Idaho in Pictures: Boise

Wow! We have SO many pictures from Idaho...posting them has turned into a massive project that is going to take me forever. I'm hoping that if I divide them up, I'll slowly be able to get it all done!

Our first stop on our Idaho trip was Boise. We left early Saturday morning and drove all day. It took us about 12 hours. The kids all did great and the drive was very uneventful, but we were very happy to pull up to Nana and Granddad's (Jon's grandparents) house. The kids headed straight for the backyard where they stayed until we made them come in and go to bed. While we were outside, Jon found this tiger swallowtail. He and the kids took turns holding it for a long time. Emma was beyond excited!

Sunday morning after church we went to visit Grandma Lorraine (my grandma- and the grandma that me and Emma got our middle name from). We spent a fun day visiting with her. The kids loved discovering all the toys at her house (both the kind they could play with and the kind they shouldn't be playing with :)  ), and we enjoyed catching up and introducing her to Ellie.

The highlight for Emma was the Schwann's orange push pops. For as long as I can remember, my grandma has always had these on hand in her freezer when we've come to visit. Emma was introduced to them last summer when we visited, and remembered them six months later....I think it was the only thing she remembered from our visit. So, for the last 6 months or so, Emma has been begging to visit "the grandma with the orange popsicles". Grandma made sure to have them when we came this time and the kids were thrilled.

We are so glad we were able to visit, though the time flew by way too quickly!

After visiting Grandma Lorraine, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Danes (my other grandparents) house for Sunday dinner and a visit. 

Grandma with Ellie, who also happens to be great-grandchild #50!

The kids spent most of the time playing with Grandma's pug, Muffin. They thought she was pretty great.

We had a delicious dinner and a great visit, though again the time went by way too fast! I feel so fortunate to be able to visit my grandparents, even if it is only once a year. 

Monday was our last day in Boise and was our day to spend with Jon's grandparents.

Nana with Ellie (we somehow didn't end up with any pictures with granddad...bummer!)

 Pretty baby

Nana took us to the Birds of Prey Museum during the day, which was really interesting. We saw a couple of bird shows and spent a lot of time in the children's area, which was fun.

 I can't remember what kind of bird this was supposed to be....we look pretty amazing though....haha!

These were the eggs that Matthew "hatched" over and over again....and tried to sneak out with. He had one stuffed in each pocket, and could barely keep his pants up.  :)

Trying to fly!

Monday night, we met up with several of Jon's aunts, uncles, and cousins for a picnic at the park. We managed to take ZERO pictures....another big bummer! But, it was fun to catch up with everyone.

We loved being able to see most of our Boise family and wish we could have spent more time.

Smiles from Ellie and Laughs from Emma

Here is a video of Ellie smiling. This was a couple of weeks ago. She smiles quite a bit now and it is adorable!

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A conversation I had with Emma yesterday:

Emma: Mom, when Ellie gets bigger we'll have to change her name to Bella.
Me: Oh? Why?
Emma: Because Ellie is a baby name.
Me: Oh....hmmm...
Emma: Or, we could change it to Anna.

I love the way 5 year olds think. 

Idaho: The Highlights and Lowlights

We got home yesterday from a 2 week (well, technically 17 days) trip to Idaho. We went for my parents family reunion, but planned our trip for longer so we could have plenty of visiting time. It was great and fun and exhausting and it went by way too fast and too slow all at the same time. We have about a million pictures, but I know it's going to take forever to post them, so they will come later (except for this one of my parents with all of the grandkids). :)

The highlights:
- The kids all did FANTASTIC on the drive to Idaho and back...no fighting, no whining...it was awesome. Ellie slept the whole way there, minus her 3 feedings, and slept the whole way back except for one feeding. We only stopped 3 times on the way there and 2 times on the way back. Basically, the drives went much smoother than I had anticipated!
- Seeing all of our (me and Jon's) grandparents, who all happen to live in the Boise area
- Seeing some of our extended family (from both of our families) who also live in the Boise area
- COUSINS GALORE! All 13 of my parents grandkids were together the entire time. It was basically a nonstop 2 week long party. Lots of trampoline jumping, game playing, talking and laughing...and of course the occasional fight.  :)
- Playing at the Rexburg Spray Park
- Swimming at Jensen's Grove
- An (early) anniversary getaway. Jon and I went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then stayed at a fancy hotel while my parents took care of all 3 kids overnight(THANK YOU Mom and Dad!)
- Going to see Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at The Playmill with my parents and most of my siblings (a huge thank you to Esther and Nathan for babysitting all the kids!)
- Pedicures and haircuts with 2 of my sisters
- My sister's friends invited us all to come ride their miniature train. The track runs in a huge loop around their property. This was definitely one of the kids favorite things.
- Lots of shopping with my sisters.
- Have I mentioned all of the cousins? The kids had such a great time playing together. Emma kept referring to them as her kids or her children. (Do you know where my children are? All of my kids are going to church with me!) It was pretty hilarious.
- Swimming at Rexburg Rapds
- Good food! My amazing mom somehow managed to cook for at least 15 people most nights, and 27 people when we were all together. We also squeezed in meals at restaurants we wanted to try- Mongolian Grill, Texas Roadhouse (twice because it was SOOO good!), and Red Robin, because it's one of our favorites.
- Being with family, visiting, playing games....it was just good to be together again.
- The weather! Warm days, cool breezy nights, awesome rain storms complete with thunder (I'd almost forgotten what that sounded like), lightning, and rainbows. If the weather were like that all year, I'd move to Idaho in a heartbeat.
- Our little mini vacation to Yellowstone. Jon and I took the kids camping in Yellowstone for one night. We saw as many sights as we could squeeze into the 2 days we had, and then drove back to Idaho Falls through Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole. Emma and Matthew LOVED the boiling mud and the geysers in Yellowstone. We loved how beautiful it was through the Tetons. We hope to go back again when we have more time to spend there.

