::yellowstone::

Yellowstone 2010

(our whole group minus Jennie)

We headed to Yellowstone/Jackson Hole last Wednesday.
The kids (and the adults) were WAAY excited!

The kids did awesome in the car (it was about a 3 1/2 hour drive). Our first day there it was raining and freeeeeezing cold! We went out to dinner (all 17 of us) and then just came back to the cabins for some poker (for the guys) and some chattin'.

Jackson Hole

The next day we headed into Jackson. It was a little warmer than the day before...

...but not much. We didn't do what we'd planned for that day, so we kind of had to find something to keep us entertained. We hit the visitor center first...

We saw some animals, looked at a few ducks, read about the bears, squared off with an elk, crawled through the tunnel, and looked around in the gift shop. Then we headed over to a pioneer museum...

...we looked at lots of old stuff. The kids had a paper from the museum that had them spot certain things in there and draw some things, and when it was finished, they got some sheriff's badges.
After that, Uncle J and the kids thought they'd better do some handstands in the park before lunch...

(Porter, Chloe, & Uncle Jared)

We played in the park for a while while we waited for the rest of our group to come do the maze with us. It was pretty fun, and so was the maze. If you get through in in less than 10 minutes, you get a prize. Matt and the big kids did it in 7, Coopie and I got a little nervous in there after about 8 minutes and had to get out (well, I guess it was mostly me who was nervous).

A bit later, we split from the group (they were all headed to see the Bar J Wranglers), so we could be sure not to miss the Lakers game. To kill some time, we checked out...


It was pretty neat. We saw some crazy 2 headed animals, some pretty awesome belt buckles, a plane wreck, an upside down room, this bridge where everything around it moves in a circle, and lots of other weird things. The kids (and Matt) shot at some animals on a game too.

Oh, and the Lakers won...

(Uncle J, Cooper, Matt, & Porter)

Yellowstone Nat'l Park
Friday morning (bright & early), we headed up to Yellowstone. It was kinda cold in the morning-there was a bit of snow on the ground...


We saw lots of animals...


...actually we saw elk ("eck" like Coopie says) & buffalo, lots of times. We saw some buffalo mamas and babies, and we saw some really close to the road. We came up on a traffic jam because there was a buffalo standing right in the middle of the road! It wasn't movin' either. We had to go around it. We saw one off to the side and he pooped right in front of all of us, and Portie was mad at him 'cause he thought he pooped on our "cah." We didn't see any bears-we almost did, but we were about 2 minutes too late. It was such a bummer 'cause we'd been talking about seeing a bear all day! Jared was even talking about it in his sleep!! haha

We went on a couple of hikes. One of them took us down some switchback trails to the very top of the waterfall. It was beautiful! I've never seen a waterfall from that angle before. The second hike took us to a platform that let us see the falls from about the middle. It was some 300+ stairs down and back up, so it was quite a hike! But the view was worth all the stairs.

We went over to see Old Faithful too. It was pretty neat-the kids liked it too. Bubb mostly wanted to push his stroller around. I think he was just SO glad to be out of his seat. We spent a lot of time in the car that day.


Jackson Hole (again)
Because of the weather on Thursday, we thought we oughtta try Jackson again. The weather on Saturday was much better.

We took the scenic chairlift ride to the top of the mountain...

beautiful view.beautiful Chloe

Matt rode with Coopie, Chloe rode with Sarah, & I rode with Portie. It made me nervous--we were pretty high up! But we all made it, and it was a pretty fun ride!


We rode the alpine slide too. None of our little family has ever ridden one of these, so we were way excited. It was SO fun! Matt tried to race us, and ended up catching up with this old guy that went before him. He was kinda mad. He got some secret info from the guy that works there about how to go really fast. I tried to race him another time down, and couldn't keep up! Chloe rode by herself a couple of times and loved it. She squealed every time she'd make a turn. Port-Port loved it too! He rode with da-da one time, and Jordan another. Then he wanted to golf, so he had no interest in the slide anymore. Coope was just too "liddow." We probably could've lied and said he was 2, but I was a little scared to take him on it.


Grandma even rode the slide!


That night, after a SO good BBQ dinner, we went back to our cabins for a campfire, games, and some "delicious hot sh'moes."

The campfire time was so fun. It was fun to watch the fire, the games, and just talk. We got some hot tub time in too.

Bear World
The next morning (Sunday) we were headed home. But on our way, we stopped off at Bear World-mostly because we missed the bear in Yellowstone...



