I just wanted to share these 4 pictures of Grace that we had taken by Rebecca Cooper. I am SO happy with how they turned out & I can't wait until the rest of the pictures of been edited and I have the CD in my hands. LOL!

Kalispell Adventure...

This past weekend we went to Kalispell, MT with the "gang." Tiffany & Trevor, Ryan & Heather, Dez & Nicole, and my mom. It was a BLAST. We all camped at the Glacier Campground. This is a great little campground with all the comforts of home. There is power and water hookups for those who have a trailer, and they also have a great shower house as well as laundry facilities.

We arrived there first, on Thursday evening. Friday we decided to take the boys up to Big Mountain to rid the gondola up to the top. It wasn't NOT a nice day at the top. The wind was blowing and it was chilly, but it was a fun ride up and back.

After that Tyson was dying to go and do the MAZE. The kids had so much fun trying to figure out which way to go. I wasn't quite sure how Carson would take to it, but he LOVED it. At first I wasn't all that thrilled about doing it. I thought that the kids wouldn't last and I was tired, but actually we ended up doing it in under an hour. I was impressed!

On Saturday we headed to Big Sky Waterslide (minus Tiffany, Trevor and my mom). It was a PERFECT day. The weather was great and there weren't too many people there, so you didn't have to wait long in the lines. The kids had SO much fun. They probably went down the slides 30 times...easily. We couldn't seem to tire them out. We arrived at the park at 11:00 a.m. and didn't leave until 6:30. So they had a long day and were tuckered when we got back to camp.

Another fun thing to do at the waterslide is to go on the bumper cars. Carson was SO excited to go on these...he is obsessed with cars and going fast! Unfortunately he didn't meet the height requirement...or so we thought. Carson was bound and determined to ride the cars, so after waiting his turn he just hoped into one. We thought for sure the attendant would tell him he was too little...but he didn't! What do you expect when it is a 16 year old working. LOL! Carson was so excited. I was elated that he was able to go on the cars. It seems he is always missing out on doing things because of his size. I was so happy that he didn't have to miss out on this. He has a perma-grin the whole time he was driving it around. He loved it SO much...we let him go on twice.

Sunday we spent relaxing around camp. We took a short little drive into West Glacier and let the kids throw some rocks into the river. It was a really nice HOT day and it was WAY to temping for Tyson to get into the water. At first he slipped a bit and got only his pants wet, but by the time we left his was TOTALLY wet. The power of temptation...it is so strong. This little incident although very innocent really made me think about life and how the adversary using his cunning little ways to make us succumb to temptation. At first it is so little of a temptation that we hardly even notice it. Then we slip and fall and before we know it you are trapped by his evil ways. This was a life lesson I hope to be able to share with Tyson when he is old enough to understand it.

Monday everyone went in to Kalispell to shop. It was fun to go to the stores that we don't have here in Canada. One of my goals was to get Tyson all of his school supplies. Some things were SO much cheaper than here at home. How can Walmart up here compete with $.22 Crayola wax crayons. They were a STEAL of a deal. I managed to accomplish this task about 50%. I had NO idea what some of the items were and I couldn't believe how specific the list was. The school wants specific colors for scribbles and different ones for duo tangs. I mean come on...this is grade 1! So I decided to just get what I could easily find and understand and get the rest at home. Even though the things I purchased were relatively inexpensive I couldn't believe how fast it added up. Of course it would though when you have to buy 10 JUMBO glue sticks, and 5 black erase markers!

After shopping everyone headed back to Canada, except for us. We decided to stay another night. Tyler wanted to take the kids to the drive in movie theater to see Space Chimps. So we packed up the lawn chairs and some blankets and loaded back into the truck. The kids had alot of fun at the movie and I was surprised they managed to stay awake...mom didn't though. LOL!

Well that about sums up our weekend. We all had a BLAST and hope to do it again next year.

And one more thing...Baby Grace is 1 month old now. I can hardly believe it. Time is going by so fast. She is changing more and more everyday. I am so in love with this baby, and so is the rest of the family.

My Little Fish...

