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:)

Trip to the Farm

Our last weekend in Idaho, we were able to take a trip down to see grandparents. Lacey and the boys and I left Saturday morning and drove down to Grandma & Grandpa Haworth’s place. It’s been over 2 years since I’ve been there and I’ve sure missed it. I think it’s one of the most beautiful places on earth, and it is honestly one of my most favorite places to be. Not much has changed since I was a little girl and I love it. The boys love it also. They had so much fun with Grandma & Grandpa; they loved going for rides on the 4-wheeler, seeing the cows, feeding the horses, and playing with all the fun toys. Lacey and I had fun taking the boys for a walk around the farm to see everything. They were definitely in need of a good bath when we got back. We had a yummy dinner with Grandma and Grandpa and later on Mom, Dad and Cole got there.

(Trying to get Matthew to look at the camera)

After we put the boys to bed we enjoyed staying up talking with Grandma and Grandpa. I’ve sure missed them, they’re so sweet and loving. It was fun to sit with both of them and just enjoy being together. The hardest thing about the trip was that it had to be so short. We left the next morning for Ogden so we could get to my Grandma & Grandpa Tanner’s mission homecoming talk. I was excited to go to it, but also so sad to leave. I used to cry when I was little because I didn’t want to leave, and I guess some things never change. I’m grateful for the time we were able to have, but I can’t wait for the day when we live closer and can go and visit more often than once every two years. We sure love Grandma and Grandpa and their wonderful farm.

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day Weekend we decided to stay around and enjoy time at home. Kristie and Tom came up for the weekend, it was so fun to see them again. They got in late Friday night and we started off the holiday by playing some games. We had some pretty intense games of spoons!
On Saturday we went boating with some family friends, the Wagstaffs. Even though the day was a little overcast and cool, it was still a fun afternoon. Jacob, and Caleb absolutely loved being on the boat. They thought it was just about the coolest thing ever. Matthew would have enjoyed it more had he not been forced to wear a life jacket, he was determined to get it off and was so upset when I wouldn't take it off him. I was a little hesitant to get in the water because I really haven't had much experience water skiing, wakeboarding, etc and it's been years since I've even been. I ended up trying out the surf board and didn't do too horribly, even though the first time I got up I had the board backwards, with the fin in front. I couldn't figure out why it was so hard, but still managed to stay up for quite a while. It was much easier when I turned the board around the right way.
On Sunday we went to church and had a nice dinner. It was fun to have the afternoon with nothing to do except sit outside and enjoy the evening.
Monday morning at 8am, we met up with the Wagstaffs and some of their friends to play ultimate frisbee. It's been forever since I've played and I'd forgotten how much I love it. We played for a good couple hours and were pretty tired by the end. Some of the people were pretty intense so it was a competitive game, and lots of fun. The kids had fun playing at the playground too. I didn't realize how much sprinting I haven't done over the years, I was definitely feeling the soreness the next day!
When we got home from the park we had a BBQ at home and played games out in the yard. Dad set up the volleyball net, we set up the kids' pool, and we got out all the water guns. I wish I had taken more pictures of everything, but we were too busy having fun.
It was a nice weekend, and actually fun to just stay around without having to go too far. I'm glad Tom & Kristie were able to make it up and spend it with us.