Cress Creek Trail Hike, Rigby Lake, Gabe's Soccer Ends, Dad Goes to Alaska, Rexburg Rapids, Caleb and Avery start Soccer, 4th of July and Lake Fun, Another Hike, Gabe at Scout Camp

We have been BUSY!

Summer activities are in full swing! Gabe had his very last soccer tournament June 21 in Idaho Falls. He had a lot of fun this year playing on the traveling team, but it was a LOOOOONG season. They started practice in January and ended in June, so mom was ready for it to be over so we could have some of our weekends free again!

Then Josh went on his big Alaska trip the last week of June. He left on Monday, June 23rd and returned home on Tuesday, July 3. Here are just a few quick pictures I stole off his phone:

I should really have him write about his trip, but that will never happen! So to summarize... the first night they flew into Anchorage and stayed overnight in a hotel. Then the next day they got a lot of supplies at Walmart and prepared for their small airplane to take them to the wilderness part of Alaska. On Wednesday, they boarded their small red brush plane and flew for about an hour. Then they were dropped off near a lake called Lake Chelatna. Then the seven of them (Josh, Bryan, Brad, Jake, Jake's dad, Ben, and Ben's dad) all boarded into three different rafts and began floating down the river. They floated and fished all day and then stopped and camped each night. Josh said it was fun but also a lot of work and he had to do a lot of rowing because he ended up in a boat with Ben's dad and Ben's dad wasn't able to row at all due to his health. I think at the end of the week Josh was ready to some home!

While he was gone, I did some fun things with the kids. We went on a hike to Cress Creek Trail that was really beautiful. Someone went to a lot of trouble to put these educational plaques displayed all along the trail and it was really fun to learn about things as we hiked.

We also went to Rigby Lake. This lake is totally not my favorite, but it's only about 15 minutes from Rexburg and it's about all we've got around here. Unless you want to drive about an hour or more to get to a nicer lake. The kids played in the sand and the boys swam, but Avery and I didn't get in very far.

We went to Rexburg Rapids one day with some friends. My friend, Amber, was going to come but she ended up going into labor that morning at 4am! So it ended up being me and my kids plus Amber's sister, Britney, and her two kids. Her son is Gabe's age so they had a lot of fun running around together. We were there from the time they opened (noon) to about 4:00! It was hot, sunny, and fun! Avery is to the point now where she likes to go into some deeper water and not just play around the baby kid stuff. I'm not sure why she has never really liked the little slides area, but she prefers the deeper water. I still keep her lifejacket on her just to be safe but she is getting to be a pretty good swimmer.

Around the first of July, Avery and Caleb both started soccer with their rec department teams. Rec teams are always run in a really relaxed way (and by relaxed I mean you are lucky if you have a parent coach who actually shows up to games). So it's not really hard-core soccer like it was watching Gabe's game. With Avery, it's mostly like watching a herd of kids run up and down the field chasing one little ball. They are getting better though! Avery is so fast. She can always run to the ball first but actually kicking it? She doesn't like to get in the big shuffle and risk getting kicked by someone. So we are always happy if she actually makes contact with the ball during a game. Caleb is one of the better players on his (really unexperienced) team. I wish they had sone better players on his team because it seems like he and Camri (a girl in our neighborhood) do a lot of the work with little help from their team mates. I mainly signed Caleb up so he could get some running in before he starts football next month. He has a tendency to sit on the couch and watch tv a lot so I like to do anything to get him out of the house and staying active.

