Mesa Falls & Yellowstone

One of our days in Idaho was spent enjoying the amazing nature that they are so close to. They are just a few hours drive from a beautiful place called Mesa Falls that has an enormous, fast running waterfall. And then a bit further from there is Yellowstone National Park. I love being these types of places with my family. Being outside. Enjoying nature. Enjoying and taking the time to appreciate the beauty that is in the earth and all around us. It really was remarkable! 

At Mesa Falls! 

 Even if they are all not smiling perfect, they are all looking in the right direction! I love our groups of kids!

 At the mesa falls visitor center looking at all the creepy animal skins! The kids loved it!

Yellowstone! 

 This was probably my favorite spot in the whole park. The water just boils right out of the earth and is the most amazing and perfect and beautiful blue and turquoise you have ever seen. There is no way to capture its true beauty in a picture. The steam the comes off the water is so incredible intense when it blows your way. It was such a strange feeling and such a unique and gorgeous sight! One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! Truly!

 Some of us are lucky enough to call our sister our best friend!

 Waiting for Old Faithful! We go there JUST in time! Couldn't have been any more perfect!

 There she goes!

 As we were leaving the park we were all remarking that we were a little bummed to have not run into any wild life a long the way. And then low and behold, there was a buffalo, right in the middle of the road! Those things are HUGE! 

 After 11 months and 3 weeks of counting down by the kids, it was here once again! Our trip to Idaho to see the Robinsons! The kids were so excited. And I am not joking when I say that they (especially Kellen) have been asking when we were going again since we got home from our last trip. The drive up there went incredibly smooth. The kids were great. Traffic was not too bad. We were in St. George for the 4th of July overnight on our way up to Rexburg. We ate dinner at Cafe Rio, went to see the St George temple,  swam at the hotel, ate yummy ice cream and then drove as close as we could to see fireworks. It was a pretty long day and the kids handled it like champs!

 The next day we met Sarah and her family a little bit outside of Salt Lake at this AMAZING water park. The kids were in Heaven! All of them. It was such a great way to break up the day. We played for hours and the kids couldn't get enough of it. It made the last 4 hours of the drive so much easier for us. And it gave us even more time with the cousins.

 Ding and Korah met us there too! The kids love to pester them and made them go in the lazy river with them over and over and over agin.

 One of our first days in we decided to take inner tubes and floated down the river. The kids LOVED this last year and had been really hoping we could do it again. Todd and Kip scoped it out and decided it was doable for our group. It was a first experience for Todd which made it really fun. And Makenna was big enough to use her own inner tube, which was a bit crazy for Mom to take in. The water was freezing (by California standards). But we had a blast. All expect Conner. He say quiet during most of it and I couldn't figure out what was going on with him. Finally I got him to explain that the gross water (not being able to see to the bottom) was just too unsettling for him. 

Our river float ended at a small pond in a friends backyard that has an awesome rope swing and platform that you can jump/swing off of. To everyones surprise Kellen was an animal! That boy was up and off that platform over and over and over again. Conner did it a few times, but then he had enough. Makenna was finally convinced to jump, only with her Uncle Bickey holding her hand. It was sweet. I of course was a natural on the swing. Sarah was much less graceful. Kip beat us all with his ballerina twirl at the end. 

 Down the river we go!

 What do sisters do when they get together? They take turns throwing babies into foam pits!

 Idaho has an awesome place called ijump that the kids loved. It is a huge trampoline park. The kids jumped for hours and still didn't have enough. But there is something just so sweet getting to just watch the kids play and laugh and have fun together. 

 Though Sarah was TRULY on the verge of a mental breakdown, this was one of the funniest moments of the trip for me. Todd and Kip had gone on a man trip for the day and Sarah and I had the kids to ourselves all day. After ijump the kids were dying to go to a pizza buffet up there that my kids had loved. So Sarah and I decided yeah, we have 7 over tired, hyper kids. Why not take them all to a late dinner at 7:30 to a buffet all by ourselves?! I honestly didn't think it was all that bad. We were lucky enough to score our own closed off party room. But I went to take a couple kids to the bathroom and when I came back I came back to this! It was so good I had to make her re pose so I could take a pic and remember forever!

 Since most of the cousins have summer birthdays we have a tradition of exchanging birthday gifts during the summer so that all the cousins can watch each other open their gifts up. The kids love it. The mommies love it. And I love our little traditions we are making, even if Sarah and her family left us and are making us all suffer living far apart. We love our cousins!

