Me and my Grandpa

The kids and I spent this weekend in Moses Lake, Washington at my family reunion for my Mom's side of the family. I was able to visit with alot of my cousins I haven't seen in a few years. I was also able to see my Grandpa again. It was a good time, and it went by entirely too fast.

Swimming Lessons

Nicole and Matthew took swimming lessons while we were in Tieton. Matthew's class was learning how to dive. Nicole took a more intermediate class because she is scared to go into water over her head. Here are a couple of videos of them during their lessons.

Good times in Tieton, WA

The kids and I just spent 6 days with one of my closest friends in Tieton, WA...Becky Rasmussen. The kids took swimming lessons while we were there, we had a picnic in the park, the boys shot paint balls and the girls all bossed each other alot. It was TONS of fun.

I was able to go visiting teaching with Becky and her companion is crazy! She is an almost 80 year old lady, who had been telling people she's 80 for over 4 years. Her husband passed away many years ago and she just wants to join him very badly. At one point during a visit she actually said, "I'd commit suicide, but it's against the rules." This sounds like a horrible thing to say, and it is, but at the time and in the context that she said it, it was just shocking. Later on at the same visit, the lady we were talking with made a comment about her arthritis. Kay responded by saying, "I know, sometimes my butt hurts so bad it feels like it is cracking up the center and my cheeks are going to fall off."

Much more happened during the week, but I thought you'd enjoy a couple photos.

Sunday, July 13, 2008. Tieton or bust!

I woke up on Sunday morning at 6:30. I got ready for the day, then woke the kids up. When Matthew woke up he was really sick. I got him to get dressed, but he could hardly walk, his stomach hurt so bad. We were on the road by 7:30 and Matthew was getting sicker by the second. I asked him if he wanted a blessing and he quickly agreed, so I took the Wendall, ID exit and found the church building. We interupted a PEC meeting and Matthew got a blessing. He was feeling better by the aftrnoon.

We stopped in Bliss and took the kids picture in front of the green dinosaur. I had my picture taken with my 4 little brothers and sister in front of that dinosaur when I was 14.

In Boise, we stopped and took pictures in front of the temple, and since Matthew was beginning to feel better, we went to sacrament meeting at the church that shares a parking lot with the temple.

In Meridian we took a picture of the water tower. I was born in Boise and lived in Meridian until I was 8 years old. The water tower is important to me because when I was a little girl that was the landmark we looked for to know were close to home. When we lived there, the water tower was on the edge of town, now it is in the middle and we had to search for a place to take the picture so we could see the name of the town.

Later we crossed into the Pacific Time Zone, the 45th parallel and finally over the Washington State Line. We got to Tieton and then the Rasmussen's house at 6pm.

Twin Falls Idaho Temple

We got to Twin Falls at 8:30pm. The kids were starving so I got them something to eat, then we drove by the temple to find out times for the open house. We got there at 9:02 and the tours had ended 2 minutes earlier. When I asked what time they started the next day, we learned that there were no tours on Sunday.

We were all dissapointed that we couldn't go inside, so left and found the house we were staying the night at. A man from Twin Falls has been in Great Bend for a couple of months renovating his son's home. He let us sleep in his empty house.

Anyway, after we had gotten ready for bed, read scriptures and had prayers, Matthew asked if we could go on a drive because he was feeling nervous in an unfamiliar house. I didn't tell him I was feeling the same thing, but I quickly agreed to his idea.

At 9:45 we were back at the temple. We noticed the back gate was unlocked so we got out of the car to take a picture of the temple. (See above) As we got to the gate, one of the temple counselors and his wife was locking the gates. We talked to them for a little bit, found out that we would be able to tour the temple on our way back through Twin in August, and when we were getting ready to leave, the sister asked us if we wanted to have a quick tour before we went on our way. I almost started crying, I was so excited and of course we took her up on the offer. So at 10pm, in our pajamas, we got to tour the Twin Falls Temple. I felt bad about our apparrel, but LOVED the temple. It is 100 times more beautiful on the inside than on the out.

