Summer Trip - Day 3

Day three we left Lusk and traveled into South Dakota!!  The pictures above are from the drive out of Lusk.  I thought it was really pretty.

When we entered South Dakota, all of my boys (including Jeremy) got to add a state to their list of states visited.  I had already been to South Dakota, so I didn't get to add a state to my list.

Once in South Dakota, we decided to visit Spearfish Canyon.  It is really beautiful.

We stopped and saw Bridal Veil Falls.  You can see this from the road, so it is an easy stop.

We then took a hike to see Spearfish Falls.  Here are my little guys on the trail.

More pictures from the hike.  This was really fun, and beautiful!

Finally, at the falls!

Then we took another hike to see Roughlock falls.

Pretty scenery from the hike.

Roughlock Falls!!

And to prove we were there - - here are the boys in front of them.

A picture from the hike back.  All of the boys loved these hikes - except Drake.  He loved them until about the last mile of the last one, and then he decided he had had enough.

I took this picture just so I could remember how clear the water was here.  So pretty!!  We loved Spearfish canyon!!

From there we headed to Belle Fourche, SD.  The geographical center of the nation (including Alaska, and Hawaii).  This monument isn't the exact spot.  It is actually located outside of town on private land, but they took advantage of their proximity, and it is a fun little stop if you are ever in the area.

The boys at the monument.  It is nice and very well kept.  There is also a good little museum that is free there.  

After we left Belle Fourche, we headed into North Dakota!  This time the whole family got to add a state to their list!!

That night we stayed in Dickinson, North Dakota.  The hotel was nice.  It also had a large suite that would accommodate our whole family, and it had a fun little waterpark that all the boys loved.

It had a full sized waterslide that was FAST!!  Tad wouldn't go on it at first, but finally agreed to go if Jeremy held him.  After he did that a time or two, we couldn't get him off of it.  He was a watersliding fanatic!!

Here is Drake coming down the slide.

The boys also had fun in the bigger pool on these ropes and floating discs.

Day 3 was a great one!!

Summer Trip

Last Christmas, Jeremy and I decided that our kids had enough "stuff", and that we wanted to provide them with experiences rather than things. So, instead of buying a lot of stuff (they all got a little present or two), we told them that they were going to get a fun family vacation in the Summer.  The kids were, luckily, on board, and so they looked forward to our upcoming vacation for six months.  We decided to head north to Mount Rushmore, and other surrounding sites, and we had a ball. We have been back for a little over a week now, and I am finally getting around to looking through our pictures.  I will break the trip up into days, so you won't suffer too much picture overload.

First up - day one.

We left Taylor early, early in the morning and headed East on I-40 into New Mexico, then headed north into Durango, Colorado.

We stopped there for lunch and the kids had fun at the little train park where we stopped and also seeing the pretty river that flows through Durango.

We then continued North through Ouray.  I don't know why I didn't take more pictures here, The drive into Ouray from the south is beautiful, and I think Ouray itself is such a pretty town.  Oh well, at least I got this picture of my boys at the waterfall.  We took a short little hike up to see it and the boys loved it.

From there we continued north into Grand Junction and spent the night there.

Day 2

We left Grand Junction and traveled east on I-70 to Denver.  I love this stretch of I-70.  It is one of the most beautiful freeways I have ever traveled.  Here are a few pics . . .

From Denver, we headed north to Fort Collins, Co.

We stopped and saw the beautiful Fort Collins temple.

We also spotted Drake Rd., so of course, we had to stop for a picture.

From there we went to Cheyenne, WY, and saw a few of the sights there.

My kids especially loved the little wading pond and stream at the Children's village.  It was a good place to take a break and cool off.

After we left Cheyenne, we headed north to a cute little town called Lusk, WY.  

The kids really liked where we stayed in Lusk.  It had a fun outdoor pool and it also had bikes that you could borrow for free.  Jeremy and the three older boys took rides in the evening, and again the next morning before we left.  I liked the fact that it had a large family suite, that could accommodate all seven of us with room for more!!

