Cress Creek Trail

I love to hike and I am hoping to get at least one kid that will go with me, my kids are too lazy!!!  So Cierra and I made a plan to go hiking, she took her friend with us and off we went.  We packed a picnic and had a nice morning!

Taking a rest (this was the first bench!)

Waiting for Cierra to rest

First picnic table in the shade we sat and had lunch, we could have gone at any time of day and they would have been hungry at THAT picnic table!!!  

Playing in the water, it comes from a hot spring the water was pretty warm!

Can't remember what they were looking for, I think we just saw a picture of a certain flower and they were looking for it.

They did not want that picture taken they were ready to go!!!

Another place to play in the water, a scout troop was there too.

Boy she's a cutie!!!!  We had a really nice time I wish there were more things like this closer to our house!!!

Cierra's 9th Birthday

Cierra is now 9!  I can't even believe it!!!  Kids grow so fast, I hate to even blink or I pass a new milestone for them.  Cierra is so fun and happy but I think she's heading toward those pre-teen years because she is getting to be quite emotional.
She had a fun birthday, grandpa and grandma christensen came up and she got Zhu Zhu stuff, Bill, the kids and I gave her the green chair she's sitting in, the skateboard and the Barbie with a bike.  Grandpa and Grandma McCammon gave her money and she bought spy gear night vision goggles and a mood ring from the toy store.  Since we were going to have a party for her we made mini brownie cakes and had ice cream. It was a good day!!!

For her Birthday party with friends we couldn't resist the Spy Party theme!   You may look at the pictures and think wow, but it looks way better on the blog!!  Parties for my kids never turn out the way they seem like they should in my head. Bill say's I plan and expect 120% kids only expect 40% and I delivered 80% so they got more than they expected so be happy.  It just seems like the activites will last longer than you thought or the ones you thought would be fun are a huge bomb!!!!  

What cute spies in their hats and glasses.  I took these pictures and made spy ID wallets with a little getaway money!!!  When they got to the party we had a bowl that had nouns and one with adjectives and they drew out one of each to get their spy name.  Cierra was Green Headband!

Here are the invites, they didn't work out as well as planned.  It explains the Mission on the front but for details you had to turn it over and scratch off the stuff to reveal the details (where and when) of the mission.  I found  a cute idea online making your own scratch off cards, and it worked great for us when the paint was dry but after it hardened apparently it didn't scratch off too good.  The idea is here.  Its calls for 2 to 1 paint to soap maybe I really should have added more soap. Oh well.

Got the idea for the cake here, Abbie and Hailey were the decorators.  I think they did a stupendous job for their first cake!!!

One of the game ideas was making a Laser beam challenge This was the original idea but this below is what we ended up doing.  The kids played it outside while I was hurrying to make the wallets, they didn't play in it very long,but the big kids said that the girls had fun. 
They played another spy kids game, but I don't have pictures of that.  They then came in a found that the presents the kids brought had been STOLEN!!!  A ransom note was left in their place so I issued their spy bags so they could donn the gear and find out where they were stashed.  They then followed clues and carried out tasks to figure it out.

Striking a crazy pose while searching for the gifts.

Found them hidden in the bath tub in the basement...they made a great team....what awesome spies!!!!

Cierra then got to open her gifts...Thanks everybody for the gifts she loved everything!!!!

Our repose of blowing out the candle!!!

What a great crew, we are so lucky and feel so blessed to live in such a great place where our kids can have such great friends who live so close by!!!  We love it here!!!!   Happy Birthday Cece!!!!

Melaleuca Picnic and More July

Its not in numerical order, but I can't get these stupid pictures to move around, I would think that as many people that use this site it would be way more user friendly!!  or maybe I'm an idiot!!!

Melaleuca throws a great employee summer picnic.  A huge carnival for the kids, a great lunch catered by Texas Roadhouse this year with yummy roast pigs and all you can eat Cotton Candy, sno cones, popcorn and drinks.  A hot Saturday afternoon in July lazing under the canopies eating while the kids play!  They also have what they call Heritage games for the grown-ups a kind of Minute to win it type of fun for small prizes, then they have their large prize drawing in the afternoon.  All in all a great time!!!

 This was the field they had for shooting managers with paint ball guns.  That was an experience that Bill ALMOST had but didn't end up having too because the guy showed up at the last moment!! Whew!!!!

 For the kids they had a greased pig contest and had taped money to baby calf's and had them run around while the kids chased them.  I am sure with the amount of kids in the circle those animals are forever scarred!!!

 Another day in July we drove up to Rexburg to go to the Splash Park (not the new waterpark) with some friends I wasn't expecting much, but was pleasantly surprised to find quite a nice park.  The kids had fun but it was kinda windy and they got cold relatively fast.

 OK so here's the unveiling of the new haircut.  Abbie had been growing her hair out for a while and wanted so badly to donate it, but she was so ready to cut it and she didn't have 10inches to donate only probably 7 or 8, it just wasn't enough and I couldn't convince her to keep growing!!!

I think it turned out adorable!!!

Raspberries...you gotta love them!!  And I do!!!  This was the first big picking of the season, the next day we had double this!!!  IT was AWESOME and YUMMY!!!!

 Just had to throw in a picture of the coolest kid in town!!!!  Do you like his hat???  It's his party hat!!!

 Another Activity Days get together...we threw a Birthday Party for all the girls it turned out really great!!!!

At the end of July we had a great treat!  Bills cousin Mike and his wife Colette came to the west from Kentucky to visit, they actually met at Ricks and reunited after almost 20 years and got married a year and a half ago.  It was sooooo much fun to get to know them better, we enjoyed having them here so much.  Now we need to plan a trip to Kentucky so they can show us around!!!

Except for Cierra's Birthday I think this covers July!!!!

Parades, Fireworks and Birthdays

What is wrong with me?  I take my camera everywhere and I never take any pictures, so here I am blogging about stuff I don't have pictures of!!!
The month of July is a great month, It was the month I was born on the 2nd even, this year we are not commemorating though because I turned 40, I didn't want to turn 40 so we're ignoring it, but I love the 4th of July its such a great holiday!!! I am so grateful to be an AMERICAN to live in the greatest country in the world!!
Besides being Independence day, and its also my dad's birthday, my parents came up to celebrate the day with us.  They met us at the parade, then we came home and had a nice BBQ and then that night went to the Melalueca Freedom Fireworks with them and some other friends...I only have pictures of the parade...ugh!!!

Here we are the next night getting ready to light off the fireworks we bought, but again this is the only picture!!

What a dull post...but sometime that's life!!!