idaho falls. last trip of the summer.

before summer ended and the last weekend that "i should" travel with this pregnancy we decided to head up to idaho falls one last time to see our friends and go to a couple of our favorite spots.

the timing was perfect because we were able to attend one of our little buddies, ethan's baptism.  it is always special to be a part of our friends' lives and support them when we can.

the first night- we couldn't leave SLC until saturday evening because chris had to work, so we got up to idaho falls at around 7 p.m. and picked up my brother, bryce and had some chinese together.  he was getting ready to leave to a concert so that was our opportunity to spend a little time with him.

we spent the night with chris' sister, shawnae and her husband tim. we appreciate them letting us crash their place and it gave us a little bit of time together.

Sunday- we were able to attend our old ward and it was so wonderful to see our friends there and people we love dearly.  a few of "my young women" had received their young womanhood recognition awards the previous sunday so i was so proud of them!

after church we had a quick picnic at Tautphaus Park and then let the kids play at the playground for a little bit before heading over to our friends' rose and wes' house for dinner.  they were gracious enough to offer for us to stay the next couple of nights at their house and it was wonderful to spend some time with them and have our kids play.

sunday evening we attended ethan's baptism and then headed back to rose and wes' to test out their brand new theater room with a movie and popcorn!

Monday- we did a little shopping at some places that we needed some things at.  we don't get to go out of tooele very often here so our shopping is very limited.  we ate lunch out Cafe Rio and then went to Rigby Lake for the afternoon into the evening.  we were able to meet up with our friends, the hansens for the whole day there and also had our friends, jandy and her kiddos and kara and her kiddos come for a few hours.  later on in the evening our friends, the thibodeaus came and joined us for a bbq.

evenings at Rigby Lake are my favorite!

these boys are such good pals!  

- porter, brady & ethan -

olivia and brady rode back to the hansens' house with them in their van.  apparently aaron and tiffany hadn't had enough of us yet and invited us back to their place for some games.  good old times. there were many a night spent staying up late and playing games with them! and olivia entertained max and alice with a book.  alice liked olivia enough to hold her hand.

Tuesday- we spent the morning with rose and her kids and rose and i did some shopping for healthy picnic food.  we spent the afternoon at Rexburg Rapids and had a great time!  it took zach a bit to warm up to the idea of swimming in the splash area again.  he loves playing along the shore but areas that have squirting water and lots of people tend to make him shy off a bit.  i enjoyed sitting in the shallows with him and chatting with tiffany and rose while chris did the more adventurous stuff with the older kids.

- rose & tiffany -

i love these two girls so much.  they are definately two of my dearest friends who i can talk to about anything.  they give me their full attention, a listening ear, a warm heart and great advice.  i am so lucky to have such good girlfriends!

we ended the evening (and our vacation) at another favorite place, Pizza Pie Cafe with aaron and tiffany.  great food and even better friends!

we headed home to utah from rexburg and this guy did a great job making it both ways without any accidents!  we did have one roadside "emergency" stop, but someone had a bit of "performance anxiety!"  

                       

nothing cuter than baby buns!

a little bit of lately. {deseret peak complex pool}.

a very hot day, a "flex" day off for chris and some time needed as a family.  thank heavens that we have Deseret Peak Complex pool!!  for $4 each we got to spend an afternoon relaxing and cooling off.  we invited our friend candice and her kiddos along too.

this little boy often sports very red, rosy cheeks when he's hot.  it took him a bit to "warm up" to the idea of cooling off in the water, but once he got in and splashed around a bit with mom he was good to go- as long as i didn't let go!

candice's baby, brielle has the cutest chubbiest legs and bum i've ever seen!  she fell fast asleep after swimming in the hot sun and stayed out like a beauty queen for an hour!

candice and mollie 

(carter swimming in the background)

chris and his boys

olivia wanted me to wrap her hair up like i sometimes do after a shower- my little bathing beauty

brady couldn't get enough of the water slide and diving boards. we'll definitely be coming back!

later that evening we enjoyed a dinner with chad and candice and all the kiddos at our place. we're grateful to have them as friends!  we would be very lonely without them here in Tooele and feel blessed that we were able to rent their old townhouse!

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}

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!!!

playing catch-up. Jensen wedding.

i had the privilege of helping my friend, Jeanine with her wedding reception last september.  i had gotten to know her and her son, Landon over the previous year as they had been members of our ward and i watched Landon over the summer.  he was buddies with my kids and we had a lot of fun together!

Jeanine married Mark, whose parents lived in our ward in idaho falls.  such a sweet couple.

the reception was held at the chapel and turned out really lovely

our friend, jandy made the delicious carrot wedding cake

Landon and Mark

me and Jandy

my troop

it was wonderful to be part of Mark, Jeanine and Landon's special day!!!