Bear Lake

We went to Bear Lake over the 24th weekend with the Marlow Family. We had so much fun, and the girls played so hard, and loved every minute of it. (I love this picture of the girls.. mostly because you can see how cute Bryltee's little bum is with a wedgie).
Elizabeth had so much sand all over her.
I could not believe how many people were there. I don't think I have ever seen it so busy. We were very lucky to have gotten in to the beach that we did because when we got there they had a sign up saying that the beach was full so we would have to go and find another beach... but a nice guy gave us his parking pass as he was leaving.

Brytlee was having so much fun in the water for a couple of hours, and then all of a sudden started to get a little nervous about fish, frogs, and ducky's.... So I had to hold on to her the rest of the time in the water.






We had such a great day!

"I caught you a delicious bass"

They are not really bass, but they are a great sized trout.
Elizabeth is so strong!
As soon as Alexis grabbed one she said, "wow, these are heavy" She had a hard time holding them for the picture. I was a little nervous she was going to drop them on the floor.
Ryan tried to get Brytlee to hold them, but she really does not like to hold things that are "yucky".




I wanted to get Brytlee on tape talking because I love her voice and the way she talks. This little clip is so funny! Alexis some how talked her into holding this fish head, and she really didn't want to at all. And they happen to drop it on the floor and she wipes it on her clothes...... the more to clean the merrier right....

What a day

We had such a busy 24th of July. We have not been going to bed on time and the girls have been sleeping in until after 9:00 every day. It makes it so hard to go and work out when they do because the play area for the kids is only open until 10:00. So we have to hurry and get them feed, and dressed, and out the door.
Today they all took a very long time getting ready so it was 10:20 by the time we were ready to go to the gym so we ended up going to a Parade instead. Or at least we tried to go to the Parade. We made it just as it had finished.
We went over to the park and they had all sorts of fun things for the kids to play on, and booths to see. This little town that we were in has the funniest little traditions that they do every year, and I think it is so fun/kinda hillbillyish.
They have a race for all the kids ages 0-2, 3-7, 8-12 ect... for all the kids to line up and go and chase a chicken. And who ever catches the chicken gets to take it home.... My kids did not catch the chicken thank goodness. After everyone has a chance to chase the chicken, they grease up a pig and do the same thing. (and if you catch the pig you get to take it home also)
I was so glad that my kids didn't even get a chance to touch the pig. All the kids that did had grease all over their clothes. ( It was so funny to watch).
After this was all done, they have a candy drop in the middle of the field every year. What they do is they have some guy in a airplane fly over the field and drop candy down to all the kids. And they go over it about three times and each time they drop candy. It sounds like such a great idea but... when the candy falls on your head it really hurts! Alexis and I both got nailed in the heads with those now and later candy's and it really, really hurt. Brytlee got hit in the head also but it was with a tootsie roll... so I don't think it hurt her to bad.
After that was over we went and picked a ton of raspberries so that we could make some jam. Alexis was such a great helper, and picked a large bowl all by herself. Elizabeth helped a little but was eating more than she was picking so I ended up asking her to go and watch Brytlee. We were able to make four batches of raspberry jam with all that we picked.
Then we went out to the lake and went fishing for about a hour. The girls didn't really feel like fishing so they ended up jumping in the lake and swimming instead. (Brytlee didn't.... she is so freaked out about fish in the water)
Then we rode our bikes to the park and watched fireworks or as Brytlee would call them, "boom booms".

Hike

We went on a family Harris family hike this Monday for FHE.
I love all the mountains that are around us.
Elizabeth looking so pretty with a beautiful view
On the mountain there is a date that we all walked over to look at... Ryan didn't want to walk over to it and decided to make his own.
We all made it to the very top!


Brytlee and Uncle Ken



There was a couple of spots on the trail that you had to go on all fours so you could make it up. The kids all did really good and worked very hard to make it to the top. Brytlee made it over half way on her own on the way up, but the way down she wanted Grandma to pack her the whole way...



What a fun day! Brytlee was so funny. She was so happy to be going up a mountain and kept talking about it. And she was going on about, "go na go nup da mountain, go na see sum ducks, and sum fishy and sum.... ew sum poop" and then she would talk about the pooh for a little while. I love the way she talks right now, she can go on and on and on, it is so funny.
On Tuesday Ryan and I are both in mutual and it was a combined activity to float the river. We took the girls along with us and it was a lot of fun. After camping this last weekend, and going on a hike, then floating the river, I am feeling all sorts of adventurous.

