EVO for the Whole Family

In the middle of July Gracie got to tag along with me to her first blogging conference (lucky girl!) She was just 8 weeks old and did great! There were plenty of volunteers to hold her, dress her, and even change her diapers. I know I've said it before but she really is the world's best baby.

It was at the Canyons in Park City. Rough huh? The scariest thing was taking her on the orange bubble (a ski lift) to our first class. I'm petrified of heights and here I was taking this little thing up the mountain by myself! I was white knuckled but we made it up and back safe and sound.

She got to hang out with all 5 of The Crafting Chicks. (me, Jamie, Kirsten, Becky and Brooke)

And meet Minnie for the first time.

And Mickey too!

After 3 days of just the girls, the boys came to town for the closing party at Park City Mountain Resort. It was my 3rd year at the conference, but the first time they've been able to come to the closing party. Bentley and Lincoln had been at Grandma's Camp and Chod did a lot of driving to get them there in time.

It had been raining earlier in the day, and we kept our fingers crossed it would let up so the slide and coaster would be going. And it did! They got to try out the Alpine Coaster.

Chod got to do every ride twice, because the boys only wanted to go with him. Whatever, Gracie and I had a little more quality time together.

Taking the ski lift up to the Alpine Slide.

Bentley killed a little time on the carousel waiting for his turn on the Alpine Slide. I'm pretty sure there were other kids on it too...somewhere.

Chod and Linky.

Bentley got to ride his own cart down...Chod received instruction that even the though the rules say no bumping he was to "help" Bentley down the mountain by pushing him.

With a moose.

Lincoln attempted to climb a big rock wall, he wasn't so sure about the harness they put him in and then he found out the holds were too far apart for him to reach, so he settled for this rock instead. I'm glad they were able to come and have a little fun. Chod, Bentley and Lincoln all agree that the Alpine Coaster is way more fun than the Slide.

Spinning Out

Lincoln found a pothole filled with sprinkler water one morning during out walk/ride in the cemetery. One of his favorite things to do on his bike is to get high centered and spin like crazy. This time the water made it even better. He came home wet and muddy!

Stephens Games

The Stephens family gathered in Island Park last weekend for the family reunion.

Almost everyone was there (we were missing Kensey's family) including 81 year old Grandma Luain.

  Gracie and I didn't join the river rats that floated/canoed the river. It sounds like they had fun, the boys ended up in a raft being towed by Chod's canoe. The boys may have "fallen in" a few times and needed rescuing by dad. One of those rescues resulted in in a tipped canoe and a drowned iPhone. I told him not to take it. And Amy told him to at least double the ziploc bags if he was going to take it. He didn't listen to either of us.

 We went to Mack's Inn theater for Home School Musical 2.

 Chod was picked from the audience to be part of the show. They had him hula hoop. He did great. Rumor has it, that it was his dad that threw him under the bus.

We were divided into 3 teams and got to chose our team name and paint our team flag.
Lincoln and I were Killer Teddy Bears. Ricky and Michaela jumped right in designing our flag.

Bentley was a Sharguar--a combination of sharks and jaguars. They aimed to please everyone.

Chod and JJ were left in charge of the Killer Bee flag. Then Chod abandoned JJ partway through to help Lincoln with his problems. Poor Linky was sick on Sunday.

There were pinatas to celebrate the summer birthdays. The under 8 crowd had a pull string pinata and the over 8 were provided a traditional one. Bentley was string puller #2 and he opened the thing up. When I asked him how he did it he said, "Oh that was easy. I looked and there were 3 strings that could open it, so I just pulled one of them." Next year he may get promoted to the traditional pinata.

We roasted marshmallows in the fireplace and had fun hearing family stories.

Monday morning the family Olympics began.

Chod in the javelin throw.

Here's the Angry Bird archery set up. Bentley killed all the birds on his try. He's had a lot of practice it seems. Bentley kept checking the scores to see which team was ahead. But he was in good company as he isn't the only competitive Stephens boy in the bunch.

Lincoln soccer ball bowling.

Looking for the big fish at Big Springs.

We never saw the fish but the kids had fun dipping their toes in the cold water.

After the scores were tallied medals were giving out. Chod's team took 3rd, Bentley's team 2nd (and he was okay with that)

And Linky and I placed 1st.

