Party Animals!

One of the main reasons for our trip to Utah over the 24th of July, was to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday! What a milestone! And what better way to defy the over-the-hill hum drums than to have a LUAU? The menu was pulled pork on Hawaiian rolls, fruit salad in a carved watermelon bowl, crab salad, frog eye salad, and to drink; watermelon granita. The decorations were sponsored by a friend of Connie's who had just happened to have a stake luau and had all of the decorations! She saved me! So, thank you Jody!
Mom, Hannah, and Sadie were good sports and wore the fashionable coconut bra! My aunt Julie is a saint! She housed my family last week. I love this photo of her even though it is artfully uncentered. She looks like she is in pure joy!
Little Luke kept asking if he could wear "berries." We finally figured out that he meant a coconut bra! This will be one to show all of his future girlfriends!
Way to make it to 60 Mom! I'm so proud of you! You are a wonderful mom and I hope you have a wonderful next 60 years!
Little Phebe getting in on the hula girl action (uh, Pheeb, you're a little crooked)!
Little sis, Gorgeous Sadie and little Pearl who also had on her luau finery.

For some reason, all the little boys wanted to dress as hula dancers. It was so cute!
Emily enjoying her Watermelon Granita. YUM!
Hannah and her cousin acting for the fish in the fishing game. The kids were picky fishermen! When they found out that rubber bugs were a choice, everything else was thrown back!
Me and my hot, yet white, Hawaiian hunny!

James pulled out the PVC pipe rocket launcher, and the kids were entertained for a long time!

I think everyone had a great time at the luau. It was fun seeing all of my long lost relatives and just relaxing and enjoying ourselves! Mom, you were worth all of the effort!

LAGOON

Although exhausting, our trip to Utah was a huge success. We had a great time on the 24th of July at Lagoon. It was the first time our kids had gone, and they were impressed. Our friend Connie called that morning and said she and her kids would be coming along. We were so happy to have them with us. They made the event even funner! If it were up to me, I would have stayed on the coasters the entire time, but since we had the little kids, we spent a good portion of the time in Kiddie land. We only lost Connor 4 times! For some reason, he kept wandering off in the opposite direction. We'd go a couple of steps and turn to make a sweep to ensure that we were all together, and Connor would be GONE! Alex had a great time riding on the Chicken on the carousel.

The Rattlesnake Rapids seemed to be the favorite ride among the group. Can you see me there with my make shift swim cap? I looked pretty dorky, but I saved most of my hair by wearing a gallon baggie on my head! Connie's daughter and Foreign Exchange student rode with us.
Looks like I'm not the only roller coaster lover in the family!

James with Ashlyn and Emily. James was more afraid of losing the little girls than they were of the height!

We entered the park when it opened, and left once it closed. We saw some awesome fireworks and had a really great time hanging with the Atkissons.

Lagoon, save us a spot, we'll be back next year!

Yellowstone

Yesterday we dragged the kids out of bed, packed up the van, and headed North to Yellowstone National Park. It is wonderful to be so close to one of God's great masterpieces. It has been many many years since I last visited Old Faithful, and I'm sad to say that I don't remember it much. I was blown away by the geysers and pools that we saw as well as the magnitude of the park. It took ALL DAY just for us to go around the bottom loop of the figure 8. We decided to keep track of all of the animals we encountered. Shortly after we got into the park, we saw a coyote slinking down the road. We also saw:
an antelope
a bald eagle
a rabbit
many geese
a hawk
a beaver dam
dragonflies
a snake
a lizard
many giant crows
a lady bug
chipmunk
ducks
many herds of buffalo
a pelican
a buck (I think)
a squirrel (inside the lodge)
sparrows
and a tiny mouse flew across the road in front of the van!
We crossed the Continental Divide twice.



DANGER: STAY ON PATH. said the signs every 5 feet. It was so tempting to reach down and touch the bubbling pools. It was difficult staying on the path. We read a sign that said you could be seriously burned or killed if you walked away from the path. Of course, we stayed on the path, but at one point I secretly touched a stream of water and it was cool.

