Pioneer Day 2012

I love celebrating Pioneer Day.  

Jeff's family always makes it so much fun.  It's one of my favorite holidays.

 We always go to the Fiesta Days PRCA Rodeo with all the family.  I was really excited to go this year because Spanish Fork City just built a new rodeo arena.  It holds almost double to what the old one held and it is the nicest PRCA arena in the country. 

 When the rodeo was over, we went outside the arena and Cade and Jens rode the mechanical bull.  Neither one of them could last more that a few seconds.

The next day we went to the parade.  All of Jeff's family comes for the parade every year.  ALL of his family - his aunts, uncles, cousins.  It's great to always see everyone.

Jeff's aunt Jill and her boys always go set up a ton of chairs days early so we can all just show up and watch.

These little vultures are always on guard at the parade looking for candy to be thrown their way.

Jeff's dear, almost 93 year old grandma Laverne lives just a block away from where we watch the parade.  We all park at her house and walk down to watch the parade.

When the parade is over we all walk back to her house for a big pot luck lunch.

 Jeff's cousin Todd always has the kids do foot races for a quarter.  They even race around the block in the hot 96 degree weather for a quarter!  They all look forward to it every year.  Then most everyone goes down to the carnival.  I really hate the carnival and I don't go and Jeff won't take my camera down to take pictures of it.  Oh well!

That night we had a big low country shrimp boil with 7 families at our house.

 It was delicious as always!

Jeff talked the girls into singing the Star Spangled Banner for us before we had our firework show.

They sang and we all put our hands over our hearts even though I didn't have a flag up!  We looked like the people on the movie Christmas Vacation when Aunt Bethany says the Pledge of Allegiance instead of saying grace over the Christmas dinner.

 Then we had our own little firework show.

 It was another great holiday!

Molly's Princess Party

I finally had Molly's 5th birthday party.  I set it all up in my neighbor's gazebo and it was the perfect setting for a princess party.

Her cupcakes had the cutest cake toppers that I bought off etsy.

Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid came to her party!  

They helped do all the girls hair and painted their fingernails.

My cute little niece Gracie was looking at Sleeping Beauty and she said, "I like your hair.  It's beautiful."  She was so enamored with her!

Miss Molly with her hair all done up and getting her crown on.

The girls kept asking Ariel questions like:  When did you get out of the water?  HOW did you get out of the water?  Why isn't your hair wet?  How did your hair dry all curly?

Once all the girls got their hair and nails done, it was time to go to the ball.  

They walked down the red carpet to go to the ball.

Once they got to the ball, they danced!  Well freeze dance that is.

As each girl would get out they would get to have a diamond ring!  That way everyone was happy when they lost out.

Present Time

It was a cute party with a bunch of darling girls.

Happy birthday baby girl!

Lake Pend O'Reille 2012

We went to Sandpoint, Idaho again this year.  We were lucky enough to get to stay in the same house as last year.  Only this time we got to stay for TWO weeks!  Shasta and I and all the kids pulled out on Friday, June 22nd and we drove about 7 hours to Missoula, Montana.  We spent the night there and then drove another 4 1/2 hours the next day into Sandpoint.  Sandpoint is only about 30 miles from the Canadian border.  It's clear up in the tippity top of the panhandle.  We were so happy to be there in our own little piece of paradise.  Travis flew in 4 days later on Tuesday.  On that following Friday Ryan and Jamie and their kids drove up.  Then on the following Monday night Jeff and Jens flew in.  They had been in Lake Tahoe for a baseball tournament that Jens was playing in.  We didn't come home until July 7th!  It was a great trip.  

Front and back views of the house

This is my most favorite room of the house.  The double doors on the right are the front doors.  The glass garage door on the left opens up to give us this gorgeous view!

And this is the view looking in.  My most favorite room ever!

The kids played on the zip line a lot.

And they played in the sand from sun up till sun down!  They played all day long!  

The kids would jump off the dock, swim over to the ladder, climb back up and jump off and do it all over again.

And sometimes they got pushed off the dock!

 They did a whole lot of fishing

Everyone rode the sea doo's around,

 and we did a ton of boating.

 Everyone rode on the tubes.  Even little 5 year olds Molly and Andrea.

 They laughed and laughed and had a blast!  They were so cute to watch.

 The kids went from the lake to the hot tub and then back again.

These girls are so darling.   I just adore them!

 There is a train track that runs across the lake.  I think it's so pretty.

I love the sunsets on the water.

Last year when we were there it was pitch black each night.  My kids could see the Milky Way.  But this year there was a full moon.  I loved seeing the moon rise in the sky each evening when it would get dark, which was about 10:00pm.  Then dawn would come at about 3:30am and the sun would be up by 4:00am.  Crazy huh!  We were just so far north.

 I took this picture at about 1:00am.  The moon on the water was so bright.

We drove over to Trestle Creek again.  I think it's such a pretty place.

 I love all the green moss.

 We found this cool old truck clear up the canyon that had been there for who knows how long.  It was covered in moss.  Even on the windshield.

All the guys grew mustaches for the week.

And finally all the kiddies in one big group picture.  

We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends and neighbors.  We cherish our friendships with them and we love being able to spend time together.