Continuation of my lengthy 8 month update!

For my dad's 80th birthday we all got together to celebrate and of course took pictures. Our last entire family pictures were taken at their 50th wedding anniversary which was almost 8 years ago. Some people were missing that lived far away, but we got a lot of the crew in the picture. It was fun to see everyone again. And it is nice to live closer so that we can actually be there for exciting events.

Mom & Dad

My Parents and Siblings

My Parents, Siblings and Spouses The Whole Clan

My Family...........

So my husband's brother got married a few weekends ago. It was nice to have another excuse to get out of town. He was married in SLC. I have been taking a photography class, however, I am still terrible at it. Someday I will get better, but I enjoyed taking random pictures while I was there.

Clarke & Jessica--the beautiful bride and groom
Arin, Nick (Loren's brothers) & Felicia
Corinne (Loren's sister) & Greg
Clarke & his mom
This is my favorite...Heather noticed that I was taking her picture so she thought she would give me a dirty look, well...I am getting her back by posting this on my blog. Sorry Heather, next time smile!

Loren & his brother Marc (Heather is his wife)

Poor Marin, she was sick this day. She ended up throwing up in the car on the way to Orem. Luckily we had a bucket in the car for just that exact occasion!


Evan was too cute, I couldn't pass it up. Corinne I will give you a copy--remind me!

Macy just lost one of her front teeth. She thinks it is great to put her "whole" finger in the space. I have seen the size of her permanent teeth in the x-ray and she is going to need a bigger space to fit those big teeth:). I guess she is more like me every day!

Corinne, Greg, Alayna and Evan

Arin and Stephanie--they got to come without their kids! We were sad to not get to see them, but I am sure they enjoyed seeing some of the old stomping grounds on their own!

There was a reception here this last weekend and Corinne and I got to do the cake. We had a blast and luckily it turned out great! Good job Corinne!

Well hopefully I will update this again before Halloween! Just kidding.

yes, I am back!

Ok, we really didn't fall off the face of the earth, I promise! There are just some things that take courage for me to face and for some reason blogging is one of them! We have had a lot of fun occasions in our extended families over the past little while. I won't bore you with all the details but I will share a few highlights!

Our family had the privilege of going to the Twin Falls temple open house. The kids were so excited to see what the inside of a temple looks like. I guess they were able to feel the special spirit there because they were very calm and quiet. It made me think about the future and that the next time I would be with one of my kids in the temple would be a wedding or mission. That kind of freaked me out. Luckily that is several years away!

I know it isn't appealing to look at Halloween stuff in February but... oh well. My sister-in-law Corinne and I enjoy decorating cakes. We have our own little business. Anyway we decorated 6 different cakes for the ward chili feed and trunk-or-treat as prizes for the best chili and best costumes. It was a lot of fun! However the same day we decorated a wedding cake, so it was a little crazy!

I think Marin will be a soccer player every year for Halloween! But as long as she is happy then that is all the matters! The kids had a blast and I of course tolerated halloween--not my favorite holiday ;)

The girls played soccer on the same team this last fall. Their dad was their coach which of course was the highlight for them.

We had to have the yearly pictures taken for the Chirstmas card! Here are some of my favorites:

Thanks Janelle for taking great pictures!

So, I was really pathetic and didn't take any pictures of Christmas at all! Not even a pj picture! What in the world was I thinking? Luckily my sister took some pictures at her house. We went to my parent's house after spending Christmas at home. We got to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday! It was quite a milestone for all of us because both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer and treated with chemo etc. this year. We were very lucky to have them both still here. My mom is now considered cancer free and my dad is in remission so we are very grateful for our many blessings this year. Anyway, we stopped at my sister's house and she had 2 of her married kids visiting as well. We had to laugh at the 3 mini vans in the driveway.

There was tons of snow so we went sledding with all the kids. The best part was Sydney sledding. Loren sent her down by herself and she loved it! She would get to the bottom and then roll over and say "again!" She went farther and faster than anyone.

The kids got to have a big sleep over in the basement. They loved it but it was hard to get everyone (especially my kids) to sleep!

Ok, time for dinner...I really hope that I get back to this soon and don't forget again for 7 months!

Oh Give Me A Home Where the Buffalo Roam...

We finally experienced a family vacation that doesn't involve going to visit family. We visited Yellowstone National Park for the first time ever. We had so much fun. My niece Andrea and her family invited us to stay at her husband's family's cabin. We haven't been able to see them very often so it was really nice to catch up!

We were also able to see some friends from the "past". They lived in our ward in Nebraska and moved back to Wyoming the same time we moved to Idaho. They were so nice to meet us in the park so that we could see each other again. It was just like old times with Adam and Megan and little Grant. We are grateful for their friendship and wish them well in the future. Hopefully we will see them again!


We went to a place called Big Springs. The water was so clear and beautiful. You could see everything in the water. There were a bunch of big fish that just sat (do fish sit?) there in the water waiting for you to feed them. For some reason most of them were hiding under the bridge so I only got a picture of one. But it was a good effort.



We brought along some buns to feed to the fish, but the birds were a little faster so I think we helped the birds put on a few pounds instead of the fish.



After looking at some of our pictures I think my kids put on a few pounds eating the buns too! That came out wrong. I don't think my kids look fat, I can see them chewing bread in the pictures :)!!!!!


While we were driving, this buffalo decided to cross the road right in front of our car. The kids were going crazy.



I loved this picture of the kids waiting for Old Faithful to go off. Old Faithful wasn't quite so faithful. They had to wait a little longer than usual.





The water level was extra high this time of year because of a colder spring. The run off from the mountains was delayed until later in the season. Unfortunately, that meant no swimming in the Firehole river. Instead we "waded". Which usually means you get soaking wet anyway :).

Sydney decided that she wanted to get in so Loren helped her. A little bit unconventional, I know!

The kids thought this was a playground, but actually it was the roots of a fallen tree.

Our kids hadn't been fishing before so they were so excited to catch their first fish ever! They weren't as excited to eat it. But I was proud of them because they did at least try it. Dan was a great fish chef. Thanks Dan!

We went floating down the river. I'm not sure that any of us ever got our canoeing merit badge (I guess Loren did), but we made it safely :). I guess I shouldn't say that they water was 2 feet deep and there were 0 rapids. It sounded much more adventurous before.

It was however an adventure to keep Sydney from jumping out of the canoe and trying to row at the same time.

Andrea did a great job of taking these few head shots so I put them in. Thanks for reading my travel log. We had a fantastic time! Maybe we will try the family vacation thing again some time.

I know, crazy hair for me. It takes way too long to blow dry and when you are on vacation you do what you gotta do! So I have since chopped it off. No more long hair for me!

Marin

Macy

Marshall

Sydney