JuMp

It's only Tuesday and we are tired around here.

Heath has the work pager and is working around the clock, double time already.

The boys have been at VBS each morning and then swimming each afternoon and

I'm just trying to keep up with all of them.

Here is a little about today.

This morning Ryan wanted to get some more toys out and I told him that we couldn't because we had to leave for vacation bible school. He said, "AGAIN" so I was bracing myself for the cries and pleas of not wanting to go but instead he said, "Oh, that is the best. Thanks mom!"

If we could of ended with that story for the day it would of been good but instead...

I hear before I even make it back to pick up Ryan from VBS that he had been slapped in the face by another kid. When I get to Ryan I ask him about what had happened and he explains something to me but I don't understand any of it. I asked again why the kid hit him and he said, "Well I hit him first and then he hit me but he got in trouble mom but not me."

Apparently if you don't get caught then you are still in the good?

Today was a special day though, the boys had their cousins here to play with in the pool.
The girls were there too and they even had their cousins, so it was a lot of fun!

I'm so happy that the boys have such awesome cousins!

The cousins Brooke and Tucker

Ryan and his upside down shark goggles

Cody and his favorite diving goggles

Our jumps!

So this girl here is off to Utah in 4 days!

She wants to experience life a little and go out and live on her own, get a job

and start college. We are so going to miss her around here but wish her nothing but the best!

Go and make us proud Brooke.

it's all good

Summer has been good to us, we are loving the sun.

Here is a look at what we have been doing lately.

Eating snow cones: root beer float and cotton candy were their first flavors of choice

Renting redbox movies: it's been fun getting caught up on all the movies that we've been wanting to see.

Toy Story 3: we went with the girls, Abigail and Cody thought it was a date.

The kids looked so cute all lined up in their seats eating popcorn and candy.

The play date didn't end there, we then went to WinCo for our dinner groceries.

Dinner was something new: grilled pizza and it was fabulous (thanks for sharing Krista)

Watching my garden slowly die: I don't know what's going on with it, I already replaced a couple of plants because I planted them the same day as a windstorm and they didn't make it but I still have things not looking so great. I started with 5 things (zucchini, squash, tomatoes, watermelon and pumpkins...so we will see what I end up with.

Swimming, swimming and more swimming: we have been going to the pool a lot and it's been so good for the boys. We have had many years worth of swimming lessons but still no swimmers so this year I said no lessons and lots of practice in the pool. Already in this short time the boys have come along way, my bets are on Luke to really learn how to swim first!

Cody said to Luke as he was laying on top of four pool noodles floating on top of the water, "Luke it looks like you are living the life!"

Luke said to one of his classmates in the pool, "Oh yeah, well I have a cousin and she is almost in college."

Ryan said to me as he was laying on his towel after swimming getting warmed up by the sun, "This is so sweet."

I'm still cleaning: I have the upstairs completely cleaned even though you wouldn't know by looking at it today, but it feels good.

Catching bee's" the boys love to try and catch them in plastic cups or bottles. Ryan is the best at this, he has no fear and I call him my bee whisperer. No stings so far.

Growing butterflies: I ordered more caterpillars, they are now in their cocoons so we can't wait for them to come out.

Homework: the boys have been doing a little each day to stay up on what they have learned. It's been fun doing it with them.

Vacation Bible School: the boys are going this week with the girls, I think they had a great time today.

Cousin time: Tucker came today, so the boys will have some extra entertainment for the next few days.

You would think with all of this, I would have at least one picture to share....but I don't. Next time!

Not too bad for the first month of summer vacation, can't wait to see what else is in store.

my ponytail

This little ponytail is what caused the boys to be all upset this morning.

I've started cleaning the house from top to bottom, room by room.

Carpets, blinds, windows, drawers, closets...all of it.

I thought that I would try pulling my hair back to keep it out of my face while I worked and

I was excited to find out that my hair had grown out long enough to be able to do it.

