Our trip to Idaho to visit family.

Mike's sister, Cindy, and her family are living in Idaho right now. Which means we don't get to see them as often as we would like so this week we decided to take a little trip up to visit them.

We left on Tuesday morning and planned on staying until the weekend at least.

It was a LONG drive. we made several pit stops, (as is to be expected when traveling with 5 kids), but we needed them mostly because we all squished into our little car so it wouldn't cost us a month's salary to pay for gas.

Once we arrived (over 5 hours later) everyone just wanted to spread out and relax. they spent most of the day watching the Disney channel. ( which is a novelty for them because we don't have cable.)





The next day we went for a picnic at the beach.

I know, I know, this doesn't look much like a beach but it really was.

We all had a great time eating and playing in the water. I really enjoyed watching the kids play together, they used to play together often when the girls were little. but since Cory's (Cindy's husband) work has taken them to different parts of the world over the last few years they have missed their cousins, and Harrisen has enjoyed getting to know them better.

The smaller kids had fun playing at the edge of the water.


(I loved that the grass when right up to the water at this beach. grass doesn't get nearly as hot as sand.)

But eventually ended up venturing further out into the water since it was so warm and still fairly shallow farther out.

While the older kids ( all girls) worked on their tans. I have to say this is the first time I have ever seen my girls "tanning" before and it made me realize that they really are becoming teenagers. sad, so sad, where did my babies go?







Harrisen absolutely loved playing on this little bunch of rocks. Here he is calling to his cousin Luke to come play on them with him. Luke had only gotten his feet wet at this point. Not liking the water too much I think.

I finally helped him onto the rock so I could get a picture of them. Luke was not as impressed with it as Harrisen was.

Since Luke was scared to get off by himself Harrisen decided to help him off the rock.

Man I wish my camera was faster! they had a great fall when Harrisen realized Luke was too heavy for him to carry off the rock. They both went over backwards into the water.

When I threw down the camera to help them both up Madison snapped this shot. Harrisen was un-phased but Luke was not too happy.



He just watched the fun from the grass the rest of the time. What a funny boy.

We cut our Beach time short in order for the older girls to have time to shower and get ready for young womens, and for Drake (Cindy's middle child) to get ready for scouts.

While everyone else was preparing to go elsewhere I took the kids to the park. Which was nice because it's just behind the houses across the street, and there is a little path to go through so you don't have to walk far to get there.









The first thing they went to was the merry go round.













Then they were on to other things. like the Giant caterpillar,












That Madison Loved to "steer",




And Bailee's favorite. . . The monkey bars,

(Harrisen liked the merry go round so much he never left, even though he was hot and there was shade near by.)

Then there's the slide.

Love the face she pulled on that one when she saw me with the camera.

And again Harrisen on the never ending merry go round ride.

He was too funny, every time it would stop he would run around and push it, then jump on and, FLOP, over the horse he would go. Until it would stop then he would start all over again.






I did manage to get him off for one quick picture of everyone on the big toy then back to the merry go round he went.



This was really a fun park I would love to have one like it this close to where we live.


I had planned on playing games with the kids that didn't go to the church that night, but things don't always work out as planned do they?

Shortly after Drake got to scouts that night the leaders called us to come pick him up, that he needed to be seen by a doctor for a cut he had gotten on his heel. His mom had not even got back to the house from dropping them off and had to go with him to the emergency room.


I guess it pays not to play around too close to the accordion doors between the chapel and the gym!

Poor Drake! 16 stitches later, we spent the rest of the night taking care of the injured.

OUCH! It hurts just to look at it. (I forgot to download the picture on their computer so they could e-mail it to his dad in Guam. At least now he can see it on the blog.)


Drake insisted he was okay to stick with the plans we had of going school shopping the next day. So reluctantly we went and even got a wheel chair for him not too long after we got there. But because of the swelling we decided to take it easy the rest of the time we were up there. Which was good for me! Any excuse I can get to sit around and enjoy time with the kids is a good one right?

Since it was a little hot ( and Harrisen would not leave their hose alone anyway) we set up the slip and slide.


Harrisen was the first one to go for it of course!
Luke just wanted to stand in the pool and play with the spray.
Madison had a few good runs.
Luke decided to see if the water tasted okay.
Eventually Luke even braved the slide. Well kind of, he was crawling not sliding, and madison had faced the water away from the slide and onto the grass for him. what a cutie! I just loved watching this shy little guy.
This pictuer cracks me up! Harrisen lover feeding their dog, and was afraid someone else would feed him before he could so he brought in the dog dish and tried to open the cupbord where the dog food is kept. The child safety lock is no match for a determined boy. Check out where his foot is. What a hoot! He actually got it open though, but mean mom made him wait until aunt Cindy said it was okay.
We had a fun week and some tired kids on the way home. It's amazing how much faster you can make it home when the kids are asleep.

Thank you Aunt Cindy for a great week and for being such a great (last minute) host to me and my five kids. I know it can be a lot to handle sometimes, especially in a small house when you don't feel the best. You were wonderful.