Reunion

Each year there is an annual Jones family reunion in Almo, Idaho.  This is Chris' mother's patriarchal side of the family.  We have tried to attend as many of these reunions as we can.   The kids love riding the "train" and ponies every year:

Miscellaneous Summer Fun

After family left we got settled into our new home here in Idaho Falls.  We kept busy with a camping trip to Hebgen Lake (no pictures!) and the next day we were able to meet up with some great friends, the Thibodeaus, who live here.  We had a few hours of fun at Reed's Dairy Days, getting balloons from clowns, enjoying some deliciously rich ice cream and chocolate milk and seeing the goats at the petting zoo.  There was a lot more to do but it was really hot so we opted out but will look forward to it next year! 

One afternoon I took the kids to a park here in town and met up with another good friend, Rachel and her girls.  Here are a few silly pics I snapped of Olivia:

Chris has had to work A LOT of LONG hours at his new office but things are starting to settle down now that summer is coming to a close and he is fully staffed again.  One afternoon he took off early because he was working a lot of overtime and the following weekend.  We took advantage of having daddy home by enjoying an afternoon walk along the green belt on the Snake River by the falls and the temple.  We had a little snack at a park and enjoyed the luxury of having daddy with us!

(VERY unflattering picture of me....but many have asked to see belly pics....)

A lady was nice enough to give each of the kids a piece of bread to feed to the ducks...

And when little girls are much too tired to "walk ALLTHE WAY back"  daddy's come to the rescue with shoulder rides!!!

Jensen Grove:  There's a nice little man-made lake in Blackfoot that we went to with my parents while they were here and the kids and I were also able to meet up with our good friend, Melody and her girls for an afternoon.  The kids played for a few hours in the sand on the edge of the water and then we played for a bit at the park.  It was great to see them again! Now Melody has a new little baby in their family, baby #3, a boy!!!

Maddie, Livy & Emma

Pirate Party!!!!

Our library hosted a Pirate party that I brought the kids to!  They LOVED it and thought it was so much fun!  We dressed up and off we went....

After reading pirate books each of the kids made their own pirate map

They got to "sail" the pirate ship



They also got pirate tattoes and each received a pirate name!  Olivia was "Stumpy Silver Kidd" and Brady was "Long John Tooth." 

Snacks were followed "Bilge water" (aka lemonade) and "hardtack" (saltine crackers and donuts).

"Happy Birthday to you! Happy Birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Chelsae, Chloe, Olivia, Grandpa Morgan, Grandpa Graf and Daddy...Happy Birthday to you!!!"

I've said it before, July is the "crazy birthday month" in our family with 6 birthdays and 1 anniversary to celebrate!!!  We did a pretty good job of celebrating everyone's birthdays this year.  We weren't able to celebrate ON Chelsae's 18th birthday but we did get to spend some time with her after.  We had a Dora birthday bash at Grammie and Grandpa Graf's for Chloe's 2nd birthday.  We had a great time with Grandpa Morgan while he visited here and sent him some b-day cash in the mail after he left and then had a small family party for Olivia's 3rd birthday and Grandpa Graf and Chris's birthdays.

Brady and Olivia enjoying the birthday meal at their own little table

Proud birthday girl...she walked around for two weeks sticking up her middle three fingers and telling people that she is "free!"  Now she tells everyone that she is five....

Opening gifts....

Make a wish!!!

Silly big brother!

Somehow we didn't get a good picture of Grandpa or Chelsae...but we did get one good picture of daddy!  Thanks for the Reeses Nickie...they were of course, a hit!

Hogle Zoo with Mom and Dad Morgan

On the day that we took mom and dad to the SLC airport we had lunch at Rodizio's and stuffed ourselves! Then we spent the rest of the afternoon at Hogle Zoo. It was our first time there and we had a lot of fun! Brady loved the dinosaur exhibits and how they squirted water at you- Olivia was petrified of them!!!

Trolley Square where Rodizio's is- The kids had fun climbing the old water tower:

Elephants:

This elephant statue played an eerie sounding music (sounding like it was coming from the elephant's trunk).  Brady thought it was the coolest thing and of course Olivia hated it!  She kept telling us to get away from the scary elephant and would freak out anytime we came back to it!

Dinosaurs!

   

The dinosaurs really were amazing!  They moved around with lifelike motion, even their eyes!  They roared and some spit water at you when you least expected it!

Carousel:

This was Olivia's favorite part of the whole zoo!  She chose to ride on the bear and Brady was on the praying mantis next to her.  Mom and dad took the kids on and they loved it!  It is so hard to get a good picture on a carousel though!

Monkey Business:

     

Giraffes:  The giraffes had a cool indoor area where you could go up to a second floor and see the giraffes while they ate more at eye level.

Leopard:  Brady thought it was hilarious because they had a display where you put your nose up to some of a  leopards' favorite scents.  One of the scents happened to be cat urine (which smelled disgusting of course!) and he tricked my mom and Chris into smelling it.  It was pretty funny to see him get such a kick out of tricking someone.

This peacock was so beautiful!

Two-humped camel

Prairie dog- there was an underground "cave" that you could go into to spy on the prarie dogs through round windows!  It was pretty neat, but very hot in there!

The tortoise shell and egg displays: