Halloween

So it has been four months since my last post and I am not proud of it. My poor mother has not even seen Halloween pictures of my kids from this year. So here they are...Ellie as Tinkerbell and Kiera as a Cowgirl. We started the night off with a family party at Jim and Amanie's then off to trick or treat at a few different neighborhoods. Kiera came home over flowing with a bucket of candy. Ellie enjoyed the evening but she was more interested in hanging in the car with mom and dad and answering the door for the short time that we were home. And yes, Jeff and I got into the spirit by dressing up as Peter Pan and Captain Hook for the family party.

Willard Peak

This past Saturday Jeff, the girls and I along with his parents set out on a four wheeler ride to Willard Peak. Kiera hopped around and road with everyone on the way up. When we got to the top we were fortunate enough to see a lot of mountain goats. We probably saw close to 20-30+ head. It was very cool. On the way down Ellie fell asleep, so we strapped her in with Jeff's shirt and she didn't budge the whole way down which was pretty bumpy at times.

Kiera's Camping Birthday Party

Camp Kiera was a huge success. Kiera has wanted to have a friend party for a long time so for her 6th birthday we gave in. She dreamed up the whole thing and with the help of Jeff and his parents we were able to execute everything she wanted. She was adamate about the following...camping theme, pinata, nature hike, roasting hot dogs and bug hunting. We picked up her friends at First Dam and shuttled them up the canyon to the family cabin. I probably over planned because the kids could have just entertained themselves all on their own.







Here was the invitation to her party...

Marshmallow Fun

I hope my family still loves me after I post these flattering pictures of them eating the biggest roasted marshmallows ever. Jim sent Brinlie and Bailie off to get marshmallows for roasting and they came back with these. We had fun with them.

Triathlons

I was lucky enough to do some fun triathlon's this summer.

The pictures above are from the ROCK CLIFF TRIATHLON at Jordanelle.

The picture below is of my sister and I after we completed the Spudman Tri in Burley, ID.

Smith 4th of July Reunion

Every year the Smith Family (Jeff's mothers side) gets together for a week of fun at the Family Cabin up Logan Canyon. It is one of the highlights of the summer. We just hang out and enjoy each other and let the kids run around. This year Adree organized a Minute to Win It competition which was a big hit. I got some good pictures, as you can see.

Tour de Parade of Homes

Amanie and I love to go to the Parade of Homes every year. We love getting exciting new decorating ideas that I always plan to implement but don't. Maybe this is the year...probably not. Am and I decided to do the Parade of Homes on our bikes this year. We loved it and got the Un-official award as the most unique and economically friendly way to travel from house to house, our award was a Fat Boy at one of the houses and gatorade at another. It seems that every year we get a little turned around trying to find houses but this time we never got lost and made our way from house to house really easily. We logged 30 miles that day. A couple times we would beat people who were in their cars to the next house. So other then the fact that we were walking through these houses in our biking shorts and hat hair, among ladies who had gotten all dolled up for a day out, it was great. We got a few sideway looks but they were just secretly jealous. :)
Thanks Am for the fun time!

Ryder and Audrey's Wedding

I went to New York with my parents and sisters to see my cousin, Ryder, get married in the Catskill Mountains at a little mountain resort called Full Moon in Big Indian, NY. We flew into Newark and drove to Big Indian. We made a couple stops along the way, one stop being the Hudson River.

Here is a picture of one of the houses on the grounds of the resort. It was very rustic and I loved it! I stayed in another home up the road that was probably a 100 years old. Shay and I shared a little room upstairs.

My AWESOME family. It is always fun to get us all together because it doesn't happen very often. We were missing Jeff and all of the kids.

Shay and I right next to a creek where the ceremony was. It was so green there and there were so many rivers and creeks that were running everywhere.

The beautiful bride and groom. They live in New York. My cousin is an artist and his now wife Audrey is a designer.
Ryder is the closest thing to a brother that I had growing up. We were best buddies and have some fun memories. I was so glad to be a part of his big day!

Kindergarten Graduation

Kiera has met her first educational milestone! Not sure why they make such a big deal of graduating from kindergarten but bring on the paper graduation hats. It is definitely a proud moment for her and Jeff and I. She had an official ceremony at Morningside and a party at Edith Bowen. She has changed so much over the past year and learned so much. She is getting better and better at reading and the progress she has made over the school year has been amazing. Below are some pictures of her at the Morningside graduation where she graduated with Brinlie. Kiera was so serious during the ceremony we could hardly get her to crack a smile.
After it was over we were in the car and telling her how proud we were of her and she said "You know I feel like my next step is college." HEAVENS NO, not yet. We had a good laugh.

Sister Hair Cut

Kiera has had about 4 hair cuts already but this one was Ellie's first. She did pretty good in the chair but towards the end the stylist gave her the squirt bottle and let her go to town squirting the mirror and anything within range so that allowed her to finish up. We decided to cut most of it off because she had so many different layers. I guess I didn't get any after pictures because the one of Kiera is before as well as the one of Ellie, ooops.