Last Friday the boys completed their swimming lessons for this year. Tyson was in Swim Kids level 1 and Carson was a Sea Turtle. I was impressed that Carson actually got in the water and enjoyed himself. Last year he threw a fit on the first day so we didn't have him continue with it. It is amazing what a year can do. Tyson is a natural swimmer. He just loves the water. It was nice this year because he was tall enough to touch the bottom of the pool so he was better able to do what the teacher instructed him to do without a life jacket. That boy has grown quite a bit in the last year. Here are some pictures:

These two were in the same class together. It made for an interesting 30 minutes. Here they are examining their certificates, and their prize.

It was another successful year of swimming. I remember as a child we lived right across the street from the pool in Cardston. I would anticipate each summer when our parents would buy us a seasons pass and look forward to swimming the summer days away. I couldn't get enough of the water. Looks like I passed that on to Tyson. I think that teaching your kids to swim is such a good life lesson for them to have. I am thankful to my parents who also thought the having me know how to swim was important.

I have been crazy busy the past few days. We have had 3 birthdays to go to in 5 days! Wow do I feel like I have been buying lots of presents and it has been very hard to explain to my kids that no we weren't going to Toys R Us to get them something but we were going to go and pick something out for their friend. I usually let the boys choose their gifts and they like this, but Carson seems to think that he is going to get the toy for himself. So we usually have a little bit of an issue there.

I am SO looking forward to our summer holidays, it can't come fast enough! Now that Grace is here I feel like I am ready to leave my house and go on vacation. I am starting to get cabin fever and I really want to go camping. The boys and I are counting down the sleeps until we go. LOL!

The past 2 Sunday's I have had to go to church by myself as Tyler has been working LOTS! I must say that it is a bit harder to get 3 kids and myself ready and out the door by 9:45 so that we are on time. So far..so good. We even managed to get their early enough to get a bench. I am so thankful to the kind families in our ward who have helped me out with the boys when I have had to take Grace out to feed or change her. It is a nice feeling to have when you know your other kids are being looked after and you don't have to worry about them. I am so thankful for a ward family, I don't know what I would do without those extra helping hands.

Thankful...

I have been thinking a lot lately about how thankful I am that I get to be a stay at home mom. Sure the days are long, the pay is very minimal, you are under appreciated, and there is always a never ending amount of work to be done. But the pay off is SO worth it. I am so thankful that my kids can sleep in when they have been up to late, that they don't have to be woken up and drug out of the house to some daycare or day home. I am thankful that at a drop of a hat I can pack my kids up and we can go to the park or the pool. I'm thankful that I don't have any deadlines or meeting to attend. No late nights spent working in an office or working on Saturday's. I'm thankful that my kids and I can be lazy and stay in our p.j.'s all day if we want to. I'm thankful that I am home to take my kids to soccer, swimming, and piano lessons.

I am so thankful that I married someone who is a hard worker. Who sacrifices his own sleep to get up at a very early hour so he can go to work so that I don't have to. I know that Tyler goes to work everyday and works hard so that I can be at home with the kids. He knows the importance of having me stay at home to raise the kids instead of having me go out of our home to work and put the kids in daycare. He would sacrifice his own time for leisure things so that I don't have to work. I am very thankful for this.

I have empathy for those mother's who don't have choice whether they work or stay at home. Sometimes there isn't a choice to be made, they just have to do it in order to make ends meat. I cant' imagine having the stress of 2 full time jobs. Your job as a mother, and your career. Not only to you have to work for an employer, but your work is not done when you get home. I feel for these women who miss out on so much because they don't have a choice.

There are days when I think it would be easier to go to work. To leave the screaming and the fighting for someone else to work out. But then I look at my kids and my heart melts. I wouldn't want any other person to here their sweet voices. And I wouldn't want to miss out on hearing their "I love you's." That makes it all worth it!

Drumheller Part 2...

Wow a few days goes by FAST! I finally have a minute in between feeding Grace and attempting to highlight my hair by myself (YIKES) to sit down and do another entry about out trip to Drumheller. So here is part 2...

After the museum we took the kids to Reptile World. What an awesome place, especially if your kids are into amphibians & reptiles, which mine totally are. Here are some pictures:

This place had about 150 different exhibits, so it was well worth the $, and it wasn't even that expensive to begin with. I think the highlight of the place was seeing Carson so excited to touch the boa constrictor named Brittany. I thought Tyson would have been more enthusiastic as he is the one that loves all things creepy crawly, but he was too afraid to touch it. Carson wasn't though!

