Sand Dunes

 

On our way up to Yellowstone we stopped off at the sand dunes in St. Anthony, ID. It's very cool. There are huge dunes of sand for miles. The sand is really soft. A lot of people go there with their ATV's. The kids had a blast sliding down the dunes and burying each other... until it was time to go and there was sand EVERYWHERE - in their hair, eyes, underwear :) I'm glad we stopped though. It's pretty amazing to see all that sand in the middle of nowhere. We used to go play at the dunes when I was in college at Rick's (BYU-Idaho).

Yellowstone

 

We had fun in Yellowstone last weekend (before the stiches incident of course :)) We went up Friday and camped that night. Then we toured the park the next day while we waited for Becca's family. We saw Old Faithful, and some of the hot pot pools. Pretty amazing things out in the middle of nowhere..... The kids liked it but got tired of getting in and out of the car. We saw a few bison and a whole lot of mule deer.

First time for everything.....

and this is our first time dealing with STITCHES!(July 11th) We took my niece up to Yellowstone to meet up with her family last weekend - we met them at their campsite and within just a few minutes Jackson has climbed up on the firering. He tried to jump off, I think, and it wasn't set in the ground so it came up and hit his leg. It was obvious right away that he was going to need stiches. Matt set off with him for West Yellowstone (the nearest town) only to find that there was only a clinic there, and it had closed at 5. So he came back for the rest of us and we set out for home. We stopped off at the Rexburg ER for stiches along the way :) I had wanted to tour Rexburg since my first two years of college were there but the ER wasn't in the plans..... Oh well. We have managed. Now we just have to make it through the really hot days without playing in the water until he gets his stiches out. He was fine at the hospital until they started to do the stiches - he kept screaming bloody murder and yelling things like "I know you have a needle. What are you doing to me?", "I'm scared." "That's really scary. Stop what you're doing!!" They had mostly covered up his leg so he couldn't see what they were doing.

 

 

A memorable trip to the zoo!

 

We went to the zoo this month. We haven't been there since Jackson was about 18 months I think. It was great fun. The kids loved seeing all the animals and riding on the train. The zoo playground was a big hit too. It's funny how the simple things are the ones that the kids love the most. Hailey learned to make monkey sounds. There was also a huge downpour of rain while we were there. Luckily we happened to be at one of the ampitheaters so we had some cover - but we still got fairly soaked. We waited for it to let up a little, then headed out. Hailey loved splashing in the puddles. She is such a water girl. We saw tigers, elephants, rhinos, giraffes...... no lions or bears though :)

Kiddos

 

These were taken in May - I think. Sheesh. I need to do a better job keeping this blog up to date :) I think the pictures turned out really well. The kids were very cooperative - although, I did have to make a deal with Maggie, if she would wear the matching clothes for their group picture then she could wear a pretty dress for her individual picture. Wow! What an amazing kiddo. Eventhough I don't understand her love of dresses I must admit that it's very cute - and very effective for bribes! Maggie loves to have her picture taken. She is always coming up to me at home asking me to take her picture for some reason or another. She loves to see them on the screen saver on our computer.Hailey even did awesome for the pictures. I didn't do her individual ones this time. We will do them when she turns 1. It was a good practice session. She took her cues from the other two and was pretty happy and cooperative the whole time. Jackson has always been really easy for pictures. He loves to smile and be the center of attention. He is always excellent at following their direcetions too - I wish that would carry over all the time at home....but I definitely enjoy the cute pictures that come from all of them.

Hailey is walking!!

Hailey started walking a few weeks ago. I am finally getting around to posting a video!! She is already getting quite steady and prefers walking to crawling. However, she did take a tumble last week and now she has a nice black eye. It's pretty cute but sad :)

Becca

 

My niece Becca came back from WA to stay with us for three weeks. It was great to have her around to play with the kiddos. The time went by fairly fast. We went swimming, went to the zoo, watched the city fireworks, went to Orem for a birthday party, and headed to Yellowstone to meet up with her family. It was fun. Thanks, Becca!