We covered a lot of miles the first two days, but we saw some new things, and made some good memories as well.

Six!

My little Tad just turned six!  He was soooooo excited about his birthday this year.

He requested cherry chip cupcakes with white frosting, and told me I could surprise him with how they were decorated.  I found this cute idea on Pinterest and he was thrilled.  The kid loves suckers. (In fact, they were they only thing that he would work toward when he was potty training years ago.)

After cake we opened presents.

He and Drake had the front room all set up with special guests and a chair for the guest of honor.  (Notice how all the guests (Angry Birds) are facing towards the chair, ready to watch the present opening.)

He had requested two things for his birthday.  A fidget spinner - because really, what kid can be without one these days?

And more Angry Birds plushies.  Grandma Teichert obliged and gave him a set of plushies from the Angry Birds movie.  In addition to the ones above, he also got Chuck, Bomb Bird, and Red Bird.  I know we have a crazy amount of these things, but my boys play with these things for hours every day.  They are worth every cent.

We also gave him a giant Mustache pig.  It makes sounds and everything.  He was very excited.

Tad is such a fun kid.  I love our conversations, playtime, reading time, and just hanging out together.  Plus he is such a good helper to me. I am going to miss him so much when he leaves me every day for Kindergarten.

Happy Birthday Tad!  I know you will make a great six-year-old!!

Life Lately

 Here are a few things that have been keeping us busy lately.

Dallin ran track this Spring and did a great job.  He won or placed in every race until the finals.  At the end of the season, he developed shin splints.  They became more and more severe, and by the finals we were afraid that he had developed stress fractures, because the pain when he ran was excruciating.  At the qualifiers, we could tell he was having trouble, but he managed to qualify in all his events.  At the finals, he just couldn't run like normal, so he was disappointed.  He was especially disappointed because his 4x100 relay team took second, and probably would have won if he hadn't been injured.  It is hard to let your teammates down.  Oh well.  He is only in 6th grade, so he still has two more years of Junior High track.  Hopefully next year he will stay healthy all season.

Tad graduated from preschool and got the traditional space shuttle send-off.

His preschool teacher is amazing and we are so grateful she started it up again after she got home from her mission.

He heads to Kindergarten next year and I am going to miss him so much.  Everyone keeps saying to me how I must be rejoicing that all of my kids will be in school next year - but I am really sad about it.  I think it is because I waited soooo long to be a mother.  It honestly felt like forever.  But the years that I had my little kids at home with me went so fast.  Maybe if I had married and had my kids really young, then I would understand why all these mothers are so happy to be rid of their kids, but I just don't feel that way.

At least Kindergarten is only 1/2 day here, so I have another year before the real sadness hits.

This is Drake at his piano recital.  He played his pieces perfectly and is doing such a good job of learning the piano.  He has great technique for a beginner. I am excited to see how he progresses from here.

This is Thomas at the piano recital.  He also played his pieces perfectly.  We never had money when Jeremy was teaching to pay for piano lessons, so I worked with Thomas a little bit to get him started, but once we started building our house, all of that went out the window.  We started him up this last year with a piano teacher, and he was worried because he felt so far behind other kids his age, but he is really taking off and making great progress.  

He is so funny because I always sit with him at his first practice after piano lessons, and make sure that he is counting correctly, playing the right notes, etc. and he gets so irritated with me when I correct him. But after that first practice, he has everything down and is almost ready for another lesson. I never have to sit with him again, he just remembers it all and perfects his pieces after that. So now, we just need to work on him not being so irritated with his mom for helping him.

Thomas and Drake after the recital.  They are holding t-shirts from their teacher.  The t-shirts say 'Piano is my jam!"  They are really cute.

I forgot to take my good camera to the recital, so unfortunately, I only got these poor pictures with my phone.  Oh well, something is better than nothing.  I am so pleased with my two piano players!!

