We went, then we came back.

Almost 2 weeks ago we embarked on our summer trip back to Idaho. We left at 1:15 am and got there in record time, it only took 8 hrs and 45 minutes. I did not have the GPS on so I'm not really sure exactly how fast Ben was going. . . The kids did pretty good on the drive and we saw TONS of deer (a lot of bucks that were close enough to our car that we could see that their antlers are still in the velvet), 2 Elk, a couple herds of antelope, a bunch of cats and a couple bunnies but thankfully nobody lost their lives on the drive. It was a really good trip aside from the tragedy of Ben's cousin losing their little boy but that made us so grateful for our eternal families and the plan of salvation and we were also glad that we were able to be there for that. We loved spending time with our families and the kids had a great time hanging out at Grandma Allen's for the fist couple days and swimming and playing on the play-set. We didn't know Emmerlyn would be such a pro at climbing up the ladder. The boys had a blast going golfing with Grandpa and Hyrum and then going to the zoo and they sure slept good at the end of the day! They also got to drive the tractors and William is still bragging about what a good job he did plowing!

It was so good to get to see Fletcher come home from his mission and be able to spend time with the Rydalch side of the family, I think that my boys are hooked on Chocolate and Strawberry milk forever now and they are going through withdrawals but it is all for a good cause. Then had lots of fun swimming at Green canyon and playing with their little cousin Makayla except for Emmerlyn who seemed to be on a mission to make Makayla's life miserable (sorry about the ninja kick in church :(. It was good to hear Fletcher's mission report and to hear Wilson's farewell talk. We will sure miss him. Because we pretty much see him all of once a year but for some reason his leaving on a mission so far away is really tugging at my heart today. Elder Rydalch is reporting to the MTC today and in 6 weeks he will be off to Argentina he will do a great job and he is a hard worker so I think it will be good for him but I will sure miss him. 

We had a little stow-away in our car that we collected when we were leaving the Rydalch house on Sunday afternoon so we have Allyn here for the week and we are having lots of fun with her and by that I mean we are taking naps everyday because we are so tired. The first day we were tired because we didn't get home until midnight and the second day I was so tired because Emmerlyn woke up ever 45 minutes all night. We got some good sleep last night so we will have to see how today goes. . .  We are working on some projects and playing. 

Yesterday we took the kids at went to the Fort Peck Interpretive Center/Museum and the kids had a lot of fun looking at the big fish in the aquariums and the salamaders and toads in their cages. They also got to look at dinosaur bones, build a dam with bean bags, and dig for fossils in gravel. it was lots of fun we should probably go back someday.

 Through the Idaho smog (what is that :) J/K it is just hazy from a fire) can you see the Tetons? I was super excited when I saw these, I have missed the mountains since I moved away to Montana.

 We went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center in West Yellowstone with Grandma and Grandpa Allen. I have to say it was pretty cool. I think I liked it better than the zoo and definitely better than like bear world. All these years so close by and I had never been there. It was pretty cool and the kids had fun.

 We thought we would end the night with a few yummy smores

 Silly girl trying to hide from me.

 We also had some family pictures taken which were stressful to say the least but we did get some good ones.

 The kids had lots of fun gathering up weeds

  This cute little girl LOVES her daddy. She pretty much wants him over anyone or anything else in the world. Lucky for her her Daddy loves her back just as much

We had SO much fun back home visiting and relaxing and the drive back wasn't too bad. It is nice to be 

home sleeping in our own beds!

Stay Tuned. . .

Update will be coming tomorrow. . . 

A Little Distracted

Basically I am just getting a little excited to head out of town on Friday. In my usual style I am bumping up our departure time steadily as the time gets closer just because I am so excited to go. I love leaving in the middle of the night because Ben and I get like 5-6 uninterrupted hours to just spend together and since we have 3 kids the only other time we get this is when we are asleep and that is only if we are really lucky :). This last week has been pretty busy but I can't really say we were up to doing more than the usually. We did go to the park to play with some friends and they had a blast! Swimming lessons has been cancelled for the past 2 days much to the boys dismay because of morning thunderstorms but we had some friends over today so they got over it pretty quick. William had his last T-ball game last night and he did great! Charley was the bat boy and got a free hot dog and some pop, you can imagine his delight that lasted WELL into the evening. 

For science day last week we made volcanos

 Then they each painted theirs

 I think this was Charley's favorite part of the whole thing. He probably spent an hour painting his and getting it just the right shade of dirt.

 Then we did vinegar and baking soda and let them erupt. The kids loved it especially William. I think it was fun and it gave them something to do the WHOLE day.

This little dude took snack time into his own hands and got William and Emmerlyn involved too. Oh well at least it was well rounded, sort-of.

