Monday, June 15, 2009

PoPcOrN Explosions, Summer Fun-Camping

This summer has already been so much fun for the family. In spite of the rain, we have succesfully pulled off two camping trips both with loads of fun. Our first week out of school, we met Mom and Dad Heuseveldt at Colter Bay Campground in Grand Teton National Park for a couple of nights. The boys were able to go fishing on Jackson Lake in Dad's boat. Were they successful?? OH YEAH BABY! Brennen caught the biggest fish of all. One within the first fifteen minutes of being on the lake. He then caught another one a little later. Shane caught two as well. Dad drove the boat so the boys could have some fun fishing. I need to add that night we wrapped and cooked Brennen's fillet fish in tin foil on the grill with butter and added lemon juice. This was the BEST fish I have ever tasted. Way to go B! While the men fished, mom, Taylor, Parker and I drove into Jackson Hole. We went to Snow King Resort where the Alpine Slide is. Just a warning to any of you wanting to try this out, DON'T DO IT, IT IS EXPENSIVE! Tay, Parker and I went down twice, while Mom went down once. We rode up on a chair lift and got in a little sled that has a brake on it. Parker was able to ride with me. Tay and mom drove themselves!!! Tay was nervous at first, but she learned really fast how to accelerate the sled. She totally had me beat the second time down. It was a ton of fun. We also went down to the lake later that day. Dad and Shane taught the kids how to skip rocks. Later that night, we were cooking popcorn on the stove in the camper. It's the kind that has a big foil that pops up as you cook it on the stove. All was going well and the kids were loving watching the popcorn push up that foil. At the very end, there was a loud noise and popcorn showered everywhere. YES, WE HAD A POPCORN EXPLOSION!!! I didn't get any pictures, I was too busy turning off the burner and picking up the popcorn. The kids loved this! We had a blast with mom and dad and stayed warm inside the "Taj-Mahal". Camping now has a new meaning for me. I don't know if I can go back to tent camping-"OH YES I WILL "says Shane!!! Ok, I guess I need to rough it a little again. Thanks to mom and Dad for their generosity with their toys, we were able to come back for the weekend with Rob and Rachael and their boys for another night. It did rain quite a bit, (we left before the snow flew!) but the kids were still able to get out and play catch with, football, and baseballs. Rob cooked us his famous dutch oven chicken and potatoes in the rain of course (refer to pic!). It was yummy. We had a gray fox come come right into our campground. He wasn't scared of us at all. That made me a little nervous. I took pictures of it,but they are all blurry. He jumped every time my flash went off and my dumb camera has a little delay causing the blur. We love summer time, we love camping, but most of all, we love spending time with family. Here's a million pictures of our camping adventures! They are a little out of order-as long as they are all there right?
Check out Brennen's cooked fish! Fun eating.
You catch it, you fillet it, you enjoy the smell!
The moose swimming by the boat. He was a good swimmer-not a problem paddling!
Ah, the life!
Do you think he could be more excited???
One of Shane's fish. What a hunk!
IT'S NOT CAMPING UNLESS YOU HAVE CAUGHT A FEW MARSHMALLOWS ON FIRE!

Dutch Oven Cooking in the RAIN! It's all good!
Yummy says Parker!
right before our PoPcOrN eXpLoSiOn!!
When we camp, we eat good!
Say Cheese!
Mom and B fighting over the last bite of his fish
Down by Jackson Lake
Kids skipping rocks with Shane and Dad

Still in Love after how many years?? I love my parents and the great examples that they are to Shane and me.





