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.

First Day of School

  Kenadi's first day of Kindergarden was Monday.  I had originally decided that I was going to homeschool her, and she liked that idea until a couple of months ago when she told me that she wanted to go to school where all of the kids go.  So, with a lot of talks between Randy and I on what we should do, and prayer, we decided that it would be ok if we sent Kenadi to a public Kindergarden.  I will not tell you all my feelings about this, or the first two days.  I am not even sure I can explain them myself, except to say that I am a roller coaster of emotions and thoughts.

My friend Alisa knew that I'd be having a hard time, and brought over some school decorations and books for me to read to the girls before school on Monday.  It was so sweet of her, and  help kick things off for the week.  Emma loves the apple that she brought, and carried it around for a couple of days. (above)

On Monday morning, Kenadi checked and re-checked her princess backpack to make sure everything was in it.  She was so excited and had a paper countdown chain that she tore off every day.  Then she'd announce to us at breakfast how many days until she went.

Before we left.  I think that it's cute that she doesn't even know that her dress is tucked up behind her backpack.

Her and her teacher.  She seems nice.

Ok, that's enough of school stuff for now.  

Emma still LOVES horses.  We have a few of these small horses for barbies, and she thinks that she can ride them.

OK, I have a few projects that I've been working on... stay tuned!  As soon as I finish this latest one I will do a post of all of them.

Our Summer Fun

 Well, Emma doesn't exactly consider it fun...

 But Kenadi and I do.  So does Mya.  There isn't much to do outside except for swim.  It is too hot for anything else.  

 We've been taking advantage of our friends' pools, and we swim about 3 times a week.  Kenadi is in swim lessons also, and now she is a pretty good swimmer!  She dives down to the bottom, jumps in the deep end and swims around!  I'm so glad that she loves to swim and does a good job, it helps me worry less at the pool.

 On Saturday night after we got all of our chores done, we took the family to our other friends pool.  It was nice to have Randy there to enjoy it with.

 When it's 105 outside, it feels soooo nice to jump into a big pool of water.  Ahhh....

 Here's Kenadi jumping and swimming in the deep end.

Here's a little glimpse of how chubby Mya is.  On Sunday when we were at church some cute little girls were holding her next to their mom.  They looked at her arms and one of them said, "Mom, how many elbows does she have?"  I laughed out loud right in the middle of our meeting.  I thought that was so funny.

 Another favorite is to jump on the tramp with the sprinkler under it.  The girls love it.

Only 2 more weeks until school starts here, and Kenadi will be starting kindergarten.  Wish us luck, I'm already weepy about it!

110?! and a Noodling Festival

This  crazy Oklahoma heat is getting to me... my garden is dying, my girls are swimming fools, and I am just getting to be one big freckle.  I do love the summer sun, but this is a bit much.  It has been sooo hot here!  Yesterday was 110, and the day before 108, it doesn't look like it's getting any cooler until November, so... our air conditioning had better not go out.  Maybe this hot weather has made us crazy, because we decided to get out in it and go to the Okie Noodling festival yesterday.  It has been on my to do list since I discovered this awesome sport.  I would not do it myself of course, but I am fascinated with the people who do... and the ones who hunt alligators, all of those crazy things.  

Noodling is fishing flathead catfish with your bare hands.  You go out into this muddy water, stick your hand in a hole, hope it's not a water moccasin, let the catfish bite your hand, and pull it up out of the hole and out of the water.  It is dangerous and hair-brained- but definitely entertaining.  

 Here are some that were caught for the competition yesterday.  These people fished all over Oklahoma and then had to be in to weigh their fish here by 7 pm.  This guy was a winner- I can't remember if he was a natural winner, or a scuba winner.  There are different categories for this competition.  They were: noodling with just bare hands, no scuba gear, this is the natural division, scuba division- pretty self explanatory, stringer- is their 3 fish all combined to see who's total was the heaviest, and there were youth and female divisions.

I'm not sure what divisions these guys were in, but one of them had a 60.5 lb fish, another a 65 I think.

 Where were these fans???!!!!!  I needed one of my own.

This lady one the biggest fish for the female division.  Her fish was 45 lbs.  Wow, what a lady.  Impressive.  Oh, and the girl next to her won "Princess Noodle" or whatever the title is.

 This kids' fish was as big as he was.

 Here are some catfish up close and personal.  Ugly things.  Taste good though.   Yum.

 Of course, noodling is the ultimate hick sport.  We got a few good pictures of people we saw.

 Some noodlers and me.  Nice guys.  Their fish is under that wood thing.

Here's the line-up of trucks with fish on the back of them trying to weigh-in.

 Here's little Mya- she was pretty good, despite the heat.  

Kenadi and Emma were infatuated with the big turtle there, the fish, and some crazy lady with her pet monkey in a diaper.  

So, it was fun, it was worth it, and now it's crossed off my list. 

Now, YOU need to watch the Okie Noodling documentary.  Click HERE to see it.  It's an adventure.