Hershey Day

On Thursday, Jeff found out that his vacation day had been switched and he had the day off. It was a last minute thing, but we had gotten some discounted tickets to Hershey Park, so we figured it would be a perfect day to go. It’s a little bit of a drive, but we’re always up for a good drive together.

The boys loved it and had such a good time. Hershey Park is set up that it is both an amusement park and a water park. We started with a couple rides for the kids. It’s fun that they can all go on the rides together now. Matthew wasn’t big enough the last time we were at an amusement park, but he loved the rides this time! We slowly made our way over to the water park. The water park isn’t huge, but we had fun playing with the kids in the kiddie area, and taking a couple turns around the lazy river together as a family. Jeff and Jacob went on a water ride while Matthew & Caleb and I played in the wave pool.

About that time it started to get a little overcast and windy, so we decided to head over to the amusement park. The first ride we did was the big slide. Jacob rode down with Matthew on his lap, and I rode down with Caleb. They were short on bags, so the only way to be able to all go down together was to share the bags. Caleb wasn’t too happy about that, as you can easily see on his face. He had wanted to ride by himself. We still had a fun ride.

I think we moved over to the amusement park just in time, because not too long after that we had a down-pour. Thankfully, eastern downpours are pretty famous for being somewhat short. The kids rode a particular ride about 8 times in a row, and then it cleared up. We decided that would be a good time to change from swimsuits back into regular clothes since we were pretty sure we wouldn't be doing any more water activities.It even made it nice because many people left at that time, or were waiting it out indoors so we were able to hit a few rides without any lines. Caleb got his own personal ride on the train. I thought it looked so funny seeing this big train ride with one little kid sitting on it, but Caleb was in heaven. Jacob and Jeff were also able to go right up to the front on the roller coasters. I was impressed with how much Jacob loved the big rides! Jeff said that some of the roller coasters were intense for him!

We went on all sorts of rides, and then made our way to the chocolate factory tour. It was nice to have a sit down ride for the whole family and we all loved seeing how all the chocolate is made. (Being there made me think of you Grandma Tanner…Wish I could have passed some of that yummy Hershey’s chocolate on to you!) Definitely made us hungry, it’s a good thing they give out free candy bars at the end of the tour. Matthew was still wearing his candy bar on his face afterwards, so the rain that had started to drizzle down again came in handy for cleaning everyone up.

Even though it was starting to rain again, the boys were adamant that they wanted to ride more rides. Even Matthew who was so tired, kept pointing to the rides and asking to go on them. So we went back into the park and let them go on a few more. We did the carousel as a family and then let the boys ride a bunch of the little kiddie rides, which were pretty much the only ones still open at that point. Actually the rides were a pretty good place to be right then because most of them were covered from the rain.

We finally decided to head home at 8:30pm when we couldn’t soak up any more of the rain. We stopped for some dinner on the drive home, and all the boys were so tired from their busy day that they were asleep within 20 minutes of getting on the highway. Which meant that Jeff and I had a nice conversation on the way home. Although it was wet, it was a nice, very much enjoyed vacation day.

Random Pictures

I love summer. Especially when it's nice outside. We've loved having a pool and playing outside with friends.

Weekend Visit

This past weekend we had some good friends from our old hometown, the Olsens, come and visit. We had talked about getting together for a while, and this ended up being a good weekend for everyone. The kids were so excited, they could hardly wait until Friday afternoon when the Olsens got here. We got to be good friends with Jamie and Aimee while we were in Jeff's rotation, and Jacob and Caleb have always been great friends with Grace. We talked for a while when they first got here, and then went swimming at the pool. We finally had a real nice sunny day and the kids loved it; we ended up being out there for a couple hours. Jeff got home from work just as we finished up and then we had dinner. We put the kids to bed that night, they did surprisingly well for four kids in one little room! We stayed up with Jamie & Aimee and watched a movie together then spent time talking.

Saturday was our big touring day. Jacob and Caleb had soccer in the morning, so I took them to practice while Jeff & Matthew went with the Olsens to do some sight-seeing. The soccer practice went well and both boys had fun. We finished quickly and hurried downtown to meet everyone. Of course, we did have to make a quick stop at home first for a couple reasons. 1- Jeff forgot the diapers & wipes 2- While sitting on the ground watching the boys at soccer practice, I got pooped on by a bird from out of nowhere! Dang bird…I had to go change my shorts.

