Family Fun.....at Lagoon

School started on Thursday and we just didn't feel we did enough fun summer stuff with the kids...so we decided to head to Lagoon on Saturday. We were able to spend it with some of our family, so that made it even more great! We found out just how much of a daredevil Jena can be. She was just tall enough to go on a lot of the "bigger" kid rides and was more than willing to go on them (it was her mom that was not as willing - mainly from fear of heights :) Emilyn was just under the height requirement for the bigger rides but she handled it pretty well. She took care of her cousin, Mylee, and was quite motherly with her :). Seven hours later we were able to drag the kids away and go home! :) Lagoon is definitely a lot bigger than we remembered...we weren't even able to ride all of the rides but I think we got enough to last us for a couple more years!

Jena decided she would ring the bell and wave to all the people standing around the boat ride. This is her "Princess" wave :)

The girls had to go on this ride twice so they could each drive the plane. Emilyn was so serious about driving these rides while Jena was more of a "relaxer" (after all these were just the little kid rides :)

After Emilyn finished driving Mylee around in this car, she told me that Mylee had the fake steering wheel and that she was the one really driving the car. It was the cutest thing that she really believed she was driving it!

This is one of my favorite pictures! This was a little dragon roller coaster that Jena said took her stomach away. I am sure it was nothing compared to the big White Roller she went on twice with Lance and I (Jena even rode in the very front seat with me of the big White Roller Coaster!)
(Oh, they also got haircuts for school. Their hair hasn't been this short since they were babies - they look so cute!)

I was forced to go on this ride since Lance had sandals on and open-toed shoes were not allowed on this ride. I thought this was just going to be a slow leisurely ride a few times around....um, no. As soon as we got on it took off! It really was probably one of the more mild rides but my fear of heights doesn't help. I held onto Jena's hair the whole time (poor thing). She was screaming the whole time (maybe from me pulling her hair out!) but she loved it. I think we will skip this ride next time. :)

Lance braved the motion sickness of this ride to go with Emilyn. My brother-in-law Trask rode with Jena. By the end, I could tell by Lance's face that he was feeling the effects of it. What we will go through for our children :)

Trask wanted to take Jena on the Ship since she was so willing to go on anything she could (none of the rest of us wanted to go on it). This was a cute picture of them! It is also fun to see the facial expressions
of those sitting around them :)

Emilyn taking care of Mylee in the Plane :) Mylee loved the rides! She is 20 months and the cutest thing. My sister, Brooke, was afraid to put her on these rides (I must admit I was too). It was funny though because the first ride Brooke put her on, she tried to go on with her but the guy wouldn't let her (she was too tall :).

Wow - where has the time gone? Just some random things....

Just some of the things that we have done this summer! It has been going by so fast. Only a few more weeks and then I will have a 3rd grader and a Kindergartner! I guess I will be spending my days at the school! :)

The girls love to get their face painted whenever they can. We told the girls just to have something little done this time. Emilyn told them she wanted a Fairy Princess (I guess the face painter decided to make her into one :). Jena wanted a sunset and the face painter did a great job. I think this kind of job would be a fun one to do someday :).


Strawberries, Cherries, Raspberries, oh my....
We love the garden! The girls will eat anything out of the garden. Jena use to hate tomatoes until we grew them in the garden. Now we have found that if we say it came from the garden, the girls will eat it:) If only I could grow it better and the birds, wasps and grasshoppers would stay away. We got one cherry from our cherry tree this year. Lance came into the house one day and said the birds ate all of our cherries (sure enough - all that was left was the stem and the seed. They had eaten the whole cherry part. The funny thing was that the stems with the seeds attached to them were still hanging from the tree!) We will be getting a plastic owl and some netting next year!











Lance took the girls to a Policeman Breakfast during Saratoga Splash. The girls loved it! The Policemen made all the breakfast and served it to them. After the breakfast, they got to watch a parade. We didn't get to see a 4th of July parade this year because we were in Arizona (they would die of heat stroke down there if they had a parade!) So, I guess this covered for it.

