Island Park

Friday the 10th, we headed to Island Park with my entire immediate family to stay at a cabin my parents rented for the week.  We got to the cabin, unpacked our vehicles and headed for West Yellowstone.  We ate dinner together at a little restaurant and then headed to the Playmill where we saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  It was a super fun show! 

The next day we packed a picnic and jumped on the four wheelers to go for a ride. 

We drove to Warm Springs and got to see some HUGE fish eating bread & cheese.  It started to rain so we jumped on the four wheelers and took off.

The trail we took back was a wee bit muddy. 

So we just let loose and got dirty.

It was by far the funnest four wheeler ride I've been on.

We stopped at almost every puddle and took pictures or video of the riders.  We were hootin' and hollerin'!!

Seriously.. so fun!

The whole clan!

My girls didn't get very muddy because they were asleep with grandma & grandpa on the razor.

That night we cleaned up and sat by the fire on the upper deck and roasted marshmallows.  Then we tried to watch Nacho Libre - one of our favorites, but we were too sleepy from a fun day and most of us fell asleep.

The next day we packed another picnic and drove to Yellowstone Park.  It was the first time I remember going there so I thought it was super exciting! 

Sitting by Firehole Falls

Standing by Old Faithful

There were tons of Buffalo.  We even got to see quite a few baby buffalo.

Grandpa, Alissa & Grandma (love this picture!)  standing by a hot spot

Sunday night everybody left but Dustin and I and our little family and mom and dad.  We went for another ride on Monday and found this field of flowers.  It was fun to let the girls pick away.

Molly

Ella

Alissa

We drove about 25 miles to .... where we got to see this beautiful spring out of the mountain.  Dustin and I are all dressed in our rain gear (thanks to dad) because we were on the four wheeler.

Dustin with his baby girls.  On the way home it POURED down rain and there was crazy thunder and even some lightening that hit near where we were.  It really freaked us all out because we were riding a trail through the trees and through massive puddles again.  We had about 5 miles left to go when it started pouring so we drove as quickly as we could to get to shelter.  It was actually really fun though, especially since we had rain gear on this time. :)

So we drove home with Dustin on Monday since he had to go back to work and did a few loads of laundry, picked up a few things we forgot and headed back on Tuesday.  Mom and Dad saw a truck come unload a bunch of fish into the river that morning so we stopped to fish.  I think my dad counted somewhere around 75 fish caught between him and my mom that day.  It was a perfect day for the kids to be fishing.

The seagulls and pelicans were going crazy over all the fish!

My sister in law Lisa came back that day too with her kids.  We took some cute cousin pictures on the dock.  They really are great friends.

Last by not least.. the girls got to hot tub almsot every day!  They got all excited anytime somebody opened the back door.   

SUCH A GREAT TIME!  We are so grateful to my parents for providing an opportunity like this for us to spend the week together.  It was so awesome to have everybody there and to just be crazy together.  I love my family and have so much fun with them.  We are so very blessed!

Summer Ideas

I thought I would share a few ideas we are doing for summer this year.  I was realizing day after day was going by without keeping up on reading so I gathered a bunch of ideas and came up with this.  I got an 8X10 frame and put some scrapbook paper in it.  With permanent marker (which wipes off with Windex) wrote Ella's Summer Reading.  The first 5 weeks or so she has 5 spots to read 10 minutes each and then it goes to 15 for a few weeks and then 20 minutes a day which is what I have learned is required in 1st grade.

Every time she fills in 5 dots she gets a reward.  So this week I am making her bed every day because she read 50 minutes last week.  The rewards are Zoo, Movie, Date with Dad, Swimming, Late night with a friend, New Toy, Date with Mom, You Choose and Lagoon.  They are all things we were planning to do, but I figured we might as well make them a reward right?  It's worked well so far.  We even scored some Fairy themed chapter books at a garage sale this past weekend which are AR books so that's what we've been reading.

We are also in the process of making a list of our "Summer Bucket List".  I guess I like it so much because it's hanging on the fridge and Ella and Dustin are participating.  Here is what it looks like so far:

Lagoon, Library, Picnic at the Park, Hike with Dad, Float River, Redfish Lake Paddle Boats, Camping, Splash Park, Go out for ice cream, Zoo, Swimming, Movie, Visit grandparents, Mesa Falls, Old Faithful, Game with Molly, Cabin, Sleep under the stars, BBQ with friends, water fight, Family Reunion, Eat watermelon, Fireworks, Jump on the trampoline with sprinklers, ride the carousel, get a snow cone, stay in a motel & go swimming, Tball, harvest garden, Lava hotsprings, bike ride, feed ducks, ride in a boat, swimming lessons, fly a kite, Playmill, BBQ with neighbors, Ferris Wheel at Funland

We are in for an eventful summer!

Girls Night Out in Rexburg

While Dustin was camping out at Green Canyon this past weekend on his Father/Son outing, we decided to have a "Girls Night" and go visit Aunt Heidi in Rexburg.

We walked around the temple grounds in Rexburg and let the girls touch the temple. 

They think it's really great to touch the temple and I'm glad.

Ella idolizes Aunt Heidi and cannot wait to be in college like she is.  I'm glad Heidi is a good example to her.  She is preparing to go on a mission and I can't think of a better example for my daughter to follow.   My kids all know Aunt Heidi loves them too.

Me & my girls

We went to Porter park and got the last 2 carousel rides of the night. 

All the girls thought it was pretty great.

Even the big ones.

Being in a college town reminded me of living in Logan.  We drove around and saw people playing games on the grass, sitting around the temple grounds, relaxing in their front yards.  I thought nobody was at the restaurant until we walked in and saw the huge line of people and Heidi reminded me that most people walk around here.  It made me wonder, where did our life get so difficult?  The college days were hard because we had no money, but we had each other and we had friends that we entertained ourselves with.  We splurged on ice cream, but mostly did free things like bike rides, played games, etc.  It was a good eye opener, I think we need to do a little evaluation of our life and simplify!

Memorial Weekend

We had our first camping trip of the summer over Memorial weekend.  It was so much fun to get out of the house and spend the weekend together and away from cell phone service, Internet, TV and household chores.  Dustin's family has a lot on the Salmon River and most of his family parks their trailers there for the summer.  There is full hook ups so we get pretty spoiled.  His parents didn't go this time so we got to spend the weekend in their trailer.

This is in the backyard.  I love how beautiful it is up there.

Last year for the family reunion, his brother and sister in law had everybody put their hand/foot prints in a pad of cement and placed them around the fire. 

It's fun to go there and find your stepping stone with your name and see how much your hand has grown.

We rode the four wheelers and hiked around Jimmie Smith Lake where we fished until it rained.

Beautiful!!

The next day we took a drive and had a campfire as it was snowing and raining.  We had a great time.  My girls were both on my lap having fun playing together.

Ella is roasting Starbursts.  We roasted cheese sandwich, cheese sticks, pickles, apple slices, whatever we could find in the cooler.

My cute husband was having a grand time getting soaking wet and muddy on the four wheeler.  You can tell by that GIANT smile.  I love it!

We went to Sunbeam Hot Springs and made a little puddle for us to soak our feet in.

Again, it is just so beautiful!!

On our way home we visited Grandma and Grandpa Brathwaite's grave.  It was the first time our kids have been there.  Ella got to see the grave of Grandma Ella.  I love this little family of mine!