Cousin Fun -Day 1

Plan A- Go camping as a family, for our summer vacation.

Plan B- Jared, Teresa and family come up from Utah and go camping with us.

Plan C- Jared, Teresa and family come up, but stay at our house and forget the camping thing.

Making Teresa and I happy. Less work, less dirt.... maybe.

Plan C addendum- Julia and her 4 boys join us and stay the night on Friday.

Although our plans had evolved we knew what ever we did we would have fun together. Jared's family arrived Wednesday night. We stayed up late playing and talking.

Thursday morning we decided to take a hike.... literally. As we drove up the windy Bogus Basin road, I talked to the kids and asked them questions about our surroundings, trying to distract them from possibly feeling carsick. It worked for about the first 20 minutes. Pretty soon we started hearing things like, "My tummy doesn't feel so good". I half acknowledged the comments and then pointed out the window, "Look! There's cows over there."

Pretty soon I was looking at Jason and asking, "How much farther? Now my tummy doesn't feel so good." :)

I'm happy to report that no one made good on their threats and we reached our destination barf-free.

First on our agenda was a picnic.

It was a cooler Summer day in Boise, maybe 75-80's. Nice if you're in the valley, but going up several thousand feet made things really cool, like 55 degrees cool. We were unprepared for this. We scavenged a few sweatshirts and jackets, then wrapped up in blankets we found in the trunk.

Teeth-chattering, chilly picnic- sandwiches, chips, cookies and lemonade.

We were pretty sure we'd be warming up as we started to hike, so we put the picnic and blankets away and started up the trail.

It was a BEE-U-TI-FUL hike.

This was the same trail Jason had taken the kids on when they did their little camping trip. I was glad to be there with them this time.

Teresa & Jared

and "cup holder" rock. That's for you Jared.

Jade & Rylee

Carson, Treyson, Colton, Taylee, Abree & Jordyn

Thinking about peeling off their jackets... starting to warm up.

Abree had just recently re-discovered her camera she got for Christmas. She took many headless and off-center pictures along the hike.

The kids LOVED climbing on the rocks and getting too close to the edge for my comfort. Many times I felt my heart racing, wondering if I should say something or if I should just bite my tongue. I did a little of both.

Nice pose Colton!

Brothers... Jared & Jason
"Sucka!"

Toward the end of the trail, there was a beautiful meadow of purple flowers.

We also discovered this cool log. It looks like some sort of animal/reptile.... platypus or crocodile?

Carson...

and Abree had to sit on it and try it out.

To avoid the "my tummy doesn't feel so good" trip back, I told the kids to take a nap. I was sure that they could use a little rest, cuz we weren't done yet.

When I looked back, this is how I found Abree. Yes, she's totally asleep.
A little creepy, huh?

Next, we had decided to check out the Morrison Knudsen Nature Center.

"Just keep swimming...swimming, swimming." -Dorey from FINDING NEMO

They had a cool indoor center with lots of animal taxidermy and hands-on kid stuff. I swear I had been there before, but didn't remember all of this. I liked the center where you could make animal tracks in the sand.

Carson LOVED looking through the book, then finding the same animal in the room. He spent several minutes there and kept saying, "Look! There it is."

Next we went outside and walked along the nature path. The kids enjoyed looking at the fish and the underwater life.

One of our favorite parts was looking at the HUGE sturgeon, as we crossed over a bridge. There was a sign calling them, "dinosaurs". The kids LOVED that they got to see "dinosaurs".

We were WAY hot by now.

After dinner, we headed to our neighborhood pool to cool off.

Jared and Jason DID end up in the pool. Teresa and I DIDN'T. We were content to lounge poolside. :)

A nice end to a LONG day.

It ain't over yet.... more fun tomorrow at Eagle Island.

Cousin Fun- Day 2

After breakfast we gathered, packed and swim-suited up for our short drive to Eagle Island State Park.

We had a BBQ lunch and then walked over to the water and beach area.

Julia and her boys found us and got in on the cousin fun.

Colton, Jade, Emma & Taylee
The kids discovered they could go all the way out to the yellow divider rope, still touching. The water was a bit cooler than the pool and took a few minutes to warm up to.

Jordyn
The kids made sand castles with motes...

and took turns burying each other in the sand.

Emma made a lovely mermaid... and Abree was her sidekick.

After having hours of fun at the beach, we went home for dinner then got ready for "Movie in the Park", at Settler's Park.

Jordyn, Cameron & Emma

As if they hadn't had enough water for the day, the kids started off in the splash park.

Colton, hoping he's in the right spot for the water drop.

