Orin's blessing and more

On Sunday, July 3rd, my youngest brother was going to be blessing their first baby (yes that is 4 babies in my family in only 2 months).  So, the kids and I drove down to Lehi, Utah with my parents for the occasion.  I did not get a single picture of him on his blessing day or of anyone, but the blessing was nice (except Orin cried during the blessing which always makes it more stressful).  Joel and Cindy are already turning into great parents though and it was fun to see them again.  They hosted everyone back at their house afterwards for a delicious lunch.  After a few hours of socializing and enjoying our family, we headed back to Burley.  My dad was so nice to drive all the way home! 



Here is a picture of Joel and Orin from their blog.  I think this may have been his blessing day.



And Cindy with Orin

As we drove back, my parents and I talked about where Eric and I might decide to move when we are through with our military commitment.  My parents pointed out lots of nice areas along the way as we showed the kids all the temples along our route.  When we got close to Brigham City, we could see a temple there.  I didn't even know about that one, so my dad asked me if I would like a closer look.  I did, of course, and so we drove into Brigham City.  It is a beautiful small town right next to the mountains.  As we drove through town, my mom and dad made sure to point out some of the highlights of Brigham City including all the fruit grown there, the beauty of the mountains, and we definitely didn't miss driving by the place where homemade fresh peach milkshakes are made and a reminder of Maddox family restaurant. (one of the best restaurants I have ever been to with buffalo burgers and homemade sasparilla, not to mention their raspberry butter and rolls). When we arrived at the temple, it didn't disappoint.  Even though it was still under construction, it was amazingly beautiful!  Take a look:

This is the tabernacle built in the 1800's across the street from the temple.

Needless to say, I was convinced that Brigham City would be an awesome place to live, and it would only be 1 1/2 hours from my parents.  However, it just depends on where the jobs are when the time comes. :)

As soon as we got back to Burley, my sister in law, MJ, called and invited us to a dinner of bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, etc.  It was delicious and we hung out with them for a few hours.  Alex loved playing with their kids and my poor dad got attacked by Jarem and Tessa.  (Yes, these last two are from my phone) :)

A perfect ending to a great day.

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. :)

World Center for Birds of Prey

Friday morning (July 1), after we said our goodbyes to the Fourtners and checked out of the hotel, we went to spend a little more time with the Candace and Aaron and decided to go to the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise.  Aaron took their kids and I took our kids and we enjoyed seeing a lot of different birds of prey.  I also learned a lot about falconry, which I had never heard of up to that point.  It was interesting stuff.



We watched two different presentations given by this woman.  She was very knowledgable.  In this one she is holding a kestrel.

 Of course, Tessa and Jarem (our animal lovers) had to try out being a bird:

Jesikah liked this owl puppet because it looked like Hedwig from Harry Potter.

Once again, I must have left my good camera in the car, because I ended up with phone pictures.  UGH! 

Boise Zoo and Rose Garden

Thursday(June 30), it turned out to be a beautiful day, so we headed to the zoo. Aaron wanted to get the kids out of the house with the new baby home and all, and Marti and I also wanted to go to the zoo, so we all went together. Aaron was our guide, and we made it through the whole zoo in just over an hour. It worked out well since I didn't realize it closed at 5:00, and it was around 3:45 when we got there. It is a pretty small zoo, and I have to say that I wasn't very impressed. A lot of the animals didn't seem very well cared for. I saw several that looked deformed in one way or another.  Regardless though, it was a good time and nice to be out walking around and especially with family and friends.  It is very shaded, so it felt good.

Alex with Ashlyn and Jaydon

Ally was sweet to Jarem.  He loves to be babied.

Jarem on top of the giraffe slide

At the bottom

Servals

The giraffes looked very healthy.  This was the baby.

Goofy picture of Alex getting his arm bit off and everyone doing something different.

Tessa had to try getting her head in the tiger's mouth.

The Rose Garden is right next to the zoo, so after going to the zoo, we had to visit the Rose Garden.  It was a smaller rose garden, but very nice.  I love seeing the varieties of roses and making note of the names for my own yard.  The kids mostly enjoyed it too.  I expected a lot more complaining, but there wasn't much.  They all found roses they liked.  My brother in law, Aaron, is colorblind, so he enjoyed the red ones (which he can see) and the fragrant ones the most.

Betty Boop (I used to have this one in my yard in Wa) The color is not good on this though, it was too bright.

About Face: another of my favorite roses

Sharifa Asma: this one looked almost like a peony, but was SO sweet smelling.  Aaron was all about the fragrance.

Rainbow Sorbet: another award winner

Strike it Rich: I love this one as well

I left my camera in the car and ended up using my phone for all these pictures.  That was disappointing.

Hotel Stay and Luke's Birthday

We stayed a total of 5 nights in the hotel with the Fourtners (and the Forbes too the first two nights).  The Fourtners room and our room were close together, so that was very convenient.  We had a good time with all of our friends catching up, eating out, and going places as well as just hanging out at the hotel.  The kids played with their friends, Marti (and Pamela the first 2 days) and I talked and talked and got all caught up, the kids swam in the pool, and everyone enjoyed the free breakfasts.  The kids had to have a Disney channel movie night every night that we were there as well as hot cocoa from the lobby, and we all got to bed very late most nights.  We also squeezed in time to spend with Candace and Aaron usually once a day.

Luke had his 4th birthday while we were there, and it was fun to celebrate with him.  He is very into Harry Potter, so the cupcakes with the crests of the different houses were perfect for him.  He insisted on having Gryffindor! :)  That boy knows a lot about Harry Potter.

Baby Avery

Tuesday morning(June 28th), my sister Candace went in to be induced.  I called my mom around 10 or 11 to see how she was doing and she said things were going kind of slow.  While we were on the phone, there was a call on the other phone saying she had the baby!  Eric was flying out around 2pm, so we hurried over to the hospital to congratulate them and see the baby before he left.  We were there within an hour after she was born.  She is a beautiful baby with lots of black hair and my sister Candace looked amazing too.  It's hard to believe this is #5 for her.  If anyone can handle 5, she can.  She is very patient and they are a good family.

The next evening my mom invited us to dinner at Candace's.  (My parents were staying with Candace and Aaron to help with things after the baby).  She also wondered if I could come to Hayley's young women activity for mothers and daughters.  The girls were excited to get a chance to hold the new baby.  I was too, of course! :)