A Week At Grandma Nani’s

We dropped Natali off at EFY and headed to Mesquite for a week.  Kate, Emily, Mara, and Amia spent hours and hours making scrunchies.  We had to restock the elastic and fabric due to their industrious hours.

Meanwhile, Andrew was working on his service hours.  He did a lot of work around the house for Grandma, and work on the farm and outside for Papa.  There was also a lot of time spent with Brad and his apricots.  However, the best hours of service were spend being the waiter at the girls tea party.

The ball may have been my favorite part.  He was a trouper and washed all the dishes afterward.

Grandma Nani had two tickets to The Little Mermaid at Tuacan so we bought a few more tickets and went with her.  The girls loved it.  Especially seeing the cast afterward.

It wouldn't be a trip to Mesquite without a trip to the water park and the Splash Pad for snow cones.  The kids were spoiled as well with Lucky Charms for breakfast every morning.

I made the mistake of letting the girls play on the treadmill.  My bath was disturbed one day with blood curdling screams from my Lily.  She reached for her Mimi while someone else was on the treadmill and her finger got caught under the edge of the treadmill and the belt.  It took a while to turn the thing off so it really rubbed away a big chunk of her finger.  No fun.

Another awesome trip spent with family, heat, swimming, and fun.

Cousin Love

These guys can't get enough of each other.  I had to take my van into the Honda dealership- rather than wait to start the cousin party after I was done they tagged along.  It was lunchtime so we walked to the nearest burger joint.  It was packed so the kids asked if we could "drive" through- why not?  They thought it was hilarious to walk through the drive through.  Love these sillies.

For another field trip we went to the Botanical Gardens in Boise.  Lily had been on a field trip so we had free passes and she wanted to show everyone the cool plants.  Well Andrew and Luke weren't loving it so much - then we realized we were right next to the Old State Penitentiary.

Kate had been to the penitentiary on a field trip in 4th grade and had been traumatized.  Every time I suggested we go (it is on the 10 places to visit in Boise list) she freaked out.  Well she was at girls camp so we decided to try the penitentiary.

The pretend jail and outfits were hilarious.  The rest of the tour was less funny.  Some stories were pretty scary or creepy.  I found it totally interesting but I did have to exit with a little kiddo a time or two in order to edit the stories.  The boys loved it.  Glad we visited but really glad Kate didn't listen to those stories again.

Here they are in a real cell.  Emily makes the best inmate faces don't you think?

Yellowstone to Start the Summer

While Kate and I played in Florida, Greg took Andrew, Emily and Lily to Yellowstone.  They had a blast as usual.  On the way they stopped at the new Gables location and walked away with a lot of nice Gables swag.  

I'm pretty sure Emily and Lily wore footie jammies the entire time they were in Yellowstone.  Why bother when its chilly all day and you are camping?  Did I mention snow?  They even got to watch a mama bear with three cubs kill a baby elk - lucky kids rights 😳.  They got to hear the mama elk screaming the whole time.  I'm not sad I missed it.    

  Lily also managed to slam her own finger in the car door.  Poor thing.  The whole fingernail turned blue and the nail eventually fell all the way off.  By the time school started the nail was finally looking good.

Meanwhile our two eldest stayed home alone and went to work in Fruitland every day!  Mack worked his first summer at Woodgrain and it was sad to not have him around everyday, but good to see he and Natali taking on some new responsibilities.  Love those two and their good example - they even wore the required safety goggles!