Life's Surprises!

It started back in college. The phrase "I'm never going to...marry a boy from Idaho." That changed into, well it's okay that he's from Idaho, because he doesn't want to live in Idaho. Well you all know where that got me. Here we are coming up on 9 years of living in Idaho.

Then there was the phrase "I don't want girls. I think we would be very happy with just boys." This thought coming from several years experience in working and living as a head resident of a girls dorm. So naturally we were blessed with twin girls! Ha ha! Heavenly Father has a great sense of humor doesn't he.

Well just recently when we been asked our phrase has been "no, were done having kids. We're really great where we are at." We both were excited with the future as Jenn had been selected and was being trained to move into a full-time position at BYU-Idaho in just 1-2 years once her trainee retired. Well surprise...we are now expecting baby # 4 at the end of February. Life is a roller coaster, so many ups and downs, however, I have come to peace with it all - not that I was extremely upset - but peace in knowing for whatever reason this is Heavenly Father's plan for us. Obviously, I should have learned by now to never say the phrase like "I'm never going to...or I don't want..." :)

Anyway, I had my second Dr.'s appointment today and things are good - and no - it isn't twins again, of course the doctor didn't know we were having twins last time until the 7 month mark. It will be weird to care for just one - the last time we did that was almost 8 years ago!

I am also a "first" for the Dr. You know how they check your throat glands? I literally freaked out when he put his hands around my throat. He was just lucky I didn't go with my reflex of throwing my elbow backwards. Anyway, he thought that was kind of funny and he's never met anyone with a throat issue. Also, for those of you who know - I am a high risk pregnancy and I have to have surgery with each one. My surgery is scheduled for Sept 16th to hopefully cut out any major problems. Anyway, just an FYI!

First Day of School

Hooray! Yesterday was Tyler's first day of second grade. His teacher is Mrs. Hale - this is her first year at Lyman elementary. They have actually switched up a lot of teachers and school staff and traded with Archer elementary. I think that is because when the new school is done in December, they are combining both Lyman and Archer into one school. Anyway, although Ty won't admit it, he was excited. We took some pictures of him in the morning, and as you can tell, he was acting like it was no big deal and I was crazy for wanting pictures. But he got off okay, and even got home okay. He has one friend from last year in his class again this year..so that's been good. I know it will be a great year for him.

Celebrate Youth Day

Madison County has a grant to do a special youth day, on the day before school starts. They set up all sorts of booths and games and inflatable rides at the park, and it is all free. We have never gone before, but decided to attend it this year. For me, it was kind of a spur of the moment decision. We dropped Allen off at work and then headed to the park.

We ended up parking about 3 blocks away - but it didn't matter, because the kids were so excited. However, immediately after getting out of the car they start running down the sidewalk. Kylie missed the step and did a face plant on the pavement. She has fallen a lot lately, and she is used to sticking out her hands - which she did - which saved her a lot of pain. When she stood up, she was bleeding like crazy from both knees and one of her hands. I asked her if we should go home but she said no. So our first stop...the bathroom to try and clean up a little bit. I knew our next mission was to find band aids which luckily there were at the information desk! Band aid on, things were going better!

We stopped by the sheriff's booth and the kids got creamies and stamps and stickers. They had a line for a train ride - which I wish I would have known better and stood in. There were only about 5 people in line. When we circled back, it was about a hundred or more. They had cotton candy, popcorn, all sorts of carnival like booths where at each stop they would get a prize. They had dentists there passing out toothbrushes and toothpaste. There was a free book stop - where they each got to choose a book. Then over to the big grass area where they had all of their inflatable stuff. They also had a huge multi story fire truck ladder raised with hose spraying water with kids getting soaking wet and having a blast. We went and checked out the apache helicopter that the national guard had there. They each got to climb in and sit down in it and look around at all of the controls. I was amazed at how huge it actually was - because later when it took off, it didn't look that big in the sky.

