Pioneer Day

The summertime in Idaho contains lots of parades and fairs. The pioneer day parade is definately my favorite as long as I don't have to be in it. My parents were here to experience this event with us and they loved it. They loved celebrating the arrival of the Mormon pioneers in Salt Lake and loved learning about the Indian heritage of Pocatello.

Notice Abigail's face. She started feeling bad at the parade and didn't last until the fair. Grand Nan took her home to spend some special time with her and let her rest.

Captin Moroni

Watching the Sho-Ban horse races.

Fun at the petting zoo.

Abigail showed up at the very end of the fair, just in time to get her face painted, but she still wasn't feeling well.

The Swing Set

We have a pretty fun backyard now that we have a trampoline and swing-set. Thanks PaPa & Daddy!

Birthday Celebration with Grand Nan & Pa Pa

Abigail wanted to wait until Grand Nan and PaPa arrived in Idaho to do birthday cake, so we did our big celebration the day after her birthday.

We did a joint birthday gift for Abigail this year. Daddy and PaPa Carl are setting up the swing set while the girls went out on the town.

Heather and Shane got Abigail this Barbie Laptop that does educational games. Andrew even thought it was pretty cool.

Abigail started getting sick on her birthday, she didn't even want to eat birthday cake. She just opened her presents, blew out candles and went to bed.

While the boys were assembling the swing set, Grand Nan took all of the girls out for Manicures or Pedicures. Emily & Elizabeth opted for manicures and Abigail, Misty, Heather, and Grand Nan got pedicures.

Downata Hot Springs

We started out the week-long birthday celebration with a family camping trip to Downata Hot Springs in Downey, Idaho. It was really fun. Abigail loved doing the slides and Emily even tried some big ones too.

Elizabeth's favorite thing was the splash pad.

When you are camping you have to have foil dinners at least once. The kids eve liked them.

You also have to roast marshmallows and eat s'mores too.

There was a small play area where the kids could blow off some steam (Darin too).

I love it when these girls are so sweet to each other. There are definitely times that they are not sweet to each other, but I don't take pictures of those times. We just want to remember the good memories, right?

Playing Ponies in the Tee-Pee

The inside of our Tee-Pee

The Tee-Pee had cots to sleep on, which were pretty nice.

We let Abigail choose the accommodations for the weekend and she took one look at this and knew she had to have it. It was pretty fun to camp in a Tee-Pee.

Abigail's Birthday

I can't believe that my first born is 7. Really, where has the time gone. Having children has definitely made me age and hopefully with that age comes wisdom. We celebrated Abigail's birthday for about a week. First we went camping at Downata Hotsprings, then we had Fruit Kabobs with yogurt and Nutella for Abigails actual birthday breakfast, and then we celebrated all day with Grand Nan, PaPa, Heather & Shane, Andrew, and the rest of the family with birthday cake, a trip to the nail salon, and a new swing set.

Abigail's First Loose Tooth

Abigail finally lost her first tooth. She was very nervous about it, but it ended up being okay. She even got a letter from the Tooth Fairy and a pillow to put her tooth in. She lost the tooth at Art Camp surrounded by friends who thought it was pretty cool.

Summer is for taking it easy

Last week Elizabeth woke up really early in the morning (like 5 am), which is completely unacceptable for the summer. She was ready to play, but I was not. When she came to me. I told her to take her blanket and pillow and find a place to fall back asleep thinking that she would probably crawl back into bed with Abigail. When I woke up she was not in the girls room and I got a bit nervous. I went to go look for her in the back yard and I found her sleeping on the kitchen floor by our sliding glass door. That was an interesting choice of places to sleep, but at least she followed directions.

We live very close to the elementary school and so we like to take the girls to ride bikes in the parking lot so they can have free reign and I don't have to be nervous about them watching out for cars. We also let them choose what ever they want to wear most of the time in the summer hence the clothing choices. I still get to choose the girls outfits on Sundays though.

The twins love going to the bank to get suckers especially when they can come home and enjoy them while they watch a movie.

Swan Valley Camping

We planned a last minute weekend trip to Swan Valley, Victor, Driggs & Jackson Hole. We decided to camp and wanted to attend the Celebrating America Event in Driggs on Saturday, July 2nd. We rolled in in the late-afternoon on Friday, July 2nd. The twins helped daddy set up the tent.

This campsite was pretty remote. No electricity, No plumbing or showers. We did have a water spickett and an out-house and TONS of mosquitos. I immediately lathered up the kids with sun-screen and bug spray.

Grand Nan would be proud, the girls made sure to brush their teeth after every meal and snack.
Idaho summers are hot during the day (not humid though) and cold at night. The first day it was 90 degrees for a high, but it got down to 38 at night. I did not sleep a wink the first night cause I was really cold and gave most of the blanketts and sleeping bags to the kids.

Darin's favorite thing about camping is cooking breakfast in the morning. My favorite thing about camping is that Darin does most of the cooking.

The girls decided to strike different poses on the mat infront of the tent.

Trying to warm up by the camp-fire.

The girls first trip to the out-house. They were afraid they were going to fall in the scary hole. Notice their faces in this picture.