Happy Birthday Kenny!

Kenny turned 8 on June 26th which was also the last day of school! We had his bday party at one of the city parks and they have a water area for the kids to play in. He invited friends from school and church and had so much fun with them. Kenny's gramps and grandma were there too and that made his day.

Recess!

The kids love to go to recess at school. They get to play outside 3 times during school. It helps the kids release their energy and gives the teachers a small break. They really have a great playground, there are basketball hoops and other bars to play on as well and then the kids have a huge field to play ball in. I took these pictures while we were waiting for Cheyenne to finish the wax museum. Sam had so much fun running around and going down the slide. Abby is great at the monkey bars and kept showing me how she could go forward and backward.

Wax Museum

Cheyenne's 4th grade class along with one other 4th grade class, did a Idaho History Wax Museum to raise money for their end of year party. They had to learn about their person and write a 2 min summary that needed to be memorized. So the night of the showing every student arrived early in costume and with background and set up. The parents were let in at 5:30 and we entered into a wonderful history lesson. The kids did a wonderful job of being perfectly still until you dropped change into their cup and then they would tell you about themselves. We had a great time and learned alot.

Memorial Day

For memorial Day we went to our friends home for a bbq and swimming. Joe was out training Jetta but the rest of us had a ball! My kids love to be in the water and Sam was really brave too.

Doug is 9

Doug had a fun bday party with his buddies from school and the neighborhood. I can hardly believe my little guy is getting older. 10 years until his mission, I better use it wisely!!!

Abbalicious turns 6

My little Abby had her 6th birthday on the 28th and her party was a few days later. She had so many of her classmates come help her celebrate her most favorite day!! Abby is so loving and "so popular" as her siblings call her. I will definitely miss our days together once school starts again. This will be her 1st year to go to school all day. Usually we watch girly movies and go shopping, poor Sammy is going to be super bored too, he's loosing his playmate.

Butchart Garden

Sunday morning we rode a ferry to Victoria, BC. The ride over was so beautiful, my pics do not do it justice. The ride was about an hour and then we rode another hour on a bus to Butchart Garden. This garden is so beautiful and huge, any plant lover would of died to be here. It was created to cover up a factory. Sam slept the whole time which was really nice. He probably would of wanted to pick flowers or run through them. We stayed there a few hours then rode another bus to downtown Victoria. We walked around and found a chinese restuarant to eat at. It was so yummy. We would of loved to walk around more and go see the castles there, but we had to catch the ferry back to Vancouver. The ride back was fun too and they had tv watch, so I watched a baseball game. We returned back to the US at 10pm and drove through the night to ID. We got back around 7am and slept till 11am and picked up our monkeys. Cheyenne didn't get home till the next day, she was off having fun with her friends in Utah.

On the Road

Yesterday we drove from Meridian to Vancouver, British Columbia. The scenery was so beautiful, i'm glad we drove during the day so we could see it. Sam was a real trooper. He really didn't enjoy being in his seat forever and cried a little bit, but he doesn't have a loud cry so it was all good. We stopped a couple of little towns along the way and when we finally arrived in Seattle for dinner we realized how glad we were to live in Meridian. We forget what it's like to be in a big city with tons of people and traffic. Kind of made me homesick, but we love ID. So we needed to exchange currency so we went went downtown and barely made it to the bank before they had locked the door. We weren't positive to where it was and we called and the employees helped us out. As I ran in, they all knew it was "the currency girl" and they were making bets to whether or not i would make it or not. So luckily we got canadian money and no fee because it was our bank. We then went to a restaurant called Red Mill Burger. Joe had seen it on some show and has been lusting over it for months. We got there it was packed but our wait wasn't long and it was really great! We finally arrived at the border around 9:30 and got through around 10. Joe almost said something stupid to the border guy. He took our ID's then our birth certificates and asked why we were there, where we were going and how long. Did we bring any weapons and then Joe hesitated and I knew he getting ready to say something stupid. In my head I was saying, "shut up, shut up, shut up" what seemed like forever, but was only 2 seconds, he finally said no. The officer lets us pass and I hit Joe. He started laughing and i asked what he was wanting to say. He didn't realize i knew he wanted to say anything and then said he was going to tell the officer, "besides my wifes butt I don't have any weapons" Luckily for joe's life (because i would of killed him) he restrained from saying what he wanted. We got to our hotel and love our room. I got a great deal on priceline, so we feel a bit spoiled. We have a king size bed, lounger, desk, 2 robes, microwave, fridge, free internet, and free covered parking. So in an earlier post i said we were doing the medifast diet. well i didn't know we would have a microwave so i didn't bring oatmeal or soups, so know i'm so sad. i really look forward to breakfast and lunch. bars and shakes aren't very awesome all day long!! so dinners look even better now.
Joe is now at his class so Sam and i are relaxing in our room. So fun! :)

Take Shape For Life

In Joe's office they have a weight loss program for their patients and Joe asked me to be a health coach for him. So i'm taking a 4wk course and reading alot, so i can coach his patients. He also asked me to do the diet so i would know what every person is going through. So i started this last Saturday and I have to say that though it was mentally hard the first 3 days i'm am really enjoying the change. I have great energy now, last week before i started I was really dragging and couldn't get any energy. My crohn's is doing really great on it too! So it's a bonus!!! Joe has lost a lot of weight as well and i'm so proud of him. If anyone is looking to lose weight check out Joe's website called Take Shape For Life, the link is to the right of this.

Pinewood Derby

It was Pinewood Derby time and the boys were pumped for this years race. Of course we procrastinated on the making of the cars. The sunday before, joe and the boys started carving and sanding out the cars they had picked out. Doug wanted a skateboard and Ken wanted a cop car. Our friend Darron helped out Sunday and gave some great advice. Then next few nights were spent painting, sanding, painting, sanding, and so on. Joe actually got advice from a few dad's who recently had their pack races, so he had a ton of knowledge. Long story short, Doug's car broke when joe was putting the wheel on and ken's car had some minor damage minutes before we were going to leave for the race. I spent the afternoon fixing doug's car and we had to hot glue ken's car. we were truly hoping the boys would just win 1 race so they wouldn't be disappointed. the girl's and i were late and to my surprise our boys had luck on their side. They both had wins under their belts. They won race after race. Doug was finally beat by Ken then his friend Trevor. The other scouts kept wondering who had the skateboard and cop car. So it was time for the results and for some reason they put Ken with the webelos, the 11 yr olds,(Ken isn't an official scout yet, the leader let him participate because he's close to scout age). So Ken got 1st and Doug got 3rd, Doug's friend Trevor Ball was 2nd, it was a Hall-Ball sandwich:) After the scouts raced the Elder's Quorum had their own derby race. Joe decided he would enter in Ken's car since he did some(alot) of the work and with luck on his side he got 2nd. So he did some trash talking and next year we will be trying to defend ourselves against the Ball's again:) I'm glad we have some laid back dad's in the ward! I heard races can get a little ugly at times.