Back 2 School

Well, it's official, our summer is over and my kids are back to school. It was a fun, crazy, and emotional day. We got up this morning at 6:15 so that Brielle could be ready for her first day of middle school. I can't believe that she is in the 6th grade and in middle school! Where has the time gone???? It was a crazy morning trying to have 3 kids ready to go with breakfast, lunches, and hair done by 7:30 a.m. YIKES! But I managed somehow, and we even got a few pictures before we had to leave.



As I was pulling up to Brielle's school, I got pulled over by a motorcycle cop. Yes directly in front of her school. Luckily I didn't see many kids out, but I felt really bad for her. When I asked the cop why he had pulled me over he said for speeding 37 in a 20. WHAT??? There is no way, I told him that I had slowed to 20 over a block back when I saw the yellow flashing lights. He told me that he was going to give me a break, and then handed me a ticket for $350.
Can you believe that?! I was so mad. As I was driving away from the school I totally broke down and cryed. I think I was already so emotional from Brielle going to middle school and then getting a ticket completely shoved me off the edge!
I put on my sunglasses and sobbed the whole way home. Pathetic I know. I did manage to pull myselef together before I worried my boys and ruined their day as well. When I got home I got the boys and we headed for the Elementary School.




Chase is now a big 3rd grader and his teacher is Mrs. Bass.





Ayden is now a big 1st grader and his teacher is Mrs. Downing. He is now full days and boy am I going to miss having him home!




When they got home they all said they had a great day, and that they loved their new teachers. Hooray!


Today was Shaylie's first day home alone with Mommy all to herself.
We watched TV, read books, and took pictures. It was pretty fun, but she was missing her brothers and sister to play with.



All in all it was a good day. Minus the ticket - which I am so contesting!!

Memory Lane

My friend had this on her blog and I thought it would be fun to try it out and reminisce a bit. Hopefully they are good memories, let's see what you got!


1.As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments

We're Home!

We have been gone almost 2 weeks on our family vacation and we are finally home. We got back late last night, and are glad to be home.
We left on Thursday, August 7th - headed to Idaho Falls to visit Jeremy's sister Hilary and her family and then on to Yellowstone National Park. We had an absolute blast! On our way to Idaho Falls we stopped in Boise and stayed a night with my grandparents. It was so great to visit with them. My kids just love Grandma and Grandpa Showman. We left the next morning to Idaho Falls. We stopped to see Hilary and Mikes new house before heading to Island park and Yellowstone for the weekend. Their new home is so beautiful. I wish I would have taken a picture to show. It has a cute wrap around porch with a porch swing and rockers, and Hilary has decorated just perfectly. It looks like you are actually in the Pottery Barn Magazine. So we after we left their house, together we headed to a place just outside Island Park, ID. called Mac's Inn. It is about 30 minutes from West Yellowstone. It was right on the river and really fun. The kids loved being together with cousins and ran out to the water and started catching tiny fishes with their buckets and putting them in cups as soon as we were checked in.

Looking For Fish

Brielle and Grace finding fish in shallow water

Gracie's cup full of fish

Shaylie and Ella

I love this picture of Shaylie

Chase went right in with his shorts on.

The first night we were there Brielle, Gracie, Hilary and myself went to see Oklahoma at the Playmill Theatre in West Yellowstone. It was so fun! We were on the front row and seriously on the stage. The pre-show was hilarious and I think the little girls loved it as much as the show itself. The cast ran the whole theatre, they would take your tickets, walk you in to your seats, serve you drinks, fudge, popcorn, and then did the show. It felt really personal and the girls just loved it! Jeremy and Mike and the rest of the kids ate at the Resteraunt across the river and fished while we were gone. I thought it was so fun and would totally reccomend the theatre to anyone who was going through. Here is the link: http://www.playmill.com/
The next day we floated the river. It was so fun and absolutely beautiful. We actually saw a Moose in the river while we floated. Mike brought his fishing boat and then we rented some tubes for the rest of us. There wasn't a boat launch so Mike and Jeremy pretty much shoved the boat off a dock to get it in the water. Hilarious! You know your a redneck when??????
The kids made up some fun rules for the boat while were were floating.
Rule #1 - Always address the Captain - Captain Mike or Captain My Captain.
Rule #2 - No Whining or Crying while on the boat
Rule #3 - No Singing unless approved by Ella and Shaylie as "not their song" since they would fight over who's song it was (HILARIOUS)
I think they had come up with around 50 or more rules before the day was up, I wish I could remember more of them. They were pretty fun.
It was the perfect day for the river, however I sunscreened my whole family except myself, and ofcourse I ended up fried.
That night Chase, Jeremy, and Uncle Mike went fishing while us girls got dinner ready. Hilary also spent some time teaching me some cool photography tips. Such a huge help. THANK YOU HILARY!!!!

Ayden sharing his tube with Daddy

Enjoying the ride

Moose!

