Burley Fun!

After going to the Birds of Prey center in Boise, we left for Burley, and we took my niece, Hayley, with us.  We spent the last few days of our vacations at my parents house.  It was great! We haven't been there in over 2 years, and the kids absolutely love it there out in the country.  It was fun to have my brother, Michael, and his family living next door to my parents now.  Alex made daily visits to their house.  Mike and MJ gave us the tour of their new house shortly after we arrived.  Mike was the general contractor and did all the electrical and much more!  It is beautiful!  My parents had also done a lot of remodeling since we were last there, and it looks beautiful too!

The morning after we got there, my parents had to go work at the temple, so they made us a yummy breakfast of pancakes (with strawberries and whipped cream) and then the headed out suggesting that if we were looking for something to do, we could pick the strawberries. :)  We didn't have any plans, so we went out and picked the strawberries.  The kids liked it at first, but started getting a bit whiny after it wasn't done quickly.  I felt like a really big wimp when my sacrum hurt (sometimes quite severely) for several days afterwards.  (It had been irritated prior to that).  I must be getting old!

Jarem and Tessa picking

Lots of berries!

After we finished picking strawberries, I was standing at the kitchen sink rinsing the berries and putting them in a bag to freeze when I saw 3 horses run right through the middle of the grass in my parent's front yard, around the back and around the side.  I was really surprised!  I walked outside to see what was going on and talked to the owner as he came around trying to get them back home.  He said they are very well-behaved, and he told them to "go home" and told me to watch.  That was when they started running the opposite direction and he took off again.  (Guess they weren't as well-behaved as he thought). :)  Within the hour, we saw them headed back home on the road with 3 trucks following behind.  I had to get a picture because it was kind of unusual.  My brother made fun of me for getting out my camera and had to tell my parents how I had turned into a "city girl".  Maybe it would have seemed more normal to me if I still lived in the country, but either way, it is still unusual for horses to be running through your front yard, even in Burley. :)  (There were plenty of times the sheep got loose when we were growing up though.)  I think when the people saw me with the camera, they were a little afraid I was going to press charges or something.

As I was working on getting some of our laundry done from the trip, I looked through some photo albums and took a picture of three pictures that I wanted to keep:

I thought this was a great picture of my dad, and it looks like his tire shop in the back which is something that has always seemed a part of him.

This is a picture of my Grandma Dayley holding Jarem.  He must have been around 4-6 months old (what a chunk!)

This was a cool picture that I found with my Grandma Ricks holding Jarem the same day.  My Grandma Ricks is no longer living, but this was a good 4 generation picture with my grandma, dad, me and Jarem.  I think my dad looks most like my grandma and I look most like my dad in the family.

That evening, my youngest sister, Melanie, delivered twin girls by emergency c-section in Washington.

The first-born was Emily, who weighed 4 lbs 12 oz (I think)

The second was, Ana, who was 3 lbs 11 oz (I think)

They were born at 35 weeks, and were both quite healthy.  They are now home and doing well.  Unfortunately, we didn't get to see them while we were out there, because we were flying back in just a few days and they were in Washington.  I did feel lucky to have 3 nieces born while out visiting though. :)