Fun in Idaho Falls

The kids and I spent most of the week up in Idaho Falls visiting my parents. My sister Erin came into town from Logan and Casey and Keri both had some days off work so we all got to hang out tons! It was super nice. Very relaxing for me. The kids loved it too. Grandma's house is always better than being at home. It was a great week filled with movies, swimming, shopping and eating out at all the restaurants I craved!

We took the kids to the zoo one day. I thought this picture was a good depiction of these monkeys because they were CrAzY! They were jumping all over the walls and the glass playing with each other. So these two blurs at the bottom was what the monkeys looked like. They were super hyper. The kids thought they were silly.

What cute kids!

Here's my nieces Jane and Kate. Kate's face pretty much sums up the look she always gives me. They are super fun girls!

Kaden and Grandma! Sorry you're closing your eyes mom, it was the only one I took!

My kids loved the lions and tigers the most. He is big.

Aunt Keri with these two crazies!

I think this is the only picture of me with my two kids! I'm always behind the camera!

Kaden, Jane and Ellie.

This was a sloth bear that was playing with his ball. You can see it flying through the air. It was pretty cool to watch him throw it all over the place!

It is super rare that all of us sisters are together. It was tons of fun to spend so much time together. They are the best!

Now that's love.

Pioneer Day

I love Pioneer Day in Pocatello. The parade is awesome with tons of candy for the kids and then they have a bunch of activities up at the fairgrounds. Our favorite is the Indian Relay races which are the very last activity, so we always wait a couple hours to head up there. Bad idea this year. Ellie was so excited to go and ride a horse. She LOVES horses and could not wait! We go and get in line for the horse rides. They cut the line off right in front of us. The horses were too hot and tired. Grrr... Ellie was super sad. So we went to one of those big inflatable slides. The kids get up there and start crying because it's too hot and burning their feet. None of the other kids seemed to mind, just ours. So we went to get some ice cream to cool down. Kaden wanted a rootbeer float and Ellie wanted a popsicle. I took Ellie to get a popsicle. They took the booth down right when I walked up, they had run out. Grrr... So I ran to get her a rootbeer float. They ran out of ice cream right when I got there. Grrr.... So we sat down in the shade for a little while and then I decided I wanted an Indian Taco. Jess got in line for me and asked the lady if she would have enough. She said yes.... then the guy in front of him bought two. They ran out. Grrr....Next the kids wanted to go down the big inflatable water slide. I spent half an hour in line telling the kids they were going to get really wet and they were going to have to go by themselves. They both insisted that was fine. Jesse conveniently slipped away for this whole part so I was by myself. Not to my surprise, Kaden gets halfway up and gets scared and wants to come back down. Ellie did a little better. She got all the way to the top and got scared and wanted to come down. The lady in charge of the slide said I should just go up there and get her. So I got to go up the slide with all the other 5 year olds and go down with Ellie. We got SOAKED to the bone. We went and found dad. Jess said "Oh no, you're all wet!" Ya, I'm all wet. Anyway. Happy Pioneer Day!

These are the Indian Relay races. They ride bareback and go one lap on one horse and then switch horses until they do four laps. It's pretty exciting. Pictures don't do it justice.

Ellie was super excited, again because she loves horses. She stared at them the whole time.

Here she is showing me how fast they were running.

This is a picture of a trade off of horses between laps. The rider comes flying in and jumps off one horse and onto another. Everyone is on their feet cheering by the end. Kind of cool.

Camping in Island Park

We got to get away this weekend to Island Park. It was so nice to be out in the fresh air. There was plenty of sunshine and plenty of mosquitos. We go every year to Buffalo Campground with our great friends the Edwards. My grandparents were up from Arizona so they came too! Jess is awesome when we camp and cooks all the meals on the campchef stove. It's very relaxing for me. He can also make the perfect roasted marshmallow (it cannot have ANY brown on it whatsoever but has to be gooey.) I did make my first peach cobbler which was actually really gross. We had tons of fun!

This picture cracks me up. They were super excited about their Burger King hats. It was nice to have them entertained in the car.

Ellie and Grandpa Vern (her great-grandpa). It's fun to see him use all the same jokes he used on me as a kid.

Kaden and Ellie helping grandpa with the fire.

We went to Big Springs to feed the fish. We took the leftover pancakes from breakfast. The kids loved to tear off little pieces and throw them in the water. Jesse and Nick, however, thought they were hilarious and smashed the pancakes into baseballs and threw them at the seagulls.

The happy family! Kaden and Ellie loved every minute of camping and didn't want to come home. Neither did mom.

We only floated the river once this year. It was really relaxing in the sun... for about three minutes then Ellie wanted to splash and Kaden had to pee off the side of the tube. Still, we had a good time. The next day we went to West Yellowstone and some yummy spaghetti and pizza. Sometimes hotdogs for lunch AGAIN doesn't cut it.

Independence Day

We had a fun and busy weekend! Jesse's ten year high school reunion was Friday night so we went to Malad then came back Saturday afternoon and spent some time with my family. It was a fun weekend! Happy 4th of July!

We came back from the reunion to find Kaden in heaven. Grandpa Wakley gave all the grandkids rides on the lawn mower. Kaden will expect a ride every time he goes to Malad now! Thanks Grandpa!

All of the Wakley cousins minus Kallee.

Ellie was in the best mood at the parade! She was so excited for all the candy and the horsies.

Kaden was another story. He was grouchy because dad still hadn't taken him to get fireworks, he got smacked in the face with a hand full of dumdum suckers from one of the floats and got soaked with water from the fire truck. Not what he expected for the parade.

Jesse and his best friend and cousin from Malad, Trace and Jake. You guys look good! Hahahaha! Especially the one on the left!

Malad has kids foot races at the park on the fourth. They separate into all the different age groups. One parent is on starting line and one on the finish line. Ellie was doing awesome but then stopped halfway and turned around to look at me. Go Ellie!

Kaden was so funny! He had a huge cheeser on his face the whole time he ran. He kept telling me how he beat all the kids.... not really but he didn't need to know that!

We had a bbq and fire work show at our house in Poky that night. As usual the snaps were the biggest hit with the kids. Except for Ellie who couldn't throw them hard enough to snap them.

We got rained out for an hour or so that night. I took a picture of the clouds because they were pretty crazy looking. When I say rained out I mean flooded-out. The next day church was cancelled in Inkom and parts of Chubbuck to help people in their flooded basements. Our house stayed dry thank heavens. On our drive home from Malad we got stuck in a hail storm with hail about an inch in diameter that left about 30 little dents in our car. Grrrrr......

Jensens Grove

To take a break from unpacking (yes, we're STILL unpacking!) we went to Jensens Grove on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and so nice to get away from the house for a couple hours. The kids love playing in any water but wouldn't go too far- it was pretty cold. Kaden had to make sure there weren't any sharks in the water before he would venture out. Ellie, as always, had no fear and kept begging me to take her farther.

Jess didn't even put on his swim suit. What a party pooper!

We didn't want to hassle with taking the grill out of the truck so Jess cooked in the back.

Kaden would give his right leg for a pop. Doesn't matter the flavor.

Ellie's got the sweet tooth like her mom.