Our Family Vacation

This last week has been really fun. On Sunday we celebrated fathers day at Kris' house. On Monday I was able to meet Dave and Shannon Growcock, one of my old friends from my college ward. He was with his wife and two children. It was so fun to reconnect with them. It had been 12 years since I'd seen them. We went to Lee's Mongolian in Ogden and then took the kids to the park for a couple of hours while we were able to visit. Later that evening, we went to Park City, acutally Deer Mountain, for a 40th birthday bash for Grant Pettingill, one of my friends from high school. I was able to see Marleigh, Traci and Roger also.

On Tuesday we left for Yellowstone. We went up through Idaho and spent the first night in West Yellowstone. Our motel room was kind of a dump. Of course I'm a cheep wad and didn't want to spent alot on a room. I guess you get what you pay for. Wednesday we went into the park. Our first stop was the Painted Pots. Wouldn't you know, I got my camera out to take picutres and my camera was dead. I took picutres with my phone but they aren't very good. I made sure we stopped for batteries before we went to the falls.

The weather up there was perfect. The wind was blowing pretty bad at Inspiration Point.

The kids loved Old Faithful. I took video of that so I don't have any still pictures to post and the video is almost 2 minutes long.

After we left the park, we spent the night in Jackson Hole. We stayed at Motel 6. It was much nicer. We left this morning and came home but not before stopping in Star Valley for squeeky cheese and in Bear Lake for shakes. Vacations are nice but it sure is nice to be home.

Summer Fun

Dispite all of the rain, my kids and I have had a really fun summer. We've gone to the park several times, went to the airshow, spent time with family and just relaxed. Here are some of the pics I've taken so far this summer.

I really like this picture. If you look close, right in the middle is a cloud burst. I thought it was kind of cool.

You can't see me

Kaleigh has been so funny lately. She thinks if she hides her eyes I can't see her. This is us playing hide and seek. It is so funny.

The boys also finished school for the year. They were really upset about it. Anthony advanced to the next class and Jared graduated preschool. He is going to kindergarten next year. We did get him into Canyon View Elementary which is an alternative kindergarten. I was really worried about him going to school with all of his behavior problems. Now I feel a lot better about it. He will only have about 12-15 students in his class and more teachers and aids. I'm hoping by the time he finishes kindergarten he will be able to go to a regular elementary.

Jared is going to be the death of me.

So last Wednesday I sent Jared to his room because he was hitting and yelling at me. It was about 4:30 in the afternoon. At 5:oo I went down to check on him and talk to him about why I had put him in his room. He wasn't there. I looked in the house, went around to the neighbors, looked back in the house, yelled for him and finally had my neighbors help me look for him. After 45 minutes of not being able to find him, I called the police. Chad had left earlier to go to a baseball game so I thought that maybe he hadn't closed the door tight and Jared had gotten out. When the police showed up he suggested that we check the house one more time before spreading out into the neighborhood. He said that 90% of the time they end up finding the child in the home hiding somewhere. All of my neighbors came in my house and started looking for him and yelling for him. We ended up finding him downstairs in the storage room. He had climbed into a box and covered himself up with a coat and fallen asleep. I had been in that room 3 times but I guess he was out cold and didn't hear me yell for him.

One of my greatest fears in this life is loosing one of my children. You read stories all of the time about missing children and to actually have it happen (even if it was only for and hour) is the worst feeling. I'm just glad we found him safe and sound.

Turning 40

Well, I'm now 40. It's hard to believe. I had a really good day. I spent the day with the kids until the boys went to school and then put Kaleigh down for her nap and relaxed until she woke up and the boys came home. When Chad came home from picking Anthony up, they brought me flowers. I was really suprised with them. Chad has only bought me flowers 2 times since we've been married. He also got me a cake and he and the kids gave me a $30 gift card to Fashion Bug. That evening we went dinner at Golden Coral (not my first choice, but it is kid friendly) and then we went to Shopko and bought a couple of kites and went to the park and flew kites and played. The kids (including Chad) had so much fun. It was a really good day. I just wish Chad would be that way with the kids everyday.

Pictures of the Kids

We went and got the kid's pictures taken yesterday.  It was exhausting.  Kaleigh and Jared kept running out of the studio while I was trying to view pictures.  I am sure the photographer was glad to see us go!  They are sure cute kids, it would be nice if their actions would catch up!!!  Here are their pictures.



.

Kaleigh Singing

Kaleigh loves to sing.  Her favorite song is Twinkle Twinkle.  I finally got a video of her singing.  

I also finally got my hair colored and cut. I hadn't had it done for almost a year.  Here's a picture of the finished product.