Another highlight of Reptile World was seeing Carson's face as we showed him this HUGE crocodile. Watch the video to see his reaction...it is priceless!

We will definitely be going back to Reptile World in the future. It is definitely worth the stop!

On our way out of town we stopped to look at the World's Tallest Dinosaur. It really was HUGE! The kids had fun playing on his feet. You could have paid $3 a person to walk all the way up inside and then look out of the dinosaour's mouth. But we didn't think the kids would be able to make it ALL the way up there. So we have something else to do on our list the next time we visit Drumheller!

P.S. In case you are wondering how my hair turned out...well it could be worse. It isn't as streaky as I would like it. Oh well! I am ticked though because I wrecked one of my shirts while washing the bleach out. AGHHH!

Our Trip to Drumheller...

On Tuesday we made a quick decision to load up the trailer and head up to Drumheller. Tyler had mentioned before that he thought the boys would like going there, but we just didn't seem to know when we were going to fit it in this summer. Luckily Tyler's work schedule (or lack of it) made it possible for us to make a mad dash up there. We spend the 1st night camping in Carseland and a really nice campground. It was right by the river and the boys had a great time just riding their bikes around and playing at the campground. Tyler had to a do a quick job there the next day and was home by noon so we packed up and headed to Drumheller.

When we got there we went to the Tourist Info building and got maps and brochers on all the fun things we wanted to do. We found a nice campground but it came at a price, $45 a night! That is STEEP. But it did have full hookups and a heated pool...so I guess you pay for what you get right? They boys had fun swimming in the pool after it stopped raining and it was the perfect way to tire them out before bed. The night wouldn't have been complete though without a fire and marsh mellows. Tyson & Carson loved sleeping in our new trailer, Francis. Yes the trailer has a name. LOL! Tyler has a habit of naming all our vehicles. It is quite funny. I was surprised at how well they slept and even more surprised at how quickly and quietly they fell asleep. Maybe it had something to do with them being completely exhausted??

The next morning it was time for us to head out and explore Drumheller. We knew we didn't have much time before we had to head home so we chose the 2 things we wanted to do the most, the Royal Terrell Museum & Reptile World.

I must say that I was completely awe struck at the museum. It is amazing to me that they have found these creatures that roamed the earth so long ago right in our backyard. It was fun to see where all the fossils have been discovered. We saw some from Milk River, Crowsnest Pass, Dinosaur Provincial Park, China, Utah, Russia and from other parts of the world. Tyson and Carson LOVED looking at all the HUGE dinosaurs. Carson was quite frightened by the HUGE T-Rex. He wouldn't even stand near it so I could take his picture. Here are a few pictures from the museum:

Even baby Grace managed to make it into a picture. Here she is with her brothers at 2 weeks old. We will have to take her back to the museum when she is older so she can see what she missed out on.

It was near impossible to get the two boys to look at the camera at the same time and to both be smiling, so eventually I gave up! Oh well...kids, sometimes they co-operate...and sometimes they don't. This was one of those times when they WEREN'T co-operating.

Before we left the museum the kids had one more thing the needed to do. They needed to become Jr. Paleontologist. We had signed them up for a Jr. Dinosaur Adventure. They were excited about this and couldn't wait to go to their "class." In order to become Jr. Paleontologist they needed to pass a few tests. They needed to learn about different types of dinosaurs, learn about fossils and learn about what it takes to become a paleontologist. In order to be a Jr. Paleontologist they first needed to look like one. The kids were able to make a visor and they loved doing this little craft.

They did have fun making their hats even if their faces aren't showing it. LOL! After they made their hat it was time for their final test...they got to actually dig for a dinosaur! Well not a real dig, but a pretend one, the kids sure thought it was for real though. They were so enthusiastic and excited about digging up a dinosaur.

The kids really enjoyed this. Carson is still talking about his new hat & about digging together to find the dinosaur bones.

Well I have more to write about it but the baby needs feeding...so stayed tuned to part 2 of our Drumheller adventure.