Finally, Josh returned home the day before the fourth of July. He got home at about 8:30pm, quickly started some laundry and showed us a few pictures then basically went to bed so he could get up early for work. He always has to work the parade in the morning, so that wasn't new, but this year he got to be the lead car in the parade! So me and Avery got to ride along in the front seat and throw candy. Gabe was riding on his soccer team's big float and Caleb rode on the iSource float with Devin and Charm's family. It worked out well because once me and Avery got to the end of the route, we hopped out of Josh's car and then got to watch the whole parade right by the roundabout by Tuscany apartments. A lot of people threw us tons of candy because we were the last people and they wanted to get rid of their candy! Gabe and Caleb's floats were near the end. So Gabe waited once he got done and then when Devin's float came we hopped in there and drove back up to our car at Smith Park with them. Josh got home from work at about 4:00 and then we lit off some fireworks at our house. I was kind of wanting to go see big fireworks somewhere, but Gabe and Caleb (and Josh) really wanted to just stay home and see some of the neighbors light theirs off. Next year I should put my foot down and make them go somewhere. I used to love the fourth of July growing up because it meant a day at the lake and then fireworks at night. But it seems like Josh has to work every year and it's kind of a bummer. I think next year we should go to Wisconsin in July.

Anyways, the good news is that even though Josh had to work on the 4th and the 5th, he took off on the 6th and we headed down to Utah. Our friends, Chris and Holly, had rented a house in a town called Huntsville, Utah. I had never heard if it or been there but it had the most beautiful lake called Pineview Reservoir and it was PERFECT for boating/tubing/water surfing. On Friday night the boys immediately wanted to do tubing, so they did some of that. Then we stayed overnight in the house (which was this red brick historical house built in 1872 called the Valley House Inn) and woke up the next morning and had breakfast and went to the lake again. First we played on the beach for a little while and then we went back out on the boat. I tried water surfing but failed. It was fun to watch Josh and Chris though!

I wish we could've spent more time there, but the rental house had other people coming to check in so we needed to leave the lake around 4:00 and go back to the house to pack everything up. Then we drove home and got back to Rexburg about 8:00. I would love to go back there someday!

That next day on Sunday afternoon we went up past Ashton and stopped and fed Josh's dad's horses (he is still in Alaska) and did this other hike that turned out to be really long and it was really hot that day. Josh's mom, Diane, came with us and I think she feeling the burn. lol I don't think we should put Josh in charge of picking out hikes for us anymore. It wouldn't have even been that bad if it wasn't so hot - or if there was a lake at the end of the hike! We will need to do the Packsaddle hike soon. (That one ends in a lake.)

Lastly, Gabe got to go to a week long Scout Camp from July 9-13. He and three other boys, all age 12, went up with their scout leader, Brother Weber, early Monday morning. Josh and Caleb went up that morning too and helped set everything up. They stayed overnight and came home on Tuesday afternoon. Caleb really wanted to go but he was too young, so this way her at least got a little taste of it. Gabe had a lot of fun doing different merit badges in woodworking, leather making, basket weaving, and more. His favorite thing there though was probably swimming in the lake. He even completed the 1 mile swim challenge, where he basically swam a mile in the lake over the course of about an hour, with his leader canoeing along beside him to make sure he didn't die. Only about 5 boys in the whole camp (ages 12-16) did this (and there were probably about 250 boys there.) So it was a big accomplishment! We were able to go up there as a family and visit him for the closing ceremony on Friday night and watch him get his award. The lake was sooo beautiful!

He is actually at a lifeguard training camp at the city pool this whole week every morning from 7am-12pm. He is quite the little swimmer.

Oh and I did have a birthday in there as well. I tend to skip over that now that I'm just getting older to the point of it not being fun anymore. We didn't do much. Josh worked all day. I got a cupcake for my birthday cake. Pretty sad. I told Josh next year I wanna be on a lake waterskiing! This year he had taken so much time off already in the past two weeks with Alaska, the Lake weekend, then scout camp, so my birthday was low on the priority list. I will plan my own party next year.

So that is the summary of the past few weeks! I wanted to write this up before Avery's birthday party on Wednesday because that will have to be it's own post! I tend to go overboard on her parties...