The Lowlights:

- The lack of sleep that is inevitable on vacation
- The stomach bug that was passed between at least 6 people....boy was that nasty! It hit Matthew hard, and he is still trying to get over it.
- All the other sickness (which we can only assume was caused by lots of junk food and lack of sleep).
- The drive...no matter how smoothly the drive goes, it is just a loooong drive.

So, that was our trip in a nutshell....pictures to come soon!

Growing Girl

Ellie turned 1 month last week...she's actually 5 weeks now. It's hard to believe! She had a 1 month checkup on Monday and was already up to 8 lb 12 oz and 20 1/2 inches! She's got a chubby little belly and is starting to get little rolls on her arms and legs.

Ellie really is such a good baby. She is all about routine and has been on the same schedule for most of her short life. She goes to bed around 10, wakes up around 3, and then again around 6 (except for the 4 times that she slept from 10-5:30...that was awesome!). She goes right back to sleep, wakes up around 8 to eat and is back to sleep until about noon. The rest of the day she spends a lot of time awake, but usually takes a good nap between 4 and 6. She is a mellow baby with a tiny cry (unless we don't feed her quick enough...then she lets us know she's mad!). She has started smiling quite a bit now. Emma can get her to smile almost any time she wants and she gave her dad some adorable smiles last night for the first time. She has also discovered her hands and will lay and stare at them for long periods of time, though her all time favorite thing to stare at are the window blinds.

Ellie is in that awkward in between sizes stage. Most of her newborn clothes are starting to get tight but she completely drowns in her 0-3 month. One more little growth spurt should do the trick. Hard to believe we're almost ready to pack away her first little wardrobe.

It's been a good month. We love our little girl!

2 1/2 weeks

Though you can't really tell here, she LOVES bathtime

Three weeks old. Chubby little belly! 

4 weeks

5 weeks

Aren't they adorable?

 Movie watching is serious business!  :)

I love her face here.  Haha!

The Big Five!

 Somehow July snuck up on us, and along with it came Emma's birthday. I seriously can't believe she's 5 now! She was very excited for this birthday and had been counting down for several weeks, telling anyone and everyone who would listen how many more days it was (except she kept saying it was x many more months instead of days :)  ).

Emma can be a very sweet, very helpful girl. She loves playing mom to Matthew, and he usually doesn't mind. Recently she made up this potty song for Matthew (which he LOVES):

Put your pee pee in the toilet then you flush.
Then you go over to the sink and wash.
Then you dry your hands and that's the end of the potty song.

Throughout the day, she'll tell Matthew she wants him to try and go potty and then she'll sing him the song. He ALWAYS says okay and goes. Really, she can tell him to do pretty much anything and he'll do it.

Emma has also designated herself as the one and only person who is allowed to give Ellie her binky when she cries. She loves doing everything for Ellie. This morning she was kissing Ellie and every time she did Ellie would smile really big. It was the sweetest thing and made Emma's day.

While Emma can be really sweet, she has also discovered her sassy side....and boy can she be sassy when she wants to. The other day she was walking past Jon and he asked her to do something. Without even stopping she replied, "Dad, sometimes I can't hear you" and kept on walking. It's times like these that we are left speechless...we are just so caught off guard! She often will come up to me and announce that she's not going to do anything that she doesn't want to and I can't make her. Aahhh...I have a feeling the fun is just beginning.  :)

Sweet or sassy, we love our little girl. Happy birthday Emma!

For her birthday this year, we chose to do a few things that she wanted to do instead of giving her a bunch of gifts. The night before her birthday, Jon set up our new tent, and he and the kids had a backyard campout. They were in heaven!

On her birthday we went to Habitot, the children's museum in Berkeley. This is one of our favorite children's museums.

They had an exhibit with an ambulance, hospital, and pet hospital.

Lots of painting!

After the museum we celebrated with Jon's family. Jenny made the cute lion cake (thank you Jenny!) which was perfect since Emma had been wanting a jungle party.

Matthew helped Emma blow out the candles...she was NOT happy. Someone stuck another candle in a cupcake so she could blow it out by herself.

On Tuesday, we had a friends party. Emma and her friend Tess were both turning 5, so we had a combined party at Pump It Up. It's right by our house, so we went for the open play and then went back to our house for lunch and cake. 

Everyone played hard and had a blast.

Matthew really wanted to try rock climbing, but he just didn't weigh enough. As soon as they buckled him in and let go, he flew up and flipped backwards.  :)

She made it to the top! This was the first time she made it.

Thanks to Jon, she got her jungle cake

The birthday girls