Category Archives: levi

Jul 15 2012

Levi’s 7th Birthday

Posted on by

Iceberg with penguins cake

A little less than a month ago on June 27th we celebrated Levi’s 7th birthday.  This was a non-party year for him.  My kids only get parties for their birthdays every other year.  We do this for a number of reasons.  It saves us money on having to throw a party each year.  It makes it more special when they do get a party.  This is something my parents did when I was young.  This year I made the mistake of watching “Cake Boss” with the kids about a month before Levi’s birthday.  Levi decided that he wanted an iceberg cake with penguins.  In his mind he was thinking it’s going to be a multi layered cake with intricate details.  In my mind how can I make this look as simple as possible.  So that is what we ended up with.  The star was another requirement Levi wanted.  I think he wanted it to be suspended somehow in the air.  Sorry kid I’m no Buddy (the guy from Cake Boss).  We had a pretty simple birthday celebration with the family.  At lunch we had cake and opened presents and then for dinner we let him pick where he wanted to go.  Surprise, surprise he picked McDonald’s.  Over all I think he enjoyed his birthday and had a good time.

Blowing out the candles

Opening gifts from Nammy and Nampa.

Jun 12 2012

Camping

Posted on by

Mike Harris Campground

Yay!! School is out.  We have been out about a week but I’m slow at posting.  On the day that school ended we celebrated by going out on our first family camp trip for the year.  We packed up and went to Mike Harris Campground in the Grand Targhee National Forest.  This is a place we have been before and like to go to for our first campouts of the season.  Despite forecast for rain we decided to tough it out.  The weather actually turned out perfect and it only rained for a couple of hours on Saturday.  We got there pretty late on Friday and discovered that we forgot many things including bug spray.  We didn’t want to be bug dinner so we had to go into to town and buy some. The other stuff we did without.  That’s what the first campout is about right?!  In the morning we warmed our breakfast up on the fire (breakfast burritos I learned from pintrest).  The kids really liked it.  They were easy too.  It rained for about and hour and we just read and played games in the trailer.  After the rain let up we went for a hike.  There is a really neat trail near the entrance to the campground.  It leads up to some peaks.  We didn’t go that far.  We only went as far as Sophia’s little legs could take her.  It ended up being about 2 miles round trip.  It was a beautiful hike.  On the way back it started to rain again.  By the time we got back to camp we were all pretty wet.  It rained for about another hour.  After that it was beautiful.  There was one other family camping in the campground.  We introduced ourselves.  Their kids are the same age as ours and they hit it off really well.  The kids went and played hide and seek.  After talking with them a little we discovered that they live just on the other side of the airport from us (small world).  We also found out that although they wear red and we wear blue we can still get along (those of you who are cougar and ute fans know how hard that is). We exchanged phone numbers and the kids have future plans to hang with them sometime.  We packed up and left Sunday morning.  On the way home we stopped one more time for a short hike.   Not as great as the first one but still fun.  This outing was a great start to our season.  I love being out in the woods.  It really helps me appreciate all that Heavenly father has created for us.  I can’t wait to go again.

Cooking breakfast on the fire

Beautiful Hiking trail

Sophia and her hiking stick

All of us on the hike

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kids getting warm after the hike

Gorgeous sky as the sun was setting

 

 

 

 

 

 

Almost full moon

Our little home away from home

Jun 11 2012

Menan Butte

Posted on by

Our family likes to go on a small hike to kick off the camping/hiking season.  In May we decided to hike the North Menan Butte.  It’s about a mile up the butte.   Over all we hiked about 3 miles.  Sophia made it to the top and then Corey had to pack her around the rest of the way.  She did pretty well for her first hike on foot.  I have to say it was a little challenging, although it doesn’t look it, most times it felt like we were hiking straight up.  It was a beautiful day to hike and once we reached the top we loved the view.  At the top there are many different rock formations that the kids (and Corey) loved to climb around in and on.

The boys starting out up the butte

A nice little critter we saw along the trail

 

 

 

 

 

 

taking a rest

Beautiful spring flowers

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taking another rest

One of the many caves up the butte

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cute little hiker with her cute little backpack

Lunch time

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view from the rim

Corey climbing around on the rock formations. "I'm king of the Mountain"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hiking back out of the caldera and then on down the butte

May 11 2012

Yellowstone

Posted on by

Well we finally did it.  It only took us 8 years but we did it.  We have lived here in Idaho Falls for 8 years and as most of you know it’s really close to Yellowstone.   I’ve been there with my family a number of times but Corey had never been.  We would always get this appalling look from people when we told them that Corey had never been.  Our number one reason for not going was because of a certain little boy of ours who, you could say, is a runner.  Levi is and has always been fearless.  On the other hand I was full of fear.  I was fearful that if we took him to Yellowstone he would take off and get lost.  I was fearful that he would run off and jump into a hot pot or get eaten by a bear.  We finally felt he was old enough not to run off and jump into the scalding water.

