Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was in Pocatello this week building a house for a very deserving family. I don't know them, but I learned a lot about them yesterday. This is such an amazing project and it was fun to be part of the reveal. Mohna, the girls and I braved the heat and the sardine can squishing with all those people. We got to see the designers, Ed, Paul, and Jillian. We saw the bus, the Limo- we were there with the news cameras, and got to watch them film the reveal. "MOVE THAT BUS!" It was really hot, and really neat. Ty Pennington came running down the street and gave everyone high fives- INCLUDING ME!! Yep, I got to touch a famous person!!

This is Paul
This is Ed
This is Jillian
The Bus with a whole lot of people
close up of the bus
The arriving limo
And here is TY!! The best part!

Even though it was really hot, I'm really glad that I went and could participate! I hope that family loves their new home, and I can't wait to see the episode air!

Camping Fun!

We had such a fun weekend. We got to actually go camping, overnight, with our tent and everything. We packed up Friday morning and headed out to Oneida Resevoir. It seemed to take forever to find a camping spot, but we found a great one. Lots of trees, shade and water. Too bad there was no bathroom- YUCK! But we all managed fine. Our friends Matt and Janette met us there later that night and we had a great dinner of dutch oven potatoes, steak and fruit. The poor kids were soooooooo tired they crashed out as soon as their heads hit the pillows. Saturday morning we headed down to a nice park area with a boat ramp, super dock, and a beach- and we played ALL day long! The water was really cold, but it felt great because it was sooooooo hot outside. Josh and Matt took the boat and went fishing, while Janette, Patricia and I played with the kids and the dogs. Rocky loves the water, it was hard to keep him out of it. Zoey got swimming lessons from Savana, poor dog. We came homes with some bumps, scrapes, and sunburns, but big smiles on our faces- "The best camping trip EVER" (tommy said that before we even left, I hope we fulfilled that!)

What Sunday looks like...

Have you ever wondered what a typical Sunday afternoon looks like? Well, we all meet at Grammy and Papa's house for family time and yummy food- but this is the pre and post activity for the boys!
Boy- just gotta love Sunday!

A day for fishing and other things

We love it when daddy comes home. He was gone for TWO WHOLE WEEKS and we just about died, but he promised we would do something fun when he got home so we decided to go camping. Well, there is something you should know- Mother Nature doesn't like Josh. We were going to go camp Friday night, but the winds blew and the clouds produced lots of lightning and thunder and rain, we thought it best to stay inside. But luckily enough Saturday was gorgeous. So we got in the van and drove to Milner Resevoir for a day of fishing, hiking, picnicking, etc- we had so much fun. The dogs came along and Zoey, who can't be trusted, was on leash the entire time being led around by Savana. Rocky wouldn't leave Josh's side. Well, he likes the water and kept jumping in. That doesn't lead to success when fishing. So Josh only caught a few little ones, and Tommy caught quite a few- no keepers though. We had lunch, played in the water, climbed the rocks and had fun throwing a toy out in the water and watching Rocky learn how to jump out into the river. It was such a fun day. We can't wait to go again- but maybe we won't say anything, and hopefully Mother Nature will be fooled!

We made PICKLES!!!

I know what you are thinking- Pickles? Who makes Pickles? WE DO!!! This year our cucumber plants are thriving, and as much as we LOVE cucumbers, its really hard to eat this many in just a day or two. We have eaten them, given some away, but are still having too many left over- so we researched how to make pickles. It was relatively easy, and in just a few short hours we went from fresh cucumbers to....

Yummy delicious pickles! We will have to keep tweaking the recipe until we get it just right, but they are super tasty! I bet your mouth is watering right now just dying to try one of our homemade pickles! Too bad!

Herman the Worm

One of my very favorite camp songs is Herman the Worm. It's such a silly song but the kids love it! Today while they were cleaning out garbage cans they ended up flooding the front yard which brought out the worms in force. They probably had about 30-40 worms caught. I told them to spread them out over the yard so the worms could make it back into the ground, well a few ended up on the sidewalk. My sweet Savana started singing Herman the worm and when the part came that says "he was this big" she picked up a big ole worm! I was laughing so hard, tears came to my eyes. So, it is my motherly duty to share this with you! So here are Tommy and Savana singing "Herman the worm" (with props)!

No animals were harmed in the making of this film!

Once upon a swimming pool

This summer has just been crazy. With me being gone to girls camp, youth conference, and my high school reunion we just haven't been able to take the kids swimming. And swimming is one of their favorite summer activities. Thank goodness their friends have pools otherwise the kids would've been super cranky! Anyways, a couple of days ago we got to of to Lava Hot Springs. It's my favorite pool. The kids immediately sprang for the water and would hardly get out. Siera was the only one of my kids that braved the slides- and she cried the whole way down, but at least she did it! Timothy kept dunking himself and the girls were dunking each other while Tommy was busy exploring beneath the water with his goggles. I became apparent to me that I really need to put my kids in swim lessons- for safety if anything else. Emily, Avery, Brooke, Grammy, Aunt Cindy and her kids came with us. We had a lot of fun. Em, Avery and I braved the BIG slides- it was scary but a lot of fun. It's too bad that the lines took forever! Overall, it was a great day, it wasn't too hot, the water was perfect and there were a lot of smiles, which makes it all worth it!