Oh an maybe I should make mention... I ALMOST got a job this last week at BYUI. I had started to look on the job postings a few weeks back just thinking maybe I would find something part-time for this Fall once all my kids are in school. I happened to see a job posting in student activities and thought "That would be so fun! I'll never get it in a million years because so many people will apply, but what the heck!" So much to my surprise I actually got a call for a first interview... then a second interview... and then I didn't get it. lol But I honestly had 99 percent decided I probably wouldn't take it even if they offered it to me because it was full-time (M-F 8-5) and I just don't think me or my family could handle that. I also came to find out it was mostly office work and less super fun creative activity planning like I had hoped... so that made it less desirable. So that's that! I am still hoping to maybe find something part time just during the hours my kids are in school. I still have my Etsy shop but it has slowed down a lot compared to what it was in 2015 when I was putting in 8 hours a day or more! Etsy has made a lot of changes with how they run their site and the fees they charge sellers so it's been frustrating. The good news is I have more free time right now! The bad new is... I have less money!! haha So I think if I had a part-time job that gave me a guaranteed income for spending money/savings/vacations every month that would be a good thing.

That's all for now!

Last Day of School, Utah Soccer Tournament, Grandma Sue’s Visit, Caleb’s 10th Birthday

Well the kids have been out of school now for almost a month. Avery’s last day of Kindergarten was on Thursday, May 24^th and the boys were done the following day on Friday, May 25^th. I took their pictures in front of my front door on the last day of school so I could compare how much they changed from the first day of school. The boys changed a little but I could BELIEVE how much Avery had changed! I posted this on Instagram and everyone was like, “That’s crazy! No way!” So here is the change picture from first to last day of school.

I think Avery's stance may also contribute to the “I’m too cool for school” picture. Lol

Josh also took a picture of Drax in front of the door. I take pictures of the kids. He takes pictures of his dog. Basically that’s how our life goes.

Josh has been working really hard with Drax to prepare for his test, which is happening this week (On June 20^th). It’s the test to determine if he is ready to be certified as a “bite dog”. He already passed as a “drug detection dog” and has even searched a few cars for drugs and done well. But the big thing that he’s been having a hard time with is STOPPING Drax from charging at a person when it’s a “bite” situation. So basically there will be a guy standing off in the distance in a bite suit yelling and waving his arms and Josh will be standing and having to like, hold Drax back. Then Josh will give the command to “GO!” and Drax will take off towards the guy full-speed, like hes sooo excited to bite him! Lol But then Josh has to yell “STOP!” and Drax is supposed to just freeze and lie down. That’s the part that isn’t going to perfectly. Most of the time, Drax WILL stop… but he will stop about 2 feet away from the guy. It’s like he wants to listen to Josh, but yet he wants to also be close enough to bite the bad guy easily if he needs to. It’s pretty funny to watch. I guess he will still pass the test as long as he doesn’t TOUCH the guy. So it will hopefully be okay! Hopefully Josh will be a lot less stressed after Wednesday if he passes.  Then on Monday, June 25^th, Josh is leaving for the trip he’s been wanting to go on pretty much his whole lifetime. He is going to Alaska with his dad, his brother, two brothers-in-law (Jake and Ben), and their two dads. So it will be three older men and four younger men. Hopefully they survive! (Hopefully I survive all this time alone with the kids!)

Anyways, getting back to the last week of school. After the last day of school, we left for Utah for Gabe’s soccer tournament. He had a game on Friday night and then two games on Saturday in Kaysville, Utah. We left for Utah at about 2:00 once the boys finished their last day and got down there in time to eat some dinner and head to the first game. Gabe’s coach had told us at the beginning of the season, “I’m not gonna lie. We are going to go down to these tournaments in Utah and just get our butts kicked.” So I was a little apprehensive going into this! He was just trying to tell us that some of these Utah teams are a lit more experienced than us. So anyways, they did lose the first game on Friday night. But then they won their second game on Saturday! Then they had a really close game for their third game and barely lost. But it was still an exciting tournament! Stacey came down and watched some of it and we were able to sneak off to Ikea for a little bit on Saturday in between games.

We stayed Friday and Saturday night at Chris and Holly’s house. The kids are obsessed with staying there now. They think it’s so fun because 1) they have a fun dog named Mojo (who is about ten years old) and they like to give him constant treats. 2) They have a massage chair that the boys like to sit in. 3) Chris has a fancy drone that they like to fly outside. And now 4) They have twin baby boys that are really cute and we all take turns holding. Their twins were born at the end of February so Josh got to see them when he was in Utah for his dog training with Drax, but this was the first time I got to meet them. They really are soooo cute. Their names are Indie and Easton. Here is a picture of me and Caleb holding them.