This particular week that we went was free national park week.  So we didn’t even have to pay an entrance fee.  We also heard that because it was spring we would probably get to see the bears out.   We unfortunately didn’t see any bears but we did get to see plenty of buffalo and elk.  We didn’t go to Lamar valley which is where the bears were being seen.  Since this was Corey and the kid’s first time we ended up doing the hot pot loop.  We saw Old Faithful and really cool mud pots and geysers.  I love being in Nature and this was actually a nice and relaxing trip.  It was a little chilly and it did snow on us some.  Because it was chilly there really wasn’t a lot of people there.    Now that we have gone I think there are more plans in the future for us to return.  There is a lot to explore and we only touched the surface.  I can’t wait to go again.

Buffalo

hot pot walk

hot pot

 

 

 

 

 

The family by Old Faithful

Old Faithful

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

kids participated in the wildlife Olympics and received a junior ranger badge

Sophia got too tired to walk. Poor Corey had to carry her everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sophia and I having fun while it snows

 

Apr 16 2012

Easter

Posted on by

Family picture after church

Okay, I know Easter was over a week ago, but I’m finally getting caught up on blogging.  Next week is Preston’s birthday and I have to get caught up before then, right?!

I’m always forgetting to snap pictures so I only have a few of Easter.  On Saturday we colored eggs and had them for breakfast on Easter morning.  We have early church (9:00am) so after breakfast it was straight to church.  After church we took a little family photo of us all pretty.  Then we did our traditional Easter egg hunt in the back yard.  Corey always does such a good job of hiding all the eggs.  The kids were still finding some the next day.  In the picture with the three kids Levi doesn’t look very happy.  That’s because he thought his brother was finding all the eggs and he wasn’t getting any.  Next year I think we’ll have to make up some rules so the boys don’t fight over the eggs.

Sophia finding eggs

The kids with their baskets

Sophia being silly

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love this time of year.  It’s a great time to reflect on the Savior’s love for us.   He sacrificed so much for each one of us.  I’m so grateful for his atoning sacrifice.  I love the Savior Jesus Christ with all my heart.  I know it was for us that he suffered.  I know that he did suffer for us so that we may someday return to him and be like him.  What a great blessing to have him in our lives today.

Apr 16 2012

Colorado Day 4

Posted on by

Cool park we went to

Day 4 was technically the last day of our vacation.  Day 5 was spent all day in the car on the way home and nothing exciting to write about.  On this day we decided to take it easier than the others.  We had a slow morning where the kids just played with old toys and us adults recouped from the previous day.  After lunch we went to a park.  You can see from the pictures that the play set was shaped as a barn.  The kids liked that.  We took some good pictures of the kids playing.  We spent at least an hour there if not more.

 

This was Sophia's favorite. A rocking chicken.

All of the kids loved this. They called it the twirling toilet.

I think he is getting a little big for this

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Corey even got in on the action

Corey and his cool ride

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kids just hanging on

After the park Corey’s parents took us to the local dairy for some ice cream.  So good after a couple of hours in the sun.  While at the dairy we got to go into a viewing room and see some cows get milked.  We also got to see some little baby calfs on our way out.  We went back to grandma and grandpa’s house where the kids colored with grandma.  We had such a fun vacation.  We wish our family lived closer so we could see them more often.  All of the kids were crying as we were leaving for home.  They really had a great time with nammi and nampa.

Mmmm... ice cream

Sophia enjoying her cone

Coloring with Nammi

 

Apr 11 2012

Colorado Day 3: Part 2

Posted on by

 

Things have been really busy and I’ve gotten so behind on blogging.  Well the second part of day three for our spring break in Colorado started with lunch.  There is a park between the museum and the zoo.  We had packed a lunch and decided to eat at the park.  It’s still early in the season so there were no picnic benches.  Preston wasn’t keen about sitting on the ground.  He had determined that the ground was covered in goose poo.  Luckily Nammi had brought a table cloth and had the kids sit on that.  There was a sprinkler on next to us that sometimes seemed to creep up on us.  We ended up moving a few feet so we wouldn’t end up with a shower.  There were, however, some kids playing in the sprinkler.  I was proud my kids resisted the urge to run through it.

