Melissa's Wedding

One of the hardest things about traveling by yourself with kids is you can't seem to take any decent pictures primarily cause I've got screaming baby in one arm and trying to corral Lynette with the other. So this is all the pictures I've got of Melissa's wedding. Sad. It was a great wedding- it was a party, as it should be. We had a bridal shower with good food, friends I haven't seen in years and a random break out session with Kim and Melissa. They tried to get me to join them but I didn't want to intimidate anyone....actually when I dance with those girls I look like a fish flapping on dry land so I try to avoid that in public as much as I can.

Our next event was the bachelorette party Melissa threw for herself. I've never been to a bachelorette party- mormon girls don't tend to do that too much, but Melissa threated disownment if the sister's didn't show up. So we did. I'll give you one guess as to what we did- that's right, dancing at a night club in Salt Lake. I brought Trevor with me because we both suffer from separation anxiety and for the most part it was just fine. The club that night started 1/2 hour after we got there and then it was a country dance class for the first hour, both things Melissa did not expect. We enjoyed it anyway. There was some real dancing after the class and a whole bunch of people showed up, lights were dimmed, flashing lights were turned on and the club was jammin'. It was way fun. I think my favorite part was watching my younger sister Kim go and ask all the guys to dance with her- she's guts-y.

So after the dance we headed back to Melissa's house for poker, pizza and the highlight of the night, our PG-rated Gorilla stripper. That was so dang funny. Trevor, thankfully, went to sleep so I was able to enjoy it all and listen to Kimberlee ask at least 20 times if the pizza was done yet.

The day before the wedding we ladies got manicures and pedicures, followed by a dinner with the new in-laws- great time. The sisters then headed over to Melissa's place for a sleepover so we could talk and be there to help her get ready in the morning. The morning was, of course, chaotic but we all got to the temple of time enjoyed a fantastic ceremony with twice the amount of family than we expect and one of the funniest sealers I have ever heard. It was odd laughing that much in the sealing room. It was perfect for Melissa.

The reception that night was lovely, with only a few musical numbers, good food and- guess what- more dancing! It was a great night. Lynette was bopping around inbetween times playing with the fountain and getting all wet and Trevor was happily passed from person to person. It was a great wedding and I'm so happy for Melissa and my new brother-in-law, Eric.

What party of Melissa's would be complete without dancing?

Sorry, bad picture.

The Stripper

No one can get down like a Gorilla.

Independence Day

So the Fourth of July this year was spent in my very favorite way, with a BBQ picnic at
Veteran's Park, a lovely bike ride along the Green belt to Julia Davis Park, and watching fireworks with the family. The kids loved it. So one of the great and terrible things about Boise is it is on the far western part of the time zone so fireworks weren't schedule until it got dark, 10:15pm. We got to the park at 8pm, had a nice dinner- of course we had a nice little argument when mom tried to feed Trevor peanut butter brownies and I, of course, overreacted. After than we saddled everyone up with the kids in a pull-behind bike trailer thing- Lynette with Hunter and Trevor with Dakoda. The ride was lovely with only a few minor mishaps of Trevor stealing Dakoda's binky and then Trevor getting cold/wanting to see mom. Anyway, we got there in one piece along with half of the population of Boise. The fireworks were great. I was worried that the kids, particularly Trevor, would be freaked out by the loud noise, but they loved it. Trevor was mesmerized and Lynette kept informing me everytime I turned my head that I was "missing it." The ride home was in the dark with Trevor screaming most of the time until he fell asleep, poor kid. It was a great day. My only wish was that Michael could have been there to enjoy it with us. Turns out he had the whole weekend off since he was working at the VA. He got together with some friends and enjoyed the fireworks in Chicago. I was glad he was able to enjoy himself. Overall, it was a great Independence day.

Lynette and Hunter take dinnertime very seriously.

Watching "fire in the sky", as Lynette calls it, with Grandpa

The gang.

And here we have Idaho!