Camping

We went camping this weekend with my parents, Jex and Mya, Annette's Family, Chris, Cindy, Tessa and Sara was able to make it up for the day on Saturday with Ava. It was my mom's birthday so I really wanted to go and spend some time with her and the rest of the family.

We found a lot of obsidian (which is what a lot of the Indians used to make arrow heads). You can bang them together and it shapes the rocks into points. (It gets really sharp... Alexis already cut herself on the rocks we brought home)
We all went on some very beautiful four wheeler and Rhino Rides.

Alexis loved camping. She was so excited to sleep in a tent and also in a trailer that she could hardly stand it. In the mornings she would wake up very early because she couldn't wait to get playing. (everyone started to call her Roster because she would wake everyone up)
One of the nights I think she woke up every hour to see if it was time to wake up or not.
All the kids love riding in the back of the Rhino. Any time they heard the engine start they would all come running.
After a long ride all the kids really needed to warm up their back sides.



Mya and Lizzy. They are so great together and could play for hours and hours.


Ryan and Rob caught these little brook fish in a tiny stream... They were small but they tasted really yummy!
Alexis and Elizabeth are not scared to hold a fish. They were showing all the kids the little fish and as soon as they got close to Mya she would scream as loud as she could and really start to freak out... it was funny.
First thing on Saturday morning Brytlee tripped on a tree stump. I am not sure how she fell or how she did this but she cut her lip really bad. Cindy was there (Cindy is a nurse) and knew that it needed some stitches.


You cant really tell how deep the cut is in the pictures but it was so sick. I never am bothered by blood or cuts but for some reason seeing this on Brytlee just made me so sick and so sad.
We were about a half an hour or more away from Rexburg so My mom, Ryan and I took Brytlee to go and find a Doctor that could stitch her lip up.
We went to the community care first and the doctor started to work on her. He gave her a couple of shots to make it numb and she was so good for that. Then when he started to pull her lip apart she started to cry like crazy.
They put this blanket over her head and it just had a little hole in it for where he needed to put the stitches in and she really didn't like that. A nurse was holding her head, I was holding her arms, and Ryan was holding her legs.
The Doctor got the first stitch in and the bottom part of her lip line didn't match up, and she was crying and moving her lip so much that he didn't think that he could do a good job. So he took the stitch out and told us that A Doctor Peterson was going to meet us at the Madison Hospital ER and they would put her under so he could stitch her up. So we went there, and the Doc. was not there so they said it would be a 30 to 40 min. wait.
After about two hours I asked what was taking so long..... and it turned out that the on call doc. was up on the buttes with the scouts and had to go home from a hike and shower before he was able to make it to the hospital.
I was so mad!!! I can not even say how much I hate the Rexburg hospital. If there is a doc. on call.. should he not be somewhere that he can actually make it to the hospital within at least a half an hour....
So I may have been a jerk and a little rude to the people that were helping us but I was ready to be done. Her lip was already scabbing together and I was to the point that I just didn't want to have them help us in any way because I didn't want to pay them a dime.
(plus I really didn't want to have to put Brytlee under)
So I just told them not to even worry about it and we were going to leave. The nurse was not very happy with me and told me that we were going to be charged because we were checked into triage. (we sat in the waiting room for the whole time....)
So I said..."you are really going to charge us money for sitting in your waiting room"? And she said "Yes". So I just was even more upset and told her that if they billed us their is no way that I was going to pay it and then left!
So Brytlee's lip is healing the old fashion way. I am just hoping and praying that it goes together well and does not leave a big scar. Ryan really thought it would be fine and I really hope that he is right....
The whole time this was going on Brytlee was so tough. She only cried for a few minutes after it happened..... and after a little Rhino ride she was just fine.
She loves riding on the Rhino, and I love the way that she says "Rhino Ride" It is so cute.
She is such a sweet little girl, and Brytlee, if you end up having a big scar on your lip... I am so sorry. Please don't be mad at me
Besides this little accident we had such a great time. I had so many great laughs with my sister Annette. The first night we were able to sleep with each other in the tent because both of our husbands were in different places fishing. We can always get so crazy together and just laugh about the dumbest things. It is so weird that the things that we thought were so funny... the next day when we were telling other people about how hard we were laughing and what it was about... they really didn't think it was funny at all...... But I don't really care who thinks it is funny we had a great time together and I love that I have a sister that I can laugh with.
I am so glad that I have fun parents that want to go out and do such fun things. They love to travel, and are always inviting everyone along. I have always loved that about them and wish that I could travel with them where ever they go. They always have so much fun and when ever I go with them I always am glad that I went.