Ryan started crying the minute he saw me begging me to take it down telling me that he didn't like it he wanted my hair the other way.

I had to keep telling him, I'm the same mom just different hair.

We walked downstairs together and then Luke looked up and said,

"I don't like it. It doesn't look like you. You look like a different mom. Change it back."

Wow, who knew that my hair would be such a problem.

Little do they remember that when they were babies my hair was long, really long

and it was pulled back into a ponytail all the time, EVERY SINGLE DAY.

That was the whole reason I cut my hair short in the first place.

So here I am cleaning the window, me and my little ponytail.

The boys are looking forward to

Heath being off work

going to the movies

and a date

all happening tomorrow!

Go here to learn how to make the perfect ponytail

dads

What a weekend we had.
Saturday was the Cherry Festival, so we spent the whole day over in Emmett.
Our day started out early this year because Heath was running his first ever 10K.
Matt signed up also for the 10K while my mom did the 2 Mile run.
They all did SO wonderful, we were proud of them....what an accomplishment!
Now next year they will have a personal goal to beat and Luke decided he wants to run it too!
Our favorite runner

Heath, Matt and Dan (a family friend)

My mom and Roberta (Dan's wife)

Grammy running to the finish line...

She got 3rd place for her age group

Matt came in a little over a minute before Heath and received 2nd place for his age group.

Matt 1:00.52

Heath 1:02.35

Next year we think the boys need matching outfits like the guy on the left.

So proud of you Heath!

Cody asked that I take this picture of the boys while we were waiting for the race to finish.

After a huge breakfast, showers and change of clothes we were back down at the park. Matt & Summer along with my Mom & Dad had a church banquet to attend so they had to take off for the day. They looked so handsome all dressed up!

My Daddy and Mini-Phil

So even though it's the same rides every year, the kids still love it.

I think Luke and Cody will be ready to move up to some of the bigger rides next year.

I'm not a fan at all of carnival rides so I always worry that they will spend the rest of the day feeling sick like I used too, so I never encourage them to try all the rides.

Ryan on the other hand loves the rides where you sit in a vehicle and pretend to drive, honk the horn and go around and around.

No joke, he went on the same ride at least 20 times. The minute the ride would end he would run to get in line again. I would tell him over and over that he would have to wait in line, no crowding or running in front of other kids but every time when the gate opened he took off and raced for whatever vehicle he wanted to drive that time around.

The kid enjoyed every second of it though, he was cute.

The boys also enjoyed plenty of sweets like snow cones, cotton candy and ice cream.

The older boys were brave this year and tried out some new fun activities.

I so wish I would of brought my camera down to the park but I didn't want to carry it around and who knew this was the year they would decide to be so daring.

Cody took a turn riding a mechanical bull. He was hilarious to watch trying to keep his one hand up in the air until he eventually got thrown off. He made it 8 seconds though!

Luke tried out a jumping thing where he had a harness around his waste and would jump on a trampoline that would shoot him 20 or so feet up in the air. It took a lot of work for this light weight to do back flips, but he got it figured out. It was so funny watching him fly around.

Then Cody and Luke tried something I have never seen before.

The boys each got inside a giant plastic bubble that they would fill with air and seal up.

Then they would run around inside this ball (like a hamster) on a pool of water and never get wet. It was so cool to watch and looked like a lot of fun but definitely a lot of work too.

We were beat by the time we made it home that night.

Father's Day

We enjoyed a lazy morning on Sunday and then headed to town to look around the new sporting goods store (Heath's choice, it was his day) and then met up with my sister and her family for lunch.

Once we got home we crashed!

Our dinner consisted of this oh so yummy homemade (but not by me) Chocolate & Peanut Butter Pie!

Happy Father's Day to all those daddy's out there!

We think you are the best, Heath, Dad & Arnie!

A decade.... *updated*

together.
Celebrating our 10 years!

Today will be good.

A sleepover with Grammy and Papa for the kids.

A date night for Heath and I.

Looking forward to another decade together babe....

