Aunt Heller & Leller Date

This past Saturday, my sister Laura and I had the opportunity to take Nate and Em out on an Aunt Heather Date. When Laura is able to come, these dates are referred to as "Aunt Heller and Leller" dates. Em came up with this when she was too little to say Laura. So funny.

Anywho, we went out to the Straw Maze up in Archer and had such a great time. It was a cheap way to exhaust the kids and they had SO much fun. Nate had a great time telling all of us that he was Captain Nate and that Em was his First Mate. He loved getting to do all the problem solving in finding a way out and Em loved that we let her pick which direction to go all the time.  We went in circles more often than anything else, but they loved it. Especially the tunnels.

And these kids are so stinkin smart that we found the ending only 40 minutes into it and wanted to make sure to get our money's worth, so we went back to the beginning from the end. And when that wasn't enough, we went ahead and took a 3rd time through in order to come out at the end like we were supposed to. All 4 of us were so tired afterward, but headed out to Rigby to stop at Arctic Circle for ice cream.

I love my sweet kiddos. Being the favorite Aunt really is the best job in the whole world. I wish so bad that it was my full time job instead of the other. There is never a dull moment with these two!

Nate and Leller

Em & Aunt Heller

Camping With Dad

This post is a little overdue, sorry about that. Life just keeps moving and I can't seem to find the pause button.

I always used to say that I hated camping because I am so terrified of bears and most bugs and I always seem to get horribly sick (like the kind of sick where you can't even contain the vomit) when I go. But, in the spirit of doing new and different things, I opted to go out into the woods and go camping. My dad was up hunting about 30 minutes west of Alpine, WY and I decided to go up for the weekend.

It took us almost 2 hours from home to get into camp on this winding mountain road and I was a little nervous. But, luckily, when we got there, Dad had all the lights on in the trailer, it was warm and I had a bed calling my name.

The next day, we got up and Dad and Des didn't go hunting, so we decided to take the 4 wheelers up to the top of the mountain so I could get a really good view of the forest. Plus, Toots (my Dad's dog) had never been on the 4 wheeler before and we wanted to see how she'd do.

Here are some pictures: Oh... and I don't normally wear camo... but I threw on one of Des' shirts because we were afraid I'd get cold.



These logs were huge and resting over this little stream, so I got out and climbed on it.



Me and my Tootsers

Des on her 4 wheeler

Dad behind us on his dirt bike

Me and Toots

At the top of the mountain looking to the west

Looking to the east. If you pull this pic up big and look really close, you can see our camp (it's the little white dot, LOL)

This really cool tree at the top of the mountain. It had been struck by lightening.

My Tooters

After this, I got too much into the swing of things and didn't take my camera everywhere. But, we had a great time playing with Toots in the streams, 4 wheeling, dirt biking (I LOVED riding the dirt bike), playing Pinochle, teaching my dad and Des Canasta, and riding the Electric Bicycle (yes, I said ELECTRIC bike. It was awesome!)

There were these huge bugs, called Bark Beetles, that were enormous and had these gigantic gross horns on them. They weren't the best flyers, but you would find them crawling on you or landing on you at any given time and you couldn't help but scream. Yuck. After those, the other bugs and the spiders weren't that bad.

And I didn't get sick or get eaten by bears! Whoo hoo!

I realized that camping really is great fun and I absolutely loved it. I was grateful to have a trailer to do it in though. I wouldn't want to go out into the middle of the woods without something that had hard sides to it. No tents. And while I'm not into hunting myself, I fully intend to go out and camp while Dad and Des hunt again next year. LOVED this!!

And P.S. Today is Dad's b'day! Happy 54th Birthday, Dad! Love you!

Happy Birthday Ty

Today he would have been 28. 

I went and put flowers on his grave and spent a few minutes. 

I didn't want to leave. I just wanted to relish those moments of being close to him.

However, I know in my heart that Tyson is in a far better place doing far better things. And though that spot on the outskirts of town is where I watched him laid to rest and that is where I know his body to be resting for right now, I also know that in order to feel close to him on is birthday, I need to go somewhere else.... 

So tonight, I'm headed to the temple. 

I go because I can think of no where else I can get any closer to where he is. And I'm going to do service, which is what Christ would do, and have ME do, in this situation.

Happy Birthday Ty. I both love you and miss you, today and every day. Until we meet again...