Two trips to Idaho and One trip to Arizona
The girls were excited to add 2 new cousins to our family this year! We made the trips to Arizona and Idaho to see each of them! They are so sweet and the girls loved holding them. They also loved playing with all their many cousins (wow, they have 10 total now!)















The girls also did a little fishing the last time we were in Idaho. We went up to the golf course where they had a kid's pond. They had stocked the pond with some huge fish (even some adults were up there trying to catch one!) The girls got a lot of fishing practice in (I think both of them can now cast their own fishing poles and make their hook go in the lake :). They caught a lot of moss and sticks but no fish! I don't think they were too disappointed though - they had fun trying :)

And in the latest example of why you don’t want your husband to know your passwords...

I’ve hijacked Jodell’s blog. Hi. Yes, it’s Lance. But before you alert the proper authorities, you must understand that my intentions are honorable. Now I get to shout everything that I’d like to shout from the rooftops into, well... cyberspace. :)

On this Mother’s Day, I'd like to tell all of her friends, family, and blog readers not only what a terrific mother she is, but also what a wonderful person her husband knows her to be. I am so truly blessed to have Jodell in my life. Of course there’s the obvious... that she makes up for so many of my weaknesses and shortcomings that I have NO CLUE where I’d be without her (and I shudder to imagine). But honestly—much like appreciating God’s gift of a beautiful sunrise—the real joy is quite simply in the proximity. That I’m the lucky one who’s allowed to watch daily, as this marvelous creature goes around being… herself.

Of course I’ve never felt able to truly express this particular sentiment to her, so it shouldn’t shock if I’ve failed to articulate it here either. But I’m sure that each of you have your own reasons to love her. So whether you’ve been on the receiving end of her heartfelt compassion and thoughtfulness, or share in her friendship and general likeability, or appreciate her endless talent and beauty; you’ve caught a small glimpse of what I (and our children) get to enjoy every day of our lives.

So you can understand completely that I don't intend a hint of narcissism or greedy self-centeredness when I say, “Happy Mother’s Day... to me.”

p.s. Happy Mother’s Day to all of you as well (and to my lovely loving wife who’ll still most likely kill me when she finds out what I’ve done).

Saturday (Work Day)

Lance and I decided it was about time we started teaching our girls about cleaning. It is important that they learn how to work too. We probably should have started this a while ago since they are now 8 and 5! They were excited to be able to help clean especially since I let them vacuum their own room!! One of them would hold the chord while the other one vacuumed. It was good to see them have to work together to get the job done. We gave them each a whole $1 :) (which they were thrilled about). My favorite part was when Jena went and got a mask for herself when we got the Pledge out! She got one for Emilyn too - but Emilyn wasn't as willing to wear hers. I love my children!! :)

Jena's New Glasses

After months of Jena telling us she couldn't see, we finally decided that we should take her in to get her eyes checked. She REALLY wanted glasses and so we weren't sure if she was just saying she couldn't see because she wanted to have glasses so bad. We did several "tests" at home first by having her stand in the living room and asking her to read something in the kitchen. One day we were having her do this and she was taking a really LONG time in answering what she could see, so Emilyn (who was standing behind Jena) finally just told us what the letters were :). It was kind of funny (kind of sad) but that was what finally made me take Jena in. Her glasses make her look like a different person (maybe older - I am not sure that I like that though). She wore them so much when she first got them, but now that the excitement has worn off, I guess she has kind of decided she doesn't always want/need to wear them. I do think she still needs them for seeing the classroom board though, when she remembers to take them to school :)

Finishing the Twilight Series

I can now say that I have read all the books in the Twilight series. What an accomplishment huh :). I really wasn't interested in reading them until I went with my sisters to see the movie around Thanksgiving and it sparked my curiosity. Once I started reading them, I could not put them down - which is what I had heard from a lot of people (so I knew ahead of time what I was getting myself into). I have to say that I enjoyed the first book the best! I read the other books just to finish the story (even though I almost stopped reading them in the middle of Book 3). I will say that I am definitely not a Bella fan. Edward reminded me a lot of how Lance already is - except he is not always trying to protect my life :). I really did get lucky marrying Lance. He is my Edward :)!!