4th of July

The 4th of July is probably my favorite holiday. Especially since we have been spending them in Cascade, ID. Small town 4th of July celebrations are the best. And Cascade, ID is one of my most favorite places on earth. It's a good combo. The kids and I went to Cascade the week before the 4th to spend the week with my sister Dana and her kiddos. We had such a great time! And we realized how much our lives revolve around food. Preparing meals, doling out snacks, keeping the kids out of the snacks, hearing "I'm Hungry!" all day long. Good times.


Main Street, Cascade taken from my phone.

We went to the Cascade library's story time program and my kids were all thrilled that they got a free t-shirt. It was an amazing program. They read stories, did crafts and played games. Here are Maggie and Naomi with their indian headdresses they made.

Mudpies :)

We went to the church picnic and the kids all jumped in the lake in their clothes!

We had this great little beach to ourselves one day until a church group of 150 kids showed up!! We just moved around the corner a bit and had another great little beach to ourselves.

Sweet Eva :)

Burying each other in sand, classic.

We took a little hike.

Not sure how much that walking stick is actually helping, hahaha!

Silly girls...

Oh my goodness, look at those fingernails!! The cuteness is killing me!

Everyone else came up for the weekend (Ray, Jason, mom, dad, grandma, Colin, Lori and kids)

I forgot my camera when we went to the awesome Cascade parade, but luckily I had my phone and luckily I got a picture of my favorite float...

A big huge log! I love Cascade!

The lake filled with boats waiting for the fireworks to start. We were sitting on the golf course.

I seriously took a million pictures of the fireworks but without a tripod pretty much none of them turned out!

Here is some Cascade scenery for your viewing pleasure :)

And we had to get a picture with grandma and all her great grandchildren!

*sigh*, I want to go back!

Crazy Hair Day

I'm baaaaaack! If you haven't noticed, I've taken a little blogging break this summer. I have lots to catch up on, clear back to before school got out. Crazy Hair Day!!

We decided to make it a Boise State mohawk :)

Cuties...

12 Years

12 years ago today I married my sweetheart. Didn't we look happy? We were. Don't we still look happy? We are. Maybe we are a little more grown up and a little less naive. Maybe we have learned that marriage can be really hard sometimes, that joining 2 different lives together can be difficult. But at the same time, it is one thing in my life, maybe the only thing, that I don't stress or worry about because I don't have to. The mutual love and commitment we share makes the hard times less hard and makes life happy and content. We are far from perfect, but we have created a great life and an amazing family and I thank my lucky stars every day that I married Ray.

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Memorial Day Weekend

We went to Cascade for Memorial Day Weekend. We kicked it off right when my mom came up to Spokane earlier in the week and we went to see WICKED!!! It was completely amazing, I could gush on and on about it and it wouldn't do it justice. AMAZING! I want to see it 25 more times. Seriously.

On Friday morning the kids ditched school and we left for Cascade. This is a picture of Lewiston as we were coming down the big huge hill. The rain looked so cool!

The weather got worse from there. This is McCall as we were passing through.

Luckily that was the last we saw of the snow. My sister Dana was there with her 4 kiddos. My dad came up later that night with my brother-in-law Jason. It was such a great weekend! The kids got to have some serious cousin time. They were outside the entire time, even though it was kind of cold and rainy.

Uncle Jason was reading them scriptures. They were obviously glued to every word he said.

We went to some hot springs, I can't remember the name. Look how quaint the office is. I can't believe I have been going to Cascade all these years and haven't ever been there! It was so fun! The kids had a great time, and the adults did too. It was a win-win.

Elliot was cracking me up with this snorkeling mask. He was bound and determined to get it on even though it was obviously too small for him. :)

Here's Ray getting really mad at me for bringing my camera in the water. :)

The ride home was very peaceful and quiet.

We made a fire and made s'mores!

Elliot is cracking me up in this shot!

COUSINS ROCK!!

Naomi couldn't get enough of baby Ila Jo. She was lovin' on her the whole time. :)

We had a little scare with Elliot while we were there. The kids all went on an "adventure" with uncle Jason on Sunday afternoon. They just went hiking along a 4 wheeler trail by my parents house. The kids were all out exploring. Jason called them all back and Elliot wasn't there. Ray got up there with Maggie at about that time and they all were searching for Elliot, all the kids were "helping" a whole lot, I'm sure. Eventually Ray called me so I could go help. When I got that phone call dread is the only word to describe how I felt. Every worst-case-scenario you can imagine was running through my head. My mom, dad, and I ran up to where they were. I prayed the whole time. Looking back on it I can say that I initially felt peace when I prayed. But the longer he was gone the more I let fear take over and started to panic. Some men on 4-wheelers had driven by earlier, before I got there, and they went off to search for him too. They were the ones who found him. I think he was gone for about an hour. They drove up with him and I was so beyond relieved. Elliot was trying so hard not to cry when they drove up. It broke my heart. They said that he was about 1/2 mile away sitting on another trail. Elliot said that he started to get scared so he kneeled down to pray and decided to just sit down. I know that was the Holy Ghost helping Elliot in that moment. If he had kept walking who knows what would've happened. Everything turned out fine and it was a good chance for us to talk to all the kids about safety and what to do if you get lost. It was also a good chance for Elliot to further develop his relationship with his Heavenly Father and learn that prayer is powerful and our prayers are answered.

We had a great weekend and can't wait to do it again (minus the Elliot getting lost in the woods part) over the 4th of July!!