Time Before the New Job

Bryan had a little time before he started his new job and so we tried to squeeze in a few more fun things to take advantage.  We went on a few walks down to Bear River State Park.  It was always so beautiful.  It makes me crave summer again.

 We had to make a few trips to Utah to get our new house purchased.  It was stressful and required so much paperwork.  I felt like I had to send something new every single day.  Luckily our new home has lots of fun things to do.  We found this great little squirt park I think we will return to frequently.

 The girls had been begging Bryan for a camping trip and this was the best time to make it happen.  Luckily the Uintas are super close to my parent's home and we could go up for the evening, Bryan spent the night with the two older girls and then I came back in the morning for breakfast.  Other than Julia accidentally breaking Bryan's fishing rod it was a perfect trip.

 The campground was by this pond with tons of lily pads in it.  It was so beautiful.

 Does it get better than this?  My dad had bought the girls little fishing poles and they put them to some use.  Thankfully there were lots of fish and we caught quite a few.  We even threw one on the grill.  Nothing is more delicious than fresh caught fish.

 Julia caught one all on her own.  She was so excited.  She would have fished for hours.

 My parents were so patient to help each of the little girls.

 The Uintas rank up there with prettiest places in the world.

 We also took a day and went to the Alpine Slides.  The views were amazing.

 Lily was terrified of the entire experience.  I thought she was going to have a complete meltdown as we tried to get her on the ski lift up to the slide.  Thankfully she calmed down and enjoyed the slow ride down with my mom.  They wouldn't let one of us ride down with Audrey which was a problem because she isn't strong enough to push down the lever.  So we were at the bottom of the slide waiting for a really long time for her to come down.  It was super frustrating because eventually we could see her, panic in her eyes and they wouldn't let me go up there and help her.  I felt so helpless just standing there yelling at her to push down the lever and her trying with all her little might.  The guy behind her was yelling at her because she couldn't get her sled to move which was even more infuriating.  Bryan was ready to go and tell that rude man where to go.  Needless to say we probably won't be doing Alpine Slides again for a little while.  Thankfully we went and got a delicious lunch after this and the day ended up being a fun one.

 We took the girls to the river with tubes to do a little floating.

 This was a highlight.  Bryan would float a ways down with them and walk back and take another child.  Pretty soon it was back to work for him but I'm so glad we got to have a few weeks of free time before he had to start another job.

24th of July

We were able to spend the 24th of July in Bryan's hometown.  They have a great rodeo and we were so glad we could go this year.  Julia made sure to bring her cowboy hat for the occasion.

 Cute cousins watching the show.  Amanda's girls are rodeo experts.

 Lily sure loves her Grandma.

 The next day we went to the local parade.  The kids lined up to collect candy.  It is one crowded parade!  There were so many people there.

 We went to the local craft fair and got the girls some little crowns.

 After the parade we went to Amanda's house for a delicious BBQ.  They even had a chocolate fountain and homemade ice cream for dessert.  The girls were in heaven.

 Then we had glow sticks, glow in the dark balloons and the loudest fireworks you've ever seen.  It was such a great day and we were so glad to spend it with family!

Spokane

Bryan had a little time in between jobs so we decided to make the most of it.  We drove to Spokane to see our dear friends the Gaileys.  It was a much needed getaway and we had the best time.  So thankful that I have been blessed with such incredible friends.  

Dave and Kristi had signed up for the dirty dash while we were going to be there so we decided to join them.  Best. Decision. Ever.  It was hilarious and so much fun.  I think we laughed through the entire race.  I thought that it was going to be physically insane but you had to wait in line for most of the obstacles so it was pretty doable.  

This is our before picture where we were very clean.

 Not so clean by the end.  I couldn't believe how dirty we got.  So much fun.

 We also headed up to Coeur D'Alene and went to the lake there.  It was so beautiful.

 We swam and played on the beach for a long time.

 My girls call these boys their "cousins but not their cousins."  Makes perfect sense.

 The whole crew minus the women who are always taking pictures.

 We also hit a splash pad that was incredible after the lake.   You can imagine that children slept well after this day.