The bacteria in the water makes the orange color.
We took my little Canon PowerShot along and I must say, it took some pretty *awesome* photos. I'm proud of the little thing. If you click on the pictures, you can see their full glory.
This was an amazing sight as we rounded a corner and saw many cars backed up.
We just about rolled the van when we saw this buffalo. We pulled off to the side of the road along some other people. They made fun of us and our desperation to get a glimpse of a buffalo. A mile or so later, we saw many herds of buffalo. Boy did we feel sheepish. They are incredible animals! This park really puts the zoo to shame! It's wonderful seeing these animals in their natural habitats.
We flew out of the park and made it home at 9:05 PM just in time to watch the finale of AVATAR! It was an amazing day!

Rigby Lake

I love that Rigby has it's own little "lake." It is perfect in its distance from us. It has sandy shores that are trucked in from the dunes. It holds excess ground water and is filled in the spring, and drained in the fall, so it is free of sea weed and other mysterious things lurking below. It's just a fun place to hang with your family and friends!
Christie in her fab sunhat.
Chandler and Emily
This little stinker got lost for a little while. We were searching everywhere for him and finally found him on the other side of the beach. He had gone to the spot that our family hangs out in during pre-water visits for FHE. He was just playing in the sand.

Come. Visit. We'll go play at the lake!

The Zoo!

We love having people visit us, and so we were thrilled when we found out that the Caldwells would be able to stay with us for four days! They happened to come on the day of Policy Tech's annual office party. It was tickets to the zoo and a catered (by Bajio Mexican Restaurant) lunch at a park. I told Christie and the boys to come with us and crash the party! We had a lot of fun at the zoo. We blocked off 3 and 1/2 hours to be able to see the entire thing, but after an hour, we had hit the end of the zoo! It is very small. It was fun, though, because we didn't have to worry as much about the kids getting lost. Here are a few of the adventures we had.
My favorite species were these strange birds that we found nesting-- in the photo above.
Hannah loves her otters. I didn't get a good photo of them, so this is Hannah posing by their sign.
I love those lion head drinking fountains. Hunter thought he'd hop on for a ride.
Look at all of those little monkeys!

Alex and Cameron--Together Again!
The poor Old Camels.
James and Christie
Christie and me.
I love this picture that James got of Connor. You get to look into the mirror to see the "human species."

We had fun at the zoo and the best part was that we had to kill some time, so we introduced the Caldwells to shaved ice (my absolute favorite) with cream!

We cram-packed our partial week with Christie and the boys and had the greatest time going to the lake, park, zoo, and Rexburg. Come back soon!

E R--Again!

I was really hoping for an entire year without anyone having to go to the ER. Well, we almost made it. Sept. 1 would have been our year mark.

We went to the St. Anthony sand bar on Saturday, July 5th. It was cold, windy, and cloudy. Not the best recipe for requiring sunscreen! I got sunscreen on the kids and a little bit on my face, but James had already gotten into the water in order to save a little boy from drowning, by the time I got around to him. I offered a couple of times, but he must have been thinking the same thing that I was: windy, cloudy, cold. We hadn't considered the elevation. We ended up braving the elements, and got into the water anyway. Needless to say, James got a healthy sunburn.

Once we got home, he immediately started putting on Aloe with Lydicane. He told me that he was going to the store because he would probably be going through it all that night and he would need more. I'm thinking -um $8 a bottle! I don't think so! Then he read the directions, and it said not to apply more than 4 times in 24 hours! He had already maxed out the dosage in just a couple of hours.

He continued to apply over the next couple of days. He was really complaining a lot, and I was thinking that I had a little sunburn too, and I didn't put anything on it, and it was feeling just fine! (I know, no mercy). By Tues night, James was beside himself with pain. We had tried everything from calamine lotion to vinegar to Benedryl, but nothing seemed to be working. I also called the ER for advice. The problem was an itching sensation that made him want to rip off his skin. I started getting worried. I'd never seen him this agitated before. He was able to get a blessing, then one of the men offered to take him to the ER.

I was so relieved, however, I didn't expect to see him again that night. I'm still in Va mode here. I didn't realize that in Rexburg, you can get in and out of the ER in 30 min! Mary Wash would keep you there all night long!

He came home and was able to sleep. He had two very nice shots in the butt! One was cortisone, and the other a pain killer. After several days on prescriptions, he was back to normal!

The cost of not putting on sunscreen in 5,000 feet. Costly! We have learned well our lesson!

