Starting up again =)

Well, I have 9 months to catch up on. Wow, and yikes! So this will be a long one, even with me just doing a few highlights. But I thought I'd better do this for sure before the next babe comes (in less than two weeks!) while I actually have a chance. :)

Parker turned four, all the way back in January. But thought I'd mention it. :) I made him a Wall-E cake and we had a party for him.

Ben was gone doing an internship in Utah (south of SLC) for 8 weeks from mid Jan til mid March. He took our one car which made it tricky for me, but luckily we had tons of helpful neighbors and family who totally helped out when needed.

Ben had a couple of weeks after his internship before the beginning of the next semester, so we took advantage. We decided to drive down to Tucson, Arizona to visit my twin sister and her family. It was a WAYYYY long drive (20 hours, cut up in two days), but so worth it to spend two weeks with my sis and her family! Parker & Maddie had such a good time with her three kids. Here's some pics from that.

Lincoln, Sydney, Maddie, Jess, & Clark

Trip to the Tucson zoo: Ben, Parker, Lincoln, Maddie, Jess, & Sydney

My twin and I :)

Ben and I up on Mt. Lemmon

My handsome man ;-)

Dress up time! Lincoln, Parker, Sydney, & Maddie

This was actually a trip to Chuck E. Cheese's. Jess, Sydney, Parker, Lincoln, Clark, Maddie, and me

We were at her house during Easter, so the kids got to decorate Easter eggs together.

Then they got to go Easter Egg hunting. Here's them with their loot. :)


Maddie in her Easter dress

Jessica's hubby, Renn, is in the Air Force and they live on base. So we got to go see some of the airplanes there. Here's Maddie, Parker, & Sydney by one of them

We took the kids "hiking" up on Mt. Lemmon, and they had a blast! We explored this old work camp from back in WWII time. It was pretty neat. Here's Maddie, Ben, Renn, Lincoln, Sydney, Clark, Jessica, & Parker

On the hike: Jess, Clark, Parker, Maddie, Ben, & Syd

Syd, Lincoln, Parker, Maddie, & Ben on the hike

Syd, Ben, & Maddie

Our fam on the hike when we stopped for a picnic lunch

All the kids: Maddie (2), Clark (1 1/2), Sydney (6), Lincoln (2 1/2), & Parker (4)

My little man :)

Jessica's fam: Jess, Clark, Sydney, Lincoln, & Renn

Then in May by best friend Meghan and her son Riley came out from Pittsburgh to visit us here in Idaho. We had such a good time taking them around to Mesa Falls and Yellowstone, and some of the other local sites.

Meghan & Riley at Mesa Falls

Me and the kids at Mesa Falls

Warm River

Like I said, we took Meghan & Riley to Yellowstone National Park (we went two dif days actually). We went at the perfect time of year (spring) because all the babies were out and all the animals were coming back out to forage and eat. We saw SOOO many bison, elk, deer, and even three black bears. It was actually Ben's first time to Yellowstone too, and it was awesome!

by some bison

One of the many waterfalls in Yellowstone

Feeding the chipmunks. They would come right up and eat from our hands, and the kids absolutely loved it.

Look at geysers

Meghan with the kids

Us mommies with the babes

One of the three black bears that we saw. This one came right up to the road and walked right through the center of where everyone was standing (we all made way of course!). It was like we weren't even there to him. It was awesome!

The summer has come (and almost gone by!) and we had so much fun and did so many things. I'm going to do another post on summer later, but I'll put up some picture from one of our Rigby Lake outtings. The kids love going to "the beach" to play and make sand castles. It's especially fun when Ben's there because he helps them make really cool castles and dams. :)







Well that's all for now, but I'll put up another post in a few days (hopefully!). Does anyone check this anymore anyway?