We saw lots of bears, an albino elk, a big ol' moose, and went in the petting zoo. Portie told us he wanted to shoot the animals-where does he get that from???



And that was our trip!!
It was so so fun! We appreciate Richard and Susan so much for putting it all together for us. We appreciate all the help with the kids during the hikes. Jordan was Porter's buddy the whole time, and we sure appreciate him being so good with him. We're so glad J & Sae rode with us on our 15 hour trip through Yellowstone-they made it so much fun! We love you all, and are so glad to have gotten to have a vacation with everyone!

::fathers day::

"God bless you, dear fathers. May He bless you with wisdom and judgment, with understanding, with self-discipline and self-control, with faith and kindness and love. And may He bless the sons and daughters who have come into your homes, that yours may be a fortifying, strengthening, guiding hand as they walk the treacherous path of life.

~Gordon B. Hinckley

On father's day, we were still on vacation, and on our way home, so we didn't get to make Da-da breakfast or anything like that. We gave him some little cards and a little gift when we got home.

(Cooper-18 mos., Porter-4 yrs., Chloe-6 1/2 yrs.)



(we gave him this bag that straps onto his 4 wheeler-thanks for the idea J & Sae :) )

The next day (Monday) Dadduh took us to see Toy Story 3. It was great!! Portie was SOO excited! He wore his Buzz wings. Coopie was NOT good at the movie, and we decided this was going to be his last movie for a while.




After we got home from the movie, we made Da-da dinner. We cooked steaks on the grill, and I felt kinda bad having him cook, but he LOVES to grill, so it was good :)


I hope he had a happy father's day. We sure love him. He means everything to me and our family. I'm so thankful for him and all of his support and love. He takes such good care of our family, and would do anything for us. He's a constant help and support to me, and always makes me feel loved and important. He takes great care of the kids, plays, is way silly, and makes life so fun. I couldn't hope for anything more.

We want to express our love for our dads too (all 3 of them). We're thankful everyday for their love, support, advice, help-they're always there for us anytime we need them, and we don't know what we'd do without them.

Happy Father's Day

::summer's on::

We like to keep pretty busy in the summer; so the kids are doing a few activities...

cheer
Chloe's doing cheer. She got an invitation to do competitive cheer (you have to try out for it, and you compete), but she'd never done it before, and I wasn't ready for rejection if she didn't make the team, so we thought we'd try just a recreational cheer. So far, she loves it! She comes home and practices and shows me all her moves and her cheers with her own poms. She's got a couple of little friends from school in her class, so that's fun too :)

gym
Port-Port's doing a gym class. He goes once a week (same as Chloe's cheer), and gets to do flips and jumps and all kinds of things. He loves it! We did the parent/child class last summer, and he was totally bored in it, but couldn't go to the big gym 'cause he wasn't 4 yet...well now he's in the big gym, and he thinks it's just awesome!



piano
Chloe takes a group piano class twice a week. She wasn't terribly excited about it, but I kind of told her she had to take the class. She likes it better now that she's been a few times. She has to practice at Grandma Snowman's or on her little keyboard 'cause we don't have a piano, and she usually forgets what she learned by the time we get home; BUT at least she's trying!


(Papa Guitar got to come to one of her lessons-he played puppets with the little boys too)

story hour
All the kids go to story hour once a week. They've only been once (it started later than the others), but they loved it! They listened to a few stories, sang a duck song, and then did a little activity afterwards (they made paper plate ducks).




Our schedule is little crazy, but we like it that way. We like being busy. We're excited to add swimming lessons to the mix in a week.
:)

::when Papa Guitar came to visit, we...::

...went to the Cheesecake Factory!!
We had the best food and cheesecake, as always. Papa brought the grandkids some little gifties from the dollar store (his favorite).

(Chloe, Liam, & Tristan)


(Portie & Papa)


(Coopie & Da-da)


(beautiful Mia)

...went to the T.P. farm to see the animals.
We saw lots of smelly cows, pigs, horses, and we saw some "kackacks" (quack-quacks). Bubb was so excited to see the "kackacks." He liked the cows too "meooo." We went for a carriage ride, and saw the biggest kite ever. AND, all the big kids rode ponies! I was SO surprised mine rode 'em. They've never wanted to ride any other time, but for some reason, they were feeling brave. They liked it too! Chloe rode twice, and Port rode 3 times!





