Dancing the night away
Watching his sister have fun on the rides because he couldn't go :(
At least he's happy about it.
Her favorite ride, the Pirate play house
Ben and I love Rodeo's, so when Nelson and Deann invited us to come to the Box Elder Fair with them, we jumped at the chance. The Fair included the Rodeo, animals shows, a carnival, booths, and lots of food. We had planned to go down Friday night for the Rodeo and stay the night and go to the fair on Saturday.
When we got to the Rodeo, we got our seats and sat down to enjoy the show. Gabbi loves watching the horses and such, so she had a blast witting there with grandpa. Owen on the other hand was not so interested. I ended up taking him for a walk in the stroller. Ben and I took turns watching different events and pushing Owen. I hate it when someones kid 
is screaming and crying and the parent is not doing anything about, so I wasn't about to be one of those parents. So Owen had fun getting pushed in the stroller and both Ben and I got to see the events we liked. It worked out great. The only bad part about the night was the bugs. They were everywhere. While Owen and I were walking, they would just come in droves and land everywhere and anywhere they wanted. Everyone was covered by them. 
It was insane. There was really no place to stand to avoid them either, but oh well right? It's all part of the fun. Once the rodeo was over we headed back to Nelson and Deann's. They had just bought a new trailer and they set it up so we could sleep in there. Owen fell asleep in his car seat on the way home, so he slept in his car seat, Gabbi had her own 
bed on one side of the tent trailer and Ben and I had the other. The weather was nice, not to hot and not to cold. We all slept great and once we woke up we were ready for a fun day. Once we had gotten everyone up and ready for the day we had some breakfast and then went to a yard sale. It was a friend of Deann's. Gabbi found a bag of beads that was only a dollar, so we got them for her. 
She always wants to make her own necklace whenever I am making jewelry, so we thought that the beads would be great for her to make her own stuff. When we came back to the house, we hung out for a little while and let Gabbi and Owen play. Once Deann was done with an interview her and Nelson left to go watch a
football game of one of their grand kids and we headed to go get some lunch. Once we were done eating, we headed to the fair. We walked though all the exhibits, all the animals, and even some trailer. They had some trailer on exhibit that were huge and Ben couldn't resist to take a peek. They were literally a home away from home. It was crazy. 
In the animal exhibit, we specifically went to see Deann's bunnies. She had put two of them in the fair. One won 2nd place and the other won 4th. Gabbi loved seeing all the animals. She even got to pet a few. Once we had had our fill of the exhibits, we decided to go back to Nelson and Deann's to let Gabbi 
play and to have Owen take a nap. It was hot and walking around wasn't making Owen all that happy. It worked out nicely. Gabbi played, Owen napped, and Ben and I watched a movie while we waited for Nelson and Deann to get back. Once they got back, we all went to fair. We got dinner there, which was very yummy. I love fair food. We all got different things. We walked around the booths, we danced on the dance floor, listened to Rough Stock, and even went to the carnival. 
Deann had given Gabbi and all day pass for the rides. She went on a lot of different rides, but the pirates play house was her favorite. She would get done and jump right back in line. She had so much fun and we had a blast hanging our with Nelson and Deann. Ironically enough it made for a great birthday. Oh yeah, did I mention that it was my birthday that day. We had fun all day, it was a great birthday.
Playroom
Here's the front room now. We put the T.V. on the opposite wall and we added the computer desk and my scrapbooking cupboards.
In the living room we added the coffee table in the middle of the room and a rug. The floor was to cold to keep it uncovered.
This is the newest addition to the house. I have been looking for a kitchen table for a long time. The table we had was a hand me down from my sister and I have no problem with that, I love hand me downs. But I had been wanted a new table for a while. We saw this one at Costco and we both feel in love with it. My mom convinced Ben that it truly was an investment and that is would be around for a long time, basically worth the money. So we used some of our tax money and bought it. I was so excited I love it. It's a tall table with 6 chairs and a bench. Its perfect.
Ben's first time skiing slalom style. He did a great job. Sorry it's so bumpy to watch.
Dad's knee boaring ride. He was trying to turn around while still holding the rope. He almost got it.
Tiffany and I taking our turn on the tubes. I'm not a huge fan of the tubes, I'm always afraid that I'll get hurt. I don't like to be tipped over either. But Ben made me go, and it was fun.
The concerned look and frightful gaze from our girls and the thought that we were going to float away and never come back.
Enjoying the boat ride. The rocking of the waves almost put them both to sleep.
Having fun on the boat.
Owen enjoying his turn in the tube. He may look like he's screaming with fright, but he is really screaming and laughing. He was having a blast.
Every year we try to plan a trip to Bear Lake. We have to plan it months in advance so we can find a weekend that works both for dad and for Ben. In year's past some times Ben had drill and couldn't come. Other's we could never find a weekend that dad had off that worked with everyone. This year we planned for August. Everyone was able to come and we actually went up earlier then 
we normally do. Normally we go up Friday afternoon and stay at the campsite all night and only play at Bear Lake on Saturday. This year worked out that we were all able to go up Friday morning, so we got to play at the beach both Friday and Saturday then drive home Sunday. Everything came together perfectly. Dad and mom did the shopping and split the cost of the bill.