We did all the basic tours and sites, and had a good time. The kids were pretty good too. Once again, we were glad for a nice sunny day that wasn’t too hot, and now we have more pictures to add to our collection of liberty bell/independence hall tours… I’ve lost count of how many times we’ve been now, but it’s still fun with friends. Of course we had to give them the full Philly experience with cheesesteaks from Pat’s & Geno’s. I think everyone enjoyed them, but I’m pretty sure the price has gone up from last time we were there; they’re $8 bucks a piece now!

We had talked about going out to Valley Forge, but after the long day we opted to go pick up pizzas and water ice and go play at the park instead. It was nice to let the kids run around and get out whatever energy they had left. Jeff and Jamie also made a fun discovery that there were raspberry bushes behind the park. The kids were so excited about it, that they wanted to stay and pick them. Aimee, Matthew and I went home to cook pizzas and finish getting dinner ready, and Jeff, Jamie, Jacob, Caleb, and Grace all stayed for about a half hour longer to stay and pick raspberries. They came home with a pretty good bag of them. They were perfect for the homemade cheesecake that night.

It didn’t take much to get the kids to bed that night, they had been running around and playing hard so they were all pretty tired and went to bed without much trouble. We stayed up talking again, probably later than we should have, but we had a good time and lots of good laughs. It’s great when people come to visit and you can spend time just enjoying the company.

Sunday morning, Jeff was gone early at the hospital, so we got everyone ready and headed to church. The Olsens were pretty intrigued by the whole church setting and experience, they had a good time. They had to take off after sacrament meeting, so we gave hugs and said our goodbyes. It was so fun to have them here this weekend.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to my sweet wonderful husband (and father, father-in-law, grandfathers, etc) We always love it when we have a good excuse to have Jeff home. It was nice to be able to have breakfast together today and actually be able to drive together to church. We enjoyed watching Jacob and Caleb sing with the primary, even if Caleb didn't sing a single word. It was fun to spoil and spend time with our daddy today, even if we do get a little crazy together sometimes!

This is one way we celebrated Father's Day...

(Anyone remember Saturday's Warrior? We've all got Daddys.....in this case...eyes!)

Aren't we an attractive bunch?

What We've Been Up To

I haven't posted much over the past couple weeks. We've been busy getting settled and unpacked. Plus, I figure that if I average the months of May & June, I've done plenty for the two months combined!We have enjoyed being back; especially since we're back together as a family. We've had a good amount of work getting everything moved into our little apartment and getting everything put into place.The boys have been good helpers most of the time, and absolutely loved putting the bookshelves together, and seeing lots of their toys again.

We've enjoyed our new place for the most part, and especially love the big area outside where the kids have room to run around and play. We love to go out and play soccer or just run around.

One of the favorite outdoor activities as of late is catching fireflies. It's so fun to be outside watching them light up. They seem to come out best when it's warm and humid, and with all the rain we've had the weather has been perfect for them. Even Matthew loves to run around as fast as he can trying to catch the little green bugs. We usually let the boys collect as many as they can and put them in a clear cup so we can see them light up. At the end, we open it up and watch them all fly away.

We've tried to enjoy our pool. Unfortunately it has rained almost every single day since we got back, so there have only been a few days that we've even had the option of going. We've had fun with what we've had though! Hopefully it'll warm up here soon and we'll be able to enjoy the pool more often.

The boys have had fun seeing all their friends again. They've loved playing at the park, seeing friends at church, and playing at the gym. Both Jacob and Caleb are starting soccer at the YMCA, so they're making new friends with that.

I've really enjoyed being able to get back into a running schedule again. I go to the gym a few times a week and enjoy that, but I've sure missed being up early to run with friends. I love that it is so light at 6am AND it's warm. It makes it so much easier to get up when the alarm goes off at 5:40am, and also allows us to run down on the trails that I've missed so much since last summer. It's such a great way to start off the day.

Hopefully I'll be better about posting the rest of the month, but if not, at least we're enjoying the time and having fun together.

Way to Go Lacey!

A little on the late side I know. Congratulations on your graduation Lacey! We all knew you could do it! ;) And way to go Matthew, Caleb, and Jacob for making it through the ceremony. We did make it, despite the fact that Matthew had a bit of an obsession with the guy in front of us and kept pulling his shirt, giving 'tickles', dropping cereal pieces down his chair, and my personal favorite...blowing raspberries right at his neck. A little embarrasing...but we made it! (Which might be questionable when you look at Caleb's face in the picture...I promise he was NOT drugged for the ceremony:)

Our Update

Well, so far it’s been a busy and eventful summer. Things haven’t exactly worked out as planned, but we’re grateful for what we have.

