Bear World

On our way to Yellowstone we stopped at Bear World (just outside of Rexburg, ID). We had never done this before, but it came highly recommended from friends, and it did not disappoint. It was a drive through wilderness where we saw dear, elk, mousse, bison, and of course bears. My kids were bummed because no bears came and put their paws on our car, but the bears were really very close. I didn't get any good pictures because we had to keep our windows close and apparently our windows were not very clean.

There was more to Bear Worl then just the drive through experience. They also had a petting zoo with deer, ducks, pigs, goats, etc.

This deer is only 2 days old.

Tanner walking amongst the ducks.

Noah chillin with a deer.

Sydney playing with the goats.

They also had 5 small rides for the kids to enjoy.

Sydney just loved the rides. She laughed so hard on them. It makes me very excited for Disneyland in November.

My very own bear cub.

Another bigger cub.

Anywhoo, if you are going to Yellowstone and you have young kids, I highly recommend Bear World. Good times were had by all the kids.

Messy Night

Every Monday night Thanksgiving Point Gardens does a theme night of activities for kids. We decided Messy Night would be the perfect time to go. My friend Sarah Jane was in town so her and her family met us there for the fun.
Here is Tanner in the process of throwing some perfectly good jello

The three boys after the jello fight.

The Jello fight was definetly the highlight of the night for my kids, but other fun things went on as well, such as: eating popsicles from a string, paper mache, finger painting, quick sand, etc.

Here is Tanner having himself a popcicle.

Isaac showing of one of his messy silly faces.

Isaac playing in the quicksand

Sarah Jane and Me

Anyway I highly recommend the Thanksgiving Point Garden Monday night thing. If anyone wants to go, let us know, we can get you in for half off.

Pennsylvania

So recently Sydney and I took a quick trip to Pennsylvania. We typically try to go every year as a fam, but because of pricey airline tickets, just the 2 of us got to go. My main purpose of going was to run a 5K with my sisters. (okay I just used it as an excuse)

Here we are: My nephews Tyler and Jared, my sis Andrea, my sis-in-laws Carrie and Anastasia, and me.

The race we ran was part of a running club, lets just say...we didn't win. I had been "training" to run this and when it came down to the actual race, I felt like I had to pee the entire time so it was hard to pick up the pace. Thanks to my sis and law Carrie who ran with me the entire time and kept encouraging me to keep going.
Blue Marsh

all the mommas of the family (except Tara-we missed you) took the kids to the lake. Since I am so super awesome, I didn't get very many pictures. O-well, whats done is done. I'm just mad at myself, because I don't see my fam very often, it would be nice to have pictures of when I actually do.

I took Sydney a little while to get used to the water.

Look at my cute nephew Boston

And my lovely sis Andrea (she is going to love that I post this pic)

That night we took the kids to a little carnival in town.

Sydney and her cousin Anna cruisin around town

Sydney loved the rides.

Poor Anna had to deal with crying Sydney...apparently way past her bedtime.

Sorry that is all I have to show for the trip. We did a lot of other fun stuff like eating, hanging out and going to the Camden Aquarium.

Baptism

Tanner was baptized this Saturday. He is our oldest, so the first to get baptized, so it was a big deal at out house. He was really excited and understood how important and special this day was.

Here he is with his daddy all dressed in white.

Here is our little family.

With my parents.

With Kevins parents.

The gang.

Kevins brother Sterling and his family also came as well as our home teachers and several of Tanner's friends. After the baptism I asked Tanner if he was able to feel the Holy Ghost at all during his baptism. He said that he did. He said that he could feel a lot of peace and he knew that was the Holy Ghost. I was definetly a proud momma.

Afterwards we had the family over for Navajo Tacos, fruit, cupcakes and chocolate strawberries. Everything was yummy but I forgot to take pictures. O-well, it wasn't about the food.

Parents Visit

My parents came out to visit for Tanner's baptism. We tried to stay as busy as we could, but the weather was so crummy...They day they got here, we met them at the Thanksgiving Point Gardens. We have a season pass there and had not been to the Gardens yet. It was beautiful and the kids had a blast (we didn't even make it to the Childrens Gardens section).

After the Gardens we went over to Iceburg for some icecream. Sydney was so cute, she just loved the independence of using her own spoon.

The next day it was raining on and off all day, but during one of the rain breaks we made it to the local carnival.

Sydney had a great time on all the rides. It makes me very excited to take her to Disneyland

The boys on the Dragon, Noah looks very unsure about it, but I actually think he really liked it, because he keeps talking about it.

Tanner rode this very scary (to me) ride called the Fire Ball. I was scared just watching him ride it.

I was a good BIG brother and rode the little ride with his very happy sister.

Apparently my 8-year-old has not learned how to eat a carmel apple.

In Tanner's defence, Kevin just reminded me...We would not have a lot of success eating a carmel apple if we were missing our 2 front teeth.

Grand Canyon

We spent our Memorial Weekend at the Grand Canyon (well actually we went to St. George for a few days then went to the Grand Canyon for 2 days and back to St. George). The kids got to do some swimming at grandpa and grandmas pool and in all seriousness they probably would have loved to just do that all weekend, but we tore them away and spent Saturday and Sunday at the Grand Canyon. As we were driving there we passed a National Monurment (I totally forget the name, something Springs) since we have the parks pass it was free, so why not. Here are a few pictures from it. It was an old LDS tithing Farm, cool enough.

Here we are at the Grand Canyon Visitors Center. I know you can't really see us, but thats what you get when you ask some stranger to take your picture.

Look at these tired boys during a hike to Bright Angel Point.

Noah

They are very impressed with the views.

Sometimes he is not so serious.

The family.

Kev and his dad. Kev's parents came with us on this trip. The kids loved having grandma and grandpa with them.

The views were amazing and what a perfect model Tanner was.

Isaac and the canyon.

Even with this metal bars and chain link fencing, I was still pretty nervous (by prettynervous, I mean nightmares the night before and horrible visions of my children falling).

The boys.

So here are my thoughts on the Grand Canyon...I'm sure you want to know. It is a 6 hour drive from here to there. The views are certainly breathtaking. There are only a few shorter hikes (under 4 miles), which is where it lacked for me. With young kids we are definetly not hiking "rim to rim" or "rim to river" and back, so for 2 days there was a lot of down time. We could have covered it all in one long day, so for a 6 hour drive 1 day is not worth that drive, so if you decide to go I would recommend bringing some games to play in your cabin. There were some ladies chillin at the visitors center playing themselves some Mexican Train. Also if your kids are older (7 and up) they have mule rides you can do as well. They also have plane tour rides but that was a wee bit out of our budget.

At the North Rim there are not many places to stay. You can stay at the lodge right at the park (which was full, so not and option for us), Kaibab Lodge (this is where we stayed) which is 5 miles from the park, or Jacobs Lake, which is 30 miles from the park.

At the Kaibab Lodge we stayed in a little cabin with 2 double beds and a set of bunk beds. It was older and somewhat rustic (it had a shower and toilet and mice), but it was a nice little place to stay.

Will we go back...probably when the kids are older.