Soooo, it's been a while since my last post. It was a little intimidating to follow up after Blake's creative post. (He was quite proud of that by the way)Anyway, life has been quite eventful as of late, but I wanted to catch up on a trip we took in July before I move on to the chaos. Blake was able to take a few days off so we headed to Hebgen Lake for some camping, fishing, and bike riding trough Yellowstone with Grandpa Kern. Of course, it wouldn't be a post by me if I didn't upload the pictures backwards. So, we will begin with the end of the trip. We were able to do some really fun bike rides through Yellowstone Park with my dad. It was fun to do as a family. It is nice that the kids are getting old enough that we can do things like this as a family.

The one thing that made it all do-able was this contraption. Sam still has a hard time keeping up with everyone else on a bike, so we rented this great trailer that made it possible for him to keep up. He loved it, and loved whizzing by everybody else and saying "See yah, slow poke". He did get a little tired by the end of the day as you can see.


The day before (remember, we started at the end) We had gone to Virginia City. It was a fun old mining town in Montana. There were so many old "authentic" artifacts and antiques to look at. Jack and Sam both got a bow and arrow as a souvenir and had lots of fun practicing their aim.
And that brings us to the start of our journey, Hebgen Lake (I have got to remember how to post my pictures correctly!). We got a campsite right on the water. Which was great for water access, not so great for misquitoes. When we got there the kids couldn't wait to get their feet wet in the lake. It started out with just getting feet wet and quickly turned into full on swimming. Clothes and all. After we got back from this trip Jack had an unusual lump in his lower abdomen we were concerned about so we got it checked out. The next day he had hernia surgery. The doctor's originally thought that it was strangulating his bowel, but that did not end up being the case. Jack was a champ through it all, and so Brave! I couldn't believe how fast his body healed. The biggest downer was that he had to miss swimming lessons because of it. But he is back to his old self, and has a great story to tell anyone who will listen.

Freedom

So lately I have being failing in the fun date category and the Josie's love tank was running on low as I was informed. Especially after Sara told Josie about all the fun dates her and Jay have been going on. Thanks a lot Jay I am still waiting to hear the end of that one.

So I kept hearing what a romantic place the Independence Lakes were up South of Burley. I know too couples that actually propose marriage at this wonderful location. So I thought there had to be something magical in the water up there and to make the hike on the 4th of July eve. This would get me out of the dog house for sure and Jay would be calling me for pointers. So I arranged for Becky my sister to watch the kid so Josie and I could make this romantic trek.

It was a wonderful hike and saw beautiful country. Please refer to the pictures. Josie was even able to shoot a tree. Josie got a good laugh as I was trying to set the timer on the camera and run to get in the picture also. She said it was like the good old days when her father would do the samething. The highligt for Josie I sure was we dropped down the other side of the mountain and went to the Albion Cafe and ordered our favorite scones with rasbery butter. They are out of this world.

I hope in the end Josie had and wonderful time and she knowes that I love her very much.


A funny story on the way up the mountain. (Josie's did not think so)

As we were walking up I saw a family coming down that are members of our ward that I have been trying to reactivate. (Now Josie says I have put back their progression until I leave). This is nothing new I think it is most of the ward that is counting down the day until I am releassed or leave.

Anyway as I reconized them I yelled out "I finally found you I have hiked all this way to come hometeach you now sit down and listen". I think I got a smile out of the husband. Pretty funny maybe I will sent the story into the Ensign. What a great Idea. I will call it "High on a Mountain Top"

The Mystery of Stinging Nettle at Phantom Falls

Scooby Doo where are you??