On Saturday night after Gabe’s game had ended, we went to this movie in the park thing that Chris had organized. We watched “The Sandlot” on the projector screen in the park with Chris and Holly and some of their friends. Then Sunday night we headed back to Rexburg.

Monday (Memorial Day) Josh took the kids up to Grandma and Grandpa Park’s house and had some fun with our new inflatable canoes on the river. Here are a few pictures of them hanging out with Grandma Park.

The excitement continued on Tuesday night when my mom arrived from Wisconsin for a visit! She flew into SLC but then took a shuttle bus to Rexburg. I picked her up from the AmericInn hotel at about 6:00pm and then we headed right over to Gabe’s soccer game (which was in Rexburg that night). So she got to see her first ever game of Gabe playing soccer! I honestly can’t remember if he even won or lost. I think it was maybe tied.  Afterward, we went to eat dinner at Freddy’s and then we came home and relaxed.

The next day, Josh had to work so my mom and I spent the day with the kids seeing the exciting sights of Rexburg. This included Soda Vine, Porter Park, the Teton Dam flood museum, Panda Express, and Gravity Factory. Then Josh got home and we went to Caleb’s pack night together at the BYUI gardens. At 7:00, I was happy to escape my children after a long day and my mom and I went to my friend, Amber’s baby shower dinner at the Red Rabbit. It was nice to get out and just have a fun dinner with a bunch of ladies! My mom and Amber’s mom were the only two women over 35 there. They seemed to hit it off well and chatted it up the whole time! Amber and I have gotten a lot closer in the past few months. So I’m very bummed that both her and my other friend, Lauren, are moving soon! L Plus Amber is having her baby any day now so she will probably be in hibernation mode. She says she doesn’t want to be in hibernation mode and she likes having company when she has a new baby, so hopefully it really does go like that! After that I will have to visit her in Arizona. Maybe in November would be good!

So anyways, then the next day was Thursday and my mom and I went shopping in Idaho Falls. A crazy storm came through suddenly when we were about to check out at Kohl’s and the power went out! So we put our stuff on hold and drove over to the Chick Fil A to eat lunch. But then as we were sitting in the parking lot of Chick Fil A, the pouring rain turned into hail and then the hail size kept growing! I was getting seriously worried about hail damaging my car. So I looked around for a tree to go park under but the few tiny trees already had cars hiding under them. So I eyed up the TJ Max store across the parking lot and looked at the awning that was over the door and decided I could probably drive up the sidewalk and squeeze my car under there. So that’s exactly what I did. My mom was saying “You’re not really going to drive up there are you?” Yup. Yup I did. My car was safe. The hail only got to about the size of marbles, so no real damage probably would’ve occurred, but I wasn’t taking any chances.  Here is a picture of my mom with the hail.

So after the skies cleared we ate at Chick Fil A and then went back to Kohl’s and got our stuff. Then we went to a couple other stores and headed back to Rexburg to celebrate Caleb’s birthday a little early with a BBQ. The skies were pretty scary driving back and there were even some tornado warnings. But I assured my mom that tornadoes in Idaho are not like tornadoes in Wisconsin. If we even have them (which is very rare) they won’t even touch down. It’s not like entire houses get picked up and destroyed.  So we had our BBQ (and it did rain and lightning, but we were inside the rest of the night) and made Caleb his rainbow chip cake. He got a big Lego set from my mom and a couple other little things. The next day was Friday and we mostly just hung out and I can’t remember if we did anything else too exciting. Oh I know! We went to dinner at Da Pineapple Grill and Caleb spilled his fruit punch all over my mom! That was memorable. Poor Grandma. Lol

The next morning was Saturday and my mom and I woke up early to drive her down to Salt Lake for her flight. My friend, Kamrie, who had been in Blackfoot for the week, asked if she could catch a ride back down there with us, so we picked her up on the way. The three of us had lots of conversations as we drove from Idaho to Utah. Then when we got to Salt Lake, we had lots of time to spare so we went to the Utah State Capitol building and walked around. Here are some pictures of us at the Capitol.