 William wanted me to take a picture of his pizza that he was putting together so you could see the design of this pepperonis. Crazy kid!

Happy 4th of July

This last week seemed REALLY LONG. I think it felt like a Tuesday or something every single day. But we did have a good 4th of July. We went to our ward party and the kids played games, had yummy food watched the fireworks (which were better than last year they were at least consecutive) and got eaten alive by bugs even with bug-spray on.

Emmerlyn grew out of her only pair of shoes and then they broke so we went to Shopko to find some but of course they didn't have any so we dug deep and found something she liked.

 Then we dolled 'em up a bit. (don't judge the troll hair. She had a rough day.

 Emmerlyn got bit all around her eyes (where we didn't put bug-spray because we didn't want her to be blind.) She also got a bit on the top of her foot and the next day her foot was like twice the size of the other one and purple and hot to the touch and she hadn't even scratched it. So we gave her some Zyrtec and put some hydrocortisone cream on it and after a couple of days it is getting closer to normal. Poor girl she reacts pretty bad to mosquitoes.

 We had pizza for dinner and Ben was in charge of the pepperonis. Needless to say that those of us that wanted pepperoni had it in EVERY bite!

 The kids and I made 4th of July donuts. They loved them and had fun making them. 

 She fell asleep with some chocolate. . . 

 We brought these to the potluck on the 4th. The kids loved them cuz they were quick finger food.

 4th of July hair. She was pretty proud of it.

 Ready for the party. They are wearing their shirts from last year.I wasn't planning for them to wear them again because they are a little raggedy but they were super excited in the morning to put them on so whatever I guess. I will have to make new ones next year. When we got to the party William was playing with his friend who also had on a flag shirt and noticed that his flag had all 13 strips so he came out and said "mom, can't you do anything right? This flag doesn't have enough strips!" My bad I could not proportionally put 13 strips on that T-shirt using felt strips so we have to take what we can get. Maybe next year we will by them.

 So tired.

 They are getting ready to go fishing with Ben, who caught his first fish since we moved here and he was pretty proud. Emmerlyn and I didn't go we stayed home and did fun stuff like go grocery shopping and dishes.

 William wanted to hang his glasses on his shirt so he could be like his uncle Shane Mitchell :).

 Little low-rider. I think if your backside is as cute as her this is totally acceptable. J/K but she sure didn't care if I didn't pull-em up she would have walked around for hours like this.

William had his last T-ball game last night but it got canceled so we are done with that which is a nice thought. The boys also finished their first round of swimming lessons but we are doing another session. Last week when Charley was climbing up the ladder to jump of the diving board he slipped and fell off the ladder back onto the concrete. I tell you what I think my little heart stopped. I am glad that I was nearby and was able to grab Emmerlyn and get over to him. He tried to catch himself so his head just barely scrapped the ground and he got some bruises on his legs and it scared him pretty good but over all he recovered pretty well. He still goes off the diving board but he won't do it without help now and I am OK with that. I hate it when my kids get hurt. I so want to put them in a bubble and protect them forever. But, since I can't do that I am working on being tough and trying to get my kids to be tough too. We will see. . . .

William Says

William was up at 5:45 sitting on the edge of his bed with his hand over his heart singing the Star Spangled Banner at the top of his lungs. If anybody loves their country and the 4th of July it is him.

*in his primary class on Sunday he was talking to his friend saying I just love the United States!"

Getting Back to Normal

We are settling back in after me being gone to girls camp and then it took most of last week to rediscover my house. But we found it and are moving on. Ben has been super busy at work and sometimes it feels like we are back in Tax Season but no, just trying to get the audits finished up so they can be ready to go out this fall and do them again. We are excited to be getting some time at the end of July to get away as a family. 

 Look I crafted! This is what the girls made at girls camp for one of their projects and I finally got a chance to do mine. It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself even after a few close calls.

 This little girl got eaten alive while I was gone and now she won't stop picking at them. We tried putting bandaids on them but eventually she started pulling off the bandaids so now she is wearing pants ALL OF THE TIME even though it is 90* outside because that is the only way she won't pick at them. We are still having issues with the ones on her arms but I am not sure what to do there because I don't want to cook her.

She came out a couple days ago like this and said "I READY!" 

 I am not sure where she thinks she is going dressed like that but it gave us a good giggle. Funny lady.

 These two have been busy eating goldfish crackers by the pound and loving swimming lessons and baseball. William is actually starting to swim which is a nice feeling especially because last we he got to go to a swimming birthday party. Charley is still playing and his teach made him go under the water today and when he came up he was madder than a hornet. We will see how he does tomorrow. . .