Bannack State Park

We met up with one of my very best friends, Adonica, and her family in Montana at Bannack State Park.  None of us had ever heard of it, but it seemed interesting and was about halfway between us. There's a really neat old mining town and a couple of campgrounds right outside of it.  http://www.bannack.org/

It was a long drive made even longer with many stops for our almost potty-trained toddler. But it was really nice to see Adonica, Vince and Adrian and the town was fun to see. We panned for gold (didn't find gold but we did find several small garnets), toured the town, had a campfire, Joshua and Jeremy took some bike rides, and mostly visited with each other. Here are some photos:

Outside of the old town hotel:

Since it is a State Park, no one is allowed to actually pan for gold.  But to have a bit of the panning experience, a property owner from up the river brings in piles for park visitors to sift through. Apparently, there has been gold pulled out of the pile...we didn't find any though. :)

An old merry-go-round:

We were able to go inside many of the buildings.  Only a couple actually still had things in them which was neat to see.

Checking out the town:

A campfire complete with Nutella smores. Yum!!

Getting ready to leave. :( Hope to see you guys again soon!!!

Grandpa L. and hiking

Jeremy's dad, Grandpa L., drove up for a few days last weekend.  We had a nice time visiting and hanging out.  We went to a yummy Italian deli, watched some movies, barbeque'd, rode bikes/hiked, and even tackled some projects around the house/camper.
Jeremy wanted to go try out a local mountain biking trail so Joshua and Grandpa tagged along to do a bit of hiking. (I stayed home with the girls.) I sent the camera along to experience it vicariously. :)   Thanks for everything Grandpa! Come back and see us again soon!!

Graduation, Boondocks and potty news!

Joshua graduated from pre-school last week! Congrats Joshua!! He had such a great year and really loved going to class. He's very excited for kindergarten to begin in the fall.  

He was in a class of all boys!

Last weekend, my parents visited and took us all to Boondocks for miniature golf and games.  The kids played all sorts of games with them including mini bowling. During miniature golf, Abby kept picking up the ball and putting it into the hole....guess she was frustrated at not being able to hit it very well. LOL After golfing, Joshua got to race alone in a go-cart! He was so serious the whole time but did really well!

Here are a few pictures-

And in other news, Abby has been working really hard learning to be a big girl by using the potty. Yay!!!  She's had a great few days and really has only needed a pull-up at night. I hope she continues to do well...keep your fingers crossed for us!  She's 6 months younger than Joshua was when he potty trained!

Camping

Camping season has arrived and we took a trip to Hyrum State Park to test out the camper. :) Hopefully we will have lots of opportunities to create some fun camping memories this year.  (Many of my favorite childhood memories are from while we were camping!) The months it is actually warm enough to go camping around here are few so we have to pack it all in from about May-early Sept. It was still a bit chilly over the weekend so we didn't want to go too far into the mountains. The weather was lovely and so was the view. Nothing spectacular, but it was fairly close to home and perfect for the first adventure of the year. Bike riding, fishing, games, smores, a trip into town for yummy chips and salsa...good times. :)

This was the first time we tried fishing with the kiddos.  Their attention spans were fairly short...I think it would have been more exciting if we caught something. LOL Hopefully next time!!

Camping or not...coffee is a must!

No fish to BBQ, but the steaks were yummy!!!

Joshua and Abby LOVE their beds.  They weren't going to sleep here, just checking them out again and playing.  (We put gates up to keep them from falling out at night.)

First Goal!!

Joshua got his first goal during his game on Thursday night. Go Joshua! Of course, we were situated on the wrong end of the field to get a good shot of it.  But here he is right after kicking it past the goalie. He is number 9.

Here he is at halftime getting a drink of water...he's so silly! I think this is his mean face he does when he plays goalie. LOL

Like her brother and sister before her, Ellie has found her toes and finds them very tasty (she's been doing this for awhile actually but I just never seem to have my camera handy.) She's also doing the army crawl now and can quickly get across the room. I still need to get a picture of it!

Birthdays and Easter

We had a busy weekend with both mine and Joshua's birthdays as well as Easter. I can't believe Joshua is 5 years old now and will be starting kindergarten in the fall!!  Where does the time go?  He impresses me more each day with how smart he is.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. My parents came up to stay with us and celebrate. We also got to spend a couple of hours with Uncle Mark and Aunt Virginia while they were waiting for a flight at Salt Lake International.

Here is the birthday boy (wearing his crown from preschool) and the enormous cake I made for him. We saw it online and he requested it.  It was yummy and turned out great, but it wasn't easy to build. LOL We found it here-http://theidearoom.blogspot.com/2009/07/rainbow-cake.html

A few Easter photos.  The Easter Bunny hid their baskets and some eggs for them to find.

Brrrrr!!!

It's snowing right now. We had a couple of warm days last week then it turned cold again.  The snow isn't sticking but brrrrrrrr...!!! Joshua likes it anyhow. But I am trying to stay warm with the girls.

I sure hope it warms up soon.  We all went to soccer practice last night. (Abby wanted to yell "Go Joshua" but she suddenly became too shy once we were there.) They played against two of the other teams to practice. Joshua made a goal attempt and just barely missed.  We were so proud of him for trying though! I think his soccer level has pre k and k children playing so some of the players have played before. The actual games start Tuesday. Anyhow, here are the kiddos all bundled up to watch last night. (Joshua is in the star shape.  He is number 9.)

Here he is....

What a cutie! He is so excited to play and wear his uniform!

Green Dinosaurs (Soccer)

Joshua joined his first sport last week...soccer!  He has been wanting to play for a long time.  (Soccer is actually the only thing he can sign up to play at age 4 around here.) He missed his second day of practice since he was sick so I missed the memo about him wearing his team jersey. Anyhow, here are a couple of shots of him at practice tonight.  He LOVED it.  He had so much fun and was such a great listener. They picked their team name...the Green Dinosaurs. He sticks his tongue out when he concentrates...so cute but I hope he doesn't catch a bug! Eeeewwwww!

Joshua is finally feeling better but Jeremy, Abby and Ellie are all under the weather. I hope everyone is healthy again very soon!!!

My sister, Ellie's six month portrait and my little chef

Crystal stopped over with her friend for a quick visit.  it was good to see her but it was way too short. Doesn't her new hair look so pretty on her?? 













I tried to get a good portrait of Ellie today to add to the wall with Joshua and Abby's 6 month photos. Instead of paying too much for someone else to take her picture, I thought I';d give it a shot.  Our little photo session was short, though, because little miss Abby wasn't cooperating (she kept running in front of the camera).  Anyhow, I got a couple of good ones.  I think this one is my favorite. But I haven't decided for sure yet.

Here are a couple of others...what do you think?

And here is Abby wearing a chef's hat I made for her(and a wild hair clip underneath it).  She loves to "cook" at her kitchen.  She even brings over my recipe books to "read" from while she cooks. :)