Last week-end Josie went to youth conference up in the South Hills. We hatch this great plan to meet her up there Saturday afternoon and hike into a water fall that just out the side of a cliff from a underground spring. So the kids and I hopped into the Mystery Machine and headed up to meet up with Daphne AKA(Josie). The first mystery of the day was to find the trail head which was challenge in it self. We missed the sign the first time and end up almost all the way to Burly then we ran into "Clampits Family" which straighten us out and told us that the sign at the road was knocked down and you had to look back into the grass to see the sign. So we finally found the trail head strapped up and set out on the "Mystery of Stinging Nettle at Phantom Falls" The tail was a bit overgrow but after we handed out a few scooby snacks the team was good to go. As instructed by Daphne I took the lead to fend off any wild beast that might jump us. But don't you worry I had my loaded 9mm the only problem was I left it in the truck. As the adventure continued I started noticing a plant along the trail that has cause me some pain in the past so I thought being the leader and assuming that Josie knew what stinging nettle looked like (especially being the camp nurse for girls camp this year) I would yell to the rear watch out for the stinging nettle. Half way in on the hike there was a mutiny Daphne and Velma shutdown and decided that a calamine lotion bath was not going to be in their future any time soon. So after carrying a crying Velma up the hill. Being the diplomatic person I am no yelling of course. The mystery was solved. Along this same trail was another plant that kind of look like stinging nettle but was not. So both Daphne and Velma kept thinking they were surounded by stinging nettle. Once it was properly identified Velma was able to stop the goal of not to let a blade of grass touch her. Which was quite the challenge on the over grown trail in shorts as you can see from the pictures. In the end it was a wonderful hike and a fun family adventure. I have attached a picture of sting nettle so next time you to can solve the Mystery of the Stinging Nettle.

Sincerely,

Scooby Doo

Past the Scooby Snacks ( Bottle Caps)

You know an update is way over due when your husband asks if you are ever going to update your blog. So I am catching up. Expect great things to come. But for now, here is a small taste of what we have been up to the last couple of months. How 'bout that first picture as an attention getter, heh?! I work very part time at the MSTI here in Twin Falls, and they were having a fundraiser auction to go along with the "Relay for Life". So they asked people to decorate a bra with a "Breast Cancer Awareness" theme, to be auctioned off at the dinner. So the is my contrabution. The "treasure chest" or "treasure your chest" if you will. It didn't come out perfect by any means, but I was kind of proud of the final out come. Blake and I had fun coming up with runners up ideas. If anyone has a great one for next year, I am open to suggestions!

I love this next picture! It was on one of the first nice days this spring and the boys were playing super hero's in the back yard. When they got the brilliant idea to jump on the trampoline like they were flying through the air. They got some good "flying" in, I thought it was a cute idea that they came up with all on their own. I love the simple joys of youth!!!!

Here are some very belated pictures of Easter. We went down to Sara's for the MS Walk in Salt Lake, then back to here house to dye eggs and the big hunt. It was a nice weekend, and nice weather too. More to come later, I PROMISE! (if you look close at the bottom picture you get a glimpse of Jack's "Hulk Hand". He didn't feel the need to use the "dipper" apparently.)

California: Part 2

California: Part 1

Our first stop on our California vacation was at my brother Ben's house in Turlock, CA. We love getting together with them whenever we can, because our kids enjoy each other so much and have very compatible personalities. I love to just listen around the corner to Reese and Jack 's conversations. And Anna and Emily are like sisters! Sam giggled every time we talked about going to visit Maya and Bella. They play so well together. Just cute little kiddo games. Like "working out" in Ben's living room. Sam had those girls doing push ups and kick boxing, and relays. And they loved every minute of it. It was quite inventive.Then there's Jessica, the oldest, TALLEST, most mature of the bunch. She really is so grown up! It wasn't until she drove the baby stroller like a nascar driver through the parking garage that I remembered she is 12. (That's a good thing Jess, be young as long as you can!!!) I tried to discreatly tuck baby Jeffrey under my arm as we left, hoping know one would notice. But Blake made me give him back! What a cutie!!!
Anyway, we felt lucky to attend Anna's baptism while we were there. The above picture was how well behaved our group of nine cousins were....during the baptism. The below picture is a better depiction of the cousin memories made throughout the weekend.

And through it all, my sis in law Emily put together a lovely baptism program, and a delicious luncheon without breaking a sweat. Impressive. Thanks for a wonderful visit!!!!


The slide show below is of our trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. We had taken a trip there 9 years ago. When Emily was a baby and Blake was working in Modesto, CA. It was a fun trip then, but even better to take all our kids back, and watch them enjoy it. I have to say that all 9 of the kids were well behaved!!! A huge accomplishment in my book!