So that past month has been crazy. First off some exciting
news Travis got a promotion he is now the Garden Manager at the Garden City
store. Which is super exciting and he has always wanted this position. So we
are excited for him and I know he will be great at it. Also hopefully this is
his last semester for school (crossing our fingers) we are just waiting to hear
to see if he qualifies to graduate in December.
The start of our crazy life we blessed LeeAnna then we went on vacation for two weeks,
then came home the week of my sister wedding and then moved my parents into
their new house and Travis and Donaven started school. So as you can see life
has not been able to be normal and cannot wait for us to get back into some
kind of routine.
Where do I start… (beware many photos so I did a few from each day into a collage so you could see what we were up to.)
We blessed LeeAnna on the 3rd of August and it was beautiful and so grateful that Travis honors his priesthood so that he was able to give her an amazing blessing that will help her in the coming years. So glad that our family was able to share that special day with us. Something that I thought made the day special was that my mother in law made her dress by hand for me and was able to include part of my mom wedding dress as the beautiful headband. She did a fantastic job and couldn't ask for a more perfect dress. I was so excited when I found out that I was having a girl because I knew that I wanted her to make it. I know she spent many hours on it and I am very grateful that she took the time to make her grand-daughter a beautiful blessing dress that she will have forever. A side night on the headband. So when my older sister got married she choose to use my mom dress and did a few alterations and well my mom wanted my sister and I to have some of it as well. So I have kept it and always wanted it some how incorporated into the blessing dress.
So we left on our wonderful two week
vacation and stopped in Pocatello for a day and chilled with family. Then we
headed to Salt Lake for a day to play around and have fun. We got to hang out
with our sister Heather and went to the Zoo and went to dinner. We also went to
the Discovery planet by the Temple and then to build a bear and the boys got to
make their own bears and they were so excited and adorable through the whole
process. After that we headed to St. George to be with more family. We stayed
with Grandma Arnold and that was so much fun. I love that my kids have a
relationship with both of their Grandma Great (or as Oren calls her Grandma
Grape J )
They got to play and color/draw with Grandma Great which was an adventure all
by itself lol. They would color a pictures for someone and the wrap it up in
anything they can find. I am pretty sure Grandma Great got 50 pictures while we
were there. We are grateful that she let us stay with her and create and better
relationship with one another. She also got Travis to watch a movie with us
which doesn’t happen all the time but the movie she picked was priceless and we
will never let her forget lol. (the King Speech and she says she doesn’t
remember all the swear words so we just tease her now)
We took the boys to a dinosaur exhibit that wasn’t all that
great but at least we tried. Of course we had to go the splash pad and have fun
running in the water. We also found a new kids museum that was so much fun.
Each room had a different theme and it was two stories. For example on room had
a plane that you could pretend fly and a car that you could fix with all the
different tools that mechanics use. We can’t wait to go back again so much fun.
The one thing that is a must whenever we go to St. George is getting our Torta
(It was divine) Then we were lucky and my Uncle Vern had us over for dinner which
was amazing and the boys got to play with their 2nd cousins. They
had so much fun they kept asking when we were going to back and play again.
Then my cousin Kason had us over for lunch because he always says he will cook for me
but never does well he finally did this time. He made us chicken and dutch oven
potatoes really good. Then we had to say good bye and head back to Idaho to go
to the Baker reunion.
Then we got back to Idaho and helped gather things and load
the cars up so we could leave for Island Park and start our week vacation
together in log cabin together J
There were about 20 of us under one roof and not going to lie I was a little
scared and how things were going to turn out but it was a lot of fun and
enjoyed every moment of it. They rented a large cabin that could hold all of us
and it was beautiful. The first day we just chilled and got settled into our
room and played around. We got to have our first camp fire and the only camp
fire because it rained the rest of the time we were there. Each family was in
charge of a meal and everyone did a fantastic job. We did Dutch oven Mt. Dew
chicken and potatoes and I must say it was amazing and for dessert we did
raspberry and cherry chocolate cobbler.
Our cabin that we stayed at was AMAZING!!! I hope I get to go again because it was so much fun.
The second day we headed to Yellowstone which was so much
fun. We got to see a lot of different glaciers and different kinds of animals.
I really really wanted to be able to see a wild bear and we were driving along
and we see all these cars stopped so we stopped to see what it was and it was 3
bears on a hill side and one of the was
eating a bison. It was amazing. Then we got to go see Old Faithful and that was cool. It was a long and busy day of driving and walking. Loved every minute of it.
