The Last Part of our Trip

After finally making it to Kelly's house in Emmett, Idaho, the kids just hung out with each other and played "Just Dance" on the Wii. Here is Aarron, MacKennzie and Gunner having a blast! I secretly video taped Clayton playing and he made me promise to never show anyone. He actually dances very well.

On the 2nd day in Idaho, we took the kids to the manmade beach in Emmett. They had a fun time playing in the water and in the sand. Adam of course wouldn't even go near the water.

Carson

Daycee

Deanna

MacKenzie

Gunner and MacKenzie burrying Aarron in the sand.

When we got home he had sand coming out of everywhere. Kelly is probably still finding sand in her washer and dryer!

Carson had to have a turn!

After we got home from the beach Adam's breathing was getting worse. He had been weezing and retracting since the night before. We took him to the urgent care. They gave him two breathing treatments and a prescription for an inhaler. That came in handy because I had to give him quite a few puffs the first night and two more the next. After that he cleared up and was breathing normal again. I'm afraid he might be developing asthma, but maybe it was a fluke thing to happen.

We left Friday morning and drove to Gresham Oregon. Dayson's sister DeLona turned 40 on the 8th of August and her family threw her a surprise party. This was the main reason we chose to go on our vacation at this time. She was so surpised and excited to see her two sisters, brother and her mom & dad. I'm so glad we were able to go and support her on this special occasion.

Angelene, DeLona and Rachelle

Dayson, DeLona and Kim (Dayson and DeLona are only 10 months apart)

Just between our two families we had 12 grandchildren together out of 33.

Always have to have a goofy picture!

...and a "I'm so cool" picture!

Showing off our muscles

We left Oregon Sunday morning and drove all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah. We left around 8:00 in the morning and got to our hotel at 11:30 at night. That was a miserable drive towards the end. But the next morning we woke up and went to Temple Square. It was a nice warm day and we had just enough coins to pay for an hour and a half for parking. We rushed thru the Beehive House, Visitor Center, took pictures and walked around the temple. We even saw a bride and groom walk out just after getting married.

The sun was so bright, it was hard to keep your eyes open. The kids are struggling pretty bad.

I told them to turn around and look at the temple so they could rest their eyes.

Us in front of the "Grand Ball Room" in the beehive house where Brigham Young would host parties and guests for dinner.

Everyone got to have a turn taking a picture with the Christus.

MacKenzie

Carson

Daycee

Clayton
Aarron

Adam was too afraid to stand by Jesus all by himself and didn't even want Dayson to take him up there, but we forced him!

Harly

Harly took this picture for us and she managed to chop off the top of the Christus.

Our Family

(I guess the lady who took the picture didn't know where the zoom button was!)

After we left Salt Lake we decided to only drive as far as Blanding to see Dayson's missionary companion. They invited us to stay the night and that made the drive a whole lot easier. We only had to drive 5 hours intead of 10 on the last day. We got home at about 11:00 am and it was off to school open houses and lots of errands to run.

First 4 days on our trip to Idaho

We left town about 5:30 am Sunday morning. The kids were so excited to get on the road. The four little ones sat up front and watched a movie while the older kids laid down in the back. It has been so comfortable driving our van on this trip. I don't know what I would do without it. We arrived in Clearfield, Utah about 6:30 pm. We were tired, hungry and cranky. After we ate Taco Bell we all crashed.

Being goofy!


Monday morning Kelly and her kids surprised our kids and showed up to go to Lagoon with us. We all jumped in the van and off to Lagoon we went. The older kids took off by themselves and we were trying to decide if we wanted to do the spooky ride with the little kids. They did it and hated it.

Next we rode the carousel

Aarron on the fighter jet

Daycee and Deanna at the front of the dragon roller coaster

We met up with the older kids and they went on the swings. Below is Dayson, Carson and Clayton.

Tatum and Kelly on a double swing

Harly and Rylee getting off the luge water slide

We spent a couple of hours at Lagoona Beach to let the kids get wet and cool off. The lazy river was very relaxing.

Aarron and MacKenzie anticipating the egg drop ride.

Daycee and Deanna loved the ride.

This ride was actually pretty neat. I wished I could have gone on it but someone has to stay behind with the baby. It was a cross between a sail boat and helicopter. It swung around and you can control which direction the sail went.

Clayton

Dayson and Aarron

Tatum and Carson

Adam had finally crashed around 7:30 and didn't wake up again till the next morning at 7:00 am.

We left Clearfield around 9:30 am and headed for Idaho. Kelly was in front of us by 20 minutes. We decided to stop in Burley, Idaho for lunch at Wendy's. We sat inside and ate for about 30 minutes after we left we made a stop across the parking lot at Family Dollar and than we were off again. About 12 miles down the road we did a head count and realized we only had 7 kids ( we were suppose to have 8 because two of Kelly's came with us and Harly went with her). When we noticed Aarron was nowhere in the van we panicked and had to keep driving about 2 more miles to the next exit. When I saw an emergency vehicle only turn around, I hurried and turned on it. Dayson got in the driver seat and we were stuck behind a long line of construction traffic. One lane, 55 mph. That is really slow when you've lost a child. Thank heavens for our GPS that had the number to Wendy's in it. I called to see if they had Aarron and they did! I was able to speak with him and told him we were on our way back and that I loved him. He was bawling. But when we got back he had already downed a frosty and had 8 kids meal toys to share with his brothers and sisters. Wendy's employees were really awesome and we already plan on stopping there on our way home to say thank you and give them a prize! We finally made it to Kelly's about 5:30. That was the longest drive of our lives!!

Now that the excitement is over, I have gone shopping with Kelly and spent about two hours in Kohl's for school clothes shopping. And Dayson took the boys and little girls to the public pool to swim. The missionaries came over and we got to speak with Elder Nate Rogers who is from our home town. I can't wait for the second part of our trip and hopefully we won't forget anybody this time!

15th Wedding Anniversary

This year was our 15th Wedding Anniversary on July 27th and I was at girls camp. Our ward had Bishop's night and we were cooking our own dinner so I invited Dayson to come up and spend the evening with us. I was so excited to see him and I got all ready. The girls thought it was so cute and they even set up a table for just Dayson and I to sit at. When Dayson arrived he brought me a dozen roses. This doesn't happen very often, like once every 15 years. It was so romantic and the girls were all chanting kiss, kiss, kiss! So of course we couldn't disappoint them. He couldn't stay long because the kids had been home by themselves all day. I put the roses in some water and was on cloud nine the rest of the night!
I love this man! He is my prince!

The roses are beautiful! I just wish I could enjoy them more. We are leaving on our trip to Idaho and they won't last that long.