Virginia Tech!!

This weekend was Chase’s birthday as well as parent’s day at Virginia Tech.  Jeff and I were lucky enough to go to Blacksburg, Virginia for the festivities.  What a wonderful, beautiful, relaxing time. 

Chase is living in the dorms and his dorm is party central.  When we arrived there were (no lie) 13 boys in the little room playing video games.  We got to eat at the dining hall with Chase, which was totally fun and surprisingly good.  Here are some photos of the dorm life.  It’s a good thing they are so young..  This would drive me crazy. They love it!

Virginia Tech is a beautiful campus.  The buildings are all made of limestone and are absolutely gorgeous.  It was fall and the campus has tons of trees and is built on rolling hills.  While we were there we took Chase out for lots of yummy meals and hung out with his friends and their families.  I had the chance to make friends with incredible people.  We firmed up an apartment for Chase next year so he can escape “dorm life.”

There were “Hokies” all over town dressed in different clothes.  It reminded me of the Kim and Shea “Iowa” days and search Iowa City for Hurkey.

Photo of Chase’s friends and their families, we are taking a break from the apartment hunt.  It was so fun to see so many personalities together.  On the far left is Chase’s friend Dan and his mom and sister.  Eddie (Chase’s room mate) and his mom in the middle and Chase and Jeff on the right.

 

Jeff had to show off Chase’s snowboarding and wake boarding abilities.  The photo with the bird is Chase’s room mate Eddie and his parents.  They were a wonderful family.  The pictures below are just photos on campus.

Chase got lots of great stuff for his birthday.  He loves this pull up bar that hangs on his door. 

Happy Birthday Chaser!  Thanks for sharing a weekend with us.  I am so proud of Chase.  He is a hard worker and so fun to be around.  The only negative… saying goodbye!  I, of course cried intermittently the rest of the day. However, it was worth it.

Love you Chase!!

Fun Fall Weekend

For a weekend with “no plans” we certainly turned out to have a great weekend.   The primary children have been challenged to “touch the temple” so we kicked the weekend off with a trip to the temple.

Kim and I had been talking with the kids about all the work that goes on in the temple.  We were talking about the importance of temple marriage and a cute couple, probably in their mid 80s walked out of the temple.   As we passed them Samantha looked at Kim and said “did they just get married.”

What a great start to a great weekend.  I know I say it all the time but we are so  lucky to live near our family.   After the temple trip Jamie, Ry and Kendall had all the little girl cousins sleep over. Bless them!  The girls had a great time. 

On Saturday we took the kids to the American West Heritage Center to participate in all the fun festivities.  We did a super slide, train ride, hay jump, tractor ride, corn maze, made dolls out of corn husks and enjoyed the awesome weather.

As usual,  Mitchell and Samantha stuck at the hip!  I love their friendship.

We were so lucky to enjoy such warm weather, it won’t last long.

Jeff was the only man there with us.  When that is the case we call him “Warren Jeffs” as coined by Kim.  We think its pretty funny. 

The Heritage Center was awesome and I would totally recommend it to anyone!

UEA and Pocatello!

My internet was down for about a week so now I have to catch up!  As usual we have been doing a lot of fun things!  For UEA we took the kids to Fossil Butte  National Park.  I loved it.  Taylor is studying fossils in the 4th grade and was excited to go.  After that we headed to the ranch for conference.

Anders made the entire mile and a half hike.  Don’t I have the cutest children in the world?

Ryker is such a good sport.  He is the oldest cousin by a long shot and always such a good example.  It was SO fun to have him with us!!  After Fossil Butte we headed to the ranch.  Check out what we drove through.  Jill and I thought it was the funniest thing ever!!

The kids love the ranch.  They love riding horses and being outside.  Here are some of my favorite photos!

Just below Jordan and Grandpa, Jordan LOVED the horses.  Ryker holding the gate open.

Mitchell and Grandpa going to check on the cows.  Upper right, Hayden and Mitchell.  Left, Taesha and Jord on the horses.

Lance and Jeff could not wait to eat after Priesthood.  Neither would sit down!  Sick!  View from upper level watching conference at the ranch.  How blessed are we??

Jordan had her first “oral report” in Kindergarten.  It was career day and she opted to be a cowgirl based off her “work at the ranch.”   Thanks Grandpa for helping her.  Here she is with her poster before school.  I can’t believe how old she is.

The following weekend Taesha had a band competition in Pocatello.  I love the band events.  We went to Idaho Falls to spend some with with Jeff’s family first.  We had a blast. 

Here are the photos from the band competition. 

Lance and Ryker were there because Lance pulled the MC trailer to the competition.  It was fun to hang with them.  Just like the old band days.

I love band!  Good kids with incredible talent!  Thanks T for being such a fun, meaningful part of my life.  One the way home another highschool had a bus that rolled and caused a fatality.  As Jeff and I watched and heard about the details I realized:  Love you kids, savor every moment.  They are only ours for a few years.  We are so blessed to be in a circumstance to provide our kids with opportunities and to be able to support them.