Dinner at Mom's...

Friday night my mom made a Birthday Dinner for Michael. When it's your birthday you get to pick what's for dinner and the dessert (or cake). Since Michael's living with us I asked my mom if he could have a birthday dinner...and she was game (thanks Mom!!). Michael's dinner request was roast and potatoes...and it was good! We had a raspberry crumb thing for dessert...mmmm! I'm becoming a horrible family photographer because I didn't take any pictures of Michael opening the rest of his presents, but I did take some pictures Friday of the kids running through Mom's backyard. Apparently Mason's pants were a little big (and a little wet from fishing that afternoon) and he lost his pants half way through the yard.

Jen and I were up on the deck taking pictures and Faith was trying to figure out how to get up to us. :)

By the way, Michael's vinyl that Justin printed for him said "you've just been passed by a box" with a picture of Calvin and Hobbes. (Michael drives a Scion XB...which looks just like a box).

A Day at the Zoo...

Wednesday we decided to take Emma, Alex and Sarah to the zoo for their birthdays. Alex turned 7 at the end of May, Emma turned 9 mid-June and Sarah turned 5 a couple days after Emma. We had missed their birthday parties so thought they might like Happy Meals and some time with Aunt Jamie and Uncle Justin. Emma wasn't feeling well after swimming lessons so we just took Alex and Sarah this time...Next month we're going to have to find some more time to take Emma and Timmy.

We were a little bummed we didn't get over there until early afternoon, because it was HOT and the animals weren't very active.

Alex cooled himself off when he found an elephant that squirted water.

Alex kept saying "I saw this when I came on the bus!" Apparently the zoo is part of a kindergarten field trip.

Sarah got tired about half way through and wanted to be carried...this is where Uncle Justin comes in! :)

We got to find out what a Zebra sounds like...it's a cross between a horse and a donkey (in my opinion!)

Sarah can't see the Tigers without sitting on the little tiger in front of their cage.

Despite the looks on their faces, they had fun, I swear!

After the zoo we were HOT so we stopped by TCBY on our way home for some ice cream. Yeah we like to solidify our spot as the "favorite" Aunt and Uncle whenever we can. ;)

Happy Happy Birthday...

Monday was Michael's 24th birthday! I made him 24 cupcakes...

Which he was able to blow out in one breath...
And Justin spent the afternoon at Amy's house...

Cutting some vinyl for his car...that he was pretty excited about!

Happy Birthday Michael...enjoy your Birthday Week!

Garden Valley Camping...

Another weekend of camping! This time we borrowed Grandma Geri's motor home and drove to Garden Valley. I dropped my mom off at the airport Friday afternoon to go to Sacramento for her brother's 35th wedding anniversary. Unfortunately for her about the time her flight was supposed to land in Sacramento they landed back in Boise and her flight was canceled. So, lucky for us, we picked her up at the airport and made her go camping with us.

Michael and Justin do the cooking when we go camping (heck they cook at home too!) and they do a great job!!

I'm not sure yet if Abby and Lexie like camping. They have to be tied up so they don't run off but they get really excited to get in the car to go!

The Biggest Little City in the World...

Michael ended up getting Friday off at the last minute so we were able to leave bright and early Friday morning for Reno...by bright and early I mean 6a (and I slept most of the way after working until 1a Thursday night.) Our first stop in Sparks...Nope, not In-n-Out Burger, but Scheels to see the MONSTER fish tanks. They have two HUGE fish tanks, one at each end of the store. One fresh water and one salt water.

Our second stop, In-n-Out Burger. Michael hadn't called his mom yet to let her know we were coming early (she wasn't expecting us until midnight) so you can imagine her surprise when she comes through the drive thru and we're sitting outside enjoying our burgers! :)

After checking into our hotel we took Justin to Lake Tahoe. We walked around a bit and checked out the damn where Tahoe turns into the Truckee River. The guys, of course, had to check out the fish.

The real reason for the trip was Michael's sister, Leslie's, wedding. (I know you thought the REAL reason was In-n-Out Burger...it was a close second!)

Michael's little brother, Thomas, was the ring bearer and he did not want to walk down the aisle. Then he didn't want to sit for the ceremony, so Michael got to hang out with him in the back.