 After the medal ceremonies, the reunion auction began. It's become tradition that Larry Loot is given out during the reunion and then we use that Loot to buy goods that we all contribute.

It was fun to spend 4 days hanging out with the Stephens family.

Ridiculous Postage

On my way home from loading the boys in with Karisa and sending them off to Grandma's Camp, I realized I had only packed 2 pullups for Lincoln. And they would be at Grandma's for 3 nights. Knowing that it would be practically a miracle if he woke up dry, and that Grandma would not be happy with a wet bed I had 2 options. I could force Grandma to go to the store with 5 kids to buy a pullup would not be good either or I could mail one to him. As soon as I got back I stuck a pullup in an envelope and headed to the post office. When the lady at the counter asked if first class would be okay, I asked if it would be there by Friday? "No, Monday." "Will Priority get it there by Friday." Without answering she printed off the sticker and stuck it on the envelope asking if I needed insurance or delivery confirmation. I started laughing, nope its just a pullup, no insurance needed. Then I saw the postage due. $5.25! That's right. I paid $5.25 to send 1 pullup to Lincoln at Grandma Camp!

Instagram v.7

1. Lewiston fireworks on the 4th 2. Cousin loves 3. The new ride has a 3rd row 4. Between the birds and Lincoln no one else has gotten a strawberry from the garden. 5. The boys learned it takes more than lemons to make lemonade. 6. Met up with the cousins and headed to Grandma's Camp. 7. Gracie meets Minnie. 8. Paint chip pandemonium at the Lowes party at EVO 9. I had the cutest EVO roommate.

Bear Lake Beach Time

Ty and Tameka blessed Tuff the week after Gracie's blessing. Which meant the family was back in town! So we spent that Saturday at Bear Lake. None of the kids are shy when it comes to water and sand and had a blast playing with cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. We took a break for lunch and kept the babies tucked away in the shade. Other than that it was water and sand all day long!

Instagram v.6

1. Stamps, not stickers. 2. Canning cherries. 3. The perfect pair 4. Kissing cousins. Ike 12 weeks, Gracie 7 weeks and Tuff 2 weeks old. Gracie is a lucky girl. 5. "Oh my loveliness." 6. Karisa joins Instagram @mrshayday 7. Neighborhood fireworks party 8. Double Trouble, Wyatt and Lincoln. 9. Miss America

Instagram v.5

1. Man down! 2. Working on Gracie's blessing dress. 3. Push-ups and suckers for breakfast 4. Bike jump 5. Pinks Shaved Ice 6. Rootbeer float, Strawberry Shortcake, Coconut Crave, Tropical Dreamsicle 7. Activity Day girls and their 4th of July shirts 8. World's Best Baby 9. Heading to the pool

House Update

We've lived in our house for almost 11 months, and our to-do list is still growing. But it is nice to look back at pictures and remember how far we've come.

First up, the master bedroom.

This is the listing photo, and obviously, they used it as the baby's room. For a reason I don't remember right now, we decided to turn it into the master bedroom.

Basically, we gave it a new coat of paint and put a bigger bed in there. Oh and I believe we (mom) changed the baseboards with what used to be in the front room.

And the room that I think has improved the most, but still has the most to go. Downstairs.

This is the listing photo and the room actually looks like it might be a little bit liveable, even if it is straight from That 70s Show. This picture was taken in 2011, despite what you might think.

But the room was so scary. Ugly paneling, nasty blinds, hideous wallpaper, wallpaper that had been partially removed but tore off the sheet rock paper in the process, holes in the ceiling. Really nasty. Even though we couldn't afford to do what we really wanted to, I told Chod we had to unscary-ify the place or it would never get used.

 This little room used to be a sewing room, but it became our toy room. Nice wallpaper huh?

After removing the rest of the wallpaper and the 1 bajillion nails that were all over the place we filled in the paneling and textured over the top. Eventually we want to tear out all the paneling and redo the walls--so this is just a big band-aid.

After it was all textured we primed and then painted and painted and painted. I think this section of the house was the last wood I covered up. Every last bit of wood has now been painted.

The climbing wall in the toy room.

And the backyard:

 In the beginning.

 Removing rocks,

 Watering the grass seed.

 And grass! We also added a shade tree, a peach tree, and 2 apple trees. Oh and a chicken coop.

Yep, I forget how far we've come.