By this point, the lines were kind of long and I was getting kind of tired, so I told them they could get on one inflatable. They chose the big slide. McKenna and Tyler get in, no problem...they were told they could each go twice. So they do it twice, get out, and Kylie gets in - being told she could go twice. So she climbs up, comes face first down, climbs back up and "hides." She absolutely refused to come down...knowing she would have to get out once she did. Finally, one of the volunteers went up and kicked her down.

We decided to leave and go get Allen and go home. But we had to go back because they were also doing a raffle of all sorts of cool prizes. A bike, the wii, wii fit, telescope, etc. Tyler really wanted to see if he won anything. By this point, parking was non existent so I dropped Allen and Ty off and let them go. I circled back around and actually found a great parking space, so we went in search of Allen and Ty. Just then I get a phone call from Allen - Tyler is lost. Can't find him anywhere. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of people at this thing (they also had free dinner for everyone). I get there...we can't find him at all.

By this time panic had set in and I decided to go up to the front and asked the Mayor (as he knows Allen) if he could make an announcement at the beginning of it - to see if anyone can find him. They announce his name, say he is lost, and to come up to the front. Lo and behold...up pops Tyler from the first few rows he was sitting in. I don't think he understood how concerned and scared I was - because he didn't consider himself lost. He knew right where he was. I think he was more bugged that he lost his great spot on the grass! Ugh! Anyway, we didn't win any prizes, but we did wait in line and took that train ride. It was fun and I know the kids all really enjoyed themselves. I wish I had pictures, but it was a spur of the moment decision and I wasn't prepared! But I think we'll try it again next year.

Keeping Up with the Jones'

I know it has been so long...and it seems like so much has happened...where to begin?

The rest of July was a good month. I celebrated yet another birthday - so I guess that's a good thing. Although, I really don't feel that old. On the 26th of July, we were able to travel to Twin Falls and with Allen's family, toured the Twin Falls Temple. It was so neat to see and we feel so blessed that our children have had the opportunity to see two temples this year. It has generated a lot of great discussions about the gospel and families - so hopefully they will remember it!

After the temple we had a little reunion with Allen's family and it was so great to see everyone. It is hard keeping up with them all and their happenings! One funny thing about this trip, we pulled off in Burley to get something to eat, and while we were driving, we got pulled over by a cop. Allen thought the speed limit was 55, but apparently that was "back in day" as it is now 45. He let us off with a warning because "everyone was buckled up and the two younger ones were in their booster seats." The funny thing about this was that very day we were fighting with McKenna about why it is important to be in her chair and have a seatbelt on. We told her we'd get in trouble if a cop pulled us over. Now she knows we aren't bluffing!

So far, August has been great too. Tyler finished up another soccer season. They won all but two games and hopefully he had fun and enjoyed it! Tyler also began riding his bike by himself. I am amazed at how well he has done. In just five days, with the help of his Grandpa, Tyler learned how to ride his bike. Now it is his favorite everyday activity. I guess I should get my bike in working order!














Last week Allen and I went on his yearly retreat with his work. This year, we all loaded up on the bus and we went to Grand Targhee. We were at this same location two years ago, and as Allen and I thought about it, we realized that there were only 4 couples that were present at the same retreat just two years ago. As a side note, at that retreat, President Clark and Elder Kerr focused a lot on change and how change is good. Change is nothing new to us here at BYU-Idaho as it has evolved from Ricks College. I guess we didn't realize how much had changed until there were only us 4 couples who remember how we were strucured just two years ago.

Last years retreat was extremely intense and meetings all of the time, including the bus ride home. This year the comment was made by the V.P. that people complained last year about it being too intense and not enough free time so they took care of that problem by getting rid of the person in charge last year! (Actually he was transfered and made an associate v.p. -so they didn't fire him or anything). He then said, "so this year, we bring you up here on a bus, with only two stores and hours of free time!" The advantage of having gone two years ago and remembering the place - and seeing how much free time we were going to have, we decided to take the wii with us. It was great! I think Allen only won one round of tennis...ha ha! Anyway, it was good and we were well fed and made it back down the mountain alright. I wonder what next year will have in store!

Anyway, that's it for now. Sorry this one is so long!