...worked in the garden. a lot.
Papa loves to work in the garden/yard, and so do I! So the last few years, when he comes in the summer/spring, we've done this kind of work together. He helped us with flowers and our vegetable garden (which we needed lots of help with!) He got us a tree for the front yard too. He planted it for us, and said that he likes to think that when we look out at it, we'll think of him. Of course we will.


Our vegetable garden is lookin' like a real garden now! We planted some tomatoes, green peppers, onions, & crookneck squash (sometimes I feel like it's cheating when you plant an actual plant, but Dad says some things you have to, or they'll never grow). We replanted some of the other veggies that weren't sprouting too. It was so helpful to have him here to show us kind of where to plant stuff and how it'll grow and all that. I appreciate so much that he comes to visit, and that he's willing to spend the time & energy to help us with our gardens. We love you so much Papa, thanks for visiting!

::no more teachers, no more books...::

This last week was Chloe's last week of school. It was a busy one! They had Monday off (Memorial day), and I was there 3 out of the next 4 days.

Tuesday-Field Day

I volunteered to help with field day, but when we were getting ready for school, it was freezing cold and pouring rain! I called the school, and they said they were still planning on doing it. Everything got moved inside. I (and another mom) were in charge of hall skating. The kids strapped on some slippery plastic "skates" and raaaaan the whole length of the school (which is pretty long), sliding, slipping, falling, and smashing into eachother. It was pretty funny. Chloe kinda played it safe.

(Chloe's class listening to Lisa's instructions "don't pull eachother down & don't smack into the brick walls")

Wednesday-Literacy Awards

On Wednesday, they had their literacy awards program. The little boys and I went to watch. The school keeps track of how many minutes each child reads at home (we fill out papers every week), and the whole school read just under 1 million minutes this year! Chloe's class read around 81,000! She got a few prizes, and a certificate for being the top reader in her class.

(Portie wanted to sit with her)

(her awards-including some pretty nasty Shasta-mango)

Thursday was beach day. She dressed in some bright colors, a Miami Beach shirt, sunglasses, and flip-flops. They were allowed to bring some sand toys too.

Friday-Last day of school!!!!

And a crazy day it was! I asked Chloe's teacher on Wednesday if I could come help her on Friday, and she said that YESSSS! she'd love some help. So I went again. They had the morning and afternoon classes together-so around 45 kids!! They colored a picture, did a little writing, sang a few songs, and got out at 10:15! I'm glad I got to go for the last day.

(Leo the Late Bloomer story. She always reads this story to her students on the last day)

(Chloe & her teacher)

And just for fun, I thought I'd throw in a photo from her first day and her last day. It's fun to see how she's changed.

(first day of kindergarten)

(last day of kindergarten-holding her gift for her teacher)

It's been a pretty great year. She's learned a lot, and is excited and not excited for 1st grade. She doesn't think she's going to like the whole all-day thing. I just keep telling her it'll be fun, and trying to talk about the fun things about being there all day. We'll see how that goes in August. In the mean time, we're all WAAAY excited to have a little break.

::diy::

We've (by we, I mostly mean Matt) done a couple of home projects...

Project #1...

A garden/trampoline & sandbox area in the back yard. We finished it probably about a month ago, and I forgot I had taken pictures along the way...

Matt tilled up a pretty big area in the corner of our backyard. We had to make a more permanent spot to put the trampoline (because it's a heavy duty one-too heavy to move when we mow), and we wanted a bigger sandbox for the kids. We thought we better add on a garden area too-this is our first year to ever do a garden...

(the beginning of the tilling)

(after lots of tilling and digging, ready for the landscaping bricks)

(almost done-need some bark, sandbox frame, sand, and a few more bricks-(oops) )

(the kids enjoyed the whole project. Portie liked taking dirt away in his dump truck, and they all liked climbing on Papa's trailer)

Ta-Daaaaaa!!

(finished! complete with a new spicket for watering)



Project #2

a new front door.

We've lived in our house for 4 years, and I've hated our front door since the day we looked at the house. It's just a plain ol' white 6 panel (which doesn't even match any of our interior doors). No windows, no pretty handle, no nothin'! I could go on for days about why I hate that door, but I wont :) So we finally got a new one. I picked it out and painted it, Matt did all the hard stuff...

(The kids liked the painting/taping process. They thought they'd tape up parts of the outside of the house so I don't get paint on it.)

(Matt & Coopie worked on installing the hardware)

(J came over to help with the hanging-thanks, J!!)

Ta-Daaaaaa!!!!

I think it turned out pretty nice. It's pretty nice having some light come through that side of the house too.