Kamas Valley Fiesta Days Schedule

This schedule is for 2008. For a current schedule, visit www.kamascity.net or

http://mypages.allwest.com/~kamascity/PDF/FiestaSchedule.pdf

I have randomly gotten emails from people asking about the schedule for the upcoming Fiesta Days due to a blog entry from last year. I wanted to post this schedule that I had my mom mail to me, in case anyone wants to attend. I guess it's pretty difficult to find the schedule. Hope this helps! Maybe we'll see you there! There is also a web address on the bottom R corner. It could be helpful in future years. Kamas is getting more savvy each year! www.kamascity.net

The Last of the Firsts **July Fourth**

Today, we celebrated the last holiday in our first year here in Rigby, Idaho! Our year mark is rapidly approaching!





***Happy Birthday America!*** I absolutely LOVE Independence Day! I'm not sure if it's the bright colors; red, white, and blue, or the patriotism and pride in our beloved country (in spite of it's current difficulties), or that it's just a good excuse to enjoy being with people we care about and eat LOTS of yummy food, that makes it such a special day for me. Granted, I do love all holidays, and this one is definitely one of my tops! I love seeing the flag waving on people's front lawns. I love seeing little children all dressed up in patriotic colors including matching ribbons in their hair. I love seeing old people in old-fashioned cars driving carefully in parades, and I love hearing the marching band playing (even if they aren't so good).


It's really amazing how the Fourth of July is commonly celebrated from Sea to Shining Sea! No matter where you are in America, you can see and feel people's love for their country! This year I really wanted my children to understand that the Fourth isn't just for fireworks, but it's our country's birthday. I told the little boys that today is America's birthday, and they just looked at me with Awe and Wonder. They were a little confused at first, since our cat's name is America, but I quickly explained that it is the country in which we live that is having its birthday. I want them to learn to be good citizens. I want them to learn what opportunities can be theirs because they are citizens. I want them to learn about all of those who died for our Freedom and that Freedom is not free! Our children must be taught these things. They cannot grow up thinking that Freedom was handed to us on a silver platter and that this day is only for buying expensive fireworks and blowing them up when the sun goes down just for our pleasure. They need to know more. I think perhaps that living near our nation's capital for nearly 9 years has ingrained in me the importance of liberty. I loved living near all of that history! I loved having my children so near it that they could see it, feel it, taste it! I just hope that now that we are 2,500 miles away from where our country began, I will be able to express to my children the importance of this occasion and its true meaning.

Last Sunday, James and I were able to sing in a community choir at the Celebration of Liberty. During the program, we were able to see a reenactment of the Patrick Henry speech "Give Me Liberty, or Give Me Death." It was moving and inspiring. The choir ended the ceremony by singing Battle Hymn of the Republic. I had chills as we sang about God's hand in creating this land of Liberty. It was a wonderful reminder of how we got to where we are today. I love America, and I'm grateful that this day is set aside each year to help us remember the sacrifices made for our Independence.















On a lighter note, we did have a lot of fun today! It was significant that we started our day with the old--as our first year here comes to a close: Our friends the Ransoms paid us one more visit before heading back to VA. We said goodbye to them this mourning. Then, we turned our hearts and minds forward to say Hello to our friends, the Buskas. We spent the day with them as well as our new friends, the Leggs, in the tiny town of Menan. We ended up arriving just in time for the parade. We had not intended to watch the parade, so we started heading to the fair grounds. We were hoping to take advantage of the fact that the majority of the crowds would be lining the streets and we would experience shorter lines at all of the food and games stands. A man driving a kiddie train drove past and stopped to invite our children for a ride in the train. Of course all of the children ran screaming and got into the train. They were wisked away, to our surprise, to become PART of the parade. We didn't see 9 of our children for the next hour and a half! That POOR train driver! The adults and remaining teens and infants headed to the food stands! The food was yummy and by the time our children came back, we had snow cones in hand for the poor hot and thirsty little ones. I think we had more fun than they did!

The rest of the day was filled with watermelon eating contests, funnel cakes, dunking machines, and the best part; the new swords!

Proof that Alex DOES eat!
He almost won the contest, but became sick right at the end!

The Elders getting into it with Connor and his swords!
Emily decided to get DUNKED!
Alex goes next, then poor little Hunter gets slammed by Emily. Finally Hannah decides to cool off! What fun!

We then went to the Buska's for a fun BBQ. Then headed back to Menan for fireworks. We ended up parking next to a field to watch. We could see the fireworks all around the surrounding area! It was a great time and we all went home happy and exhausted!



Shooting off Hydrogen Rockets at the Buskas.