On the road again

Last week, Addie and Karl Richards were competing in the state Hershey track meet held in Rexburg. Em was taking them by herself, so, on the spur of the moment, Hannah and I decided to go with them. It was a quick trip. We left on Friday and came back the next day. It was a lot of driving, but a lot of fun too! We managed to squeeze quite a bit into those 24 hours. :)

Poor, poor Karl. Stuck in the car with four ladies :)

These two beauties are so amazing. The best 11 year olds in the whole, wide world :)

Gotta love Karl Richards (and his mama)

Silly girls in the hotel room after swimming

Karl tries his best to shut them out

Getting ready for the big race!

It was EXTREMELY sunny where we were sitting. Hannah decided to watch Netflix on my phone and needed her jacket to block out the sun :)

Addie looks a bit nervous before her race (but at least she wasn't doing a potty dance like the girl next to her, hehe). Addie did great. She placed 3rd overall and Karl did well too. :)

After the race, we took a quick tour of BYU-Idaho. We were definitely not within the proper dress-code standards (there were big reminders all over the place). No shorts, capris, flip flops, etc.

Hannah, as a piece of art

We stopped to visit every temple on the way, but in Idaho Falls, they also had a nice visitor's center.

They had a beautiful display commemorating the handcart pioneers

In Pocatello, we took a quick detour by our old stomping grounds before stopping for lunch

We warned the kids before driving by that we lived in a ginormous mansion and that we didn't want them to feel bad that they don't get to live in a house as fancy as we did when we were their age, hehe. When they saw the house, their mouths dropped open in surprise, lol. Not quite the mansion they expected. :)

They wanted a picture by the fountain in Boise. This is where my sweetheart proposed to me over 15 years ago...this very fountain!

Families can be together forever

While on a recent quick trip with Hannah, Addie and Karl, Emily and I decided to stop and take a picture at every Idaho temple! It was fun to see four temples on a five hour drive. Pretty amazing. Can you guess which temple is which?

Answers are below...



































1--Boise
2--Twin Falls
3--Idaho Falls
4--Rexburg

Independence Day 2011

Happy 235 to America! You don't look a day over 200. :) We had a fun time celebrating the big day. We woke up early and crashed the pancake breakfast my parents' church puts on each year (even though my parents weren't there, hehe). Donnetta and Katie (with cutie Jakey!!) came as well. We hesitated about going, since we'd have to get up early, but Lizzie said she would "DIE" if we didn't go. We definitely didn't want any dying on the 4th, so we decided we'd better make sure we were there. They had the breakfast, a bike parade, and even a fire truck! It was very exciting.

After breakfast, we headed over to Nana's house to spend the day. The kids "swam" and we tried to watch Independence Day (but the movie seemed to be lost). Jake and Katie came over and we had a fun day chatting with them. By evening, Joe and Donnetta showed up as well, and we had a BBQ and did fireworks. All in all, a pretty nice day.

Okay...I've got a disclaimer here. Some of these pictures are in random order. Blogger has changed the way they do their picture upload and it confuses slow minds like my own. :)

Don't tell Joe, but I think I'm in love with a different man! This is my nephew Jake Burton. So adorable (even if he is ready to pummel me with rocks. :))

The gang

My own cute little man

My Emma Sue

Bekah LOVED the firetruck. I was so glad that Donnetta was there to help me keep track of my kids, lol. They were all over the place, and my crazy anxiety makes me worry about where they've gotten off to.

Cabers is one hot fireman!

Emma was amazed that the tire was almost as big as she is!

We weren't going to bring our bikes--we didn't have a truck or anything to bring them with, but she insisted that she would never make it and the holiday would be ruined without it. So...here she is, with her bike! We brought five scooters as well, lol. No more bikes would fit.

Imagine my kids surprise when they ran across my friend Heidi's kids! They were great friends in Utah, so seeing them here was super fun. They were in town visiting their grandparents for the holiday. :) This is Heidi's oldest son, Luke.

Ammon was a tad grumpy. I think that waking up early, doing a firetruck and a bike parade isn't quite as fun when you're a teenager. :)

Lovely ladies! Donnetta and Bekah at breakfast

Jakey LOVED (and hated) swimming. He couldn't quite make up his mind.

The water was quite cloudy, lol. It didn't seem to bother the kids

Oh yes. I forgot to mention that we were "swimming" in the hot tub since the pool is still out of commission. LOL

Jakey Jr. and Jakey Sr.

Lizzie dives for treasure

Fireworks time...Ammon and Uncle Jake

Bekah got burned by her sparkler :(

It was all very exciting

Getting burned didn't stop her for long. Uncle Joe supervises. :)

All better!

Totally random, out of order shot. The hot tub was quite full

Katie and Joe were the sparkler-giver-outers

A beautiful sunset in the background...and a picture of my Hanny (I seem to not have many of her on the 4th. Not sure why. Love you Hannah Bay!)

Zoo-licious day!

I think I've been to the zoo about a billion times. The funny thing is...I don't really remember going much at all as a kid. Just one time that sticks in my brain. My kids have made up for that lack of zoo time, however. We go at least once a year, often twice. It was fun to go here in Boise again. It had changed a lot from the last time we were here--and my kids have changed a lot as well! We had an AMAZING time at the zoo! It was a first for us-the first time we went to the zoo without a stroller. Since Joe is still at home, he was able to go with us. That was wonderously fun for the kiddos. In the summer, we always do a lot of fun field trips, but Joe usually doesn't go on them. In fact, as we were going in, the kids asked him if he couldn't just PLEASE stay home as their stay-at-home dad. I think it made him happy that they actually do want him around. :) Anyway, the zoo was so great. We were there for a really long time, like 3 1/2 hours or something. We didn't have too much complaining and the kids were fabulous. They took time to look through each exhibit and the adults were able to enjoy it as well for once (in the past, the kids zoomed from exhibit to exhibit so fast that we never really had time to even see things). We are excited for when we get to go visit the Oregon coast this summer. I think that we are going to have an epic time. :)

I love these two! I think that they are starting to look more alike. Maybe Lizzie's hair is just getting darker. They are both beautiful girls!

I've also started to notice that Emma and Bekah look very similar. Probably their hair color as well. The older Bekah gets, the more often I accidentally think she is Emma!

I love my little man!

Here he is petting a goat--and looking so delighted about it, I might add :)

Here is most of the gang, check out some animals

A favorite of everyone--the giraffe slide

My wonderful, fabulous Hannah Bay

The giraffe came up really close to us. It was a highlight of the day :)

It was hot enough that the lions and tigers were all lazily resting in the shade.

Hannah was disgruntled that Ammon was too mature to get in the nest with the rest of my baby birds :)

The Boyer LADIES!! Woot!

The hunky Boyer men!

Each of the kids picked their favorite penguin to stand by

We were amazed that the Emperor penguin is the same size as Emma--I always pictured them smaller for some reason

We loved watching the penguins swim, and it got me really excited to visit the coast!