The third day we were able to go on a Horseback riding and I
have not been on a horse since I was a little girl. It was so much fun and our
guide was so nice and funny. Oren was so excited to ride a horse. I was very proud of both of them because neither of them were scared. Oren started making sounds to get the horse to go like every second and sometimes the horse would listen and start to pick up speed a little.So I got to be with Oren for half of our ride
because he fell asleep on a riding horse (who does that). So I had
Travis switch me because he was starting to get heavy so then I got to enjoy
the rest of my ride with Donaven. He was
so cute and loved every moment of it. We left LeeAnna with Grandma since she
is small and Grandma didn’t want to ride. Donaven was sad to leave his horse
named Doc with his daddy but then he grew to love my horse which was named Bronco. When we
were about done he told me he liked Bronco over Doc (yes I win lol) the only
thing that was a little disappointing is that we couldn’t run our horse we
could only walk. We were like 2 minutes away from the barn and it started to
rain we had really good timing.
Day four was just played games and hung out and we got to go
fishing for the first time and ride on some boats. I was so excited because I
have been wanting to learn to fish because I think it would be fun. I don’t
like anything about fish at all but I was surprised that it was very relaxing
and enjoyable. I even baited my own hook. I was able to take the boys out on a
paddle boat and we got to go all over the little lake they had. Then my sister
Kim wanted to take the boys out but Donaven wouldn’t go back out so she just
took Oren out and got stuck lol.. It was so funny and she kept yelling out me
to help her and I was just laughed and said you can get out of it. Took her a
while but she did. The big kicker of it all was while the rest of us were
horsing around thinking we know how to fish Travis starts yelling he caught
one. It was huge I thought if anyone caught one it would have been his dad and
it would be a tiny little fish but no it was my hubby and it was a big fish.
Then came the problem of releasing the fish well he couldn’t he tried with all
of might but he couldn’t get the hook out so guess what we got to take home a
fish (yuck). He even had to gut it and cut off the head so gross. I am so proud
of him. So then once again Mr ODB feel asleep but this time we were out in the boat with Kim and I and guess
who falls asleep again in the middle of the lake that is right Oren. Then the
rest of the day we just chilled and played games (which was one of my favorite
things I love the game of five crowns just wished I had someone to play it with
locally) The boys also loved to go catch frogs which they did every day we were there. They really wanted to take some home with us but I told them no and broke their little hearts.
Finally we had to start packing up and head back to the real
world. We came back the week of my baby sister wedding. I am so excited for
her. I can’t believe the day has finally has arrived and passed. So each day I was with her
finish planning what needed to get done and having parties for her. One day we
had a girls day and went and got our nail down then I was able to be there with
her while my older sister took some first moment shots with Jake seeing her for
the first time in her dress. It was so cool and so glad that I was part of
that. My sister did an amazing job capturing all the moments. One thing that I
will never forget is that giant spider that went up her dress I flipped out and
Jake had to come to the rescue. She got
married on Friday August 28 and she was the most beautiful bride that I have
even see (besides myself haha)
Then school started for Travis and we applied for graduation
in hopes that he can in December (cross your fingers for him). The week after
that Donaven started school and he is so happy but he is having a hard time because
he doesn’t have any friends yet and he thinks he can go to kindergarten when in
2 day and every time I tell him no he gets sad and doesn’t understand why
because he is almost 5 and that’s when he gets to go.
LeeAnna is now 3 months old and is getting bigger every day.
She is starting to actually be fun. She now will smile a ton when you talk to
her and will start to talk for a long period of time. She still loves to see
everything that is going on and loves to be talked to. Loves her mommy and
getting used to daddy. Starting to grip things and her brothers are even more
in love with her than they day she was born if that is possible. We are so
lucky to have her. She sleeps through the night since about 2 months old. Her
last feeding is around 8-9 at night and then she wakes at around 4-5am to eat
and then goes back to bed for a little bit longer until she starts to hear her
brothers make all the noise in the morning. She loves to lay on the ground and
look at the fan (we call the fan her best friend because she sits and smiles
and talks to it every day), she also loves her swing and loves to stand up when she is awake so that she can see what is happening around her.
Well I think that’s all and I will get back to the kids and
you can get back to your life. Sorry it was long we just had a lot going on and
we want to share it all.