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.

The 7th Bitthdays

They are 7! What a great birthday they had. Two days of celebration. It began on Friday the 15th, where they took cupcakes to their class. They were also able to give some to some of the other teachers and staff, which they were happy with. They were so excited to go to school and it was fun for them to have their class celebrate their birthdays.

On Saturday the 16th, Allen had to work in the morning but he was able to take the afternoon off where we went to Pizza Pie Cafe (aka Craigo's) for lunch. I told them they couldn't have dessert pizza because we were having cake. Then I decided, who cares? It's their birthday. So, they had a great time there.

Then back home where we got ready for "the party". My parents and my uncle came over for cake and ice cream and the opening of the presents.

I let both of the girls choose a birthday cake. We ordered them from Sam's club, and I loved that I got two for the price of one at Sam's club - which was cheaper than anywhere in Rexburg. It was great too because they have such different personalities. Which it obviously shines through in their choice.

The cake was great. McKenna's was chocolate with buttercream frosting and Kylie's was white with whipped frosting. So, it appeased everyone with them being so different. However, the problem with twins is that you can't just eat one piece of cake. You have to take one from each so they both feel loved.

Cake was quickly eaten and forgotten so the presents could be opened. It looked like Christmas at our house. McKenna got a lot of things to do outside, Kylie got a lot of art like stuff. McKenna got a pogo stick, which has been fun watching her try. Kylie's favorite so far is a little palm electronic device that has different games on it.

Braden of course very upset that he can't open the presents. I know I shouldn't laugh but sometimes his little facial expressions are hilarious!

Overall, they had a great birthday! We can't believe they're seven!

Ty's School Play

For quite a few months now the fourth graders at South Fork have been practicing and preparing for a play. Lines were sent home to memorize. A CD of songs that they would be singing was sent home to practice. A couple of dress rehearsals done. Finally, on Thursday the 14th, it was time for the actual performance. As the class all walked in, we kept looking for Tyler. We couldn't find him. Finally, we picked him out of the crowd. It wasn't an easy task. Unfortunately, my flash wasn't good enough at all to get one in the gym, but I took a picture of him after it was over. Poor Braden didn't recognize him at all. As Tyler was walking towards us after it was over, Braden was so panicked. He wasn't comfortable at all with this stranger hanging out with us. Tyler quickly got the make up off his face and I quickly snapped this picture in front of their backdrop. Braden was quite happy to see Tyler at this point! Tyler did such an excellent job. He was on of the very few who had all of his lines memorized and all together the class did wonderfully. It was fun to watch and forever we will have some of those songs stuck in our head.

Freezer

While I understand this post will hold no interest for most of you, it is extremely exciting for us. We got an upright freezer! It is so awesome! Even our kids LOVE it. Tyler took all of these pictures. We are excited because this means that now when we go to Sam's club, if we want to buy 2 bags of chicken, we have somewhere to put it! Think of all of the meals I can make and freeze ahead of time. Extremely exciting for all of us. I think it will easily pay itself off quickly with what we will save on buying in bulk and not eating out because we don't have anything on hand. Another great part. It locks. YEP! It has its own key and everything. Definitely an exciting thing in the Jones house last week!