Living Room

I am finally getting around to sharing some pictures of my living room on the blog.  I have finally mostly finished decorating it, and I love how it turned out.  When we were looking for a house, and then coming up with house plans, I knew that one thing I would not go without was a living room right off the entry to the house.  My former house had the ever popular open floor plan, which gave everyone a direct shot of my kitchen and family room from the front door.  Since I do a lot of cooking, and projects, and my kids do a lot of playing, it was rare that these spaces were company ready.  I hated feeling embarrassed every time someone popped in.  I tried to tell myself I shouldn't be embarrassed for feeding my family, or letting my kids play, but ultimately it still bothered me.  So, a living room right off the entry that was always "company ready" was a big priority for me.

When you enter my house through the front door, this room is immediately off to the right.  It is not large because I didn't want to waste too much square footage on a room that wouldn't be used that much.

This is a shot of the front wall.  I planned this room around a couple of prints I have of my great-grandmother's paintings.  I love the soft colors in these paintings for a living room.

This room actually gets used a lot more than I thought.  People stop by a lot and we use it when the home teachers and visiting teachers come, plus my kids practice their piano in here every day, but otherwise it is off limits to them.  I originally wanted lighter colored furniture in here, but Jeremy convinced me that we should go a little darker.  Light colored furniture is just too risky with five boys - even if the room is off-limits to them.

A close-up of some of the decor on the piano.  My mom gave us the Christus statue as a housewarming gift the first time she came to see it.

And a close up of my side table lamp.  I bought two of these for this room before the house was even finished and the room was just conceptualized.  When I set them on the tables while I was decorating they seemed too short, but I still loved the lamps and wanted to use them. So I gave them a little boost with some old books that Jeremy had inherited from his grandma.  Now, not only did I get to use my lamps but we can all think of Jeremy's sweet grandma every time we are in this room.

This picture is blurry (sorry), but it gives you a little bit of a better idea of how this room is situated in the house.  As you can see, I still haven't invested in a cute rug for the entry, so we are still using a remnant of carpet.  We are finally working on landscaping the front yard, so hopefully I will be able to get a cuter rug soon.

And since I gave you a glimpse of our Easter mantle in the last shot, I will finish up this post with a few close ups.

The Easter mantle is coming down tomorrow and it will be nice to take a break from the cutesy holiday mantles for a month or two.  Tad and I will just have to read a few more stories and put together a few more puzzles to keep us busy instead.

Another Random Post

This post is another completely random one.  Oh well, I guess something is better than nothing. :)

This is a not so great picture of Dallin that I shot with my phone at his Science Fair in December.  He was one of the winners, and I totally forgot to blog about it.  Sorry Dal.  We are very happy that you won!

 He did a fun project to determine if the size of ice that you use in a traditional home ice-cream maker  makes any difference in the freeze time and consistency of the finished project.  It turns out it does!!  We had to make several batches and eat a lot of ice cream to make this determination.  Thank goodness for good notes, and good pictures because we had to space out the batches in order to stand eating so much!!

Drake and the rest of the first grade did their patriotic program.  It was awesome!  Drake even got to lead everyone in the Pledge of Allegiance.  He did a perfect job!!  I should have gotten a picture - but oops, I forgot!!

I took this picture from my front door a couple of weeks ago.  We had a lot of moisture this winter.

Which is great, because the desert that is usually brown and barren now looks like this!!

I took these pictures last week when we were heading to Phoenix during spring break.  It was so nice to see all the green and the wildflowers that were out.

Finally I am sharing the St, Patrick's day hook shelf that Tad and I decorated.  I liked this one so much it is still up.  I promised Tad that we will take it down tomorrow and put up a new Easter one.

It is so nice that Tad's boredom and subsequent excitement over things like this has inspired me to decorate for these holidays that I have never decorated for before.  It has made this little space in our entry really fun and happy.

I'm sure I'll be back to share our Easter decor soon.  Riveting stuff, I know.  Please try to contain your excitement.  Until then, have a good one!