 All the cute kids.  They had so much fun together.

 On Sunday we went to church and then to this beautiful park by their house.  They rode bikes for a really long time.

 They have the prettiest parks in Spokane and pine trees are everywhere.  I had never been to Washington.  It is a beautiful place.

 The park was huge and we found a rose garden in the midst of it.  A rose garden calls for some awesome posing.

Thanks again Gaileys for such a wonderful time!  Kristi is the best hostess and even cut and colored my hair there.  She has ruined me for going to anyone else!  Love you guys and hope to visit again soon!

Goodbye Idaho

This has been my longest break from blogging.  I don't know if anyone even reads them anymore.  I do know that if I continued not blogging I would regret it.  I am so happy I keep a faithful record of our family and we love going back and reading about our lives.  So I'm back in the saddle and I am going to work really hard to get caught up.  So here goes...

We moved.  This was truly one of the most difficult and stressful decisions and times of my life.  I think that I've had a difficult time motivating myself to blog because this was such a hard time and I don't really like revisiting it.  The last six months in Idaho were really hard.  Bryan had to make the difficult decision that the job there wasn't going to work out long term.  We were so blessed having a perfect opportunity fall into our laps that would move us to Utah.  After a great deal of prayer, stress, tears, sleepless nights and so forth we decided that the move would be the best for our family.  I can say with confidence three months into our new house that we made the right choice.  That being said, it didn't make moving any easier.  We loved our house so much and putting it on the market and looking for another house is a stress I never want to relive.  In fact, I have told Bryan many times that I am not moving again, ever.  Not only did we have to leave a house, but the girls were old enough to feel the stress of the move, Bryan was doing board preparation that equaled about 70 hours of work and was transitioning out of a job where they weren't too happy about his decision to leave.  There were some crazy, stressful moments that I am thankful are behind us.  There were also some moments that were wonderful.  There were many things about Idaho that were so great for our family and I can confidently say I am so thankful for all that we gained and learned from our two short years there.  We were able to squeeze in some fun things before we left and I am glad I get to go back and review all of them.  It makes me happy knowing we made the most of our last bit of time there.

Audrey was just looking too cute.

 Bryan and I would make a goal to have lunch together most days.  Sometimes we would meet at a park near his work.  I think Lily loved having the extra attention.

 We spent lots of time in our great big giant yard.  Our yard is what the girls miss most about Idaho.  I have never seen yards as beautiful anywhere else.

 This was Bryan packing up his office.  At this point we both knew with certainty it was time to move on but we were thankful for the wonderful people he worked with.  He had such a great nurse that was his right hand.

 We had lots of play dates at the park with our friends.   We still miss them terribly.  I am so thankful for texting.  I mean I can't even begin to express how thankful.  It is always amazing to me how many wonderful people cross your path in life and I met some of the best in Idaho.

 Oh we miss these guys.  I don't think we laugh harder with anyone else.

 We took a trip to the local water park.  The girls had the best day.

 This is such a great memory.  I love watching the run from slide to slide.

 This is a view I will miss forever.  The Idaho nights were always cool and summers were filled with the smell of mint.  I really loved that.

 We also spent a day at the aquarium in Boise.  It's small but really fun.

 The girls were very brave with the giant lizard.

 We had to take several variations of this picture.  Everyone's face had to make it in at some point.

 Julia had one last piano recital.  We loved Sister Hatch and I am forever indebted to her for giving Julia a strong love of piano.  That is all I could ever want.

 On my last night there I had to snap this picture.   The girls found a cat that they sat and watched for a long time.  This was a great yard and a great house.  I'm so thankful we were able to live there.  It's interesting how life doesn't always take the exact path you lay out for yourself sometimes.  I came to Idaho thinking we would live there forever and had every intention of doing so.  I am thankful that I have learned the valuable lesson that things don't always go according to plan and that's ok.  Sometimes it's better than ok.  We have grown closer as a family, Bryan and my marriage has been strengthened and we never would have know what kind of practice Bryan would have wanted without having this experience.  Thank you Idaho for being so good to us.  Now on to new adventures...