Fourth of July '09

For the fourth of July my friend Courtney invited me to come to her husband's family's cabin in New Meadows! My friend Mike was in town so we went up early Saturday and hung out at the cabin and relaxed. We then rode up to Riggins area and found a few good rapids in the river to raft! So we unload and load up our rafts (full of patches, that might not float all the way down; so they say) and we head down the river! The first round two rafts went down and Mike and just watched...haha. The second raft flipped on the first rapid...scary! haha. I then decided I wanted to join in the fun! But made sure I told my raft I did not want to flip over! They agreed, and off we went! We made it with our filpping!! Riding over a class four rapid, we decided we wanted to ride the next rapid! That one we ended up going through it backwards!! As soon as I noticed this i stood up and turned around (because I did NOT want to fall out!!) We made it!! We then got out and went Again! The second round same thing, we started going backwards and side ways and two people from our raft fell out! But I stayed in! I held on for dear life so I would not fall out! (I now have some battle wounds/bruises to show off on my chins and behind my knee! they are U-G-L-Y, but cool! haha) But since two of our people fell out we missed out exit, we were trying to get them in the boat before we hit the next rapid! we got them in and had to hurry and paddle to shore! We ended up in the rocks and bushes which made it difficult to exit, so the other raft came over and helped us and we all climbed this rocky hill barefoot. It was so fun!! (pictures coming later) The last time they went down I didn't go, and they decided to all fit in one raft! They made it down the first rapid and their raft went flat!! HAHA!! so they had to climb out at another difficult spot and come find us! (we would pick them up with the car at the exit). HAHA It was a fun filled weekend! After we got back to the cabin we all took a little nap, then headed to McCall for fireworks on the lake! We were all looking forward to these wonderful, amazing fireworks! Well we missed the first five minutes trying to find a spot to park, then as soon as we found our fron trow seats next to the lake....the grand finale was going off and we turned and all looked at eachother, and by the time we looked back at them, they were over!! WE WERE MAD!! But now we laugh histerically about it! It was/is a weekend to remember!!

Driving to McCall with Mike



Mike and I exploring downtown New Meadows, Idaho

Let's all go to Cowboy Church!! :)

Driving in the car...


Mike and I-in New Meadows

Mom

Mom's arm is healing very well! She goes out with dad at least once a week to ride! They are quite the biker gang! They love it! They have found their new hobby that will continue into retirement! :)

From this...



To this...

LAGOON

Father's day weekend my friend Courtney and I decided we wanted to go to Lagoon! So I invited my friend Mike from Rexburg and she brought her husband and we headed out! We met my friend Mike in Utah, so we (I) had a few extra seats in my car, so Shaun's (Courtney's husband)s brohther decided they wanted to come as well so we all piled in the car and headed to Utah!! The road trip was so fun! We took turns driving and it made the trip go by a little faster. We ended up sleeping at Shaun's uncles house in the hills behind the temple in Bountiful! Amazingly beautiful home! The night we got there we went swimming in their pool that has an amazing slide! It's almost a straight vertical fall! (kind of like a mini lagoon waterpark in their backyard!) It was so fun! Although Courtney ran me over with her skim board and burned my back! hehe good times! (oh yes! you go down the slide on a skim board to go faster and to go farther! Or you can go down double and it works fun that way too!!)
Utah was so sunny when we got there! We were all excited to go to Lagoon and play in the water?! Well when we woke up it was a little over cast, but we were still determined to go! By the time we got there it was raining, but Shaun was not leaving!! hehe, he came to Lagoon to have fun and play in the water!! So we wouldn't let us leave, so we rode all the rides we wanted to, some of them twice and it was fun!! You couln't even tell it was raining! We had a blast! Well as we worked our way to the other side of the park, it started raining harder but that was still not stopping us!! So Shaun dragged us to Rattlesnake Rappids and we had to have fun! Boy was it fun! And COLD!! but we sure laughed a lot!:) As the day went on it kept rainging, but we were still riding! One ride that all the guys talked me into was the human sling shot!! YIKES! I told myself I would never ride that ride EVER! But here I am strapped in the ride, with Mike, asking them all why am I doing this?! and told Shaun, the things I do for you! he talked me into it! As soon as it shot me in the air I of course screamed!! But....it was soooo fun!! It is now my FAVORITE ride!! We all rode the human sling shot, except Courtney, we loved it! After that we wanted to ride the Samari, but the line was slow, we stood in the line, in the rain, for thirty minutes before getting on the ride!! (yes that many people were still at Lagoon in the rain!!) We loved that ride so much we got back in line right away and got on much quicker the next time! After we left the park we were all so wet so stopped at the store to get some dry clothes. We then headed back to the house to get warm, and get ready to drive home. But of course Shaun's brothers wanted to go out on a 'date', so we had to wait for them to get home before we left, well they didn't get home until 12:30am, so we decided not to leave and that we would leave in the morning! We were all so exhausted and tired, so I think it was a good move. We had a blast and had another fun road trip home in the hail and snow and rain!! YEP! What a trip to remember!!

