So I Don't Forget It All...

Because I have a horrible memory and I am trying to blog again but I know there is no way I will ever catch up, here are some things that have happened since I blogged last in whatever order Blogger uploaded the pictures.

 Zac had a run in with the wainscoting in our office.  He was spinning and lost his footing.  Luckily we know a guy and after some typical Zac drama he was as good as new.

 Halloween brought Minnie Mouse, a Greek goddess, Thor, and Optimus Prime to our house.

 This amazing kid turned 7.  I don't even know how to express how much I love this kid.  He makes every day fun and he can always make me smile.  He celebrated his birthday with a giant bounce house slide.  The weather was yucky but luckily we were able to fit the whole thing into the garage and the party was a success.

 We got a dog.  I never thought the day would come but I finally ran out of reasons to say no and we brought Auggie home as a tiny puppy and he has stolen all of our hearts even mine.

 Abby ran cross country.  I don't think she liked it very much but she stuck with it and finished every race.  When I asked her how she liked it all she would say is that she would rather play soccer.  

 Trevor took up road biking and completed a 108 mile race around Coeur dAlene lake called the Coeur dFondo.  When it was over he said he would never do it again but I will not be surprised if he changes his mind in a few months when the weather warms up and he is riding again.  

 Kyle learned how to tie his own tie.  This was one of his first attempts and he can now tie a perfect knot with the perfect length.

 Kyle also got and academic achievement award at school.  This was huge!  Only one kid from each class gets this  award.  Kyle did not really love school last year but this year he has an amazing teacher who has really helped him see that learning is fun and it has been so wonderful to watch him get excited about learning.  

 We went to California over Thanksgiving and got to see these awesome friends.  Zac still talks about his best buddy Landon.

 In my happy place with my favorite girls.  You can take the girl out of California but you can't take California out of the girl.  

 We took my mom to California Adventure and even though you can't tell from Zacs face we all had a great time.  

 Did I mention we got a dog.

 Emma played volleyball and had lots of fun getting to know some fun girls and improving her skills. I also got to see all of North Idaho as the school does not provide busing.

 Zac went on his first field trip to a pumpkin patch.  He has made some great friends and it has helped him come out of his shell.

 We had an awesome Christmas!

 These wonderful people came to visit to celebrate Abby's birthday and Kelsi's baptism.  

 This kid got contacts.  It was so strange at first and I had to keep stopping myself from telling him to go put his glasses on.  He does not like to stop to put his contacts in but once they are in he loves them.

This beautiful girl turned 11.  She is fun and smart and talented in so many ways but most of all she is kind.  She is so good at seeing a need and filling it.  I love my Abigail. She celebrated her birthday with a trip to the roller skating rink with the whole family and then a dinner of waffles and bacon and staying up till midnight.

Florida vacation

We managed to pull off two surprises of epic proportion to make this trip happen.  We decided that we did not want to tell our kids about our trip until the last possible minute because we knew that it would be all that we would hear about until it happened and the girls had finals that we wanted them to focus on.  We told the kids the morning we planned to leave by giving them disney character luggage tags and their magic bands.  Emma figured it out pretty quickly and the other kids were not far behind.  The best was when Emma asked when we were leaving and I got to tell her we were leaving in just a few hours.  It was AWESOME!!!                               

 Heather did not know we were coming either.  With the help of Bud we were able to pull off a pretty awesome surprise.  The part about her putting a bra on just in case is my favorite.

 Just down the road where they live is a pond with some crazy looking duck and coconuts.  

 These two are cut from the same mold and had tons of fun cracking open the coconuts with butter knives and cement.  

 Kyle was pretty excited to try out the snorkeling gear.  Too bad he is afraid of the water and this is about as close to snorkeling as he got.  

 These kiddos had so much fun together.  

 We took a trip down to Key Largo pretty much just so I could try frozen key lime pie on a stick. It did not disappoint.  I think I am going to have to figure out how to replicate them because I am already craving them.  

 It was hard for these crazies to say goodbye but it helped that we were heading to DISNEY WORLD!

 We spent the first day at Epcot.  Zac thought that the giant golf ball was pretty awesome especially when they lit it up at night.  

 Zac was so excited to meet Baymax...right up to the moment we actually got to meet him.  I could not even get him to touch him and he was leaning as far away from him as possible.  Kyle on the other hand thought he was awesome and even gave him a fist bump.

 The next day we headed to the Magic Kingdom.  The weather was a little damp but it worked to our advantage because there were very few people there so the kids got to ride every single ride and even did a couple of them multiple times (Emma rode Space Mountain four times).  Favorites were the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, and driving the race cars.

We ate lunch at the Be Our Guest Restaurant inside the Beasts castle,

 They both tried "the gray stuff" and it was delicious!

 We were lucky enough to meet up with my college friend Maren and her family.  It was so fun to see her and meet her cute kids.  