Jenny took care of the reservations for the camp ground and Jeff took care of the boat. I helped mom prepare the food before we went up there so all we had to do was cook it. We took off Friday morning and got up there around 12:30. We got the trailer set up and while the men put up the tents the lady's made the sandwiches for lunch. Once every one's tents were set up and the 
lunches were packed, we headed to the beach. The water was nice and there weren't too many people. We weren't able to go to our normal spot of beach since the water was so high this year. Our spot was nonexistent. So we ended up going to the North Beach. It is a nice beach and they have a pretty nice dock, however it costs money. Since its in Idaho they charge an "out of state" fee. 25 dollars
more then were we would normally dock the boat. Oh well, I guess its better to have the water count, right? So once we got the beach set up with chairs and the easy up shade canopy, some sat down and ate lunch, other took the boat out for a spin. They did knee boarding, tubing, and skiing. All the kids tried something except Gabbi. She refused to get in the water off the boat. They put 
Kamree in the tube and drove really really slow and she loved it. We wanted Gabbi to do it and she wanted nothing to do with it, so Ben threw her in the water to see if that would change her mind. It just made her mad. She didn't talk to him for almost an hour. That's a long time for a small child. Even Owen got in the tube. Granted we weren't moving, but he was in the tube and was having a blast. Every 
once in a while we will go out to the middle of the Lake and just turn the boat off and jump out to swim. That is when we had Owen in the tube. We tied up the tube so it would stay with the boat and he had a blast. It would move up and down with the waves and he would just laugh and laugh. It was so cute to see how much fun he was having which made it even more sad that Gabbi wouldn't play in the water. Maybe next year.
Once we got back to the beach she did play on the beach like crazy. Her and Kamree dug and dug in the sand building different things, transporting sand from here to there. They did have a good time. She did venture to wade out in the water up to her knees, but that was as far as she was willing to go. Once we had had our fill for the water we headed back to the camp site to get dinner ready. We wanted to be able to have 
dinner done and cleaned up with so we could go and get some shakes from La Beaus, a tradition. We almost didn't make it. Dinner of course took longer then we thought and we got to La Beaus only 20 minutes before they closed. We weren't the only ones. They're were at least 10 groups in line after us. Once we had gotten our shakes we came back to the camp site and enjoyed them around the fire. 
We got ready for bed and then hit the sack. I hardly slept a wink. I don't know how our kids do it. However they are just like their daddy. He can sleep anywhere and is a very sound sleeper. So are the kids. I used to be a sound sleeper until I had kids. But it was so windy. We didn't tie down the strings to the cover of our tent, we only clipped the clips.
So the side of the cover blew all night long. It was so loud. I ended up having to pull out Ben Ipod and turn the music up really loud to drown it out to be able to get a little sleep. When we woke in the morning we all got ready to go to the beach. Jenny and Brian took down their tent, they wouldn't be staying the second night. We pulled out breakfast, ate, cleaned up and headed to the beach. It was pretty much the same as the day before. Playing on the beach for the kids, boating and what not. 
I was so impressed with Ben. When he sets out to do something, he's pretty determined. He slalomed skied. I think that's what it is called. Where you ski with only one ski. He tried it two ways. One where you start with both skis and then kick one off or just getting up on the one ski. He said just the one ski was better. A few times when he tried to get the other ski off, it flipped him in the water. He did a great job.
He even traveled from side to side going in and out of the wakes. It was cool. Dad also did some cool tricks or at least he tried. He was doing the knee board and he was trying to turn completely around while still holding onto the rope. He tried a couple of times, had to catch himself before he lost it, then he tried a few more times. Never quite made it, but was very close. Once we were out of the water
and on dry land, he figured out what he was doing wrong, and went back out while they drove it to the dock and they rest of us headed for the camp site. Once we were there, we got dinner ready. A dutch oven meal that Jeff has perfected. Granted it also took longer to cook then we anticipated and we ate pretty late. Its a good thing we went to La Beaus the night before. We played some games and were
so tired we didn't even sit around the camp fire, we just went to bed. This night was better. It was still windy, but not as much. In the morning we took our time cleaning up. Once we got everything cleaned up, tent wise, we sat down and made breakfast. Bagged omelets. Very good. Then the kids went and played on the playground and we played card games til we were board. 
Then took the drive back home. We got home unpacked the car and headed to mom and dad's so we could clean off the boat in order for Jeff to return it. It was a great weekend. I was looking through my pictures again, its been a while. I stand corrected. Gabbi did go on the tube with Ben once on the first day. The ride was only a minute long, if that. That is why she wouldn't go on the tube the second time on the second day, like Kamree did.
For two weeks I drove my niece and nephew's to swimming lessons at the North Shore Aquatic Center. Gabbi hated it. We went in the first day to make sure the kids were able to find their classes and introduce them to their teachers. Cameron wasn't so sure about swimming. He's not a huge fan of swimming so his parents were kind of worried that he wouldn't take to the class very easily. But to their surprise he loved it. 
He did really good in his class. After the first day I would just drop the kids off and sit and wait in the parking lot. Gabbi hated that. She wasn't a fan of having to wait while they were swimming. She wanted so badly to swim, but she still was in her cast, we didn't want to get it too wet, unless absolutely necessary. So to reward her for being such a trooper,
having to watch her cousin's have fun swimming, we planned to take her to the Riverdale splash pad. We planned on taking her the week she got off her cast. So we went two day before she got her cast off. She absolutely loved it and the cast wasn't a problem. She had a boot on her foot and a sandal on the other and she had an absolute blast.
Even Owen had fun. The water was pretty cold and by the time we got there the splash pad was pretty covered with shade, so he didn't play as long as Gabbi, but he thought the water and the toys there were the best. After about 25 minutes or so, you could tell that he was done though. He was shaking and ready to get out of 
the water. We pulled him out and got him dried off and then about 10 minutes later Gabbi was ready to be done. Even though we weren't there for very long, the kids still loved it and it gave Gabbi a chance to "swim" even though it was just running around.
