Yes, I am Alive!!!!!

Holy cow, it's been a month since I last posted, which tells you something: I've been busy! We came home from Montana and then had 3 weeks to prepare for our coast/Seattle trip.The days just flew by and I didn't get Tristin's party pictures posted either. Here's what we've been up to:

*We had a yard sale at my house (lots of work!)
*I taught my frugal living class at church.
*I taught my lesson at church.
*We bought all of Tristin's scouting stuff so he would be ready when we came home.
*Tristin had a music concert at school and did a super job!
*Tristin turned 8, so we had to have a Iron man birthday party!
*We FINALLY recieved our last insurance check, and yes our kitchen is still torn apart!
*I signed the kids up for swim lessons.
*We left for vacation on Tristin's birthday.
*Trav and I celebrated our 10th wedding Anniversary while on our trip!
*We went to Seaside & Seattle for 9 days!
*My Brother, Eli got married & the kids were in the wedding ( Daisy & Grace were flower girls & Tristin the ring bearer- They did awesome too!!)
*Willow tured 8 months old and is getting her first tooth!
*I got a pedicure with my Mama!
*Daisy starts T-ball tonight.
*Today was Tristin's last day of school.
*We are preparing for Tristin's baptism.
*We have driven over 3,000 miles this past month... and we are offically tired.

... I'll post pictures soon. I had to work the morning after we got back, run errands,un pack, clean out the van, grocery shop, and LOTS of laundry- so now that I'm almost done, I'll have a little more free time to get pictures up. (But not all 175 that I took!)

Random Montana pictures...

Here's just a few random pictures from our trip. I got a ton of Willow sleeping, I thought she looked so cute (completely worn out from all the driving!) Here's a shot of what we woke up to on the 2nd day- snow!

Day 1: Leaving for Montana...

We left our house Thursday morning (April 29th) @ 8:40 and headed for Montana. Trav's G-ma turned 100, so we had to go celebrate!
We were thankful to be making our 1428 mile trip in 4 days so we took our time- stopping to eat, let the kids play & stretch our legs. I borrowed my friend, Annikan's DVD player for the kids (so I wouldn't have to buy another one. Ours just broke because someone stepped on it. And because we hardly ever travel, I didn't want to buy a new one just for the trip- you know me, always trying to save money)The kids watched Alvin & the Chipmunks and a little bit of Barbie movie and then we stopped for lunch.When we got back in the van, Tristin touched the DVD player and it shocked him! Well, something happened and the poor thing stopped working. (I wanted to cry because everyone always borrows stuff from Annikan and never gets it back- and here I was breaking her DVD player that had worked perfectly for her for 4 years! I was so mad, but called her right away.) Somehow the kids survived almost 1300 miles without it!

Don't you love the gas station sign? We loved it! But then, we love Dumb & Dumber, so it made us laugh even more!

Day 1: Arriving in Dillon...

We finally arrived in Dillon 378 miles later. We knew that making the trip in 2 days was going to be the only way to go with 4 kids and one of those nursing. We checked into our hotel and the kids went swimming as soon as we could bring in our bags and locate them in our 6 suitcases. We met Edith, Max, Ellen & the cousins at Pizza Hut for dinner. We went back to our room, took baths, put our PJ's on and watched TV until we all fell asleep. It snowed over night and we caught the tail end of a big storm that had just passed through the mountains.

Day 2: Entering Conrad...

Trav grew up in Conrad his entire life. He left there when he was 19 to go on a church mission and while he was gone, his parents moved, which meant, he had not been back since then. It was so fun to see him get excited again, see how things had changed and tell stories about the things he did growing up. Here is a picture of his house, his high school bilboard & the creek he used to play in. It was neat to be able to see where he grew up. Conrad only has a few thousand people living there- so different than how I grew up...

Day 3: At the farm

We woke up Saturday morning and went out to Aunt Reta Rae & Uncle Donnie's farm so the kids could see the animals.They had a lot of fun petting the sheep and playing with their cousins.

Day 3: Dinner at The Moose...

After the party at the church, we all met again for dinner at The Moose Lounge. We had a great dinner- ham, potatoes, beans, cornbread, salad & stawberry shortcake. We visited, took pictures and watched all the cousins run around and play. Trav played pool with the kids and they loved it! Yes, I admit it, this was the kids first time in a bar! ( no worries, we rented the entire place so there was NO alcohol! I just love the beer logo above their heads!)

Day 4: Grandma's 100th Birthday party...

We celebrated G-ma's 100th birthday party at the church. We arrived at 1:00 and stayed until about 3:30 PM. She looked wonderful, beautiful & simply adorable.

Day 5...

We had been promising the kids another swimming pool adventure, but when we woke up we realized the pool was closed for cleaning. We needed to get on the road, so we left with 3 super disappointed kids. We left Dillon about 10:00 AM and drove to Rexburg for a few hours. Neither Trav or I had been back since we left there (as married couple) almost 10 years ago so it was fun to drive around and see all the places we got caught making out! We walked around the campus, bought fun treasures at the book store, ate lunch, walked around the temple and then headed for home. We still had several hundreds of miles to go, so we couldn't stay too long. We FINALLY arrived home last night a little after 9:00 PM after 1467 miles. Needless to say, we went right to sleep. It was such a wonderful trip, we are so grateful that we were able to go and see G-ma for her 100th birthday. We made lots of fun memories, ate way too much fast food and had a blast staying up late in hotels.

Drywall & underlayment can excite a girl!

All I can say is: MY HUSBAND IS AMAZING!!! I love him with all my heart and I am thankful for him every second of my life. From the moment I met him he has been by my side making my world a little better. I adore him. He is such a good, good man and I would be lost without him in my life. Everytime I see him with his work goggles on- he takes my breath away! He's been working so hard on our kitchen for the past few weeks. He patched the wall last week and finished laying 2 layers of underlayment last night. Did I mention he works 10 hour days? That's he's ward mission leader? In school full time? A wonderful Daddy to 4 kids? The sweetest husband who goes out to the shed in the pouring rain at 11:30 at night, just to get me an icecream cone? A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!