Beautiful Idaho

A couple of weeks ago we took a trip and drove all the LONG way to Idaho.  My family was all meeting up there to drop my sister Kayla off at school.  We loved our long trip.  Well, Mya didn't really enjoy the time in the van after a while, but she was s trooper and did very well. 

 Along the way we had many bathroom breaks.  This was one of them.  A tree by an open field.  The funny thing is that Emma would go to the bathroom only if we were outside, and Kenadi only if she had a toilet.  What funny girls.  Is that too much info for you?  

 My heart soared when I saw these beautiful Teton mountains!    Emma pointed out every hill and every mountain and made sure that we saw them.  They were so excited about the mountains too.  It's in our blood, I guess.

 While in Idaho we saw many of our cousins and family.  We were in heaven!

 The girls got their Grandma and Grandpa Simonson...

 Their sled ride from Uncle Nick...

 Everyone was happy!

 Even Kayla.  Just kidding, Kayla's always happy.  She's off to college!  I can't believe my little sister has grown up so much!

 Mya was mesmerized by my Dad.  She stared at him for a good 10 minutes.  She wouldn't break her eye contact either.  I wonder what she was thinking about.

 Then there's my sweet sister Jenna.  She has lots of great silly faces for the camera, but I can't get her to give me a normal one.  Sorry Jenna.

 My Mom and littlest brother, Reid.  We were all on the way to Jackson Hole, WY to see the Bar J Wranglers.

 Jenna gave us a lesson on "planking".  Have you heard of this craze lately?  Apparently it's cool to take pictures in random places face down and post it on Facebook or something.

 Haley enjoyed Bar-J Wranglers, even though she doesn't like cowboy humor.

 Here they are folks!  THESE GUYS ARE AWESOME!  They are my yodeling, banjoing, auctioneering inspiration.  Well, especially yodeling.  You should look them up and see if you can find a song that they sing.  It is a riot.

 OK, back to my Dad and Mya.  Apparently Dad forgot how to feed a baby.  He couldn't find her mouth, and would say, "she's not opening her mouth.  Oh, she wiped it all over her!" and stuff like that.  It was cute.  Mya just looked at me as if saying, "MOM, what are you doing to me?!"

 We went to a splash park and swimming pool in Rexburg. 

 When it was time for Mom, Jenna, Reid and Dad to leave, we took time for some pictures.  This is us sisters and Mom.  Haley, Jenna, Me and Mya, Mom and Kayla.  I am dreaming of future trips together!  Girl trips, no kids.  Of course, when mine are a bit older....

 It was utterly impossible to get a picture of Mom and the kids with all happy kids.  Emma was sad the whole time, or Sadie wasn't looking, or Kenadi was doing crazy faces...

 Here they did a little better with Grandpa in the picture.

 It's been a long time since we've had a group picture!  We are missing my brother Chase who's on a mission in VA right now, and Kyle who works and lives in Salem.

After my Mom, Dad, Jenna and Reid left, I decided to eat my feelings and make a cake with Kayla's help.  This is one I've wanted to try for a while.  It was in one of my Taste of Home magazines, called Red Velvet Crepe Cakes.  I've drooled over the picture for a while and finally decided to make one.  It is basically thinned out cake batter cooked in a pan like a crepe and then spread with thin layers of cream cheese frosting.   As you can tell, it was pretty messy to put together, and I decided that I wasn't that impressed with the taste.  I think I would have liked it better if it was cooked the regular way in the oven.  However, everyone else liked it, and it was gone quickly.  I think I was a minority with that opinion.  AND NOW, I AM OFFICIALLY OFF OF MY SUGAR CRAZE AND ON TO MY HEALTHY EATING AND EXERCISING PHASE!  (again, but this time is different) Wish me luck, I've done well this week and feel highly motivated.

2 posts today, due to difficulties.

Here we are again... you'll have to read the next post to see why I'm having difficulties, but this is my second and last post for the night.   I must figure something else out.  If any of you have ideas, I'm open to suggestions.

My beautiful mom and brother.  He actually grabbed onto her when he was falling and made her fall in right before this picture.  The water is glacier fed- the Nisqually river- and was literally freezing.  This is the river that my aunts yard goes right up to.  It is beautiful.