It's Time

So I tried. And as much as I hate to admit it, I just fell too far behind on the blog and am REALLY having hard time catching up. And being so far behind makes it hard to feel motivated to blog regularly. So as much as I HATE not documenting Many months, its the only way I will be able to keep the blog going. Luckily there is instagram and my chatbooks that document these missing months. So we will just cross fingers that I can keep it up from here on out.

I don't want to miss any kids birthdays so we are going to pick up in JULY of 2015. So here are some general highlights! 

THIS GIRL! She got BRACES! Oh my gosh! And she went from looking like my little girl to a little lady in an instant! It is so weird for me to see her this old and growing so fast! But she can ROCK those braces like it is nobody's business! She picked rainbow colors for the first time, which is perfect for this girl. And she was so excited about it. The very best part....so far hardly any pain at all. But here is a cute little story. I warned her that her teeth might be sore and told her to let me know if she needed a smoothie or something for dinner. So sure enough at dinner time she asked for a smoothly, to which I gladly obliged! The next morning I asked her how her teeth were (expecting them to be Really sore) and she said "Oh, they are totally fine!" I asked her if they were feeling better than last night and was surprised they didn't hurt more. Her response: "Well, last night they didn't really hurt That bad. I just thought it seemed fun to get a smoothly because I have braces and that is a big deal!" I just laughed! I love this girl!

This boy just melts my heart. For one day (before he had a badly needed hair cut) he wanted to try a new spike style. So we played around with it. I thought he looked So Cute and he loved it. But the next day he wanted nothing to do with it and wanted his old style back. Silly boy!

I am so lucky to have awesome neighbors/friends that suggest fun things for us to do together, like go to "Cow Appreciation Day" at Chic-fil-A. We Quickly made cow shirts and masks and printed out cow signs, and the two of us took 7 kids to chic and didn't pay a penny! Best day ever! Who can beat free chic-fil-a?!

Makenna and Kara......Kellen and Joseph

So blessed to have such amazing best friends for my kiddos! I know kids grow and change and that friendships change. But I hope (fingers crossed) that these kids keep these friends. They are so good for each other!

Mama Cows!

Kellen got this MUCH anticipated gift from the Robinsons (post to come) and he LOVES his claw game. He saved up a ton of money so he could go buy prizes to go inside. He stocks the game with goodies and then lets his friends and siblings come and play or sits and plays himself over and over. It is the cutest things. I was the claw master as a kid! Hope this boy does mama proud!

This summer I had a goal of going to the beach once a week. And even though we didn't make it Quite that much, we made it A Lot! And the kids loved it! They are at such good ages for the beach! Makenna and Kellen love to boogie board. We got a second one this year so they can go together. It is nice because they can catch the waves on their own but are also good at not trying to go out too far, so I don't have too much of a heart attack! Conner and Carys are great at staying close to me and the 3 of us love to hold hands and go jump in the waves together. We eat sandy food, lay in hot sun, catch sand crabs, build castles, catch waves....it's just perfect! The taste of summer!

This day we were there we kept seeing all these little creatures that looked like baby lobsters in the water. They were EVERYWHERE! And super easy to catch in a bucket. We found out later that they are called "tuna crabs". Whatever they were they were fun and made for a great adventure and a very happy animal loving Makenna!

At the Santee YMCA! Both these boys look so big in the is pic! Kellen is totally going through this "I won't touch my brother in a loving way unless I am threatened to do so." They play together All day every day! Yes, they fight too! But those boys are together constantly and are such great friends. But for whatever reason Kellen does not feel like he can be affectionate with his little brother. It bugs me and makes me sad, but I also know that boys are different than girls and don't dwell on it too much. They have a great relationship and love each other to pieces....even if they won't say it out loud!

Something I LOVE about having kids - seeing there imaginations at work! Turning paper bags into enemies to be used as target practice. Cardboard boxes becoming rocket ships and robots. Bicycles becoming firetrucks or horses or motorcycles. It makes me sad that we loose this part of childhood as we grow. It is something so incredible to watch unfold right before your eyes!

This little cutie! Out at Toys R Us trying to find presents for her big brothers birthday. I turn around and what is she doing? Hiding under the basket with a toy she is trying to hijack! Love this spunky little nut!

Summer is rough on little boys. I love that he is 5 and still passes out in the middle of the floor!

I told you these boys love each other!

If only Makenna could be a mermaid. Is that so much to ask?

We are growing corn! Or at least going to attempt. We hear it doesn't go so well here. But Carys is enthusiastic! Hope we don't let her down. I love how my kid are getting to grow up watching us grow our own food at home!