Family Vacation July 2011!(Part 2)

Continuing on on Thursday, the 28th, we had such a blast just boating around, then stopping for a bit to swim. Here is KaDee during one of our stops chilling and watching the boys play on the tube!
Here's Bret trying to get his balance so he can try a backflip off the tube!

Ohhh, almost made it:)

ATTENTION ALL: Ben IS NOT a big water person. If fact if he could go boating and never get in the water, he would be just fine with that. But we finally convinced him to take a dip! He said it was nice to cool off a bit:)

He and Bret were having fun jerking the boys around on the tube a bit, while Bentley and I enjoyed some chicken for lunch and watched!

Heidi even got in the water! It was such a nice day to spend on the lake!

Bret has been debating whether to buy a wake board or not so borrowed a friend of his board to try it out. I'm pretty sure he'll be purchacing one of them in the near future. If you notice, he's biting his tounge a bit! Such a Bassett!

Here's my Christopher showing off his stuff on the knee board. With alot of help from Bret driving the boat, he even got out of the wake for just a bit.

Then it was Jake's turn to ride! They are so little, they just pop right up:) But the little also makes it hard to get them out of the wake. But they have fun trying!

Here's KaDee taking her turn on the knee board!

During one of our stops, Bret would get his water balloon launcher out and he and Ben would lauch water balloons straight up in the air. Me, KaDee, Jacob, and Chris would swim around picking them up on of the water. Crazy enough, they wouldn't break. So we'd just throw them back at the guys in the boat and they'd launch them again. Well, here is where one that I hucked back into the boat landed.....and didn't pop! So crazy!

That evening, Tara and her kids and Dondee and her kids came over and had dinner with us. Then the kids got to ride a few rides together, then we watched the lumberjack show again. I forgot my camera this day, but Tara had her's and blog the day as well. So for those pictures, I'll forward you to her page:) http://tarasbestthings.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html#6321278752553849546

Friday, the 29th, we took the boys to the fair and let them ride rides all day. They had so much fun. Us adults also went to a Pamida during the afternoon and walked through some camper trailors that were set up for people to come and do walk throughs. Then that evening, we parked in the arena and watched the figure 8. I, of course, didn't take any pictures of this either, but we had fun sitting in the back of Bret's truck and visiting with the firefighters.

Saturday, the 30th, morning, we got up and went to the parade! It was a pretty good parade and Peyton learned how to cover her own ears with her own hands when the firetrucks honk their big horns:) She is not a noise fan!

Then we went to the park and rode rides. It was so fun to act like a kid again!

Then we tried our luck at the games because KaDee had been saying ALL WEEK that she wanted the Bob Marley Banana. Well, all our coins and a bit of cash later, we finally managed to get 3 balls in the barrels and Bob-nana was ours! We took this picture with a cell phone and sent it to KaDee, who was 4-wheeling for the afternoon. When she got home, she ran in looking for it and we told her we'd just convinced the guy to let us take a picture with it then had to give it back. She was so bumbed. She went down to her room....only to find Bob-nana tucked tightly into her bed! It was so funny to see how excited she got all over again:)

That night we had Grandma Georgia watch all the kids and we got to go to the Demilition Derby for a date. Ben & I, Bret & Heidi, and Pat & Sonya. It was a great night!

The next morning, Sunday, the 31st, Bret was off to work before we even got up. But we had to get on the road so we headed out that morning too. About 20 minutes into Yellowstone, Peyton lost her breakfast all over her clothes and car seat buckles. Thank heavens for baby wipies! I got back there and cleaned everything up. Put her in the only clothes that were clean and continued on.

And on to Old Faithful! We showed up at the PERFECT time! My kids were ready for a break from the car and I was ready for them to have a break.

And she went off only about 10 minutes after we got there!

So fun to watch Mother Nature at her finest! It's amazing to watch!

Then we hit the road again. Got to Rexburg and visited with Hailie and Derek for just a few minutes, got to see their new counter tops, and headed out again. We dropped Chris off with his dad in Pocatello and made it home with enough time to let the kids enjoy being out of the car before they had to go to bed. It was a great vacation and so nice to visit with family!

Family Vacation July 2011!(Part 1)

We had the AWESOME oppertunity to take a family vacation this summer to Bret & Heidi's house in Powell, Wyoming. It also happened to be during the Park County Fair, which is it's own holiday for Bret & Heidi. So we thought we'd join them on their "holiday"! We started our trip first thing Tuesday, July 26th, morning, after Ben got done with work. We stopped in Rexburg long enough to pick up and order for Ben, grab some Arctic Circle, say hi to Michelle, and head back out.
Our quickest way to Powell is through Yellowstone so we got to see a few animals while we were traveling as well:)

We got to Bret & Heidi's around 5:00pm and had a chance to visit and up pack a little before we headed off to the fair. We grabbed some dinner before Bret had to leave and work his last graveyard shift before his 4 days off. Ben and Bret had what was called a "Country Burger". It was a glazed doughnut, cut in half, with a cheese burger put in the middle. Sounded so weird, but was tastebud confusingly good!

Then it was off to watch the pig wrestling! KaDee and a few of her friends had entered and because Bret is a volunteer firefighter, we even got to sit in the back of the truck right in the arena. Here is the before picture....