Brennen hanging out with Grandpa
THE ALPINE SLIDE AT SNOW KING RESORT IN JACKSON HOLE
Waiting to get on the chair lift-can you say cheesy???
Granny coming down like a wild woman!
Parker and Me racing Tay

Tay on the chairlift

Saturday, May 30, 2009

The Rest of May

For Memorial Day, we were in St. Anthony visiting Shane's family. We went to a graveside service for Shane's Uncle who passed away earlier this year. We also visited Shane's dad's grave.
We just finished our last week of school for the kids and Shane. We are so excited to have some fun family time. It has been a busy, tough year for all of us with the move, new job, and making new friends. Shane put hours in learning new curriculum, grading papers, learning new technology, etc, etc. A fourteen hour day was not uncommon for him. Luckily, he was able to bring most of that work home to do. He never took a day off of work aside from the scheduled days off for holidays. Summer is a welcome break after the grueling year for this teacher!! On Shane's last day of school, we took off to Lava Hot Springs and swam. Yes, I did try out one of the speed slides, only to get off to the sound of my eight year old son laughing at me for screaming the whole way down!! We all enjoyed the new slides there. These kids are die hards when it comes to swimming. They are so brave and love to learn new swimming techniques. The Hall family (Shane works with both Tom and Shirley) went along with us. We drove to Pocatello after swimming and ate at the Mandarin House. We then went to see Night At The Museum-Battle of the Smithsonian. It was a late night, but a great start to our summer vacation! May has been an eventful month full of fun, exciting, and exhausting activities.

Shane's dad's grave
Last Day of School for the kids-We had a water fight along with the sprinkler under the tramp. Our cousins, the Heuseveldt boys, came over to celebrate with us.


Lava Hot Springs-This is Parker after swimming, he was cold and wanted to be under the blanket.

Taylor going down the little slide.
Shane and B learning how to swim
B wanted me to take a picture of him under the water-so here it is!
Tay hanging on to the side
Our little swimmers!
Our kids with the Hall kids hanging on a funny little statue at the Mandarin House

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

May-One Of The Busiest Months of the Year!

I think I say this about every month of the year, but seriously, May is so busy! It started out with Taylor's birthday party, baseball for B, softball for Tay, I ran in the local Medical Center fun run (placing third in my age division-three miles in 29 minutes-not bad for a chunky old woman!) We went to my nephew's birthday party at the Jackson Hole Rec Center-swimming a couple of Saturdays ago. I'm in the middle of spring cleaning and dejunking-the garbage can is full and garbage day isn't until Friday-AAAhhh! I went with Taylor to her achievement day. They learned about family history. A tid bit of info here, Tay's fifth great grandpa is the Martin Harris-witness of the Book Of Mormon. Check out the wallet in the Church History Museum in SLC-Shane, his mom representing Shane's deceased dad, and his grandpa submitted it along with Dallin H. Oaks (quorum of the twelve) another relative of Martin Harris. May brought nice weather allowing us to play outside, have cousins come play, and our kids were able to go play at their cousin's house too. We have mowed the lawn twice now and have a ton of weeds growing in the flower gardens! May is also the month for field trips, end of the year tests, and grade time for Shane. Summer is on the horizon hooray! May is still not over yet; however, I love this time of year busy as it "MAY" be no pun intended!!!

Here's a bunch of pictures of our month so far!

Brennen's Field Trip to Tauphus Park Zoo and Playland
He always has to take goofy pictures of himself



On top of the ferris wheel-how did he talk me into going on it with him???
Fun on the Octopus
Medical Center Fun Run-I'm in the middle in a white shirt
Coming in to the finish-I'm the one in the front
Finishing
My cheering section! B is taking the picture-I think I'm ready to pass out here.

After the kids left for school today, Parker grabbed his backpack and said "by mom, I'm going to school!" He wants to be big poor kid, he still has three years before Kindergarten.
I helped him pretend he was going to school. He went outside and came in the "school" door. He took off his backpack and came into the table to do some "school work".
"School Work" Coloring Spiderman!
Parker wanted Tay's goggles on. I couldn't get him to take them off. This is what he looked like for most of the day.
Jumping on our tramp with cousins
Tay's family party-just so you all know, Taylor does have nice new jeans without holes in the knees. I don't know why she put these ones on for her party! Oh well, self expression I guess.
Tay's friend party-The balloon game-tie a balloon around everyone's ankle. Then try to stomp on eachother's. The person with the last balloon unpopped wins the prize. So much fun to do and watch!
Tay's party jumping
Pizza Hut pizza and cupcakes for food