The kids loved it and asked alot of questions. They asked if we could go thru it again in August and I am more than happy to do that.

Utah

While we were in Utah, Ken and I along with his mom took the kids to the MTC, the Provo Temple, and BYU campus.

At the MTC, there were missionaries outside walking all over the place and so the kids had their pictures taken with a couple of them.

We left for Twin Falls around 4:30 on Saturday afternoon.

Pictures with our friends in Orem, UT

We stayed the first night of our trip with the Carpenters. When we lived in Utah over 6 years ago, they lived across the street from us. Nicole, Matthew and Sierra played well together and the adults played games a couple nights a week.

When I was going to all my Dr. appointments for my pregnancy, Sarah watched the kids, and when I was having Robrt, she went to my house and cleaned it. She was truly a life saver to me for the first 3 months after Robert died.

We love them and had a great time seeing them again.

Nicole is in the DOUBLE DIGITS!!

A couple of weeks ago, Ken and I were talking to Nicole, trying to help her think of something fun for her to do. After a little bit, I came up with an idea that she felt was for babies or little kids. Her response was, "Mom I am not a little kid anymore! I'm almost in my double digits!" Well, on July 13th, she officially entered her double digits.

Highlights of Day 1

We left Larned at 4:00am on Thursday. We were about an hour from Colorado and Matthew took a picture of the Sunset. It really was beautiful, and I figure if Matthew could see the beauty in it, then it must be worth sharing.

One of the highlights of our first day on the road was going thru the Eisenhower Tunnel. I wasn't expecting this to be a highlight because when Ken and I changed drivers, we decided we were going to take the Denver Turnpike north, and then go west in Wyoming. When I woke up a little bit later, we were already passed the Denver Turnpike and on our way thru Denver. After we were over the Rockies, I was glad we went that way. It is BEAUTIFUL!! It didn't make the trip to Orem any longer either.

In case you were wondering, the Eisenhower Tunnel, located 60 miles west of Denver on I-70, and it is one of the top ten man made mega-structures in the United States.

How would you like to live in No Name Colorado? Did you even know there was a place with no name? Well, there is my friend, and we took a picture!

We made it to Utah!

After approximately 15 hours and 15 minutes on the road, we made it to Orem, Utah. We are staying with our friends, and having a blast! Tonight we celebrated Nicole's Birthday (which is this Sunday) with Ken's family. I'll have pictures soon. Between my friend and I, we couldn't get them to download on her system. So stay tuned. ttfn!

Which Princess are you?

Take this quiz to see which princess you are. I like Mulan, she is actually one of my favorite princesses.

Click below to take the quiz. Reply as a comment to tell me who you are...if you're interested.
You Are Mulan!

Strong and spirited. You're no one's girly girl; actually you are very determined person with a strong sense of self. Never let go of that! The only thing that equals your sense of self is your family, but the traditions of society can always be bent to protect something or someone you love.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Pictures of Kansas

Before we moved here a year and a half ago, I was TERRIFIED of Kansas! All I knew what that is was flat and could have been a third world country because I had never been east of Utah, let alone all the way Kansas. It didn't really exist in my brain.

Here are some pictures that I have taken, minus the one of the water towers & the funnel cloud. I got the water tower off the net and I actually copied it from one of our friends blogs. I thought all of you would enjoy a little Kansas humor as well. Enjoy!

I SAW THIS CLOUD in Great Bend (20 miles from our house)!! Don't worry Mom and Dad, it's not a tornado. It is a cold wind funnel. I don't really know what the difference is, but I wasn't scared watching it.

The water tower is in Canton. Notice they have 2 towers, one for hot and one for cold. haha!!

The other two were taken in Pawnee Rock.

4th of July in Pawnee Rock, Kansas

For the 4th of July, we went to the McCowan's house in Pawnee Rock. We had alot of food and set off a whole bunch of fire works. Here are some pictures from that night.

Coming soon!

Sorry I've been a slacker on the blog. Coming soon are the 4th of July pictures. ALSO, we are leaving on a month long road trip on Friday, so I'll try to keep it updated while I'm gone, using computers at the places we'll be staying. ttfn!