And here's the after! They did a good job, but the mud was just to slippery and the pig a bit to heavy for them to get him in the bucket in the 60 second time limit.

One of the girls was even nice enough to share some of the "mud" with Jacob as she walked past to go get washed off. This was the inventive way they came up with to wash off the pig wrestling contestants. Firehoses!

Then next day, Wednsday, the 27th, my cousin Jessica happened to have a dr's appointment for her broken ankle and my aunt and grandma got lost getting her there that Bret saw them and they came back to visit us while Jessie was at her appointment. They had her 2 adorable little girls with them. This is Cassidy. She had just turned one and Bentley is 8 months! Difference is.....Cassidy is walking all over and Bentley hasn't even started to crawl yet!

Here is Ben, Peyton, and Maddie, Jessie's older daughter, playing on the tramp. While Jen and Cassidy watch.

Here is Bentley's Great Grandma Iris! He wasn't so sure he wanted to give up his toy to set on her lap for a second, but you can't pass up oppertunities like these:)

After our visit with Grandma and Jen, we headed off to Cody to go mini-golfing. It was an activity we could all do and enjoy!

Even Bentley didn't mind it:)

Peyton thought the mini-golf yard decorations were fun to play with as well.

That evening, we let Jacob and Chris go ride the carnival rides while we sat back and watched the lumberjack show. It was awesome to watch. Very entertaining!

Then we caught up with the boys and they rode a few rides with the little kids:) Here is Chris and Peyton in the purple/red car and Zack is in the lime/green car behind them. Pretty sure he was trying to pass ;P

We had a stroller for Bentley, but after a while, he wanted some attention. Aunt Heidi was more then glad to take on the challenge. He sure loved all the commotion!

Bret and I got to ride the Carousel with Zack and Peyton without having to get a ride pass. Peyton wasn't sure at first, but she sure warmed up when she relized she could say hi to daddy every time she came around!

Thursday, the 28th, morning we got up and watched KaDee's friend Baxter show her steer. When I said this was Bret & Heidi's "holiday" I meant that they enjoyed EVERY aspect of the fair:) We did have a good time watching the different steers come and go.

Then it was off to the lake. Bret & Heidi got a new boat at the beginning of the summer so we had to test it out. We dropped Peyton and Zack off at Heidi's Grandma Georgia's and headed up to Horseshoe Bend. There was hardly anyone on the lake and the water was so high that we could get to places that are usually dry land. We swam, shot water balloons from a balloon launcher, and tubed.

Chris and Jacob were the first to get to go on the tube!

July 18th-25th!

(22nd) When we got home from Twin Falls, Ben's cousin, Kelby was out at our place to visit. He started Chris's 4-wheeler project clear back in May in Delta and wanted it finished. He and Ben stayed up pretty late to get it going. Oh, I so wish I had had my camera at the ready the first time they got it going. They gave each other an impromptu congragulatory high-five that was priceless.

(19th) Chris was here for the weekend and so we got his pool out to play with and pass the hot day faster! (18th) We went for a walk just down the road and back and to relax afterwards, we soaked our feet in the pool and cooled down. It sure was nice to have a walk and great company while I did it:)


(18th) Ben smelled something rotten coming in through our ac vents while we were in town today so he popped the hood and this is what he found! It's a pack rat! Backed and decomposing in our engine. Blowing into our car every time we started it up! Yuck! I had to pull him our, not it one, not in two, not in three, but probably 5 bigger pieces, then had to scrap the remaining hair off the tubes.




(18th) We wanted to do a few fun thing while the girls were with us so we decided to go to Shoshone Falls! Even though we'd all seen it before, it was flowing faster and higher then any of us had ever seen it.

(18th) To add to the fun of the day, we grabbed a Costco pizza and had a picnic by Shoshone Falls! And for helping us out while they were at our house, we bought the girls a couple shirts each for school clothes.

(22nd) My mom, Tara, and Cody came up Thursday afternoon and we had a pool party with 4 little pools set up around Ann & Dayn's yard for the kids to play in. Kristie and her girls came over and we made an afternoon of it. The next day, my little group drove into Twin to check out the DI and let the kids play at Hop 2 It! They had so much fun! Here is Peyton and Chris playing basketball!

(22nd) Britnee, Peyton, me, and Jaycee at the bottom of the big slide @ hop 2 it!

(22nd) Britnee and Jaycee trying to figure out how to get Peyton to the top of the big slide!

(21st) Peyton looking "cool" in Grandma Sony's sun glasses!

(20th) Peyton's first night in her "big girl bed"! She only slept for about an hour then woke up crying. From there forward, she got lost in her closet, put back in her crib, then fell out of the crib. So by 11:30, Ben and I were done dealing with it so she ended up back in her crib, exhausted. The next night, she slept in her big girl bed with not one bit of trouble!

(22nd) While we were running around Twin, we decided to cun past the Twin Falls Temple and take some pictures! It is so beautiful there!

(22nd) And here's one with my mom in it:)

(22nd) Back at hop 2 it, here is a few of our gang coming down the medium slide! Bentley wasn't so sure what he thought of it:)