Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Island Park 2010

Remember last year's trip to Island Park?

Well dangit, it was so much fun I decided we needed to do it again!

Early in the year I emailed my immediate family and my cousin's families and asked them if they'd be interested in another trip. As luck would have it, enough people were interested that it made the trip quite affordable. Fast forward to June 24th and we had our "2nd annual I.P. trip"! (Isn't there a Simpsons reference to "I.P."? Something about I. P. freely? ha ha ha!)

Anyway, like I was sayin'...

We had a blast!

First thing we did was get in the canoes and row around the reservoir. I use the term "we" loosely. I didn't canoe until the next day. :)


Sam is taking advantage of Carson's ever-improving canoe skills.


The best part about not having small children....you get to completely relax and not have to constantly wonder what your rascals are doing!


This little man was super happy, almost the whole time. If you know Cameron, you will know that a small miracle has taken place!


The water was FREEZING but that didn't stop my kids from playing in it. Crazy nut jobs. Carson's face is priceless here. He is either freaking out about the temperature or he is "relieving" himself. I pretty much don't really want to know the real answer so...moving on.


OH man, Parker splashed Cameron and this is the look Parker received in return. It was so funny! Talk about stink eye! He glared at Parker like this for a good 30 seconds! It reminds me of a teacher or an authoritative figure who has told you a thousand times to be quiet....and then you still talk. This is the look you get. Don't ask me how I know that...


Life is good! I'm already dreaming of going back next year!


The second day we decided to head to Yellowstone. Here we are at Firehole Falls. We had a bunch of boys with us (shocker). The amount of effort it takes to get a good picture is unreal.


But it's worth it....even if everyone isn't smiling. At least they aren't picking their noses!


This picture just screams "Yellowstone" to me. You got the fallen trees, the boardwalks, the steam, the tourists....it's so fun!


This was Prismatic Springs. I think that's what it was called...anyway, it was purdy. Real purdy.







Tatonka. They were everywhere.
You know what's awesome? I just googled Tatonka and "Urban Dictionary" had this definition: tatonka - Native American for Buffalo. In contemporary American society, word more commonly used to describe a really fat chick.
Do you think "chick" means a person or a baby chicken? I am praying noboby has ever referred to me as a "tatonka". My self esteem would crumble I think!

So after Prismatic Springs we were starving. We went down the road to an established picnic area with picnic tables. As we pulled in we noticed two big ol' buffalo just hanging out with the tourists. Awesome.

I showed my photographer brother this picture and said "look at this picture I took! Just go ahead and tell me how awesome I did!" He said "If the buffalo tail wasn't touching the tree on the left it would be better." Whatebs dude, my glass is half full! :)


As we were driving back to the cabin we saw a huge herd of tatonka! Then we took our eyes away from the tourists and saw a huge herd of buffalo! I'll be here all week!

This picture makes me giggle and point. Once an immature kid, always an immature kid. This is why I make a good mother of boys.


Have I mentioned there were lots of buffalo? Oh yeah, I think I did. We also saw a coyote, that was a first for me. No pictures though because I was gawking.


Hey Darren, don't let the buffalo tail touch the tree in your photo! ha ha!


Here we are at Big Springs feeding the fish. You can't tell by this picture, but we are literally being eaten alive by about 999,999 mosquitos! It was the craziest experience! When we got back in the van to go back to the cabin, we had about 182 mosquitos trapped in the vehicle. Not pleasant at all. The kids got real good and slapping and killing the pests! Carson was smart and didn't come with us. He stayed in the reservoir and played. He's hard core like that.


I didn't get many pictures of all my family and cousins hanging out at the cabin, dangit! But it was so nice! Nalani had a 5 week old baby so we all took turns lovin' on her!


Best picture ever! Check out Parker's shadow... for some reason I have a sudden desire to watch Pinnochio.


