Happy Birthday America...LET'S CELEBRATE!!!!!

I love Holiday weekends when life is crazy busy...and awesome fun!! Plus, I love the 4th of July! Fireworks make me happy. Not even just kind of happy, A LOT OF HAPPY! Elated even...

So this weekend we took in all the fireworks we could get.

FRIDAY:

Logan City Fireworks. We followed my family's tradish and went to Lundstrom Park to watch them. Jared had to work that night, but ended up getting off work just in time to see the fireworks so that was nice. It was just us and Melissa and Jason and their kids. Then Jennie and Susan called us and they came to watch with us. It was good to have them there even though traffic is a bugger to get out of...sorry about that!

Aubrey and a sparkler...

Blakely and Carter watching the Fireworks...

Saturday:

Fourwheeler ride up Rocky Dugway and the loop over to Willard Peak. Have I ever mentioned how much I love fourwheeler rides? I always have. Even as a little girl I would beg my dad to take me and any time he went on a ride I HAD to go. It is just so fun and such a good summer activity.

Look at how cool the clouds were...

I love him...

Pretty sunflowers...

Remember how Jared likes to tease me? He will do this whole, "lifting one of the wheels off the ground" thing to freak me out. Sometimes there would be ruts in the road and he just thinks it's hilarous to see if he can get the fourwheeler to tip. I insist on immediately removing myself from the fourwheeler any time this happens.

That night we were planning on going to the Cruise-In Parade, but let's be honest...do we really care about classic cars that much? Plus, it was a billion degrees outside...no thanks! So we went and saw Toy Story 3 instead and had some dinner at Texas Roadhouse. BTW, loved Toy Story!

SUNDAY:

We had a lazy day. Church and then just hung out at home. It was nice to have nothing to do and spend some time together.

MONDAY:
The most fun-tivity filled day. That night Brigham was having their fireworks(don't even get me started on how stupid it is to have fireworks on a weeknight). That morning Jared went golfing with his dad and brothers so Amy and the kids came over to go swimming. Such fun! I love the pool! (Don't mind the random child who is not in our crew in the blue floaty)

After da pool we headed back to Matt and Amy's and had a BBQ. All I have to say is the salmon was DE-LISH! Also, thanks Amy for sharing the salmon/pool pic love.

Then it was off to the park to wait for fireworks..We chatted and there may have been some Phase 10 going on.

Pretty sure Cooper is adorable, even with licorice all over his face.

So I was looking through pics from last 4th of July and Jared and I seem to have an issue with taking normal pictures at this time of year.

At this point I was like, "Why can you not look at the camera!?!" So then he did this face and I kind of was not looking. I may or may not be a hypocrite at that moment.

I think this picture is tender. I just love it! Cooper loves Jared and his bear noises.

FIREWORKS!!!!!!

They were fabulous...

It was a great weekend and I'm proud to be an American!

U-S-A!! U-S-A!!! U-S-A!!!

I Don't Like Seeing This Empty Chair...

Sunday I was sitting in church and I got a phone call that no one likes to get when they work with the elderly. One of our residents had passed away, it was Betsy.
Remember Betsy?
She is the one that I would always pray with and was constantly pestering me for attention... but I couldn't love her more. We kind of knew it was coming but still I was shocked to hear the words. On Friday I knew that she wouldn't be there when I came to work this morning so I kind of said my goodbyes, hoping I did it for nothing and she would still be there today when I went in. It was sad to go into her room and have her chair be empty. She was always sitting in that chair..
That's right I took a picture of it.. See that little red mark on the right side? One time I was painting Betsy's nails and dropped the bright, red nail polish and it flew everywhere!!! On the carpet, on her chair, on me, on the wheelchair...it was horrible and hilarious all at the same time. I scrubbed her carpet for a good while and got most of it out. Betsy and I had a good laugh about it...So I had to take a pic of the chair that I ruined. I already miss her so much. She was one of my favorite people I have ever cared for. She told some great jokes(most of which I cannot repeat) and always loved holding my hand while we chatted. I can't even tell you how many times I went in there and just sat with her, holding her hand. Betsy didn't like being alone.

One of the best memories I have of Betsy is of her comb. She had this bright, pink comb that she would always tap on her side table when she needed help. Would she press the call button? Nope. She would tap her comb. When she was more capable of walking around she would even walk to her door and tap the comb on the mailbox outside her door if I was taking too long to get to her. But the best part was that sometimes I would come down the hall and she would be standing there with the comb sticking in her hair (You know like how the dudes with afros stick the picks in their hair?) She would do that with her comb and it was so hilarious! I would ask her if she was trying to be a trendsetter and she would simply say, "it's easier to carry this way...." HAHA!