After Lunch we walked over to the Denver Zoo.  It’s a lot bigger then our own zoo here in Idaho Falls.  There are so many pictures but I think I’ll have to cut it down to just a few to show you.  We got there around 1:00 in the afternoon.  Just in time for it to really heat up.  I was really thankful I brought the kids some water.  Corey carried Sophia just about the whole time.  When there was a big crowd Levi had the best seat in the house on top of Nampa’s head.  We spent about 5 1/2 hours at the zoo.  By the end we were all tuckered out.  We ended our day with a dinner out at some fancy Italian restaurant.   Needless to say on our way home we had 3 sleeping kids.

One of my favorite exhibits. The giraffes.

The kids liked th sea lions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the many exotic fish exhibits. Levi taking a seat where ever he can.

The Kamodo Dragon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For Corey, the red panda or the real "firefox"

Our tour guide. This peacock lead us through a good section of the park.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the many exotic bird exhibits.

One of the many, many benches that let us park our derrières.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking through the zoo. Getting to the end.

 

 

Apr 6 2012

Colorado Day 3: Part 1

Posted on by

Denver's Museum of Nature and Science

Day three started here at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.  Day three was so busy I had to split it into a couple of post.  This museum is huge.  We didn’t go here to tour the museum though.  That’s going to have to be another trip.  We did, however, go here to see an IMAX 3-D movie.  The movie that we watched was “Flying Monsters.”  This movie was about the tarasaur.  This is the first 3-D IMAX  movie that our little family has ever been to.  The first impression I had was wow this is really neat.  The second impression was we should do this more often.  Then things began to change about 30 minutes in I started to get a little motion sick.  By the time it ended my vertigo was off and I felt nauseated.  The kids loved it but my first and second impressions were quickly dismissed by the end.  They can go again but I think I might have to pass.

The escaltor in the museum

the entrance into the theater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting to be let in the theater

Sitting in the theater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sophia with her 3-D glasses on

The museum has a little discovery center around the corner from the theater.  After the show we decided to take the kids in there to explore a little.  They had fun with all the cool stuff to do.  One of our favorites was the wall with mirrors on it.  Preston enjoyed making his arm look like a wing.   There was a skinny mirror that I wouldn’t mind having in my bedroom.

Sophia playing with some blocks

Levi and Grandpa doing the smelling test

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preston our paleontologist

Preston making his arm a wing at the wall of mirrors

Dec 24 2011

Christmas Letter

Posted on by

I think it is sad how more letters are being emailed/posted every year.  I love to display the letters we get on our hall wall.  It has been a really fun tradition that I have carried on from my childhood.  Unfortunately last year we received so few letters that I didn’t even hang the line up.  I made it work this year but it seems it’s starting to look more and more pathetic each year.  I know it’s easier to send via email or other electronical means.  So I really appreciate all those who took the time to send us a card this year.

I did send out letters this year to a select few.  I like to make my own cards and it can be very time consuming.  I had only made 26 this year so I’m very sorry if you didn’t receive one.  I try and send a letter to all those who sent me one the year before but inevitably we always miss one or two people.  So if you didn’t get one from us this year here is the link to a copy of the letter that went out with the cards.  I’m sorry and I’ll try and send one for you next year.  Although if you follow this blog you probably already know everything that is going on in our lives so this might be a repeat.  I hope you all have a very wonderful Christmas.

Christmas Letter 2011

Nov 5 2011

Straw Maze

Posted on by

One of the things I love about fall are the corn and straw mazes.  Corey and I used to go to corn mazes and we always had fun.  One year we decided to try the local straw maze.  It’s in Archer Idaho near Big Juds (If you’ve ever lived around here you know about Big Juds).  We found that we enjoy the straw maze much more than the corn mazes.  So that’s been a tradition for us for a few years now.  We like the straw because it’s nice and soft to walk on and you don’t have rows that you keep twisting your foot in.  We also like how it muffles the sound and you really don’t feel like anyone else is in the maze until you round a corner and wallah there they are (I bet it’s pretty cool at night).  Also you can’t really tare a part the bails of hay like they do the corn.  So the maze looks the same the last day as it did the first.  This year they had some tunnels built into the maze which the kids absolutely loved.  If you haven’t tried the straw maze you should.  It can be a little claustrophobic at times so if you have trouble with that maybe you don’t want to try this.  Each of us took turns leading the way through the maze getting hopelessly lost and when we got to the finish we started it all over again.  This is a great family activity.