Sadly, this vacation had a really bizarre ending...The last night we were there Sam and a few of my cousins started feeling sick. They all went to bed early. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of Sam worshipping the porcelain God. Man was he sick. By morning I wasn't feeling too hot. I went upstairs to the fridge to get Cameron a drink. The smell of the food was all it took for my insides to rebel against my gag reflex. I horked. That started a chain reaction in my bodily functions and before I knew it, I was sick as a rabid dog. Most of my family got the same illness. My parents, my brother and his wife, and one cousin were the only ones unaffected out of the adults. The rest of us were moaning and writhing in pain all over the cabin. Flu? Food poisoning? Who knows? All I know is that the drive home on Sunday was the longest drive of my life! I never thought we'd arrive home in one piece. It was bad...real bad. A huge thanks to all the healthy ones who cleaned out the cabin before we left. I can not thank you enough! Every time I stood up to help I thought I was going to die. It was super awesome. I knew that eventually I would laugh about it, but I'm not quite ready to do that. Too soon. Ask me again next year.

So, who is with me for another reunion next year? It's totally worth the effort, I promise! Start saving your pennies now! :)

By the way, Happy Anniversary to my parents today. 42 years of marriage and they still love each other! Precious!!

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Father's Day Weekend

What a crazy whirlwind of a weekend. It was completely crazy but I loved every minute of it! We celebrated Fathers Day and Parker's sixth birthday.

Before I go into the haps (lingo for 'happenings'), I have to tell you about my conversation with my kids tonight:
Parker: How do you spell 'six'?
Carrie: S....
Parker: E....
Carrie: I!
Parker: X
Carrie: Did you think 'six' was spelled S-E-X?
Carson: S-E-X spells 'sex' and that's bad!
Carrie: How do you know what sex means?
Carson: I dunno, it's bad! It's what gansta's do!!

At this point I couldn't carry on the conversation because I got the giggles so bad I had tears running down my nose and dripping off my chin. It's a dang good thing Sam was driving and it's a dang good thing it was dark outside and Carson couldn't see me lose control like that! At some point I'm going to have to set Carson straight on the whole sex thing but for now I think I'll just enjoy his definition of it! Classic!

Back to the weekend...
On Friday night Sam and 5 other guys from my neighborhood decided to go camping....and take all the kids.....and let their wives have a night off. I'm not exactly sure who had this genius idea, but I think he should be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Fur reals. It was just what I needed!

I was a little nervous regarding Cameron because he's only 2 but Sam said he did great and slept better than anyone in the tent!
Look at all those kids! This isn't even all of them either!!


The key to Cameron's happiness really is the great outdoors.


Friday night I ran about a bazillion errands to get things ready for Father's Day and Parker's birthday. It was nice to not have 3 kids encroaching upon my personal space. I felt so accomplished!

The guys got home around 2pm on Saturday. They had a blast and they smelled....real bad. After a quick sprucing up, we went to Jumping Jack's for Parker's birthday. He's been talking about going there for a few months so we obliged. My friend Mindy came and hung out with us as well. However, that place has really gone downhill! I'm pretty sure we will not be going there again. Parker didn't seem to mind, he had a great time!



Today is Parker's birthday and it's Fathers Day. Parker was born on Father's day so it was kind of fun celebrating it today. A few years ago we went up a canyon and had tin foil dinners for Father's Day. We decided to do the same thing this year. We took a picnic and had a great time!













Parker said today was his best birthday ever and Sam loved his Father's Day. Phew, my work here is done!

After we left the canyon, we hung out with Sam's mom and then went to say "hi" to Fern and came home at 11pm. The biggest shocker of all???? Cameron did not have any meltdowns during any of it! He went to bed at 11pm with a huge grin on his face. Man, there is happy gas in the fresh air of the mountains. I need to go again very soon!!

Monday, June 14, 2010

Stuff From The Past Week

Not a lot to say, except SCHOOL IS OUT FOR THE SUMMER! YAAAAYYYYYY!