Yep, perfect spot!

Emma

When it started cooling off, we wandered over to the play equipment.

Settler's Park is almost always a MAD HOUSE. It's big and has lots of fun things to play on... a kid's dream. But because it's so fun and has so much to do, it can be nearly impossible to keep track of your kids... a parent's nightmare.

Taylee followed Joshua around, leaving Julia only 3 to keep track of.

We only lost Matthew and Carson once.... that I'm aware of.

Abree

When the parent's couldn't take the "fun" anymore, we walked back over to our chairs and blankets, to get dressed and wait for the movie to start.

We've been enjoying "Movie in the Park" for several summers now. They blow up a HUGE movie screen and put speakers all around.

Each summer they seem to improve. This year, the sound improved greatly. We also appreciate the lights that go on after the movie. Last year, after the movie, people used cell phones and flashlights to try and gather their children and stuff. I remember leaving the park hoping that we got everything and resolving to be ok with it, if we didn't.

We ALWAYS came home with all of our children tough. :)

Joshua says,
"Bring on the movie treats!"

Abree and Taylee being creative in getting dressed.... personalized dressing rooms.

We watched, "Ice Age 3- Dawn of the Dinosaurs".

Not as dreadful as I thought. It made me laugh a few times. :)

The kids spent the night, in tents, in our backyard. It took them a little while to settle down, but we wore them out pretty good.

Cousin Fun- Day 3

We DID wear the kids out.... they all slept in until about 9:00!

We had another FUN and BUSY day planned.

First, we went to Julia Davis Park and had a picnic lunch.

After lunch, the kids played with the caterpillars that were everywhere.


They were kind of cute. We wondered what kind of butterfly they turned into. The kids wanted to take them home and find out, but surprisingly none came home with us.

We played a little catch and then walked over the foot bridge to the Boise State campus.

We tried to get into the stadium to see if we could see the Bronco football players practice and the famous "Smurf Turf". We heard the band practicing, but the stadium was locked up. We walked around to the other side and DID find a small place in the fence where we could see them.

"I can see the Broncos!"

Ok, so you can't see the "Smurf Turf" from this angle either, but we did see the players.

After taking a bathroom break at the Student Union Building, we walked back to the park to play and have snacks. Jason and Jared took the opportunity to play a few minutes of horseshoes, while the kids played on the equipment.

When we got home, the kids went swimming in the neighborhood pool again, while Teresa and I stayed back and made dinner. After dinner, the kids settled down with a movie, while the adults played "Yahtzee". Teresa was the big winner that night.

The next morning, we got up and got ready for church, while Jared, Teresa and family got ready to go home.

We had so much fun having our cousins here. We LOVE cousins visits!!!

Annual Family Picnic

We love where we live!

Heritage Commons has several neighborhood events.

This year's Annual Family Picnic was a luau..... HUGE roasted pig and all.

Treyson said he kinda lost his appetite after seeing it... must have really grossed him out, because not many things cause him to loose his appetite. :)

Rylee and Taylee helped with the face painting station.

Treyson requested a shark.

Jason won the BEST HAWAIIAN SHIRT contest and received a coconut cup holder and lei.

There was even a watermelon eating contest and jump houses too.

Fun night!

Cantus Youth Choir

Rylee enjoys music. She is often listening to the radio, rocking out with a favorite CD or singing at the top of her lungs to her mp3 player. She's been a part of our ward choir and a part of her school choir.

At the end of last school year, Rylee decided she wanted to be a part of a NEW community youth choir.... Cantus (pronounced con-too-s). She signed up for an audition immediately and then later told me about it. I had no idea what it was or what it would require.... and neither did she at the time.

Being a part of Cantus is not FREE. There is a monthly tuition, concert wear, computer grading software plus the cost of the actual tour.....BIG money.

The choir gets to participate in a national choir competition in Anaheim, California in Disneyland!

When we found out about all the money details, I started having second thoughts. We were assured that there would be many fundraising opportunities, payments in increments and possible financial aid. I asked Rylee if she was willing to work hard for this. She was a little hesitant at first, but decided she would go for it.

Rylee HAS worked hard. She has done a ton of babysitting, some house-sitting and has spent a few days at Jason's car wash fundraising. She has sold community discount cards, Applebee's pancake breakfast tickets and has collected cash donations too. We LOVE cash donations....100% profit!

How could anyone resist a sweet face like this?!

Rylee is still working hard to meet her goal, but has had fundraising success and has been blessed by generous people that support and love her.

ThANk YoU!!!

If you would like to know more about Cantus go here. If you would like to be one of those generous people go here. :)