easter 2013.

a few pictures from Easter at grammie & grandpa graf's house in the spring of 2013.

the kids always love coloring the eggs and grammie always has everything ready for them!

                    

we always try to give the kids things other than candy in their "baskets."  they usually get a new water bottle and this year zach got a water bottle, stickers and new pj's.

brady also got a new water bottle, some stickers, a chocolate bunny and a few eggs full of jelly beans and candy, some new flip flops.

olivia got a new swimsuit outfit for her baby "stella," some jelly shoes, a water bottle, stickers, chocolate bunny and some new shirts.

bike safety. spring 2013.

one of the cub scout requirements is to learn bike safety, and since we lived within a mile of the school in Idaho Falls and our kids are not bused to school, as soon as t's warm enough most kids choose to ride their bikes to school.  the school was doing an incentive to get the kids to ride their bikes for 30 days.  if they did they got some small prizes and a t-shirt.

My friend, Jandy decided that it would be a good idea to host a bike safety night over at the church.  she did a great job and got some local officers to come over and teach bike safety basics to fulfill the scout requirements, hand signaling and the importance of wearing our bike helmets.  We had a bbq and potluck and there was a great turnout!

The kids loved the bike obstacle course they had to complete!

{wyatt, jackson, brady, hayden and aiden}

{lydia}

{lindy}

{brady}

{wyatt}

{aiden}

10th anniversary. May 2, 2013.

We had wanted and planned on going on an awesome trip to Hawaii for our 10th anniversary. When we bought our house and our savings went down with it we decided a roap trip along the California coast would suffice.  Then the reality of the home and landscaping projects hit us, so Chris took off a few days work and we worked on the landscaping instead!

He surprised me by taking me out to dinner at The Sandpiper, a seafood and steak restaurant along the Snake River in town.  He had called ahead and had the waitstaff put out a nice tablecloth and candles.  I thought that was really sweet.  We ordered steak and shrimp and splurged on a scallop appetizer.  It was delicious.

Shawnae watched the kids for us and when we got home we were surprised at the door with this sign (made by Brady)

                   

Once we got up to our room there was a little spread with chocolate cake and sparkling cider.  It was so cute!

fun with the hansen family in 2013.

our friends, tiffany and aaron hansen are always fun to be around.  we first met them when we rented their basement apartment from them.. if for anything else, we believe that we moved there to become great friends with them and their family.

in 2013 we had some great times together!

*baby shower*

tiffany was expecting their fourth child, their first little girl and i helped to throw her baby shower with some of her other friends, her sister-in-law becca and mother-in-law joni.  march 2013.

{baby blessing}

we were able to attend their ward for baby Alice's blessing and a luncheon at their house after.

{ethan, tiffany (holding alice), aaron (holding maxwell), & porter}

flash flood

we had aaron and tiffany over for dinner in the late summer and received a crazy down pour of rain that resulted in a flash flood!  the boys were playing downstairs and suddenly ran up saying that it sounded like the "wall was peeing!" we all ran downstairs to see what they were talking about and found that the basement family room window had water POURING in through it!!! 

this picture doesn't do it justice!  the water was really POURING in!

(if we ever move back we have plans to dig out a much bigger window and window well and replace with a new, large window!)

we quickly moved anything out of the way, grabbed as many towels as we could and then chris and tiffany arranged all the towels while aaron and i dashed outside to the window well with buckets.  i grabbed a water syphon that we had in the garage and we bailed water out as fast as we could!

                 

it was crazy but quite the memorable experience and we appreciated how aaron and tiffany just jumped right in to help out.  the following weekend when everything was dried out, chris patched all along the concrete area around and inside the window well with foam and concrete patch. no problems since...knock on wood.  it took a week and rented fans (thanks to our friend Natalie's dad's carpet and restoration company, Sunrise Restoration!!!) to dry the carpets all out!!!

-hannahs' 30th birthday-

tiffany and my friend, natalie planned a surprise party for my 30th birthday with chris.  i really had no idea and it was such a fun surprise!!!

                                        

and this picture is the reason why aaron got the nickname "the poopmeister." lol

-aarons birthday-

in december we had a party at their house for aaron's birthday.  we played games, ate good food and took some silly pictures!

-spencer, matt, chris, george & aaron-

*tiffany, mitzi, ariana, collette & hannah*

thanks for being great friends guys!!!

{graf family adventures} summer 2013.

we had a lot of fun and excitement with the graf family last summer.  as i've mentioned before, nickie and her family had moved here in mid-june from philadelphia to slc for the year so we tried to squeeze in as much fun as we could while we had them around.  we also had two weddings, two bridal showers and receptions!!! a BUSY year!!!

this will be a L.E.N.G.T.H.Y. post!!!

nickie and nickie move to S.L.C.-

the kids had some cupcakes with VERY bright frosting!!!

we got to meet evy for the first time (one year old)

and they got to meet zach for the first time (a year and a half old)

nickie and i did a kid swap in june and july, each for a week and i just updated that post here with some more pictures.

4th of July 2013-
chris and i and the kids spent the 4th of july up in sun valley.  mom and dad and chelsae were there for part of the time and we celebrated chelsae's 20th birthday together.

missing the 4th of july pics except for a few...

the kids dressed in their "sunday best"-

we enjoyed swimming-

got to go fishing!!!  

grandma too! (can you see her fish?!)

chris got to drive this fancy ride home when he had to pick up a truck from his sun valley office to bring back to idaho falls!

in late july we all got together in idaho falls at our house for olivia's "Tangled" 5th birthday party, posted about here and spent the rest of the afternoon at the beach at Rigby Lake.

chicken fight?!  hannah & chris vs. shawnae & tim:

oooh, i under-estimated her!  that girl can fight!!!

and victory goes to.....shawnae & tim!

and what's a fun day without a motorcycle ride from Tim to end it off!!!  

mom had a blast going for a quick ride!!!

we all got together at Lagoon in August and had a great time!!!  (again, missing a ton of pictures).

Labor Day

Sun Valley, Idaho

August/September 2013

for Labor Day we went back up to Sun Valley. we participated in the annual duck races.  if you buy a duck (each one has a code on the bottom) and it wins the race then you can win prizes.

in the park we got to meet the duck mascot and listen to a band play for free while we waited for the race to begin

 

nick crossed the river with the kids so they could have a good view-

we celebrated Lexi's birthday (Sep. 9th, she had turned 6)-












went to Red Fish Lake-



the water was cold (as always) and it was an overcast day but we still had a blast tubing around-

                    

i had a hard time convincing zach to get in the water!

didn't have to convince the girls though!

lots of fun kayaking-

{mom & dad}

{hannah & chris}

{lexi and her daddy, nick}

{nick & nickie}

{olivia, shawnae & tim}

these kayaks were wobbly!  don't worry, tim!  you weren't the only one who capsized!

{evy & grammie}

and fun paddleboating too!

{brady, shawnae, olivia & tim}

and another trip to the fishing hole!  we are so glad for all of the yummy fish that we always catch! they are the best on the grill!!!

 

brady loved sharing his fishing tips with chloe and lexi 

lexi loved catching everyone's fish in the net

 

everybody got to catch a fish!

 

Trailing of the Sheep Festival

Sun Valley, Idaho

October 2013

Chris and I had to stay home (he had to work) and I had several projects that needed to get done (like re-finishing our kitchen table and chairs), so Tim and Shawnae took our kids up to Sun Valley for the weekend with everyone else.

they stopped at the Shoshone Ice Caves one of the days-

grammie and zach entering the caves-

they did it!

having fun on the statues out front-

lexi loves turtles!!!

what a GREAT summer!!!