Mueller Park Canyon

We took Aunt Marlene and headed up the canyon for a marshmallow roast and some outdoor adventure.
Kids went on their own hike. They were so excited I let them go all by themselves. :) They were gone for a grand total of 2 minutes, but MAN! Those 2 minutes of adventure took 15 mins to tell us what all had happened when they got back.

Sicily's most favorite past time in the forest is throwing rocks in the river with Aunt Marlene.

I on the other hand, thought I'd cross the river. And after telling my kids to not fall in, what did I do? Lost my footing and stepped right in the deepest spot.

Aspen on the other hand got a little too brave and went down with the ship. Well....almost.

We did have fun teaching our boys how to be proper Pyros. I eventually had to force Phoenix to throw his stick in the fire, it got down to about 6 inches long at that point.

Time for some Marshmallows. Jared got the coals just glowing and perfect for some nice brown toasting.

Sicily on the other hand didn't want to bother with the toasting part. "Just go for the Mallow," she says.

And when you're on a crazy vacation, like we are, you don't exactly carry a bucket in the back of your car. So when it's time to put out the fire you use the next best thing. Yes...those are snorkeling goggles.

Jared and I were both raised in the Mountains and haven't lived by proper mountains for the past 9 years. I think it's time to head back to the Rockies.

Little China in Utah

There is a restaurant in Bountiful, Utah called "The Mandarin." It is the BEST Chinese food I have ever had. Try it, you'll love it.
There is another Chinese restaurant close to Salt Lake City, UT. I'm not sure what it's called but we went there for my brother Evan's wedding luncheon. Evan served his mission in Sydney, Australia but spoke Mandarin Chinese. This restaurant (I will find out the name) was VERY authentic. We ate ducks head (brains and all), Chicken Feet (they're deep fried), Tripe (which I thought was fish till I was informed, after I ate it, that it's cow intestines) and all sorts of other nasty stuff. The new in-laws all went out for McDonald's afterwards. And the new bride, had an upset stomach the rest of the evening. So fun to branch out and try new things.

How to Perform Yoga

Missing Teeth

Grandpa and Aspen showing off their holes. My Dad has a few lower teeth that are dentures, the kids thought it was cool that they both were missing teeth.

Piggy Back and Sycamores

This Sycamore tree was big enough to climb when I lived at home. Now it could hold all 8 people in my family, all our spouses, and all 23 Grandkids easily. But here you just see 1.
Evan and Esther had to get their kids home to bed. But not until Jared and I gave each of them Piggy Back rides and spun them all till WE were sick. Jared was even brave enough to carry Phoenix (on the back), Lincoln and Romney all at the same time.

When he was good and tired they were not about to let him lie still. Everyone was clambering for another ride so Jared ran away, UP the tree. I think he made it about 4 stories up before Phoenix's pleadings finally brought him down. HE just knew Jared was going to fall, so worried for his Daddy.

Evan and Esther Crew

We just love having cousins to visit. Especially when their kids are mostly all the same age as mine.

Phoenix is the luckiest though, he's got twin cousins (Lincoln and Romney) his same age.

Just Sisters

Grandma had this picture of Aspen in her book shelf wearing the same shirt Sicily now wears. Looking close you'd think it was the same little girl, but nope, JUST SISTERS.

Aftermath of Pioneer Trek

My brother, Evan, and his wife, Esther, went on Pioneer Trek for 4 days. They had 11 "kids" that were assigned to them and they were their Ma and Pa. These kids ranged from 14-18. So for 4 days they lived like the Mormon Pioneers who crossed the plains to eventually settle in Utah. They ate nasty food, drank nasty water, pulled handcarts with all their luggage for over 20+ miles. But in the end their testimonies grew 100 fold.

I did Trek when I was 18, just before I went to college. It was the most wonderful experience, and if you are ever given the opportunity to participate, as a youth or adult, DO IT! It is so rewarding and life changing.

And though they looked like this the following day...(Esther was out 5 mins later)... they loved every minute of it.

Cousins, Cousins Everywhere

Aunt Marlene came up from Arkansas to babysit Uncle Evan and Aunt Esther's kids while they went to be Ma and Pa on Trek. She had them for 4 days in all their craziness. Then we crashed the place on the last day when Evan and Esther came home.

This is Aunt Marlene with all the little monsters, minus one... Cameron.
He did not want to be in the picture. So I did what any good Aunt would do. I chased him down and trapped him behind the TV. Got a good smile out of it though. :)

Saying Good Bye to Great Grandparents

One last swing.
Bye-Bye Cows!

Cutest Family in the World

(but I'm not prejudice)

Wooden Indian

There is an artist somewhere in American that researched all the Native American Indian Tribes. Then he went to each state took one of their indigenous trees and carved the head of an Indian that was native to that state. This Indian Head sits at the corner of Ammon-Lincoln Rd and Hwy 26, in Idaho Falls, ID.

Fishing with Papa

All the lines are cast.

Aspen decided to cast into the tree and not the water, Papa did an excellent job of extracting her line. We teased her the rest of the day that we were Fishing not Birding.

After about 6 no go bites on London's line, Phoenix was the first to catch a fish. He actually caught 2 but they both got away at the last minute.

Though a few minutes later Phoenix's fish came floating to the surface. But they were not wasted. Amazingly enough Idaho has Pelicans, they swam in for a free meal.

Miss April

Jared's little sister, Emily, has the oldest cat in the world, she's 15. She's so friendly, is an outside cat, loves to have her belly scratched and is so nice to kids. Best of all, EVERY dog in the neighborhood is terrified of her, and I don't think one of them weighs under 75 lbs. She gets them when their pups and they come to check her out, practically scratches their noses off. But hey, they never bother her again.

Ground Squirrel Hunting

So first we fed the Ground Squirrels, then the boys went onto a friends Ranch and shot over 1,000 of them. There is a crazy infestation of these rodents and they are wreaking havoc on the fields. These boys had fun! And yes, Phoenix is crying, it was just too long of a hunt for a 4 year old. But he did shoot a few first. London was better with the pistol than the rifle.

Tauphas Park Zoo

Idaho Falls, ID has the best Zoo for little kids with little legs. They've got all the best: Tigers, Bears, Lions, Monkey...etc. But it's a tiny zoo so kids don't have that far to go and still get to see it all. The boys went hunting today so us girls picked up a few 2nd Cousins and had a girls day at the zoo. So much fun.

Pictured: Aspen, Alysa, Sicily, Erin and Me in the back (in case you forgot what I look like).
Erin with the crazy Peacock that was flirting with the Wallaby's.

Great Grandmas House

My Grandparents passed away many years ago. But Jared's Grandparents are all still alive and kicking. This is Great Grandma Walker, Jared's Dad's Mom. She is the sweetest, kindest, most accepting woman I have ever met. And she loves our kids, which makes her #1 in my book
Great Grandma Walker has an enormous garden of vegetables and flowers. Aspen took MANY, MANY shots of all her beautiful flowers. This is one of her Poppies, they were everywhere.

Last but not least the best toy in the world. Not sure what it's called exactly but the marbles roll back and forth, back and forth. And when you have a metal bucket with about 100 marbles this toy gets rather loud. Therefore they were all banished to the computer room where there was a door. :)

Swinging on the Willow

This is always a fun past time at every Grandmas house. My Grandma had a ditch close by we would dam up and flood the yard. Adds a bit more adventure to the swing. Great Grandma Walker has one too but it was just a bit too cold today for swim suits.

Chase those Cows

Great Grandpa Walker has the coolest house in the world. After seeing hundreds of cows on our drive up to Idaho we finally got to get in the middle of them. Better yet, we got to chase them on the 4-Wheeler. G-Grandpa is the best, he took all the kids out then let me take Sicily who laughed and giggled over every bump we hit. I even got us stuck in a mud puddle for a few minutes.

Top off the visit with a pretend ride on the tractor and these city kids could be farm folk soon.

Exercise

Aspen loves to get up and dance. Nana was working out hard and Aspen had to join in.

French Braid

It's finally long enough. So glad we've reached the length that we can actually do something with her hair.

An Aspen in an Aspen

So Tired

Too much excitement for one day and no nap made Sicily one very sleepy girl.

Titanic

The Museum of Idaho has an awesome exhibit on the Titanic till Sept. We loved it. I was able to take all 4 of my kids through and they learned a ton and actually enjoyed it as much as I did.

At the entrance instead of a regular ticket you were given a boarding pass with all the information on one of the actual passengers of the Titanic. Info included: Name, age, if they were a 1st 2nd or 3rd class passenger, who they traveled with, where they were coming from, where they were going and why, and even a note on the end telling about their feelings before the voyage. London's person was told by a vagabond that she would soon take a long journey, there would be tragedy but she would be saved.

After you went through the entire display they had a wall listing all the passengers and crew with the names of who lived and who died. With our 4 tickets mine was the only one that died. She was a mistress to a man traveling with his children. But Aspens woman and 7 year old daughter survived, but the man next to us had the name of their husband and he didn't make it.

It was so sad to learn about these people and what really happened. They evacuated women and children first but when you looked on the death list more than half of the 1st class survived, about even on the 2nd class, but maybe only 20% of the 3rd class made it, almost all the crew went down with the ship, more than of the 3rd class.

One woman wouldn't let them evacuate her because they wouldn't let her 2 teenage boys go with her because they were considered men. She was the only surviving female to be pulled from the water.

They had an actual iceberg you could touch. It said the temperature of the ice was 31 degrees, the temperature of the water these people jumped into was 29 degrees. Almost all of them were dead of hypothermia within 20 mins.

It's so sad to me that people then, and now, think the technology we have, and the things we can construct with it, as indestructible. Nothing can surpass the hand of God.

Flat Tire

This backwards posting always messes me up.

Today we got to see some wonderful friends from Hobbs, NM that moved up here to Shelley, ID. Great visit, loads of fun. We thought we were done and I was heading off to McDonald's before our next event and the car started to make a funny noise. Now if you've been in much of ID you'll notice lots of the roads are gravel. So I thought it was just the rocks in the wheel well. Well further on away from their home I just wasn't sure that's what it was. A little indicator light had come on on my dashboard on the way to their house telling me my tire was low, this has happened in the past so I thought nothing of it. But when the car started with the funny noises we stopped to take a look. Half a mile from Janet's house it didn't look this bad, but when I turned around and made it back this is what we found.

Not just flat, completely mutilated. The rim was ok though, thank goodness, but the tire was definitely a gonner.
Janet called her most WONDERFUL husband, Jordan, at work and he was AWESOME!!! Jacked up the car, took my tire in, bought me a new one, jacked it up some more, put the new tire on and sent me on my way.

Our overall visit was extended, which was just fine with me. Kids got Mac and Cheese instead of McDonald's and got to play some more on the little farm, which was just fine with them. I just want to say THANK YOU to Jordan for taking a nice LONG lunch break to SAVE THE DAY for me and my little family.

Now, so you don't think Jared knows what to do in this situation, he does, but he was not a lot of help today seeing as he's in BOSTON for work. So Jordan was definitely the HERO of the day. Thanks again Jordan!

Friends, Family and animals

Apparently a lot of our friends from all over live in the Idaho Falls, ID area. So since we're here for a week we thought it best to go door to door to see all those we know.

First was my sister Amy's bestest friend growing up, Katy Larson Searle. Who has the cutest little girls ever. My kids had LOADS of fun with them jumping on the trampoline, playing Wii and best of all throwing dirt clods at each other off the hill in the unfinished neighbors back yard. Fun visit and excited to see them every time we come home.

Next in line was Janet Evans from Hobbs, NM. She moved up her almost 2 years ago and has been freezing her butt off ever since. She's a NM born, and this ID weather can almost do you in. We had such a fun time with her little family and loved catching up. They have sort of a mini farm going on. Something like 26 chickens, new baby chics, cats and kittens everywhere. My kids are such city kids, so sad, that they loved every minute of it. Even got Sicily to pet an animal and not freak out.

Now my boys do have pretty nasty allergies to cats but Phoenix did amazingly well with these little kittens.
Chasing them was the best part. 1 Mama and 3 kittens.

Aspen LOVED the kitty's till one really took a liking to her. I think it was trying to make it on top of her head. Love the face!

I haven't seen or played with little chicks in such a long time. We had chickens growing up, it was the best. Phoenix was a bit nervous at first till Jed, Janets 6 year old, showed him you just karate chop them and that scares them off.

Sicily liked the cute chickys.

Just so Sweet

These two just can't get any cuter. They love on eachother everyday.

Baby Memphis

We have a few new additions in our family. This is the first, little Memphis. He's just the cutest fat little baby ever. His Mommy, Katy Jared's sis, is just the best. She is so proud of her little man and does such a good job attending to his every whim. Such a lucky little guy.

True Cowboy Country

Biggest boot I've ever seen!

Star Valley Cheese Factory

They also make Fudge. You want some?!?!?