Ok, so they may not be the most appealing pictures...

They had wiggle cars! Ryan and I might have been racing each other through the kitchen
Ryan-Shaun's brother



Matt
Shaun's brother


Courtney Shaun


This just might be the most hideous picture!



Ryan driving us home safely; through the crazy weather!
Although we did almost die!

Boise Zoo

When Terressa came to town this last time I took the three older kids to the zoo! They had a lot of fun...until is started pouring on us! But that wasn't going to stop us! Bryant and Kayelynn wanted to leave and get inside but Sarah was just loving it! she splashed in the puddles and enjoyed every minute of it! Although she was scared to enter the zoo at first because there was a big staute of a monkey -I believe-but Parker picked her up and showed her it wasn't scary and she was ok after that! These kids love animals, they were just sad that there wasn't a zebra or elephant. Oh well.


The found the 'elephant'!!



They loved the black bear! And Sarah loved showing Kayelynn what she thought was cool or what she thought she look at!




They also loved watching the Tiger walk around and come close to the glass!


The giraffe was another favorite! He was so tall!


Cute kids!


Look at the prairie dogs! LOL


I don't know why they looked scared, because they loved this giant lizard! hehe


Giant turtle!



As you can tell it was pouring at this time and they were loving it!!


Sarah was so exhausted by the end of the day! What a fun filled day!!

Slow, Look, and Roll...

First of all mom will KILL ME if/when she finds out I'm putting this on the blog, so don't say you heard it from me! deal? But I thought it's been a few weeks so it's safe now, I mean you will have to find out sometime, right? (and just remember this is my version of the story from what they told us...)
Most of you know mom and I took the Start Program to get our motorcycle license last month; well we went to the DMV and we both passed the test! We now have our official motorcycle license! We are biker babes! ;)
Riding a motorcycle is a very fun, relaxing and can be at times a dangerous 'sport'. You need the right gear to keep you safe for you and for other drivers to see you. You need a helmet, gloves, over the ankle boots, leather jacket with long sleeves, long pants etc.
Two weeks ago dad and Paul Kelson took mom on her first official ride (yes without me! Rude! hehe). She has all her gear on and ready to go! They took her up to Lowman area, then came back home. About 300 miles total. Well it's a windy road, and mom was doing Awesome! Dad was leading and Paul was in the back. There was a corner coming up that was a sharp turn; almost a 90 degree turn. Since it was a windy turn they weren't going too fast. So dad slowed down and turned accordingly. Mom was next. She saw the turn and slowed down, she didn't realize it was that sharp of a turn and didn't slow down to the right speed. She was going about 35 mph, but it wasn't slow enough. She knew at this point she wasn't going to make the turn so instead of 'over correcting' and trying to make the turn, she took the better, logical option. Keep straight and hope for the best. She hit the rocks/gravel and slid a little. She didn't want to get hurt really bad so she let go of the handle bars and "jumped off" the bike. Since the bike wasn't going that fast it didn't get very far and she didn't come off the bike completely. The bike fell on her foot and she is now laying on the ground. Paul was behind her and saw it all happen. Dad was ahead and looked back and noticed they were stopped and turned around and came to help. Paul had to stop his bike and stand his bike up before helping mom. Paul gets to mom and counldn't lift the bike by himself so he had to wait for dad to come help. They get the bike off mom and she stands up and brushes herself off. She is ok. she kind of scraped her arm and leg a little, and her boots are dusty and a little scratched but she is ok. Most of the damage is to the bike. One tiny hole in the knee of her jeans and NO scratches AT ALL on her leather jacket!
So they get situated and and head back for town! On the way home they stop for dinner in Horseshoe Bend. Mom goes to the bathroom and cleans up and washes her hands. When she gets back to the table she pulls up her sleeve and shows dad and Paul; she has about a 3 inch Gash/cut just above her elbow and its kind of bleeding. Mom says to dad, "I think I need stitches" as she squeezes the cut closed on the sides to see how bad it is. So they finish dinner, ride back to the shop to put the bikes away, and look at the damage of the bike and try to fix some it. They are there for about an hour. They finally decide to go home. On the way home dad asks, "do you want to go to Dr. Smith's house?" she says, "I don't care". So they drive to Dr. Smith's house, he's not home. Dad says, "what do you want to do?" mom says, " I think I need stitches." So dad continues to the emergency room at this time (keep in mind this is about 4 hours after the accident and about 9:30pm.) So they go to the emergency room and get in and out of the emergency room and show up just before we all show up from our own plans from the night. We all showed up at about 11:30-12am. Mom shows us her arm, "what in the world did you do? what happend?" dad says, "wait just a minute, let mom tell you" so we find mom and her arm is covered bandages and she is shock at this point. She comes down and she tells us what happened....and we say back to her, "mom why didn't you slow down?" "I don't know" mom slowy states. "But it was the best option." mom continues. So I help her tape up her bandage for the night. She then shows her her knee; "MOM!" I exclaimed. Her leg was swollen and scraped up too. So, the nurse I am/not, put some hydrogen peroxide on a cotton ball and clean up her knee, AND the extra dried up blood on her arm the hospital didn't finish cleaning up. At this point it's about 2 am and we have church at 9am. I finished nursing up mom and we all went to bed and woke up for church at 9am. Mom wore a long skirt and a shirt that covered her arm so not everyone would look, and ask. She felt embarrassed; she messed up; she didn't slow down and she "ruined" a nice bike. But like I was telling mom while cleaning her up, "Its not your fault, that could have happened to anyone."
She had no idea she scrped up arm like that until she looked at it at the restaurant, like I said. Still to this day we are wondering how there is NOT A scratch on her leather jacket with a scrape that bad on her arm! The Lord was on her side.
She did all this and told us this with a smile on her face!
We learn from our mistakes and live on with a better life! Get well soon Mom! We love you!


In the emergency room

Her scraped up and swollen knee

Like I said; with a smile on her face :)

Saving the best for last...

After the stitches have been placed

Saving the VERY best for last!

BEFORE the stitches were placed!...


Please don't throw up on your computer screen!



Isn't that cool!
(I like gross things, hehe)

Spring is here!

Spring is here! We have some cute neighborhood pets; a fox family and a bunny family! They are soo cute! The fox just had about 7 babies, and they play in the grass and love it! The mom fox loves to sit with them and let them play on her and watch us drive by and take pictures! hehe. The bunny family has been here for a few years, last year she had a baby and this year there is a new baby! They mostly stay in our backyard and the neighbors yard!
This last weekend mom and I took the Star Program class to get licensed to drive a motorcycle! We both passed! It was soo fun! It was a friday night, all day saturday and all day sunday class! We learned a lot and loved it and are ready to get on the road! I some how got a huge bruise on my leg...I think because the bike 'fell' on me. It was nothing serious was stopped, almost; and hit the tire in front of me and the bike tipped over a little bit. Ya my bruise is nasty. It's sore when i touch it, but other than that i forget it's there. Other than that life is hanging in there for me. It's finally starting to get warm! I can't wait for summer! I might take a cruise! Anyone want to join?! Spring is here!


The bunny!

Cute bunny!


The bunny is so cute! It was a baby, but it's not out much.
These bunnies are so fast, they don't like getting their picture taken. (as you can tell on the bottom left picture the bunny ran away on the left side of the tree)


Mamma fox with the kids

Baby fox playing on mamma

Mamma protecting the den

Come out and play!

I'll be right back with dinner

Just put the kids to bed...







What the HUGE bruise!?? where did you come from?!




Nasty, It's turning yellow! gross!