I'm very happy to chill at home with the kids. No more homework and no more running to school every day. It's a nice change. We have year round school, so in a short 6 weeks I'll be ready for school to start again.

However, in six weeks Parker will be in 1st grade. This is a beautiful thing because it means I'm done with Kindergarten for awhile. It's really hard to stop your day half way through so you can be at the school at 11:18am to pick up a kindergartener. Friday is even worse....drop kids off at 8:30am, pick up the kindergartener at 10:30am. Did I meantion how happy I am? Cameron is only 2 so I won't have to worry about him in Kindergarten for another 3 years! SWEET!

Carson and Parker both earned their Distinghished Cub award. To get this award there is a big ol' list of stuff that you have to do during the year...most of the items on the list are in addition to the regular curriculum. I didn't want my kids to feel left out so we busted our rears to get everthing done in time. It was well worth the effort. Parker wore that medal all day and I had to hide it from him at night so he didn't sleep while wearing it!



Carson did a biography on himself in class this year. It was so cute!
He captured my hair (he always does!) and it looks like Sam just got his wisdom teeth pulled on the right side:


Here is Carson's 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Atzet. This picture is the BEST because this is EXACTLY what she looks like! Even that cartoon-ish smile, it looks just like her. I laugh every time I see it!


This thing is pretty cool. It's Carson's name, in cursive, with a mirror image of his cursive name. Then he made it into a monster called Dr. Cockbrainyack. NICE!


Both kids had good report cards, which is a sigh of relief. Seriously, every time I talked to Carson's teacher she always said the samething: "Carson is smart but he never stops day dreaming....I hope he marries somebody who can bring him back to reality...I hope he gets a job where he is his own boss and he doesn't have deadlines!...." Sheesh!

In other news...
We've been having a cooler-than-normal spring and I love it! My flowers love it too. My roses have never looked this good!




Our home improvements are still happening too. Sam installed shelves in the storage area of the mudroom. Now we just need to have cupboard doors manufactured, the bench completed, and crown and base boards nailed on. We are so close! I'm loving the results. Anybody is welcome to come check it out at any time. If you give me advance warning I'll whip up some goodies for you to eat while you are here. :)

Sunday, June 06, 2010

Bu-Bye Blue

Boy I tell you what, saying good-bye to my blue carpet was like finally being able to pop a big ol' zit! Don't act like you don't understand what I'm saying! Just keeping it real!

The day we bought this house I said to Sam "That blue carpet will be the first thing to go!" 8+ years later I finally got rid of it!

In the past 3 days we have moved every single thing from our main floor into another room. It seriously feels like we just moved into this house. Lots of LATE nights, total exhaustion, but yet I couldn't be happier with how things have turned out!

Carpet removal:



I think the late nights have made Sam a bit loopy. I just found these pictures on the memory card. I bet these pictures were taken around 1am.



Saturday morning the carpet installer arrived right at 8am. The timing was great because our friends, Nathan and Ambyr, wanted to use our yard for a yard sale. We hung out all morning in the front yard with them, while the installer took control of our house. Carson sold Gatorade for $.75 a bottle and at the end of the day he made $20! He was an awesome salesman. Every person who slowed down as they were driving, he would start enticing them over for a nice, cool beverage.



As soon as the yard sale ended, the carpet guy left. Perfect timing! We enjoyed the new carpet for about 4.5 minutes, and then we started moving back in. So exhausting!


I seriously love, love, love all the new flooring!


I should clarify my railing issue that some people commented on in my last post. We do have a railing so that ledge will be safe. It's just on the list of things to do. :)

Tonight we sat on the front steps and watched an awesome lightning/thunder storm. The three blue eyed musketeers loved it!


My kids are out of school after this coming week. I'm pretty dang excited about it. The best part? No more Kindergarten-half-day-schedule lameness. Very liberating! I'm wiped out. G-night.