Our Fun Trip to Idaho

We just got back from a much needed trip to Idaho. We were desperately needing to get off the island for a while. Plus, I wanted to show off Elsa to the family. My sister Sarah and her family came from Nevada to see us for a couple days. We were glad the came to see us.

We went to Island Park were my grandparents live.

Alyssa, Brenner and Naysa at Grandma and Grandpa's house

Brenner, Mikayla, Rhys, Me, and Max. Sharing cheetos. It was such a good feeling hanging out with some of my beautiful nieces and nephews. I love my family so much.

Throwing rocks into the creek

Naysa doing what she does best. She's such a chunk. This girl is 6 months old and wears 18 months. She weighs just a couple pounds less than Rhys. She's so cute though. She looks just like a Cabbage Patch Doll.

Elsa with her Great Grandma

Brenner threw a fit for some reason. It cracked me up. Now that I'm a mother of a fit-throwing child, I get a little satisfaction when other people's kids throw fits. It makes me feel good to know my child isn't the only one freaking out.

We went to Warm River (which is actually very cold). Sarah's dog Molly was in the back of the truck and tried to follow us to the river. Unfortunatley she didn't know she was tied in. TJ quickly rushed over and saved her from choking.

Jordan (4 years old) and Mesa Falls

Elsa decided to spit up a ton (most of it was inside the wrap) at Mesa Falls

Mesa Falls

Sarah, TJ, Alyssa, and Brenner

We love Dairy Queen. We went as many times as we could. I made the mistake of letting Rhys have a bite of my blizzard. This is his reaction when I tried to get a bite of my own dessert.

We got him his own ice cream cone and he was much happier (and I got my blizzard back!)

We were able to make a trip to Sweet to see Grandma and Grandpa Dahlstrom. It was a really good time. The boys love the 4- wheelers and the animals.

Rhys had such a good time with his cousin Bryson. They are so friggin cute together. They found super hero costumes and were running around together. I so much wish we lived closer to them and they could play more often. Rhys looks up to Bryson so much.

Taking the kids to feed the horses and the rabbits.

Grandma and Grandpa Dahlstrom

Greg, Kelli, Bryson, and Coulson. We love them so much!!

Kynwynn and her kids came to the zoo with us one day. The kids had such a fun time. It was a pretty cool day so the animals were more active than we've ever seen them. The lion was out and roared. I've never heard that in real life. The kids didn't really care but us adults thought it was awesome.

Feeding and petting the goats and sheep.

Fun with stickers

This is what happens when Rhys gets a hold of a sheet of stickers. Good times!!

Getting ready to go to the beach

Look at the cute headband I made!! (It took me about 2 days because I kept messing up)

Photo Shoot

My Friend Kelsey, from Kelsey Riley Photography did an awesome photo shoot with my kids earlier this month. I think they turned out really cute! Look how beautiful my children are! Megs, I didn't post a picture frame picture cause I noticed something I want to get tweaked on it first. I'll post it if I get it fixed. Enjoy!!

Irene, you ruined my life!!

Not really, actually. She wasn't that bad. I was excited that something actually happened. Whenever I hear that these storms are headed our way I kinda freak out and get super prepared and worry and then it's usually just a rain shower. It's always anti-climactic for the amount that I worry. So with Irene I was trying not to worry as much as I usually do. We filled up our bathtubs with water, got out the lanterns and put everything from our backyard into the garage that was about it.
We only had Sacrament Meeting on Sunday because the storm was supposed to hit Sunday night. They wanted everyone to have enough time to complete their preparations before it hit. It was a pretty quiet day. It was a little cloudy and a tiny bit windy but that was about it.

Around 11 pm the power went off and our house started to get really hot. It's amazing how quickly you start to sweat when their is no fans going (and how quiet my house is!) We opened the windows to try to get some air flow, then went back to sleep. I woke up around 2:30 to the rain and the wind whipping the trees outside. It was pretty crazy, but we still kept the windows open. Even in a hurricane we barely get a breeze!!! It's seriously crazy. Anyway, Elsa was awake so I fed her and we all went back to sleep and slept through the rest of the storm. All the really cool storms that have hit since we've lived here have all hit at night. It's a bummer cause we miss out on watching them. We just wake up and check out the aftermath. Lame.

Monday was super rainy all day.Both the power and water were out Monday morning. We finally had a chance to use our generator we bought the first year we were here. If finally came in handy!! Woo hoo! It's ridiculously loud though and after about 6 hours of it I started to get really grumpy wanting it to be turned off. About 20 minutes after Scott got tired of my crabbiness and turned it off the power came back on. We got lucky cause I know of people who STILL don't have power.

The water came back on sometime Tuesday. I'm not sure exactly what time it was cause I was gone. I had to take the kids to the pediatrician for check ups that day. It was still raining Tuesday. On the way home I got stuck at a light for 30 minutes because the power was out and roads were flooding. It took Scott 2 1/2 hours to get home from work Tuesday night. Roads that I had driven on on the way home were completely closed by the evening. I got lucky only being stuck for 30 minutes.

So we're now getting back to normal here. The roads are pretty much cleaned off as far as I have seen. A palm tree across the street that broke in half during the storm has been taken care of. Broken tree branches are being hauled away (more likely just moved off the road and left there). Now we're just hoping that people who got hit after us, when the storm was stronger, will be OK, as well as the people in the states who are waiting for it to hit them. Hopefully everyone will be safe!

Here's our beautiful generator. It's so noisy! I was hoping the whole time if would run out of gas so we could have a couple minutes of quiet. You like our generator covers? Two tables! It totally worked though. The generator stayed dry, none of us died from carbon monoxide and we were able to save all our refrigerated food!

Watching the rain. It rained A LOT!!

On another note, look at this cute head band I made Elsa!! My first try at crochet cotton! I am quite proud!!

I found this picture of Mom and Elsa on my camera. I'd forgotten about it. She's giving mom a kiss!!

You Have To Sit There...

I've just had an epiphany about my kid. He is not eating his food lately so I've been doing the "you have to sit there until you eat" deal. He will just sit, and sit, and sit, which is surprising to me considering he's a busy two year old boy. It's long enough that I get bored of him sitting there before he does. Eventually I just shove some food in his mouth and let him get down.

I've just realized that making him sit in the car for extended periods of time have probably taught him to entertain himself while just sitting. Anywhere we go here takes at least 20-30 minutes. It takes 30 minutes to get to church and to the store. It's about an hour to get to San Juan. He's really good in the car too. He just sits there and looks out the window.
So sitting at the table for 20 minutes isn't phasing him. I'm going to have to think of other ways to get him to eat. Any suggestions?

I gotta go get him. It's been over a half an hour and I'm getting bored of waiting for him to eat.