Tyler's Piano Recital

This semester at BYU-Idaho, Tyler has been taking beginning piano lessons. It's a great program and Tyler has really loved his time. On July 13, they had their recital. Tyler did GREAT and didn't seem nervous and I think he did awesome!



There was an "under the sea" theme

Tyler and Katie Snell - his piano teacher 



Tyler after he did such a great job



 

4th Of July

Crazy and fun 4th of July this year! Here are some highlights.

My sister and her family came for a quick visit. On Saturday the 2nd we went to the splash park. We packed a lunch and played for a long time. My sister came a little later and we had fun with them for about a hour.

Cute niece - didn't much care for getting wet at all

Cute niece #2. She enjoyed it, but she is seriously skin and bones so although it was in the 80's, it was too cold for her.

I feel bad I didn't get too many pictures, but later that evening, we went to my parents for a bbq, had us some ranch style burgers. Unfortunately, I had to work for a hour, so when we went back to my parents, we headed out to get a spot for the Rigby fireworks. We met up with some neighbors from the Sandy UT neighborhood. The fireworks were good, next year, we'll have to be a little closer. Braden didn't care for them at all and kept his ears covered the entire time.

Sunday was church day but we only went for sacrament meeting. Had dinner again at my parents house and played some games.

Monday was the Rexburg Whoopee Days parade. I dropped Allen off at 6 a.m. to claim us a spot, but found out most of them were already taken. I think we got the last shady spot, and were just grateful for it. My sister and her family came for it, and our neighbors sat by us as well. Always fun for McKenna and Kylie to have their friends with them.

cute sister and family

the cousins together, anxiously awaiting the parade to start

I couldn't seem to get a great picture. Oh well.

The parade seems to get more and more depressing each year. Especially for Allen who was in charge of the Provo parade with the freedom festival. However, the kids seemed to enjoy getting the candy. Braden didn't like most of the parade and sat on my lap the whole time. Later in the afternoon however, he really enjoyed eating the candy he kept finding.

My sister left right after the parade to get back home, and we were invited to a bbq at the neighbors house. This is where things went crazy. We were planning on making shishkabobs, and had it all ready to go. We were feeling a little obligated though and we were going to make an appearance at the bbq. Around 3 p.m., McKenna came home from next door screaming that she was in pain. On her stomach and chest there was about a food long by 4 inch dark spot. It looked like a bruise, but we weren't sure. We tried icing it, but it was so painful she couldn't stand it to be touched. We ran her into community care. By that time, it was some sort of weird rash that extended to the front of her neck, back and down her arm. The Dr. wasn't sure what it was but it was blistering and had already "popped." They gave her a cream and an antibiotioc because of the open sores. She was in so much pain and was hysterical basically all night long.

Needless to say, we didn't make it to the bbq. (bummer). So we enjoyed our shishkabobs a lot. Including Braden who for the first time actually ate and enjoyed them.

Our neighbors offered to take Kylie to the bbq with them so we let her go. A couple of hours later they brought her back and felt extremely horrible. Kylie had some sort of allergic reaction (I think) and her eyes were extremely puffy and swollen, one was almost swollen shut. I got the benadryl in and showered her because we still wanted to do the fireworks. The joke of the night was "Two down, two to go." Meaning, both McKenna and Kylie were with the neighbors when they had these strange things happen.

We did make it to the neighbors for the fireworks. All sorts of things were brought and I got all sorts of lessons on illegal fireworks.  We had the fountains and tanks and flower things, but also a lot of other sort of stuff.  We enjoyed our "show" and someone who lives a couple of streets over also had a show. They spent a few thousand at least on theirs, and it was as good as Rigby's show! All in all, it was a great night even with the poor girls.

Some extremely long sparklers. The kids really liked those.



Poor Kylie's eye. She was mostly feeling better at this point, just tired.




McKenna. She really didn't feel well, but got a couple of sparklers in.




Braden loved doing the sparklers, which surprised me. He was disappointed when they were all gone.




All sorts of fireworks



Splash Park

It's finally warm enough, mostly, to go to the splash park. We've been a few times and the kids LOVE it. I hate that they cut down all the trees, but glad we have a big sport umbrella for shade! Braden is a lot more hesitant this year. It might be because the first time we went Tyler took him and pushed him down the slide by himself. He's warming up again though and will finally play in the fountains. Here's a few random pictures of late.

Father's Day

Father's Day seemed to come extremely quick this year. None the less, I hope Allen enjoyed his day! He got some fun little things and of course the little people showered him with love and attention!

We also had the opportunity to swing by Rigby and tell my dad (aka Grandpa) Happy Father's Day. He too was showered with all sorts of goodies.

Braden especially wanted to share this joyous day! It was hard for him to give up those candy bars!

Allen's 10 + 1 Reunion

June 18th was Allen's 10+1 year reunion of all past student directors. It was pretty fun, although I know it was so much work for those who helped to put everything together! Here is some of the pictures!



The gift bag table



The dinner tables

The leftover table - full of sweatshirts and shirts that they could take



and lots of leftover hats

 

the room in which we had the classic NSO foods.

 

such as eclairs, cheese and crackers, veggie trays

 

the classic cow theme with past team pictures

 

many many shirts over the years

 

We let Tyler come. Obviously he was loving it.



The dinner program had the usual food eating contests.  This one was who could eat the most eclairs in a minute.



Traditional BBQ games, such as the frozen shirt contest.



Some of the past students who were able to come

This team had 4 people who were able to come out of six. One from Oregon, and two from Salt Lake.

Another team, this one with 5!

This is my cute friend Elaine. Not only was she a director for NSO, but before that, she was one of my first ever R.A.'s in the dorm. LOVE THIS GIRL!

This year of team people, like 10 years ago, were all mainly ute fans. They gave him the clock and were very surprised that it still existed and hangs in Allen's office. Classic!

The gift that the students gave to Allen and I.

We had such a great time catching up with so many past students. It is fun to see how much has changed and evolved since Allen started working at the University. Even more fun was to catch up and see a lot of these people married and with their own little people. Words cannot express how loved we feel. This painting is amazing and truly, we feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to work and get to know so many wonderful people!