barone
Halpert/Beesly
Taylor
Keaton
Kwon
Huxtable
Shephard/Grey
Addams
Witter/Potter
Arnold/Cooper
Flinstone
Geller/Green
Costanza
Crane/Moon
Buchman
Scavo
Morris/Kapowski
Bundy
Simpson

Family Pictures

One of my birthday presents this year was a family picture. Darren arranged with Jeff Smith, a photographer on campus, to take our picture. He took lots of shots. I chose to put the ones on here that show the fun of taking family pictures with three energetic little boys (especially a three yr old). There are some great ones that are not on here. Anyway, I feel much better knowing that we have a current family picture now and I think they turned out great.

Homecoming

Jacob, Ethan and me went to the Madison High School homecoming parade today just for the fun of it (Okay it was really for the candy). Here are some pictures of the afternoon.
















Jacob, Ethan and a couple of our neighbors waiting for the parade to get to us.



















This is what Jake did while the noisy army tanks passed by us.















Watching the parade

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.

Memories

Fine, I'll give in and do it, too.

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory (or more) that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing (but you don't have to) and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you.

Like Darren said in his post, we went to the Idaho Falls Chukars game last night. Here are some of my pictures from the game:



















Wait a minute, I bought Kevin a blue snow cone. How did it turn green? ( a little help from Mountain Dew) Can you tell Kevin is proud of it?
















Jeff and Jake horsing around. Most of the time we spent in the grassy area next to the field so the kids could run around.



















Jacob standing on the bleachers. He had a good time climbing over them until they filled up and and he couldn't do it anymore.














Tracie, Kevin, and Ethan














Tracie seeing how fast she can throw. I think it was like 58 miles per hour or something like that. She can correct me if I'm wrong.














After the game the kids got to run around the bases. (This picture was taken by Darren but it was on my camera so I am posting it.)


















Ethan with the ball he talked the other team out of. He really wanted a ball and Tracie told him sometimes the pitchers that sit on the bench right by us will give out balls. He and Tracie asked them once but they said they didn't have one for him. Ethan is a very persistant little kid if he wants something. He kept asking Tracie to ask again but she said no. Someone pointed out the balls that were under the bench right next to the fence. Ethan put his hand under the fence and worked out one of the balls. When we realized what he had done we told him he had to put it back. Tracie went with him and asked the pitchers if he could play with the ball for a few minutes and then give it back. They told him to keep it. He's pretty proud of that ball.














Dogpile on Kevin!














A cute family watching the game.

Happy Birthday, Jacob!

Jacob's three! Here are some pictures of the celebrations.

































Jacob was a little afraid of the flame on the candles so he would only blow from far away. Luckily, his brother was willing to step in and help.



















Opening presents


























Jacob on his new bike.



















More presents. I like Ethan's face in this picture. He looks so happy because this is the present he gave to Jacob. (It's a ball.)