Reid

Kenadi and Reid.  One day they swam in this water when it was 62 outside.  I couldn't believe them.  I guess I did stuff like that when I was a kid too.  Crazy.

Emma always finding someone's shoes to wear.  This is my mom's barn boot.  It was funny to see her trying to walk in it because it came up to her hips.

Royal #2

I don't know what's gotten into me.  I sure have been taking a while to blog lately.  I've been busy for sure, but I'm always busy, so that's not an excuse.  I have a goal to blog about this WHOLE trip before I have the baby.  =)  

This is the second post about our visit with Randy's dad and his step-mom Anna.  They were so nice and got a boat so that we could all go tubing around the lake that is below their house.  If you look in the picture below you can see their house up on the top of the cliff.  

 Randy's sister Sara took her turn on the water before me, I think.  I was worried that the water would be freezing since I'm used to Oklahoma water.  As soon as I got in it felt great!  What a wimp I'm turning out to be!  You can see Randy and the girls with Anna and Payton on shore watching us.

 Kenadi is a water baby and loved to be on the boat or swimming the whole time.

 Here's a good action shot I got of Anna crashing.  Randy was driving and pretty determined to get her off.  She surprised me by staying on as long as she did.  She did good!

Next Anna took revenge on Randy, and lets just say that she got it.  

Randy's dad drove Jolene and Sara and I around for a while.  He was easy on me.  I was grateful for.  Normally I would want to go all out, but since I'm pregnant I was so nervous for anything to go wrong.  So, I made them go pretty slow.

I just thought I'd add some more of the view that Randy grew up with.  I do love this area and it's beauty.  It is different from the west of Washington and Oregon for sure.  It is actually a desert, but since it's been irrigated for farming it is nice and green.  You can see how it looks when it's not watered though, sage brush and dry dusty land.  Snakes and everything.  I love looking at the farmer's fields.

 These mountains Randy grew up riding his dirt bike on.  

 Oh, and orchards galore.  I was in fruit heaven.  This is an apple orchard.  I just wish I lived by a few here!

Royal #1

The next leg of our trip was Randy's Dad's house, which was broken up a bit, this is part of what we did with Dad and Anna, Randy's step-mom.  

Randy's siblings, kids, their kids, and the sister in-law's.

From Left to right; Emma, Randy, Me, Jolene (sister), Payton (Sara's son), Sara (sister), Gia (Sara's daughter), Kenadi, Kendal (sister in-law), Mark (brother)

Anna had a side-walk chalk party complete with bubbles for the grandkids.  They had tons of fun.

Sara, Payton, and Kenadi- Sara was teaching the kids how to do cartwheels after she beat Anna and I to a couple of cartwheel races.  She was fast!  I was impressed.

Emma thinking she could mow the lawn.  She did this for a while-complete with the mowing noises.  

Me and Emma on the slide.  I was having major problems with uploading pictures for some reason.  Most of them wouldn't load, so I had Randy do it.  I don't know why a few are sideways, but I'm not trying to fix them.  So just turn your head. 

One of our favorites, the waterslide.  This was me and Anna, and I think I bailed out soon after the picture was taken.  We love the slide.  Emma wanted to go down a bunch, and did.  Kenadi didn't want to go down at all, but after a forced trial run, she decided that she liked it.

Kenadi and "Papa".  The girls were so happy to see Nana and Papa and their horses.  They wanted to go out every day and pet them and sit on them.

Emma was a bit timid at first.  She only liked horses from a magazine.  She warmed up.

The view from where Randy grew up.  This lake and cliff is just in front of the house.  A funny story is that Randy's car in high school rolled off of these cliffs when he forgot to put the emergency brake on before seminary one morning.  It was no good after that.

The house that Randy's dad and step-mom live in.  Randy says that he helped his dad build some of it.  I guess that is why he knows so much.

Randy and I took the Harley out for a spin.  

Kenadi and her cousin, Payton.  He is 5, and they had a blast together.

Randy and his siblings, Jolene, Sara, and Mark.  We were lucky spend more time with them this trip.  They all came over for the weekend, and we had so much fun!