July 2014 part 2

 The annual GAS reunion was up here as well. We definitely lucked out and had all our family come to us this summer. It was awesome! :) We should do that every summer, because really, Idaho is the bessst. 

Oh, before reunions got under way, it was Jenette's birthday. And I have these pictures that should be shared of that sweet and sassy sister of mine! :)
Prom 2008- we we're in the same date group and everytang!

And now pictures from the Gas reunion:

Thursday we just hung out and waited for everyone to come in.

Shooting bows

 David the jungle gym

 

Had a little surprise baby shower! It was so sweet and unexpected. 

My little helpers showing off these adorable onesies that Keri made: 

("I like big bucks" and "Idahome Boy")

 Handsome David

 

It ain't a secret that David is always the favorite. :)

 

Made ice cream and explored the property

We stayed at a cabin in Island Park and also had camp set up on my parent's property a few miles away from the rented cabin. My Dad certainly knows how to set up a camp in the middle of nowhere.

 

All the grandkiddos (except Josh who was sleeping)

Friday was spent exploring Yellowstone and West Yellowstone (again, but with different people this time, so it's all good). 

Old Faithful

 Grand Prismatic Lake- we hadn't been to this area of the geyser basin before. The contrast in colors was amazing!

 Babies babies babies!

^This picture of Wyatt could be made into some sort of meme.

And then we went to camp and had dinner and celebrated Spencer's birthday. The day before as gifts we're being brought out for the mini baby shower, Spencer was convinced that all those gift bags were for him...until he realized they weren't. Poor guy! So we really wanted to make sure to get him something special. When we were exploring West Yellowstone Spencer saw an orange camo knife that he really wanted. So when he wasn't looking we got him the knife. It was fun to watch him open it up.

^ And Nonnie got buffalo teeth necklaces for the kids. ^

Finally got to love on this ball of mush. Being so far away is hard after being so close.
And holy moly it looks a bowling ball is stuffed in my shirt. Ha! Being pregnant is weird. 

 Spencer trying out his birthday kite.

 babies in camp! 

The girls were so cute keeping Liv and Wyatt entertained playing Peek-a-Boo.

Camp bath from Liv. ^
Saturday we pretty much just packed up and headed out. It went by too fast! 

We went out to dinner at Big Jud's (where the burgers are bigger than your face!) and then Frostop for root beer floats in Ashton with friends one night after floating the river in tubes. (Idaho, we love you and your perfect summer weather! Not too hot, not too cold.)

And if your main squeeze doesn't know his way around a set of tools, then you should find a different man. JK. kind of. Tuesday night I showed David a picture of a bookcase made out of pallets that I want to put in the living room. Wednesday night- we have a bookcase!

Love it! and him.

We finally got the 2nd bedroom cleaned out and are now working on turning it into a nursery. Eeek! So excited! Goodbye July, hello August and baby preppin'!

July 2014 part 1

This month has been busy, busy, busy. We've been gone playing with family or working more than we've been home. So it's a good thing we worked around the clock in June doing house and yard projects while we could, because now I'm in baby prep mode and will be focusing on my projects for October. Pretty much I have one month to get it all done. Ah! 

Back to July.

We were the lucky ones that got to work the 4th of July weekend. Ugh. But we made the best of it! Our sweet friends- Brandon and Janet- came up to visit us Friday night. We fished on the lake. Roasted burgers and hot dogs, and lit our own fireworks.

A day after we got home from work we had our first four visitors arrive Tuesday night. Scott and Finis (Papa and Nessie) showed up with Amelia and James. 

Wednesday we went to the Legacy Flight Museum in town. James was in love and couldn't get over all the airplanes everywhere. "Airplane, airplane, airplane, airplane, zoom zoom!" 

 His little arm doing the "zoom, zoom!"

 Content as can be in the cockpit and waving goodbye.

 Bye bye!

 WWII Willys Jeep

 After the museum we went to campus for lunch and to the wildlife museum, greenhouses, and gardens.

James hauled all these pillows in this box afterwards and took a little a rest. He must have been tired from all that playing!

That evening we went to the splash pad at the park and then waited for Joe and Felicia to arrive.

Thursday we went to Bear World. (we had a free pass for a car load from our friends)

Husky grizzly.

 Big ol' big brown bear. Seriously, he was huge. And he left nose smears on the car he got so close.

 Bears, bears everywhere! + an albino elk- pretty cool.

Then we picked up Zach from the airport and headed to our campsite in Island Park.

The boys did a lot of fishin'.

 

We played in camp, floated and played in the river, and went to Yellowstone!

We didn't have much time so we just hit a few spots on the west side of the central loop.

First stop- Gibbon Falls!

 Then on to the Norris Geyser Basin.

 Where Amelia got a sliver in her finger and her uncles thought it hilarious to have her show everybody.

And where we saw the Steamboat Geyser sputtering (apparently it's bigger than Old Faithful). We were here last year on July 27. They never know when this one's going to blow, and it had been over 20 years since it last went off. Apparently it last went off July 31, 2013. We were shocked! We just missed it last year. Crazy.

Oh and there's Old Faithful in the bottom right.

Also where the forest is resurfacing after a fire and the trees are baby elf size. It was so cute.

Saw a few buffalo. This one looked like a rock just sitting there and we almost missed it.

 It was so fun to play with family; we didn't want to see them leave. We were so sad that Chelsie and Preston couldn't come. Hopefully next year everybody's schedule will work a little better.

And lastly: produce from the garden! Yum.

June 2014

June flew by as I finished my internship, David kept up with online classes and taking care of the yard and garden.

We put in a fire pit! We love it! We went with the cheap way to put it together and used cinder blocks, that cut the price down about $100. :)

My garden!!!

Grass is coming in ok. Better than it used to look at least. :)

And the crab-apple tree is looking much healthier than it did last year.

After a day of boat inspections we ventured a little further north into Montana and checked out Cliff and Wade lakes. They are sooo beautiful! We decided to cook dinner at the lake and enjoy it for as long as we could. We will definitely be going back. With a boat and swimsuits next time. 

I made Uncle Klain's birthday cake! 70 years young!
We weren't really into celebrating birthdays, and we definitely never did chocolate cakes in the house I grew up in, so this was my first time making a chocolate cake. It turned out pretty good!

I finished my internship on June 14! It felt so good to come home and just be able to be home...until we left for another 3-day shift at the lake.

Floated the river with ward and my sweet visiting teachee took this awful photo! haha. I clearly didn't know where to look. David and I were the last ones in as we took our sweet time and fished the way down instead of paddling like crazy.

Headed over to Driggs for the Hunstman fireworks show.

Before the fireworks we drove into the Teton mountain range and hiked up to the Darby wind caves. It was great to be outside surrounded by beauty.

My sweet friend, Janet!
And oh yah, I'm 6 months pregnant!

 

Such a great show! One of the best I've seen. We definitely recommend it.