Happy Halloween everyone! Tonight we did a quick dinner at our house with the Pedersen’s and then went out together trick or treating. We only stayed out for about 2 hours (we got kind-of a late start with dinner and everything), but the boys made a haul! This time, unlike during Trunk or Treat at the church, Zach took it easy and didn’t get sick! 🙂
Zach’s coach and his wife did soccer pictures for the team, and we got them back today. They turned out really good!
Great job this season, Zach!
Today, we found out that the Mosaic program released a “marketing video” about everything that they do. Kirstyn was all over it as one of the main spokespeople! It was fun to see it. It was actually published on-line with one of the newspapers as well! Great job Kirstyn!
Another celebration for Kirstyn as well… She made first chair in Band! She’s SO excited and we’re so proud of her for working hard!
Busy busy Saturday, but really, what’s new! 🙂 This morning, Ben played in his basketball game, and had a lot of fun. He’s getting better by the game, and really loves the team he plays on. His coach is great!
After the basketball game, we ran Zach over for his Soccer game. I think he had his best one yet. They didn’t win, but he played hard and had some good plays.
After the game, we got a slight break to get ready to go over to the Trunk or Treat activity at the church. Kirstyn had to work, so she wasn’t able to be there, but the boys had a blast! They got all dressed up in their costumes and we all went to the church for some great food and fun! They had a costume judging contest, doughnut eating contest, and lots of other stuff.
We did our best after the trunk or treat part of going around to the cars and getting candy not to let the boys eat too much! Our attempts were futile, and after telling them not to eat too much junk, Zach did, ended up getting sick, and was up part of the night toilet or treating in the bathroom. 🙁 It’s hard to get the boys to understand that if you eat too much, you’ll get sick!
Today we had a fairly uneventful drive back home and now we are all unpacked! Good to sleep in own bed tonight!
This morning we went to church in Salmon and then left and drove as fast as we could down to Rexburg to drop Brittany back off. We decided to stick around and watch Brittany’s devotional she had with her musical group (From the Heart). While we were waiting for that, we had a picnic “late lunch” on the temple grounds and walked around the beautiful Rexburg temple. It’s always so peaceful on the temple grounds and really brings a great spirit.
This evening we went on campus and attended Brittany’s “From the Heart” devotional. It was absolutely amazing! There is so much talent in the group! Brittany sang as part of a trio and it was beautiful!
What a way to end a Sunday together as a family! After the devotional, we said our good-byes to Brittany and drove over to the hotel. We’re going to hopefully get a good night sleep for the long drive back home tomorrow!
Today, our nephew Wyatt was baptized in Salmon. It was a great experience for him and we were able to Skype in Mom and Dad from the Philippines to watch. How cool is technology nowadays! 🙂 After the baptism, we went over to Carla’s and Scott’s house for an afternoon of eating and relaxing. We had a great time visiting with family and friends.
This morning we slept in, relaxed, had some breakfast at the hotel, and did some shopping in West Yellowstone. At about 11 we drove down to Rexburg and got there just in time for Brittany to finish up her last class of the week. It was great to see her, although it’s really only been a month since we dropped her off. 🙂
After doing a little shopping for her to get her pantry filled up, we grabbed some lunch and started the drive up to Salmon, ID. It’s only about 2 1/2 hours from Rexburg so we got there pretty fast. We’re up here in Salmon for Wyatt Nelson’s baptism. It was great to see Carla and Scott and their family, and the kids are having a blast playing with their cousins!
Today we drove from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone! We couldn’t get enough of the beautiful drive up next to the Teton range! The mountains are just stunning!
Along the drive we also had a rare moose sighting so we had to stop and take a bunch of pics. 🙂 Moose tend to be shy and stay in the trees and low river areas out of site, but not this one!
We finally arrived in Yellowstone probably a bit too late (stopped too many times to enjoy the views along the way), but that wasn’t going to stop us seeing as much as possible! 🙂
We had a GREAT time spending the entire day driving around the park, seeing all sorts of mud pots, geysers, and other types of things. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is always one of our favorites and is so beautiful! It was a little on the cool side, but the day was gorgeous and perfect for sightseeing! Below are some pics we took throughout the day…
The boys had never been to Yellowstone and Kirstyn doesn’t remember much from the last time we came, so it was a great experience for all! We love getting into the outdoors. This is a great time of year to visit the park, because there are not as many tourists around. The animal population is a little sparse, so you don’t see as much wildlife, but that’s OK with us. We’ll trade that for being able to park at sites and not have to worry about tons of people making a ton of noise! 🙂
When it got dusk, we left the park and drove to West Yellowstone where we stayed for the night. We had great luck with the hotel there as well. If you’re ever in West Yellowstone, the Stagecoach Inn is the place to stay! It’s on a national historical register and the furnishings are awesome! The whole inside of the place is filled with stuffed wildlife…
We were really tired and couldn’t determine what we wanted to eat, so we just went and got huge ice cream cones for dinner! 🙂
Tomorrow we’re off to Rexburg to pick up Brittany and then on to Idaho!
Today we left on a family extended weekend trip up to Jackson Hole, Yellowstone, and Idaho for a baptism. We had a wonderful drive together up to Jackson hole together. It was really beautiful once we got out of southern Wyoming and up into the mountain areas! The hotel we stayed at there in Jackson was wonderful! It’s called the Parkway Inn and came highly recommended from Trip Advisor. The inside was very quaint and rustic and the room was great! We even had our own little patio to relax outside on. 🙂
We walked around Jackson and enjoyed the evening. The highlight was a pizza dinner at Piny G’s, a Diner’s Drive-ins and Dives recommendation. We just HAD to go there! 🙂 The pizza was amazing and unique. The boys really loved the “Abe Froman” sausage pizza, and the girls loved the “Funky Chicken” pizza.
The owner was there tonight and we had a chat with him about how he got started here and the whole Diner’s Drive-ins and Dives experience. He was really nice. We got a picture with him!
While the girls explored more of Jackson, the boys and I went back to the hotel and went swimming. It seems like that’s the only thing the boys want to do when we stop at hotels. 🙂
Tomorrow we’re headed off to Yellowstone!
Jackson Hole. Pizza, etc.
Today Kirstyn had a huge marching band competition at Sports Authority Field in Parker. Were there all day feeding, setting up, taking down, performing Pit Crew duties, etc. They are sounding GREAT!
We felt bad for Kirstyn, though! That girl is really a go-getter and has such monster determination when she wants to! She went to the competition in her boot, then right before they marched, she wrapped up her ankle nice and tight, put on her marching shoe and went out there and nailed it! It hurt so bad during the performance, she had tears running down her cheeks, but you couldn’t even tell she was injured! Right after they finished, she put her boot back on, walked up for lunch, and then put ice on it. Poor kid!
For the finals performance, she did the same thing again! It was in a lot of pain when she got home, but we were really proud of her for pushing through this and not, in her words, “letting her band down” by just standing there in the front with her boot on. 🙂 Way to go Kirstyn!
Today we went to the airport and picked Angela up from her trip to the Philippines! It’s great to have her back home! She had a GREAT time! The only bad thing was that she put all her pictures from most of her trip on a USB key she bought over there and when we tried to get them off, we couldn’t! 🙁 YIKES! Well, we do have all of Carla’s and all of Angela’s are on her mom and dad’s backup hard drive so we’ll get them in July when they come home. 🙁 Here are a couple of pics from her trip…
There are hundreds more that Angela would want to post here, but these will have to suffice. Many others will end up in our family album we do! 🙂 Glad to have you back sweetie!