We had a great night out together.

We enjoyed our dinner and dessert at The Cheesecake Factory.

We then decided on the movie Date Night to go and watch and

what a perfect movie it was for us to see.

Laugh out loud funny and some parts were just so easy to relate to.

We even thought about getting a little wild and going to watch another show

but decided to head home instead.

We drove through our old neighborhood seeing where we started our 10 years and family together and ended up running into our old neighbors so we visited for awhile.

Heath was off to work early the next morning and I had the house to myself.

What a weird feeling that is.

I stayed in bed as long as I wanted, I think I lasted until 7:40am.

Ate my leftovers from dinner and then my dessert while I watched tv.

I then took a bath and read my book.

Finally I got ready for the day and headed off to run a few errands before going

to Emmett to pick up the kids.

It's always exciting going and picking them up, I miss them.

I'm not used to being away from them.

I wish the reunion would of been a little more enjoyable but Ryan was crying because I was there and he didn't want to go home yet.

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent breaking up fights and listening to the never ending whining and complaining.

Welcome Back!

The kids were cute though when they asked about what Heath and I did.

I told them I went on a date with my boyfriend and they wrinkled up their noses thinking that was disgusting. They then asked me if we kissed and for how long, which they giggled at and thought was so gross too.

They each made us an anniversary card though and Cody wrote another report on LOVE so that was all very sweet.

In the end everyone had a great time.

The boys loved being with Grammy and Papa

and they loved being with the boys

and I loved dating my husband!

P.S. and the really really great news that happened!

Cody and almost Luke learned how to finally blow a bubble with gum.

They were so excited to show us!

snugglebuddies

Our boys are all little snugglebuddies.
They love to cuddle with us in a chair on the couch or next to us on the floor.

I love it too!

Last night Ryan woke up twice and eventually ended up in our room.

I let him crawl into bed with us and he stayed snuggled into me the rest of the night.

Heath found us this morning asleep like this and took our picture.

Do you have any snugglers at home with you?

Cody's Thoughts

It would be great to know what your kids were thinking at times,

I wonder what goes through their heads throughout the day.

Cody especially, he just doesn't seem to quit thinking EVER.

This morning in a conversation with my mom about Yellowstone he told her,

"I've never been in so many museums in my life, "I thought I've struck it rich!"

Then yesterday he told me that he wanted to sit down and do a report, so this is what he came up with.

HUMANS by Cody McMullen

Humans have lived about a hundred years after the dinosaurs.
Humans have devastaded forests (etc.) to build human terrtoriy also called citys.
Did you know you are a human?
People called sciencetistes explore our world.
A baby is born it is an infant, then toddler, kid, adolsent, adult, grandpa (etc.) and death.
The race of the humans is called humanity.
Some people are bad they are terrisostes and kill people.
The army protects us.
The End

The Top 36 Countdown

This was a wonderful family vacation.

It started off on Friday when we picked up our rented mini van and

the kids were beyond excited, they thought it was the best thing ever.

I did too until I pulled a strap not knowing what it did and the seat flung

forward and hit me in the bridge of the nose....which I think I might of cracked.

Saturday morning we were off bright and early and ready to go.

Thanks to my Aunt Yvette and Uncle Lee we had a place to stay and our own tour guides!

Old Faithful

We had rain every day we were there but it didn't stop us from getting to everything

that we wanted to do, it just made for some dreary pictures.

Mesa Falls

The visitors center here was great for the kids, especially when you have

one like Cody who really likes to read and study everything.

Anyplace that we went we had to check out the visitors centers or information spots.

This room was full of animal furs that had a sign that said, Please Touch...so we did.

When I was taking this picture Cody finished reading the sign which also said,

Please Touch but do not remove the animals from the table.

Oops!

I finished taking my picture but Cody very loudly repeated the information to me

even though I was giving him the sign to shush to which he then replied,

"Oh, Manager!"

I just about killed him.