Oh Betsy...I will miss her.

Golden...

Today is Kid's (aka my sister Melissa)birthday. Not only that but it's her Golden Birthday...woo! Sorry Kid, I just told everyone how old you are....
My mom, Ambo, and myself decided to take her shopping for new dishes because that is what she wanted. Of course we had to stop and have some lunch at Chili's. You cannot possibly do shopping without lunch. It does not work. We left all the boys at home and had a wonderful time!

We had success, dishes were bought. We also might have gone to a few other stores and spent a lot more money than was planned...oh well. It was fun and that is all that matters. Thanks ladies for a fun-filled afternoon! Happy Birthday Kid!

On The Road Again...

Last week we went on vacay with the Jeppsen's. Where to? Well...Driggs, Idaho!
Actually we just stayed in some cabins in Driggs, but spent most of our time in Jackson Hole and Yellowstone.

This is our cute little cabin. Each family had their own little cabin, ours is actually the one in the back and Jared's parents and Jennie were in the front one.

Day 1: When we got there we just settled in and then all went to dinner at a little place called O'Rourks or something. Go Driggs! Then we came back and got a little hot tub time in. After that the guys played some poker. I didn't take any pics, obviously.
Day 2: We headed to Jackson and stopped at the Visitor's Center and the Jackson Hole Museum.
Jared and his twin.....
It was super cold this day. We were planning on doing the Alpine Slide but it was freezing so we put that off until Saturday. Jared kept things entertaining with some hand stands
Then Porter, Chloe, and Jared did one all at the same time.
After some hand stands, we hit the Amaze'N Giant Maze. We had to race through this maze and get certain check points. If you finished in under 10 minutes you got a way cool prize...like a bouncy ball!!! It was actually quite fun and thank goodness I just followed Jared because I am not good at mazes.

A little later we went with Matt and Amy and the kids to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum. Everyone else went to get their seats for the Bar J Wranglers.

Why did we not go to Bar J? Weeeellllll.....it was Game 7 of the NBA Finals and I don't know if you know this, but the Laker's were playing for the Championship. It just so happens the Jared and Matt are two of the Laker's biggest fans. They weren't going to miss the game, even though they felt bad for not being able to go to Bar J.

After Ripley's we went back to O'Rourks to watch the game and have dinner. At halftime Amy and I went back to the cabins with the kids(our silly tvs didn't get local channels, weird huh?). We watched the ESPN ticker on the bottom of the screen and were freaking out everytime we saw the score...we were sooooo nervous!!! But the LAKERS WON!!! WOOO!!!!

Day 3: Bright and early we woke up and drove to Yellowstone. It was a super long day but it was fun. We went on a couple of hikes. One was down to Lower Falls...

And the other was across the way fom Lower Falls. We hiked down 325 stairs or something like that...then we had to hike back up. I didn't so much like that but at least I got a picture.

We saw a whole lotta buffalo(other than the one I was sitting next to in the car). In fact, at one point there was a huge traffic jam because there was a buffalo in the road that wouldn't move.

Then off to Old Faithful...

It was a long day in the car but well worth it. We barely missed a grizzly bear and we were sad about that. However, we got some really great jokes like, "Is there a trash can out there?" and "Are you ok, lady?" Haha! And Jared made sure he made lots of monkey and bird noises. I'm not sure if he realized there are not monkeys in Yellowstone.

Day 4: Back to Jackson!! Finally it was warm and we were able to do the Alpine Slide. It was soooo much fun!!! I want to do it again.

Then we did a scenic ride up the ski lift. When you get to the top it overlooks the valley. Super pretty. Chloe and I rode up the lift together and I rode down with Jared.

WE'VE REACHED THE TOP!!!!

That night we went to dinner at Bubba's...mmm. Then when we got back to the cabins we roasted smore's. We played some Bocci and horseshoes and just chatted around the fire.

Day 5: On our way back home. We decided to go through Rexburg and stop at Bear World..

We finally got to see some grizzly!

And we walked through the petting zoo.

Aw, little baby bear cubs....

We really enjoyed our trip and were sad it had to end. Thanks Richard and Susan for getting it all organized and for everything you do for us. We love you and really appreciate it! We had such a blast!