When we stopped to let the boys water the trees, Shaylie picked flowers

Ayden close-up

Here is Mike's fishing boat that got drug up and down the sides of docks.

Brielle and Grace

Gracie flipped off this tube as soon as we got in the water, her face says it all.

Here is Uncle Mike doing a funny run to rescue the "SASSY SOURS" that Aunt Hilary had been throwing the kids as a fun treat. It was soooooo funny!


The next morning we packed it up and headed to Yellowstone. I have to say that it was really a lot of driving to do in one day, but absolutely breathtaking sites along the way. We loved seeing Old Faithful and some of the other pots and geysers. My favorite was the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone with the Yellow Rock and huge waterfall. We got to see Buffalo, Deer,& Elk, but we didn't see any Bears.

Here we are in front of tons of Buffalo, kinda hard to see in this picture.

This was so gorgeous! The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.

Here we are waiting for Old Faithful

There it is in all it's glory! OLD FAITHFUL

My cute little family at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

Stinky Sulfar Pots smell oh so nice. NOT!

That night we went back to Hilary and Mike's house in Idaho Falls where we stayed for a couple of days to play.
We went swimming at a local pool and got Yummy Shaved Ice, and went to a cute park by the zoo. My kids loved playing with Ella and Grace and absolutely loved dressing up in all of their fun costumes. There were a pair of Nerdy glasses that were their absolute favorite. They all had them on at some point.

Ayden acting out the part of NERD all to well.

I think Shaylie may have gotten some of the Shaved Ice in her mouth????

Cutie Cousins!


Tuesday morning we headed for Spokane to my parents Lake Cabin. I had to do Choreography in CouerDeAlene on Thursday and Jeremy had to work in Spokane on Saturday and Sunday, so we thought we would try to squeeze as much fun as we could in to this week. Chase decided he wanted to learn to wakeboard behind the Jetski, so Ayden and Brielle decided to try as well. All of them got up, but Chase was the most determined to learn. He tried over and over again, and had the best attitutde! We were really proud of all of them for trying it.

Chase Wakeboarding!


On Saturday night we went over to our good friend Laura and Jason's house for dinner and to visit. It was really fun hanging out with them. They have built 2 gorgeous homes in their development Ridge Park Estates. http://ridgeparkestates.com/developer.html
It was fun laughing with them and letting the kids play.
Sunday we went to church with my parents, and then relaxed at the cabin after dinner.
Monday was spent cleaning up the cabin and then playing as hard as we could before hitting the road to come home. We are so exahausted from our trip, but had such a great time.

Fun Visit!

Jeremy's Mom and brother Jesse came to visit this weekend from Wenatchee and so did his sister Natalie and new husband Paul. They all got here around 10:00p.m. Friday night. Right before I was leaving for the Breaking Dawn Book Party. I felt bad leaving since they had just got here, but they seemed okay with it.
Jeremy had to work this weekend so the kids and I got to spend time with them. It was fun staying up late talking with them and watching them with my kids.
My kids absolutely love them all. We had to talk with our kids several times about personal space since they can't seem to give them any.
Shaylie loved playing with Aunt Natalie and Uncle Paul. She would just follow them around and talk their ears off. They are going to be great parents someday.
My boys always attack Jesse the second he gets in the door. He is very good and tolerant of them. He played with them in the pool on Saturday and had to toss them each at least 100 times. He is probably so sore!
We are so glad they came to see us. It was a fun weekend.

Finished!

**** Don't Worry No Spoilers ****

I finished the book yesterday. I really loved it! Again another book I couldn't put down. I think Stephenie Meyer did a great job of wrapping things up in this book. I want to read it again so I can go through it slower and hopefully pick up more things I may have missed. I think the hardest thing for me with this book is that I am so used to her leaving the end of her books as a cliff hanger that it is weird to have it be finished. I don't want it to end. I love them way too much. Sick I know.

If you leave a comment, please don't spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet.

Breaking Dawn Event

So, this past Friday night I went with some of my friends to the Breaking Dawn Book Event. We just went to Barnes and Noble and watched people and waited to get our book to be sold at 12:01 a.m. on August 2nd. Can you say obsessed?? Yes I think so. I wore my special Twilight shirt that I be-dazzled myself. I was so excited!!!
I wanted to read the whole book that night, but we had company this weekend so I knew it would have to wait. I did read until about 3:00 a.m. but then decided that I had to get up and make breakfast and entertain so I didn't want to be a complete zombie. I had a great weekend with family visiting, but I will be doing some serious reading now that they have gone.

If you have not read the Twilight series yet, this is the 4th book in the series. These books are my favorite, I think I love them so much because I can really picture all of the characters. It seems so real, but clearly it is not. Why am I so obsessed with them??? I think about it way to much. Anyhoo if you haven't read them yet..........go buy them and let me know what you think.

This is Kate, Me, Tammy, and Wendi



Here I am in my shirt. If you don't get it....you should read the books.