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.

April 2014

Tore the whole dash out of the jeep....again. Ugh. But David got things fixed.

Conference Sunday made donuts. So delicious!

Soaked up some sun while studying.  (The yard is much more green now)

Joe and Felicia and kids came up at the end of the semester to visit and then took David home with them to play while I started my internship. He didn't have to work that week so the timing was perfect. 

We've had these red leather boots in the closet for years. James' PJ outfit was begging for them to be pulled out. Can that red-head get any cuter???

I finished my first week of my internship and headed down to Salt Lake to meet up with David and family for Easter weekend. 

Dying eggs.

And sweet Chelsie started the process of bringing my hair back to blonde.

While there we finally announced the news about our growing lil' gummy bear. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up with everyone in one spot and getting to see the big reaction. Plus we concocted a fun way to spill the beans that worked well with the easter season.There's a video somewhere, but all you can hear is Nessie screaming. haha. 

We gave Amelia a puzzle (of a cute yellow chick) with a note on the back that said there's another egg to find with a big surprise inside. We got everyone outside and David hid the egg (which looked like a cute yellow chick). When everyone came back in it was a mad house. I've never seen an apartment torn apart so fast. Sorry, Felicia. Finally the egg was found! Nessie opened it and ignored the black and white picture (she said she thought it was a map or something to another egg) and began reading the back which said: "We're EGGspecting this chick to hatch in October!" She stumbled over the EGGspecting part and then it clicked before she could finish reading and she was screaming and jumping and down. It was pretty great. 

We also sent the same message in an egg with some candy via snail mail to our grandparents and all my siblings to be opened Easter weekend. It was fun getting all their sweet messages of surprise and excitement as the weekend rolled out. And it was nice to be around family without David reminding me to, "Suck it in!"

Cute boys sending me some love during my first week of my internship.

 

I should also mention that David made it through his second chemistry class! These classes are repeated more often than not, but mister D got through them both in one try. Oh happy day!