Pioneer Fun

John turned our wagon into a "covered wagon" and the kids got all dressed up for pioneer fun. Emily was especially excited because she loves old fashioned stuff and pioneers. She even carted Kirsten around with her since she is a pioneer girl. We had a fun time playing pioneer games, going on horse and cart rides, making butter, etc... Thanks to our awesome neighbor and Primary President for putting all this together. It was really fun!

Matson couldn't take his eyes off the horse to get a picture of all the kids. I'm not sure if her was super excited or terrified of the big horse that was face to face with him. He looked like he was kissing the horse!

The 3 kids (minus Matson). We had to pull him out when the horse started nibbling his fingers and the kids were all laughing at him! :)

99 bottles

A post from John....

Who is to blame for my misery experienced while traveling home from vacation? The candidates are: 1) my wife for wanting to sing all 99 verses of 99 bottles of "pop' on the wall, 2) my girls for going along with it, or 3) my father-in-law, who in past years traditionally sang this song (all verses) when his young family went on vacation. My father-in-law is only a candidate because he planted the idea in Andrea's mind and because she is threatening to carry forward this vacation traveling tradition.
How long does it take to sing 99 verses you may ask? For us, from Malad to Brigham City at 75 mph. As we approached Tremonton Carter yelled out: "This is annoying!". Well said, my son.

Yellowstone Trip

For our family vacation we headed to Yellowstone. We stayed in my Grandma's cabin in Island Park and the kids loved hiking around it to pick flowers and look for animals. We saw a mama deer and baby deer that were living under the cabin, too bad I got so excited that I scared them off for the rest of the trip. My kids weren't too happy with me! We also enjoyed visiting West Yellowstone and Bear World (next post). The highlight was seeing Uncle Drew's plays at Macks Inn! They were hilarious and we all had a great time seeing him in action. We enjoyed some cousin time hanging out with our cousin Ellie and we even got to see James, Vari, and their kids while we were there.

The girls and Ellie at Macks Inn

Watching Phantom of the Grand Ole Opry with cousins. Thanks for the treats, Uncle Drew.

Family pic with Ellie and Drew as the Phantom

Going exploring around our cabin

The view from our cabin

Carter in West Yellowstone, loving the animals. I was surprised that the kids loved walking around the gift shops. We even found a cool dollar souvenir shop that our neighbors told us about. The kids had fun picking a little souvenir to take home.

The girls were super excited that they kept seeing fliers for Uncle Drew's shows hanging all over in West. They couldn't believe how famous he was!

Kiddos outside the Yellowstone police station

Here we are with Uncle Drew dressed up as a lady. It was a pretty awesome costume. Matson was terrified of him! He wanted nothing to do with him.

Rocking on the porch with Ellie

Group shot at Grandma's before heading home

Bear World

The kids at Bear World. (Carter is anti-pictures these days). We arranged it so we were following the curator tour and we got a great view of the hungry bears. The bears were climbing on the truck and sitting up and begging. The kids loved it!

Once the food was gone, this guy was really staring us down!
Matson wanted a closer look at those "roars". He just couldn't get close enough, for his liking. He loved it and learned to "roar" at the bears.

Kelsie's got a ways to go! Her favorite part was seeing the baby bear cubs.

The petting zoo (Matson and me)

Train ride

Carter and Emily loved the rides. The car ride was Carter's favorite! He loves anything with cars!

Visiting Grandma

We got to spend a day in Idaho visiting my Grandma Hansen. I love spending time at her house. She lives on a rural, farm road with no one around. Being at her house is so quiet and peaceful and one of my favorite places in all the world. My kids loved visiting with grandma and doing all the same activities I loved doing as a kid: throwing rocks in the canal, climbing the potato cellar, swinging in the backyard, and walking and talking with grandma.

Trying to skip rocks in the canal

Going on a walk. My grandma is 87 years old but is still so active. She walks a mile every morning and night. She find plenty to keep her busy. Most recently she decided she needed to add some color to her house so she started painting her garage green. :) She loves having people join her for her evening walk.

My little Carter was young enough that he doesn't really remember Grandma from our last visit and he was just a baby when Grandpa passed away. He loved hearing stories about Grandpa and he fell in love with my grandma. He wouldn't let her out of his sight. He invited her to go everywhere we went. My grandma thought he was just adorable and told my mom, "that boy is the sweetest, most well mannered little boy I've ever met." We got a laugh out of that one. She may be the only person I've ever met to refer to Carter as well mannered. :) I'm so glad Carter and Grandma connected with each other and that Grandma loved being with Carter. Just another reason to add to my list of why I love my grandma so much!

Grandma's House

While we we were there we visited our favorite Rexburg park to ride the carousel and play at the splash park. The carousel ended up being free so we got to ride it LOTS of times. Kelsie and Emily on the carousel

The splash park is like a mini water park. Super fun for my girls. We always try to make time to go there when we are in town.

One last picture--this is one of my favorite pictures from our trip. It is the windmill outside my grandparents house. I can't see a windmill without thinking of my sweet Grandpa. Thanks to John for knowing that and taking this pic for me.

Park City

We went with my family to Park City for vacation. We visited Olympic Park. We had never been there before and it was really fun. There were tons of interactive exhibits, cool photo spots, and the kids loved watching the skiers train. Really neat! After that we went to the Park City resort and rode the Alpine Slide. Then we visited a fun park for dinner and headed back to the hotel for swimming, treats, and fun. Trying out the bobsled


John, skiing


Emily lighting the Olympic torch




Emily

The bobsled--me and my girls

Grandpa and Matson walking around Olympic Park. Grandpa kept the baby entertained while the rest of us watched the ski jumpers train.

Emily and Kelsie on the ski lift at the Park City Resort

Ready to ride the Alpine Slide. They were a bit unsure at this point.

Off they go down the mountain. My sister, Angela, said she could hear my girls screaming as they came down the mountain (I was in the car with an exhausted Carter). They loved it!

Carter was dying to try some chocolate from the chocolate factory on Main Street. John let him go in and pick one out and of course he chose green chocolate (HE LOVES anything green). He was delighted.

Carter was so proud he was able to climb to the top of this mountain all by himself. He thought he'd conquered the world! It was a gorgeous day.

Back at the hotel we all went swimming and then Ethan invited all the cousins back to his room for a party. It mostly consisted of jumping on the beds and the party was a hit!

Snuggled into bed after a long, busy day. Good-night.

At the Lake

The second day of our reunion we headed to a lake for the dayMy sister Kandace, me and our baby boys (Mason and Matson) Kelsie and Tyler spent the whole day swimming and following the raft. They never tired of it.

Carter going out on the raft with this cousins

Kylie and Emily jumped off the raft and swam to shore together

All the little kids playing in the sand

This crazy boy loves to eat rocks and sand. Yuck.