 We ended the day with Dole Whips in the rain which actually was pretty perfect.

 One final shot in front of the castle.  You can't tell in this picture but Zac has just thrown a pretty big fit about having to take another picture.  One of the workers saw him crying and she brought out a brownie for him "On the Mouse" because she could not bear to see him crying.  Its things like that that keep me coming back to Disney!

 The next day we went to Animal Kingdom.  The weather was REALLY wet that day so we did lots of things inside.  We did do the Safari and saw a ton of animals.  The tour guide told us that the animals really like the rain and are often more active when it is raining.  We also saw the Lion King show which was fabulous and Abby and Kyle got chosen at the end to go down and dance with the performers.  Kyle was really shy at first but loosened up with Abby by his side.  For lunch we got to eat with some of our favorite characters.  Once again Zac was terrified and only would take a picture if I stood next to him.

 Abby had a great time speaking duck to Donald.  She has really perfected her Donald imitation and he thought it was perfect.

 We stayed at the Art of Animation hotel and although we did not spend much time there I was really impressed with it.  Disney really does think of everything.

 Once again no Zac in the picture.  

 On our last day we went to Hollywood Studios.  This is where all the Star Wars stuff is and the kids were in heaven.  We rode Star Tours three times and these two lucky kids got to do Jedi training.

 Abby could not keep her hood on but I don't think that it affected her Jedi skills.

 Kyle told me that this was his favorite part of the trip.  He really enjoyed fighting the Dark Side, especially when he got to use the force to push away Darth Vader.  Zac also finally got over his fear of the characters and actually hugged Chewbacca of all characters.  We also enjoyed watching Beauty and the Beast, singing along at the Frozen sing along, riding Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, and the Rockin Rollin Roller Coaster.  We ended the day with some souvenirs and ice-cream and went to sleep for a few hours before our early morning flight home.

We had a great trip but this California girl thinks she prefers Disneyland.  Can"t wait for our next vacation my favorite crazy kids!

Baseball

Kyle is playing baseball this year.  It has been so fun to watch.  His favorite position is catcher although he has not caught a single ball.  He loves to wear all the equipment and it makes him pay attention instead of kicking dirt in the outfield.  He is excited to go to every game even if it is just for the snacks at the end.  It will be fun to see where this goes in the future.

It's Not Disney...

 We miss Disney!  We are counting our blessings that there is a small theme park just north of where we live to help ease our pain.  

We spent last Saturday there and I think that it will be a regular activity this summer especially once they open the water park.  These kids had a blast and I will do just about anything to catch these smiles.

Birthday Boy

This kid is FOUR!!!  Zac loves Rescue Bots, Transformers, Legos, Kyle, the iPad, Abby, mac and cheese, Emma, Rescue Bots, being read to, ice cream, making car sounds, ninjas, hide and seek, fruit snacks, Rescue Bots, doing anything Kyle is doing, the wiiU, making silly faces, sleeping during sacrament, and spreading smiles where ever he goes.  We love our buddy.

Womens Conference

 My sisters and I had our first ever sisters weekend.  We started the trip out right with some legitimate Mexican food at the Red Iguana.  I love Karina's face in this picture.  She looks a little unsure but the food was fabulous.

 The first of MANY selfies.  We were not very good at them.  After dinner we headed down to Provo to see Kaylee.   

The next day we spent shopping and then went to the Payson temple open house.  It is a beautiful temple full of gorgeous paintings and architecture.  It was a really cool experience and the Spirit was strong.

After dinner we went to comedy sports and laughed hard enough to burn off some of the calories we had eaten that day. 

We ate A LOT.  There are just so many really yummy things to eat.  Of course we had to take a trip to the creamery for the best ice cream.  I was so full that I could not even make myself eat a mint brownie.  Good thing I got one the next day.  

 MORE FOOD!

 We also did a lot of this.  Games with these people has to be one of my favorite things.  We also attended womens conference at BYU which was an awesome experience and I can't wait to do it again soon.

I never hiked the "Y" while I lived in Provo so I had to finally do it.  It was a tough hike and I am old but it was so much fun and there is no one I would have rather done it with.  

 It was a great weekend with fabulous people and I can't wait for our next sisters weekend!

 I almost forgot to add this picture...So Emma asked be before I left if I would look for some of the actors from Studio C one of her favorite shows.  I laughed and told her Provo was a big place and there was no way I was going to see anyone famous.  Well Karina spotted her in a store but we were too late to catch her.  We ended up going next store to Desert Book and were surprised to see Mallory in that store as well.  Well she was busy shopping for temple clothes so we did not feel like we could interrupt...the store was also closing so we decided to wait outside for her like stalkers.  After about 15 minutes she came out and we asked her if we could take a picture.  She was super sweet and it made Emmas day.  It was a really fun experience,