26.2 Miles

At the elementary this year, they had a pacers program. Basically, during each recess the kids had an opportunity to run laps.  The end goal was to eventually have all of them run 26.2 miles, a marathon distance. Kylie and McKenna did it and they got a fun t-shirt for completing it. Kylie really liked running and actually ran about 32 miles total, while McKenna liked it, but she was mainly just doing it for the t-shirt. However, her total miles was 28. They did awesome and they LOVE their shirts!

Tyler's Project

For school this year, Tyler has been studying Idaho history. Of course he was in the Lewis & Clark play. This is something else that they made that he was really really proud of. I thought it turned out great!

They also got to make a dream catcher and I got to go "help". Sadly, I wasn't really that much help, but Tyler said thanks anyway. It's crazy to think that he'll be in middle school next year. What a fun finish to elementary.

McKenna Earns 2 Awards!

This post is a very long time coming! At the end of February, McKenna was chosen as student of the week and also as student of the month. Student of the week was for her class and we did a poster all about her. Student of the month she got to have lunch with the principal and they give her a certificate with a jamba juice certificate. The problem was that she didn't get the certificate with the jamba until the beginning of May. They had some problems, so it was promised forever ago. That's hard to do to someone still in Elementary! Either way, it was a great thing for McKenna.

Mother's Day

What a great Mother's Day this year! Allen made me breakfast. The little people made all sorts of cards! Church was ok even though I had to teach. We had hawaiin haystacks for dinner, which I really wanted and I was showered with all sorts of gifts. This one was funny. I wanted a little strainer, so Braden got that for me. As soon as I opened it he was pretty sure it was a hat. He kept saying "my hat". It took awhile to get it away from him.



We set up the projector and watched a movie too. It was a great day. I sure love being a mom - even the complete chaos that my life sometimes is. And I sure do love these little people. Everyday they make me smile at least once!

Mother's day was even extended one day when they all decided to build together and get along really well! Even they recognized the signficance of this and insisted on a picture!

They Gailey's Visit to Idaho

Sadly, I don't have nearly enough pictures to document the Gailey's visit. But here is what I do have. Katie, Nate and little people came to visit us! They came up on April 30th and stayed the week. After they arrived, we decided to take them to Big Jud's and let them have that "grease" experience.  Here is what it was all about!

It was good. Maybe once a year we can do that! Sunday May 1st, we made our shish-ka-bobs and rice. We had a lot! Then we had fun playing wii. This was from Disney's Sing it.

While the little people played ring around the rosy!

Monday was pretty fun! We took the little people bowling. Braden really enjoyed himself and loved pushing the ball and watching the pins get knocked over!

Grandma and Grandpa were such great sports to come and just hang out with us.

After bowling, we went to their little arcade. Grandma put some money in this little car ride. Braden HATED it. Surprisingly.

The other two absolutely LOVED it!

Then we tried the little merry go round. There were three seats on it. Pretty much the same thing happened!

And then, for whatever reason I am unsure of, I didn't have any other pictures! What the heck? I'll just tell you about the fun. Tuesday we went to Idaho Falls and did some shopping. Katie made us enchiladas which were AMAZINZG!

Wednesday we went to the park and then followed up with lunch at Subway. They all loved the park!

Thursday we did a little tour of campus, went to the bookstore, and had lunch at the crossroads. As always, really busy but a great place to people watch. That night we had a BBQ and my uncle Dave joined us.

Friday we went to breakfast at our new favorite breakfast place. Seriously, anyone who lives in Idaho has got to try it out. Of all places, it is in Ucon. Crazy I know. But so fun! I had to work. But later that night we went over and played games and stayed until about 11 p.m. Games are always fun. It's always fun to have a big group to play with.

I also have to mention how great it was to have Nate come. He fixed our blazer that didn't have air or 4 wheel drive. And, he fixed our van so the fan will work again! Thank you so much!

Saturday the Gailey's left us. *sniff sniff*.

We sure enjoyed their visit and can't wait for them to come again!

Easter Weekend 2011

Just a warning, this is quite a long post of pictures. I tried to document all sorts of things, however, I realize I didn't get it all. But here is what happened.

For Easter weekend, we packed up on Friday the 21st and left for Utah. This is what it looked like when we left Idaho. There were even slippery roads on Highway 20 and a really bad accident.

I forget how long of a drive it can be with four children. We haven't really traveled much with Braden, so you can imagine how grateful I am that Tyler easily helped with Braden and kept him occupied. He absolutely loves music!

When we got to Sandy, we decided we wanted to eat lunch at the Mayan. We invited my sister Katie and her two little people to come and meet us. After we arrived, we found out that it wasn't open until 3 p.m. We were really bummed. We wanted our children to be able to experience it. Not for the food, but for the entertainment. If you haven't been there, it is a mexican restaraunt where every 15 minutes they have a "diving" show with people actually diving in this water fall pool thing. It is fun. We did however get a picture of all of them on this thing.

So after a few minutes of making Katie decide what our plans were, she led us to Iggy's. It was pretty good, the company was great. I do have to say that for children, this place outdid themselves in terms of food. They are reasonably priced and then with each kids meal they get an ice cream sundae. They were HUGE! Totally crazy.

We said goodbye to the Gailey family and took up our travel again to the hotel in Payson. Have you ever been to Payson? Fun little town. We checked in and got everything situated. Of course, we were only there for a few minutes when Braden started jumping on a bed. We told him to stop and a few seconds later he jumped funny and went flying head first into the wall. As you all know, it was bound to happen.

We decided that would be a good time to gather the kids and head to Salem where two of their cousins were playing in soccer games. I didn't get any great pictures of them, but they did do awesome and they were fun to watch. However, I did get to meet my newest little nephew, Brandon. He is so chill. What a great little kid!

We went back to my brother's house after the soccer games and the little people all got to go running in the backyard and Tyler got to play basketball. This slide was particularly fun for Braden. He could climb to the top by himself. The slide has a bump though and Braden was catching major air. It's amazing nothing got broken. He loved every minute of it!

I think you can see the bump on his head. Nice right?

Of course, one of the most fun things about staying in a hotel is the swimming pool. We spent a couple of hours down there. It was nice because for the first little while we had it all to ourselves. They all loved it, including Braden. He was the stressful one because he can't swim but he doesn't understand that. Many times I had to catch him from just diving off the side.

After a great nights sleep, we woke up and got ready to head over to the church for the reason we made the visit. My niece Lindsey was being baptized and my nephew Brandon was being blessed. I am so sad I didn't get a picture of Lindsey. She was beautiful and the spirit was very strong. It was such a great opportunity to be able to go. My sister did manage to get a picture of her daughter and Grandpa though. She is so cute!

After the ordinances, we headed back to my brother's house for a really nice lunch and visit time. Then, since it was the day before Easter, they had a big easter egg hunt for all of the little people. All of my children loved this activity. It was just fun to have their cousins there too and spend time with them.

After the egg hunt, we packed up our kids and we drove home. We did to make it home so we could color some easter eggs of our own. Our little people are always so creative and of course mess was definitely involved. Especially with Braden as his hands were dyed for days.

Some of our finished product.

The easter bunny did manage to find us and left the kids a basket which they of course enjoyed. It was a long and tiring weekend, but it was so fun! Glad we were able to make it down.