a day in our life...: The week of the fourth

We had a fun time while the Pickett family were in town (we missed the Palumbo family... perhaps next year!); it was a busy week and a lot of late late nights for our kiddos but they had a blast. The festivities went down something like this...

Friday June 29th: We met for an evening movie of Brave... it was an okay movie. Chatted for a few minutes after that then headed home, bracing myself for some tired kids in the morning.

Saturday June 30th: Cory and Todd woke up and left for fishing at 5:30 a.m. No, your eyes do not deceive you; it really was that early for my honey!! They were gone until about 11. Cory was thrilled to catch a 10" fish after a 2-year dry spell (mind you he isn't an avid fisherman). But it restored his confidence that if we had no food he could catch a fish for us :) It cracked me up when he said that!

Later that afternoon we met up at BYU-Idaho to tour the campus with the Lewis's, Picketts, and Cory's parents. It is completely unrecognizable even in the 6 years since we've been gone! It really is a stunning campus, though it also made me miss the "old Ricks' College days" and the simpleness. We met up with our good friend Ferguson and he walked around with us for a while. Love that guy!

After that we drove back to Idaho Falls and met Todd at Costa Vida and then the Pickett's came over to our house and we had a great time visiting with them, shooting $1.50 marshmallow guns the kids and I made, and playing a game called Moods after our kids went to bed. I think Zoe's "moods" were our favorite!

A contest to see who could get the farthest... I think Penni won ;-)

These just cracked me up!

Ethan's slobbery marshmallow was stuck

Ethan and Zoe... Boy, they loved her!

Brooklyn with Zoe... super cute!

Sunday July 1st: Our good friends blessed their first baby and we offered our backyard for the luncheon. It was nice.

Kaitie and Lylian

Later that evening Grandpa and Grandma Hansen and the Picketts came up and we went on a walk.

Favorite exchange of the night:

Todd to Penni: "come sit by TP"

Me: "What's T.P? Toilet Paper?"

Todd: "No, Todd Pickett..."

Me: "ohhhh... gotcha"

Good times! Good times!

After our walk the kids played out back while we watched Rush Hour 2; one of our favorite movies! We wanted to watch Nacho Libre, one of Penni's favorite movies that was quoted the evening before during our Moods game; also a movie that Cory and I had never seen it, but it just wasn't in the cards to watch it. Next time, for sure! Zoe played with the kids so well, they absolutely adored her and they loved staying up late!

Monday July 2nd: Todd, Penni, Kristine, Cory and I took off around noon for Lava Hot Springs to do the Lava float on tubes for my birthday! It is so much fun! Highlights from the trip were Penni wearing her life jacket around her waist the first time down, getting ridiculed from her family for her fashion statement :), then ditching it after that. Todd and his dismounts! Good times! Me flipping the first time down. Todd flipping a little later. Todd bringing his money to get ice cream on the way walking back up the hill... he never got ice cream but his money did get all wet. Doing a huge 5 person chain. Cory getting stuck in an eddy right above the larger waterfall on the last time down. Smelling like fish for the rest of the day. Changing behind a towel in an open area with Penni and Kristine on point. We went down 6 times in about 3 hours; it was a great time!

I should have got one at the beginning, but here we are!

Penni, Todd and Kristine

After getting changed we headed to Pocatello and hit up a little Texas Roadhouse and then headed back to Shelley to have ice cream pie with Cory's parents, our kiddos, and the Lewis family. Cory gave me an Ebony card (inside joke... or maybe it is because I have a big bootie :) either way, it was funny). It was a really nice day!

Love this picture of all of us!

Finger licking good!

Always a good time these two!

Sterling ready for cake!

Brooklyn snuggling with Grandma

Mindy and Rigdon

July 3rd: Because of the high wind (hello Idaho), our plans to go swimming at Rigby lake were out the door. So instead we decided to meet up at Heisee in the early afternoon for a fried chicken picnic and went on a nice little hike with the kids. Had some convo's about twitter and removing re-postings :) good times! Talked a lot about teenagers and social networking. It scares me for when my kids are older! But the day was nice and it was nice to have a little break from having such a full day. I think we all needed it.

Super cute!

Connor and Ethan

Sterling was happy as long as he had his own chair and a water bottle to play with, drink out of and pour out.

A pretty picture of Mindy (darn that fruit punch bottle!)

Going to miss these days

Kristine and Penni

On the hike

The great view

July 4th: We took a chance and went to Rexburg Rapids (it was our first time there), and suprisingly there weren't that many people there. It was perfect! It was actually a perfect size park for our kids and the boys and Brooklyn had a blast. Sterling... not so much. He didn't want anything to do with ANY water. Which is so unlike him because he loves baths. He took a nap and we ate snacks, talked about jobs, floated the lazy river and had a nice time.

(all these photos from Rexburg Rapids I borrowed from Mindy's website because I forgot my camera that day. Thanks a ton Mindy for capturing our day!)

Super cute of these too!

Penni, Mindy, and Cory

Sleepy Sterling. Oh, I love that little boy!

Pool side chatter

Brooklyn loved going around the lazy river with Zoe

Around 5:30 we took off back to our house for a little BBQ, then hung out until 9 when we went to find a spot for the Melaleuca freedom celebration (aka the largest firework show this side of the Mississippi!). We parked a ways away and walked down and sat in a little baseball diamond by the river for the 32 minute show. The kids loved it. We did loose Todd for a while as he wandered for the first 10 minutes after the show started before finding us; and we missed Penni who went home after the BBQ with a migraine.

Cute Mindy!

(Mindy's picture... Thanks again)

Some nice man gave the kids some glow sticks and Brooklyn was more into those than the fireworks. The boys loved the finale! It made me chuckle when we were walking back to the car and Briggs kept saying how much he loved the finale and if he closed his eyes it was like seeing the firework show all over again. It was so cute! Cory held Brooklyn on the way back to the car and she was completely out. Her head kept bobbing off to the side; it was so cute! She looked so big in Cory's arms; it made me sad! We got back to our car at 10:55 and we sat in about the same spot for literally 30 minutes before moving even 2 car lengths. We finally rolled into home about 11:45 with some tired kiddos on our hands. It was a FULL and tiring day!

July 5th: The Pickett's took off for Arizona and Cory's best friend from High School was in town so Cory, Kevin and Amy went on a morning bike ride for a while and then that evening we met up with them to eat at Johnny Carinos. I wasn't impressed with the waitress but the food was good and the company very fun! After that we headed to our house for a movie and then stayed up talking until 1. Amy and I humored our husbands as they reminisced about selling Living Scripture videos and our first few years of marriage. It was a good time!

July 6th: We met Kevin and his family up at Rexburg Rapids for our round two of the week. It was no surprise that the kids were thrilled to get to go up again. Also, again, Sterling... not so much! It was much more crowded than it was on the 4th. We took a picnic dinner and stayed until about seven. Overall, it was a great day!