Every year I make at least one extended trip to Idaho and since Melissa was getting married that was as good as an excuse as any to say goodbye to Michael, cross my fingers, and fly the kids out to reacquaint themselves with my family- or in Trevor's case to introduce him to my family. Its always a little difficult to take the kids for a long stay like that- their schedules get completely thrown off, they get freaked out meeting all these new people, and Michael isn't there to help- but all in all it was a fantastic trip. Lynette enjoyed playing with my siblings, particularly Brennan and Collin, my youngest brothers, and munching on chocolate chips, oreo cookies, and ice cream with Grandma. Trevor even did pretty well despite his growing separation anxiety. He loved having a larger space to roam around in, especially learning how to crawl upstairs, and loved the outdoors, though I couldn't blame him. The evenings in Idaho are to die for- perfect weather, nice sunsets, not many bugs, soft grass- the only not so fantastic thing about it is it doesn't get dark until 10pm (11pm our time) so Lynette stays up WAY later than she should have. Trevor especially had a hard time adjusting to the new sleeping environment- he woke up every night at least 4 times. Thankfully, Trevor quickly jumped into a normal schedule, he's evening sleeping all through the night now, thank goodness.
Anyway, the following posts are of our adventures in Idaho, enjoy.

While in Idaho we spent a spontaneous evening at Whazoo- formerly known as Boondocks. We hit the mini-golfing and had a great time. Granted, it was a little annoying to have to remind Lynette not to pick up my golf ball after every single time I hit it.

Granpa helps Lynette out with her form

Hole in One!!! Yeah Lynette!

One of our days there I headed out to Eagle Island with my sister-in-law, Nicole, her two kids, and four other kids that she babysits. It was a wonderful time. The kids splashed in the water, played in the sand, and even checked out the playground. My sisters Kim and Rebecca also showed up to chase the kids around a bit. Lynette was so happy to plan with other kids her age- she's been feeling a little friendless and lonely since the move

Open Wide!

So we finally started Trevor on some solid food. Here are some pictures of his first taste of rice cereal. He loved the stuff. He loves it at, except for peas. Everytime we give him a bite of peas you get to see him give a very large shudder which totally cracks us up. We keep feeding him the stuff just because we love watching his response and Trevor is so good humored he keeps taking it. We sure love our little man. He's 7 month old now and just started getting mobile. He army crawls all over the place- its so fun! Its a good thing we've got all of our packing stuff put away so he doesn't get lost in it!

What the..? This is new...

He's not quite sure about this...

Resounding approval. We've got him beggin' for more.

Success!

Lynette gets in on the action.

Wingin' it at the Butterfly House

So I'm a little late putting up this blog, but hey I've been busy! When Michael's parents came in for graduation we took them out to the Butterfly House cause we figured they'd enjoy it. We had a great time. Lynette wasn't near as afraid of the butterflies this time as last (though they still made her a tad nervous) and then weather was much nicer so we could check out the outside as well as play on the fantastic playground. There were a lot of school field trip so the place was crawling with kids, but it was okay. We're sure going to miss this place.

The butterflies really seemed to enjoy my hair. They have good taste.

Butterflies eat by filling up this swirly "tongue" with fluid so its straight like a straw and sucking the nectar out of plants.

Did you know that if you took a caterpiller off the leaf it was hatched on and transplanted it to another species of plant it would die? Hm...surprised you didn't know that.

Say "Cheese"! Come on Lynette, smile! Please..

Lynette meets Mr. Millipede. Cool

So I took a picture of this random woman because it cracked me up how all of these butterflies were just attacking her. Here you can see two on her neck, there was another on her head and another on the zipper of her pants, but I figured she wouldn't appreciate me taking a picture of that area. She tried to brush them off but they just wouldn't budge.

This moth was absolutely enormous. If it landed on my nose it would have covered most of my face. Apparently these are pretty rare to see because they are born without mouths so they only live about 3 days. I thought it was pretty cool.