Leslie's husband, Chris, is from Middleton, so we weren't the only Idahoans at the wedding. Chris' brother paid Justin to go dance with Chris during the money dance...They had everyone laughing pretty hard!

Sunday morning we had an awesome home made breakfast of biscuits and gravy, sausage, eggs, bacon, muffins and much more at Michael's Grandparents house. Then we were on our way home.

Total In-n-Out count for the weekend--4

To clarify...

Michael is Justin's best friend. He's renting a room from us so he will most assuredly become a regular on the blog. One of the best parts about going places with Michael: he likes to take pictures so I don't feel like I'm behind the camera ALL THE TIME! The downside to that is he takes some goofy pictures of us...and insists his "finest work" all be posted. For more details on that see the post from In-n-Out burger in L.A. :)

A Camping We Will Go...

This weekend we took our first camping trip of the summer, with hopefully more to come! We left Friday evening when Michael got off work and headed to Brownlee. We knew it was supposed to be a rainy weekend but were super excited just to get out of town. We took Justin's dad's camper, aka the Prowler, so we stayed dry for the most part. Saturday we made breakfast on the BBQ and decided on a drive to Hells Canyon for the morning. We loaded up the dogs and made sandwiches. And I'm sure I'd be editing this later if I didn't include that when packing the food I forgot the ketchup and mustard...yeah the guys were pretty upset about that...but we did have mayo.

Michael took a picture of the storm clouds over the mountains

They were letting SO MUCH water out of the dam at Hells Canyon it was crazy to watch

The water in the reservoir was smooth as glass...

When we got back from Hells Canyon we took a little hike with the dogs.And my favorite part of camping...SMORES!!!

Here's to the next camp-out...hopefully in a couple weeks!

Happy Birthday...

The boys' 5th and 6th birthday's were at Chuck E. Cheese after the Great Strides walk. They loved it!! Here they are with the big Cheese himself.

Kaden, 6 Mason, 5

Kaden loved playing the games! He played skee ball forever...I want you to notice the scores at the top there. Tim and Kaden started their games at the same time. The final score: Tim 30 Kaden 120...yep Kaden kicked his butt!

Mason cared more about climbing around in the slide thing than playing games


Faith loved playing in the cars. She cried so hard when she had to get out that the little girl who was taking a turn let her ride with her in this two seat car.

By the end Faith was getting pretty tired

Great Strides...

Time to play catch up...The morning of the Great Strides walk (for Cystic Fibrosis) Mom stopped to pick me up and we let the kids come in and see Justin and Michael's sharks...I LOVE this picture of Mason holding Faith up to see the sharks. She couldn't see into the tank without her brother's help!

We when got done with our 'simplified' walk we let the boys play in the bouncy thing. My cousin Kelly went in to make sure the girls didn't get hurt. Got to love Kelly's willingness to do anything for those girls!

When Faith woke up from her nap she wanted in the bouncy thing...she didn't get to go...sorry Ladie, maybe next year!

The boys found this cool spot on the playground where you could slide across on this thing (great description right!) you get the idea.

Faith loved the slide...and they had one just her size she could almost go on by herself.

Home Depot was one of the sponsors this year and had little projects the kids could do. We didn't do one there but brought one home for each of them so Tim could do it with them. Gotta love their Home Depot aprons complete with name tags!

Coming Soon...

Sometime this week I'll post the pics from the Great Strides Walk and the boys' birthday....And our first weekend of camping for the summer! I'm hoping to get that done before we go to Reno this Friday....Stay Tuned!!

Phil Harris Comes to BOI...

Phil Harris, Captain of the F/V Cornelia Maria from Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch is in town this week. One of our agents, Carrie, just happens to be his step-daughter (well technically ex-step-daughter). So Carrie brought Phil into the office today for a little meet and greet! For the record I LOVE Deadliest Catch! It is one of my FAVORITE shows!

Phil & Carrie

Phil & Me
Phil & Tania

Signing Autographs

Chattin' It Up

Kenny, Carrie & Phil

Me, Carrie, Phil, Sherri, Signe & Carline in front

If you live in the Boise area and want to meet Phil he'll be at the Reef downtown tomorrow night!