In February we signed all the lease papers and gave our deposit on our soon-to-be rental home. The one I had found months earlier and was so excited about. At the end of the month, they found out about broken pipes and discovered that some repair work would need to be done. Over the months, they found it was much more extensive than they originally thought. So when we moved back in March from Jeff’s rotation, we had to scramble to find a short term lease. We signed the lease just 2 days before we moved in for a 2-month lease. At the end of April, the end of our 2-month stay, the repairs still weren’t done. We talked to the owners constantly, trying to make sure everything was worked out. They kept reassuring everything, and so the plan was to move in on June 1^st. So we left on our vacation with all of our things packed up with us, or in a storage unit and no home address. Well, with just 2 weeks to go before we came back and moved it, the owners e-mailed me and told me that their plans had changed and that they would actually be moving into their home instead. Needless to say, we were upset, mostly that they had waited so long to tell us. So I extended my vacation at home, and Jeff was fortunate enough to be able to stay with very generous friends in the ward for about 2 weeks while we once again scrambled to find a place to live. The problem with this time of year is that there isn’t much available, and at this point we won’t even be here for a full-year which means we had to find another short-term lease. We had passed up on a number of other nice homes while we were waiting for this particular one, and at this point it was difficult to even find an apartment with availability. We finally found a little 2-bedroom, 750 sq ft apartment and got the papers filled out 3 days before we had to move. I'm sure I don't recognize all of them at this point, but I'm sure there were some blessings in disguise even during this crazy process.

So we’re here. Jeff picked us up from the airport the end of last week and since then we’ve spent our time unpacking, finding furniture, and getting organized. We’ve definitely learned to simplify over the past years and months in particular. I’m glad to have a good excuse to get rid of even more things. We’ll be here for about 9 months, and then we’ll move up north again for another of Jeff’s rotation. After those 4 months we’ll most likely be headed somewhere else for a fellowship for a year.

We’ve definitely had some good adventures and experiences, and I imagine we’ll have some more over the upcoming years. I’m definitely looking forward to the day when we’ll actually have a yard, not to mention a washer & dryer in our own home; at this point, having more than 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom sounds amazing. But I am grateful for everything we have. After all, the most important thing is having each other and being together. I guess it doesn’t really matter where you are, the little details aren’t important. I’m so grateful for what we have.

Grandma & Grandpa's Homecoming

The 2nd part of our trip was down to Utah for Grandma & Grandpa's mission homecoming. They had a wonderful mission in Mexico- we were just sad that we weren't able to meet up with them before they left. That swine flu really caused some plans to change, we weren't able to make it down to see them. Nonetheless, it's been so fun to spend time with them since they've been home. They came up to Boise for a few days for various events, and we felt fortunate to be able to spend as much time with them as we did. The boys weren't shy, they would always run right over to "Great Grandma & Grandpa Tanner"
Their homecoming meeting was wonderful, other than the fact that I spend most of the time out in the hallway with Matthew. Fortunately, the relief society room was open so I was able to let Matthew roam the room while I listened to the talks over the speakers. It was great!
Afterwards we gathered at grandma and grandpa's house for lunch with a good portion of the extended family. It was so fun to catch up with family members that I haven't seen in many years. I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful family. Kristie and Tom made it up again, and we can never seem to get enough time with them. It was so fun to sit on a blanket outside just talking together with everyone (...not to mention having people steal your dessert....no comments :) The kids had a blast out in the yard, it's an awesome place designed especially for kids. Matthew loved the sandbox and swings. Jacob and Caleb had a blast on the playground, playing with cousins, and the "puppies" as they call the two chihuahuas. It was fun to watch them all run around together.
The only thing I was sad about is that I didn't end up with more pictures! Somehow my great intentions of getting pictures of everyone got lost in the pleasure of visiting with everyone. I can't believe I didn't even get a picture of us with Grandma & Grandpa. (At least I got a couple while they came up to visit...I'll have to post them later when I get a CD of my pictures)
We had such a fun time with everyone, it was sad to say goodbye, as always. Then Dad, Mom & Lacey headed out in their car and Cole, the boys, and I followed. We caravan-ed the whole way, and got home about 11:30. (I drove the full trip again. Pretty awesome considering I used to be the one who would be 'out' the moment the car got going. My parents are amazed at the change:)