Cody also had me worried when we stopped to have a picnic in the park

and he had thrown a piece of his sandwich to a chipmunk and then I did the same.

A park ranger came over with a trash bag to make sure we were cleaning up after ourselves and

then pointed out Cody's sandwich that needed to be picked up also. I sat there panicked waiting

for Cody to say that I threw out my sandwich too, but thankfully he didn't and I hurried to find

it and throw it away!

Ryan just had to have the stuffed wolf he is holding in the picture, he fell in love

with it and named him Fox.

These baby buffalo watched their mommas cross the river but were too scared

to follow, after awhile one of the moms crossed back over to get them to go.

We didn't get to see all of the animals that we were hoping for like a bear, wolf or moose

but we did see, buffalo, bald eagles, antelope, elk, swan, trout, mink, squirrels, chipmunks, pelicans and many many birds.

My Uncle Lee had a bird feeder outside their cabin and he taught Cody all the different kinds of birds that landed out there.

The kids were all asleep in the back when we came upon this...

Luke was the only one to wake up and see it.

We saw this bald eagle quite a few times. In the next picture you can see

that the momma eagle is sitting on the nest.


The yellowish rocks from which Yellowstone got it's name.

Here at Artists Point looking at the Yellowstone River below.
It would make my stomach queasy just looking over the edge and seeing how high above we were.

Our average wake up time on vacation was between 5:45 and 6:15.

We did make it to the Grizzly & Wolf Recovery Center, so we

did get to see some bear and wolves, but in captivity.

The older boys got to feed the bears, Ryan was so bummed that he wasn't old enough.

They each got a bucket of food to go and hide while the bears were caged up and then once

they were done and out safely they would let the bears out to find the food.

We also found out some interesting bear facts.

Bears can smell up to 10 miles away, smell a pop can underwater and

even smell the difference between two kinds of pop.

This bear was pulling up the rocks to find the food.

Within 30 minutes we had been in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming on some days.
The kids had fun just exploring right next to the cabin

Everyday Ryan would ask if we were going fishing, so finally we headed to this pond

to try and catch some fish. No luck though, but the kids didn't seem to mind they had

fun throwing dirt chunks in the water, playing with worms and walking around with sticks.

The dock we were on came unhooked on one side and it started floating away with Heath still on it, he wasn't really going anywhere but Ryan started crying thinking his dad was going to die and a big wave was going to crash on him. Looks pretty dangerous, doesn't it!

This is the headwaters to the Henry's Fork of the Snake River,

where it starts. The water is just bubbling up from the ground and is crystal clear.

We fed some huge rainbow trout canned corn from the bridge and then walked

back to that little cabin in the picture.

We also visited Quake Lake that was created from an Earthquake

when the side of a mountain came down. It happened in the middle of the night

and fell on a campground below, scary.

This is the Norris Geyser Basin.

There is a boardwalk that you can walk around and get a close up look at the

geysers and pools. Once Luke heard a story of some people dying after jumping in one of

the pools and Cody telling him that there is acid in them, he was scared to walk around thinking

he was going to fall in. They were very beautiful and the colors were amazing.

Whether we were out sightseeing or sitting at the cabin we stayed busy.

We played many games of Uno and something called Out of the Box and we also

did a 500 piece puzzle that I bought in Yellowstone, it was so disappointing once we

finished it and found that we were missing one piece.

We ate plenty of sweets, Huckleberry ice cream, smores and some fudge that was heavenly and

I don't even like fudge.

Here the boys are checking out their Geodes that they broke open to find the crystals inside.

All the rain made it really easy to collect worms to go fishing with.

Heath went running each morning and would come back to tell us that the roads

were just covered in them, so each of the kids collected them in a sandwich bag.

The joke for the week was, No Offense.

This is something that Cody started saying a few months ago and thinks

that he can say anything as long as he uses those words, so anyways

we had quite a few laughs with this.

So those were the highlights of our trip, so much fun

we are already hoping to go back again in a few years!