Swimming in Utah

While we were there we took the kids to the local swimming pool to burn off some energy and hang out with some more friends!

Adahleigh's favorite part of swimming is being able to jump in all by herself. They all enjoyed going down the two little slides you can see behind her. Keisha even enjoys it. 

Splashing is of course on the top of everyones list.

Adahleigh also enjoyed going down the big water slide with there dad. I was trying to take a good picture and not let any other little kid drown me in the process. Needless to say i failed.

We had a great time swimming with friends. ....ok i think i enjoyed it the most just being able to visit!!!

Utah road trip

This past July we went to visit my family! We were going  to surprise my mom for her birthday!! 

We left our usual time about four in the morning so the kids would be to tired to complain about the ride. To help break up the trip we decided to hit all the temples along the way that were not to far off the main road. Adahleigh loves to go see the temples.

Our first stop was The Boise Temple. 

(Yes this is how taking a picture with our three little rascals usually go)

The kids enjoyed smelling or trying to pick the flowers.

Another stop was the big bridge in Twin Falls. 

The kids thought the view was pretty cool.

Next stop was the Twin Falls Temple. 

...every once in awhile we capture a fairly good picture. 

We also were able to stop by and see the beginnings of the Brigham city temple being built. 

This has got to be one of my favorite pictures of adahleigh, she definitely has a good scowl to her.

Don't mind the sandal's forgot to pack her church shoes.

We had a great time while visiting family. Just never pulled the camera out or got any good pictures. We went back to pokey for a day and hung out with our friends.  We also made it out to visit with adams family at there annual family reunion in Lava. 

Sorry i am not much for words, but i know you all just like to look at the pictures anyways!!

The slide of doom!

On the way home from Utah we took a stop in the town of Burns. 

Where we found this..... as i call it the slide of doom. 

This slide looks a lot worse than it is.... The kids actually had a slow steady speed all the way down.

Little keisha even enjoyed climbing to the top and sliding down.

They finally got tired of climbing all the way to the top and headed for the smaller slide.

They enjoy trying to make a train and going down all together. Keisha usually breaks it because she does not understand she needs to hold on to the person in front.

I actually got a picture of them all together.

Keisha sliding......

She was laughing all the way down!

4th of July

We had a great fourth of July this year. ....of course i can never get a good picture of all three of them.  

We started our festivities off by going to the parade, since main street is only a few block from home, we loaded the little ones in the stroller and walked over. (if we would have drove we probably would have had to park almost as far away).

...waiting for the parade to come, they could hear it but still waiting to see it.

They all sat on the little curb throughout the entire parade, only getting up to grab a piece of candy or to get a better look at what was passing by.

Keisha's favorite part was of course all the animals that would pass.

The parade was not very big, really didn't have any cool decorated floats, but it was just the right length to keep the little ones attention. They also had a mini carnival set up with a couple of rides for the little ones, but everyone was getting tired and adahleigh was really the only one big enough to go on them.

After the parade we stopped by the store to grab some more fireworks. (better late than never right?) I had recently only bought the kids poppers and sparklers. Adam thought we needed a few more different ones. The temperature that day was pushing close to 90, one of the warmest days we had since moving there. After walking  home from the parade the kids all decided they had had enough of the heat and wanted to go swimming. Well we didn't have a swimming pool, let alone a yard to actually play in one. So we grabbed a couple of our empty tubs and put some water in the bottom so they could at least splash around and cool off a bit.

The kids all enjoyed throwing the poppers, adahleigh and charles did pretty good and making them pop, keisha got lucky a couple times and got one or two to pop when she threw it.

The kids played pretty hard all day long and were completely exhausted by the time 6 rolled around that we were having a hard time trying to keep them awake so it could get dark enough to do sparklers. Keisha off course zonked, which was probably good because all she like to do is try to grab the lighted end of the sparkler.  The other two enjoyed holding them and moving them around. 

Adahleigh has been waiting for months to be able to watch fireworks again. Since the fireworks were only 4 blocks away from our house we thought we would be able to sit on our upstairs porch and watch them from home. But to our disadvantage the trees for just a little to tall to see them. So we all hoped in the van and drove down the street to watch them. In this town people just line the side of the local highway and watch the fireworks. It was definitely a new experience! The kids of course had got there second wind by the time we got back home that we finished lighting off the sparklers and the rest of the fireworks.

We only managed to get pictures of the kids with there sparklers and not the bigger fireworks. Adam would light them and i was holding the hose to water down all the sparks. The kids enjoyed watching our own little firework show but thought we needed to do it every night for the follow week.

Wickiup Reservoir

    Since our move we haven't made it out much to see what there is around here. Everyone that we talks to always mentions how great all the lakes are around here, and the kids love to play in the water, we decide to give the lake shore a try around the first part of July. We went over to Wickiup Reservoir, since it's not too far from home. It was a nice warm summer day so we figured that water would be warm enough for the kids to get in and enjoy it like they enjoyed playing in the river in Reno.

   At first the kids didn't want to get in the water because of the yellow band around the edge of the lake. Keisha flipped out the most about getting in it, so after a little coaxing the all decided it was all right. The yellow band around the reservoir is actually pollen and not pollution. We had to deal with the pine tree pollen covering everything for a couple weeks, unlike most other plants pine trees don't depend on bugs or birds for pollination they just produce mass amounts of pollen and let the wind do the rest.

   The water was plenty warm for wading purposes and once they started looking around at what there was to find in the water they had a blast.

   We did see a couple of tadpoles but weren't able to catch any, but everyone looked good and hard.

   Charles' now loves to make his scary face for the camera anytime we take a picture.

   The highlight of the water was throwing rocks. Everyone had to throw as many as possible. Adahleigh almost hit us a few times with her impeccable aim. Keisha on the other hand had to find the biggest rock she could pick up and throw it in the water. She's lucky she came out with all her toes since some of the time the rock didn't make it too far past them. She chased that rock into waist deep water and almost went under a couple times trying to recover it, that's why she is wet all up her front side but the back is dry.

   One of the other great finds in the water was this snake. He came swimming up by just for the sake of scaring Ashley to death. He took off swimming once we tried to catch him, which caused the a little disappointment since the kids wanted to touch it. Probably better for the snake though, he probably wouldn't have survived Keisha's kung fu grip.

   While out at the reservoir we also saw a bald eagle flying around and a hawk snatch a fish out of the water and carry it off. There are definitely some benefits to living out in the woods.