 Then we went to Zupas for lunch. After lunch we dropped my mom off at the airport and Kamrie and I headed on to Orem to her and Stacey’s house. I was pretty depressed about having to say goodbye to my mom. But then we went shopping at Plato’s Closet (a second hand store) and I scored two pairs of cute shoes and a shirt so that cheered me up somewhat. Then we ate dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and went to Cravings for cupcakes for dessert. It was a very fun weekend! Then I had to drive home by myself on Sunday morning so that park kind of stunk.

After that, I feel like the first real week of Summer Vacation started. Me, home alone, with my kids, for like 9 hours a day every day. TONS of neighbor kids coming in and out, in and out, day after day. My backyard is like the freaking neighborhood park I swear. We have a trampoline, a basketball hoop, a playhouse with a slide, a nice sitting area with benches and a table…. We have definitely brought this popularity on ourselves with our yard. Plus I make chocolate chip cookies and then with Gabe, Caleb, Noah, Kohl, Porter, Max, and Aiden (to name a few) they disappear in minutes. I do prefer to know where they are so I don’t mind them in our yard. But then when they start coming in and raiding my fridge that’s when I start to get cranky. Yogurts, string cheese, pretzels, chips, and more… I swear my wallet is feeling the hit this Summer. Plus it feels like my boys have all these activities that they want to do and it’s like $50 here… $100 there… Gabe is doing a junior lifeguard training camp in July, then Boy Scout camp for a week. Caleb has a one day camp for Cubs and then he also did a football camp. I asked Avery if she wanted to do a summer dance class and she said no. I didn’t even push the issue because I’m kind of happy with the break.

So anyways, I’ve tried to get the kids away from the house (and the neighborhood kids) a few times. We went to the historic Teton Dam site and walked around. It was interesting to see where there used to be tons of water and then it just all broke and flooded all the nearby towns. Now you are able to hike down into that valley and stand where the water used to cover it all. Here are a few pictures of that.

We took the kids to a couple of lakes, Egin Lake and then Rainbow/Wakeside lake. I would not recommend the second one. Caleb got a bunch of bites that swelled up huge then next day and I had to take him to the doctor. He’s been taking Prednisone (a steroid) for the past few days now to get it to settle down. So I don’t think we will be going back there any time soon. The lack of nice swimming lakes is one thing I really miss about Wisconsin in the summer.

Last but not least, we celebrated Caleb’s 10^th birthday by going to Fat Cats. He wanted to play this virtual reality game they have there but it was kind of pricey, so we said he could choose two friends. So he chose Benson and Max and then it was Gabe and Caleb and us. We let them do the game for 15 minutes each (two went at a time) and then we bowling after that.

 We had pizza while we were bowling and then we came back to our house for cake and opened presents. Caleb got a bow and arrow from us and a Lego set. Avery and Gabe picked out a laser tag game for him (that I paid for) which they had so much fun with that Gabe ended up going back to Walmart the next day and buying two more guns so that four people could play at a time. The only bummer is it’s more fun in the dark so you can actually see the lights on the arms when you hit someone. The neighbor kids have had some fun with that on these summer evenings.

So that is the Summer so far! Next week, like I said, Josh will be gone to Alaska. He will get home right before the 4^th of July. Then we head to Utah for the weekend of the 6^th to a cabin with Chris and Holly and some friends. Then we will have my birthday the following week and Avery’s 6^th birthday the week after that. I’m sure July will go pretty fast. Josh will be working the rotating day shift in July, which means he will have more days off during the week. So hopefully we can take some fun day trips to Yellowstone and swim in the Firehole, hike to Packsaddle Lake, and visit Wade Lake with the kayaks. Those are some of our goals for July and August!

That’s all to report for now! Here are a few more random pictures: