. . .to grandmother's house we go!

I took the kids to my moms in Caldwell this past week for 5 days. Here is a photo diary of the great time we had.

Haley was in heaven when grandma asked her to go to the farmer's market with her to sell her crafts. Haley loves crafts and loves to sell (usually lemonade) things. Grandma showed her how to make way cute magnets. She walked around the market a little to see what other treasures people were selling--guess she found the "hair bow" lady by the huge bow on her head. She loved being there and even sold a couple of magnets herself--how can you resists such a sweet girl?

The Grace Bible Church was having a free block party one day and we decided that we couldn't pass up free pony rides, inflatables and hot dogs. I felt like a party crasher the whole time, but when things are free people will come out of the woodwork!

The last night there I took the kids to Pojo's with my sister, Laura. The bumper cars were the best part for the older kids. We also had fun watching Kacie play skee ball because she couldn't throw the ball hard enough and it kept rolling back down to her. Of course, she refused help and it took way too long. Thanks for the fun night, Laura!

more highlights

Nate was at grandma's pond constantly. He was determined to catch one of the three frogs that live in it. He even found a net to help him. He was at it right up until the minute it was time to head home. Too bad he never caught one.

Grandpa rents this huge water slide and was nice enough to set it up in his backyard. The kids had a blast on this for two of the days until it had to go back because it was reserved for someone else. This was awesome and would be great for parties!

Roaring Springs is always a highlight when we go to grandma's in the summer. The kids always look forward to it. Here is Nate braving the slide in the kids area. I think he only took 3 breaks from the slides--two for bathroom and one for lunch. He was just running in circles all day--down the slide, back up to the top--for the 5 hours we were there.

We had such a great time--thanks grandma and grandpa!

See Zach Run!

Zach ran the 5k in the Teton Dam Marathon last Saturday. He and his friend Mark decided they wanted to run. Maybe he takes a little bit after his mother. I was going to do the marathon relay but things fell through a couple of weeks before and I didn't want to pay the late registration fee. I got to be there are his support team and that was fun, too.

This is a picture of Zach and Mark coming in to the finish line.

Here they are all ready to start the race.

I am really proud of him for accomplishing this. It's not an easy thing to do. Good job, Zach!

A day at West Yellowstone

We visited the museum in West Yellowstone. The blizzard outside forced people in to escape the crazy June weather.







We took last Saturday and spent the afternoon there. We also took the kids to the Playmill Theatre. We has some time to kill before the play started so we went to the IMAX and watched a movie on bears. Nate and Kacie made a friend with this one.



Zach thought he could take on the ferocious grizzly--you wanna a piece o' me?

We are just waiting to go into the theatre here. A moose tried to jump on us! :)

We had a nice overall day there. It is nice to be close to some of these fun places. I remember thinking our camping trip to Yellowstone National Park when I was little was a huge deal. Now its practically in our backyard. What a treat to have such a beautiful place a couple hours away!

Happy Birthday Kacie!

Kacie turned 3 on Monday. She wasn't quite sure what that meant until she saw her cake and presents--then it was all about her.

We told Kacie to hold up 3 fingers for this picture. This was the best she could do. Guess we'll work on that.

We took the kids to the circus that night to celebrate. Nate and Kacie got to ride on an elephant. When they got off Nate said--that was awesome!

Kacie was more excited about these 88 cent rubber toys than anything. She was kind enough to share her cake with the bunny.

The best chocolate frosting

I found this recipe awhile ago and have used it all the time since. I have always been "frosting challenged" and could never quite make a good one. This one is great and can't be messed up! Enjoy!

Sour Cream Chocolate Frosting

1 cup semi-sweet chips (may also use semi-sweet baking squares)
1/4 cup butter (real butter)
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. salt
2 1/2 -2 3/4 cups powdered sugar

Melt chips and butter in microwave for 45 seconds. Blend in sour cream, vanilla and salt. Gradually beat in powdered sugar until desired spreading consistency.

Random thoughts

We got a new addition to the family a couple of weeks ago. Haley has been asking for bunnies for about 2 years now. We finally broke down and got a couple--Rosie and Thumper. They have been fun for all the kids and Haley has taken great care of them. (we'll see how long that lasts)

Haley and Rosie


Today is the first day of summer vacation. At 8am this morning I was already getting complaints of being bored--this is going to be a long summer! I think they are going to miss the old neighborhood friends and grass to play on. Some days they actually come up with some fun things to do. Like the other day they took turns pedalling the bike while the other two got pulled on their Heeleys.
They had a lot of fun with this game. We finally got our drive-way paved this morning so they will have even more room to Heeley around.