Firsts and Family

So once we got out to Idaho, as you can imagine, we did a LOT of things with my family!

Here are just a few of them, in no particular order. They are mostly "firsts" of things.

Don't worry, there is more to come too!

Makayla got to ride a horse for the first time.

I think she was in heaven. She was so excited, she kept calling out

"Mom, Mom! Watch me! I'm riding horsies! Mom! Watch me!"

This is Oscar and his cousin Reuben watching Evalyn's soccer practice.

And Makayla chasing after soccer balls while in the background Evalyn has her soccer practice.

It is so neat/amazing to watch these kids grow up!

I can't BELIEVE Evalyn is old enough for playing soccer!

But she was really pretty good at all of the drills at practice!

Makayla has always been a bit of a climber.

Here's her first merry-go-round ride.

Can you believe it's hard to find these any more?

They were a total staple of my childhood park experiences,

and now they are deemed dangerous and taken out of a lot of parks.

Thank goodness for Idaho! ;-)

While I was there, there was a HUGE fire that burned through near the INL.

It was amazing that for as long as it burned, and as much as it burned,

no houses or pastures were destroyed and it never made it to the INL either!

BUT

The sky was SUPER cloudy all the up to St Anthony and beyond!

See, here's the gas station at the St Anthony exit.

Those aren't clouds, that's smoke!

It just blanketed EVERYTHING!

I wish I had better pictures, because the sky wasn't grey, it was a really weird orangish color

that reminded me of the sky before a tornado.

Here's my two little studs at the splash park in Rexburg.

Seriously, I LOVE these two little guys!

Look at Reuben's adorable hair! And it's natural! It just grew in like that!

Of course the day WE went, was a little cooler and none of the kids were

too excited about getting wet. But there was also hardly any one there, so "I" got to try everything out. Because normally "no adults" ;-)

I really wish I had a better picture of this. Makayla is wearing cowboy boots (Sammy's old boots when he was a toddler) and a cowboy hat (Sammy's new cowboy hat)

And swinging her horse purse.

Oh yeah, and she's singing.

I can't remember what though, but she makes up songs all the time now.

I LOVE IT!!!

Oscar's first square ice cream cone from Swan Valley

Don't worry, it's not actually HIS, it's Makayla's but she is pretty good at sharing

Which is good because Oscar started crying every time we took the ice cream away.

Guess he's a fan!

We played frisbee... or golf.... whatever the name of it is.

Basically my grandpa won the tournament.

I just really like this picture.

And Makayla got her first REAL hair cut (not the butchering of bangs I did LAST summer!)

The only thing was, she slept through almost the whole thing!

See, there she is, still sleeping.

So I had to hold her head up.

:-)

But John's sister-in-law did an AMAZING job!

And she was so sweet about it too!

Thank you!!!!

And of course it just wouldn't be a family trip with out

hobo dinners and s'mores.

Makayla had her first s'more too!

And while I'd like to say she loved it...

she was actually more interested in the chocolate part of the s'more,

and not so much the marshmallow bit.

Oh well, I LOVE roasted marshmallows!!!