We survived!!!

And we're alive today. I'm talking about the car drive home from Utah. We were there for the week (the girls had a BYE with their meet). Actually it was Cory's turn to do man work up at the farm with his folks. He was craving the fresh air and hard work so we decided to drive out to Utah where he could meet his parents. Then the 3 of them left for Hermiston while I stayed with the kids at my folks' house. Cory had a great time- even bought himeself a new cowboy hat. We also had a great time although the weather was weird. It rained 4 out of the 5 days we were there! Here's a little photo history of our trip:

Monday:

We met up with Cory's parents, Allen and Denise. We picked out yummy treats at Allens office and then we went to Chuck E. Cheese. The kids had a blast. Later that evening, we went to a Bees Baseball game. The kids have shown a lot of interest in baseball lately. We met up with both grandmas and grandpas for the game. We even got to see Alyshia for a little while (the kids love you, Lysh).

Then the 3 big girls had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa Rice's house. Priceless!

Tuesday:

We celebrated Father's Day with Allen and Cory. We went to Bucca de Beppo. Thanks, Allen, for working so hard for all your family. We notice it and appreciate it!



Wednesday:

Cory and his parents were off to the farm! We went to the aquarium with my mom and Katie (she's in the picture with us). It's not huge but has just about everything little kids would want to see. We were all way too freaked out to touch the sting (manta?) rays.






Thursday:

We had a picnic up at Tibble Fork Resevoir in the Alpine Loop. BEAUTIFUL!!!! We walked around the lake (halfway) and the kids enjoyed feeling the snow run off.


Spencer's on his man perch ponding life with girls with a few root beers in that cooler.

Funny story for you. . . As we were driving home, my mom had the girls all singing a nice little tune. And BOY were they singing! Just having a grand old time! Spencer sat the whole way (25 min) with his index fingers in his ears. He didn't scream, cry, or fuss. Just plugged up the ears. Too funny!

Friday:

We picked up some baseball mitts with my Dad and went outside and practiced. They need a little bit more time (if you know what I mean).

Saturday:

It was monsooning (is that a word?) so we went indoors for the day. We hit Cabelas (aka the museum) for the kids to see lots of dead animals. They chose it, not me! Then we were off to the Dinosaur museum which we'd never been too. Very neat! Ashley's right at that age where she wanted to read every little sign (aaahhh!) and Spencer just wanted to run and climb on the exhibits (did they get that on the security tape? Ooops). And Ainslee,Andi, and Avery just went with the flow.

Sunday:

It was of course Father's Day. Cory came home from the farm and my dad treated us (and him) to grilled steak. Then we went out for more baseball. It was a great day.

Man I feel old!

Well, most of you haven't seen pictures of me lately. I have really aged. Having 5 kids running around has taken a toll on me.

And apparently people in our ward thought I was looking old...I mean more mature and experienced, because I was called to be High Priest Group leader. Yeah...I thought the same things you are thinking right now too. Crazy.

Ainslee's Week

Hip Hip Hooray! Ainslee "graduated" from kindergarten this past week. Seriously, some people take it way too seriously. Bouquets of flowers, huge mylar balloons, and leis for the kids. It's just kindergarten for heaven's sake.

Okay, guy, it's just kindergarten. You'd think you were in some football sized stadium photographic the Super Bowl. What the heck?!

For her graduation "gift" I took her and Ashley (her incentive for getting 100% on every single spelling test this year) to a nail place and had their nails painted. They were so freaked out! The nail people didn't speak a word of English and Ashley and Ainslee just sat there with their eyes as big as saucers. When it was done- they loved it and wanted to know when we could do it again.

Ainslee also lost her very first tooth on Friday. Cory gave it a soft little tug and out it came. Luckily the tooth fairy had some cash that night because that's usually not the case. Whew on that one. I remember when Ashley lost her first tooth. I was sick to my stomach and couldn't sleep. It literally was a piece of my baby that was gone forever. It really upset me! I was better this time.

Blog Worthy- Finally!!!

So I haven't posted in a while. I guess I have just had nothing worthy to blog about. Sure, Avery is now crawling, has her 2 front teeth in, plays peek-a-book, and cruises furniture like nothin' else. And Spencer has decided to say "yessss" with an arm pump after anything exciting happens to him. And Andi finished her 1st year of preschool and can write her name complete with fancy little dots on all the letters. And Ainslee and Ashley are finishing up their school years, in the top of their classes and have both finished their first swim meets of the summer. But the other night it all came together. I asked myself,"why haven't I blogged about this before?" I am talkin' about this little treasure:

Truly something to blog about!!! This is my new favorite "I am actually spend some money on myself" treat. So worth it. The kids post will come later. . . when I'm done suckin' this "heaven on earth" down.