Trip West: Tuacahn

Before the kids and I left to go home to Texas, we were able to go down to St. George and go to an outdoor theater called Tuacahn.

Here is everybody walking up to the theater.

Peter and I saw the show Aladdin.

Here are my wonderful grandparents heading towards the Tuacahn buffet.  I love my Grandpa with his sunglasses in this picture-pretty cool looking for 92 huh?!

This is not the greatest picture, but here are the kids and I in front of Southern Utah's beautiful red rock.  What a gorgeous backdrop for a play!!

(Rigby, Rachel, Adeline, Peter)

Here are Peter and I in our 3D glasses.

My parents watched Adeline and Rigby during Aladdin.  Thank you so much mom and dad, you are wonderful!!!  Despite the fact Peter had a hard time sitting still and he fell asleep halfway through, hopefully this is the beginning of him building an appreciation for the arts.  I ended up having to carry all 40 pounds of him to the car-talk about heavy!


Here are some fun pictures of us hanging out at the condo in the pool.

Rigby and Marissa

My little goofball, Peter.  Are you doing a ballet pose my dear boy?!

Sara and Isabelle

Peter, Rachel, Rigby

I am so glad we went!  LOVE YOU MY WONDERFUL FAMILY!

Trip West: Northern Utah

During our time at my parents house, we visited the children's museum in the LDS Church History Building.

  

Here is Peter doing what he does best--destroying!

(Peter, Scott)

Isabelle looks beautiful in her Mexican skirt, but Peter was too busy doing karate moves to pose for a picture.  After this picture he promptly took of the vest, tossed it onto the floor, and ran to . . .

. . . play puzzle games on the computers.  He is his father's son-obsessed with technology!

Rigby was obsessed with this truck.  I think he spent at least 30 minutes in it pretending to drive.

After the museum we were able to meet up with Scott's parents and eat lunch at Chilies.

Peter loves to goof around with Grandpa Flamm.

Grandma and Ads hanging out together.

The kids look super excited and cooperative, right?!

(Rigby, Kristine, Peter, Doug, Adeline)

We were also able to eat at my two favorite places in Utah: Gandalfoes and this little French bakery that we used to live next to in Orem.  Mmmmmm!

After the French Bakery, we took a drive on the Alpine Loop through Provo and American Fork Canyons.  The kids kept whining to go back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, but Scott and I could not drag ourselves away from the scenery.  We decided that our 3rd honeymoon is going to be backpacking/camping.  I am already dreaming up plans!

The boys always LOVE shooting off rockets with Grandpa Stewart.  We did not have time to get any rocket pictures with Grandpa and the kids because us silly adults left the scissors opened on the ground and one of the kids picked them up and cut my Mom's finger (3 stitches).  Ouch! 

(Marissa, Rigby)

This kid can sleep in any position and anywhere!  Minus his bed, of course.

(Rigby)

Sara and I decided to be brave and take all 5 kids to the Hogle Zoo.  The van was a bit full, huh?!

(Audrey, Isabelle, Rigby, Adeline, Peter)

Rigby riding a caterpillar.

Here is Peter at the bottom of the snake slide.  Cool idea for a slide, huh?!

Rigby and Peter looking at the elephants.

Despite their grim expressions in this picture, Peter and Rigby thought it was awesome that they got to go on a train ride.

Unlike her brothers, Adeline was all about sleep during the train ride.  Ahhhh, she looks so sweet!

 

Isabelle, Audrey, and Sara on the train.

A picture at the end to prove I made it through 3 hours at the zoo without any major meltdowns (from me or the kids) and without losing any of them.  I was kinda proud of myself, but completely exhausted.

(Rachel, Rigby, Adeline, Peter)

Animals

This post is for the boys to look at all of the animals we saw on the trip.

The park ranger was herding bison with his car.  He got on the loud speaker and told everybody to drive away. 

The moose at Big Springs.

The ducks we fed at Big Springs.

All of these animals/birds were in captivity because they had been injured or diseased.

This bear unscrewed this garbage can in less than two minutes.  They have a display of at least 20 "bear-proof" garbage cans that have been broken into by a bear.  And that is why they have new/different garbage cans every time you visit Yellowstone!

Trip West: Idaho, Part 2

My parents and sister Marissa drove up to Idaho on Sunday night with Isabelle (my sister Sara's daughter and Peter's partner in crime).  On Monday we all went up to my Grandparent's cabin in Island Park, Idaho near West Yellowstone.

MESA FALLS

On the way up to the cabin we stopped by Mesa Falls.

All of the ledges made me a little nervous, so there was some mandatory hand holding for some parts of our Mesa Falls visit.  Despite the fact that I dislike my legs in shorts, I do love this picture of Peter and I walking and talking:).
(Peter, Rachel)

Family picture at Mesa Falls: 

Rigby-Do you really expect me to cooperate for a picture? 

Scott and Rachel-Smile and hope the kids actually look at the camera. 

Adeline-Yum! This backpack tastes great! 

Peter-Hurry, I need to go run a-muck.  

This is pretty much the story for family pictures anymore-HA!
(Ribgy, Scott, Rachel, Adeline, Peter)

THE CABIN

Here is my grandparent's cozy little cabin in Island Park.
I love all of the fun memories this place holds.

 

There is no internet/television/radio at the cabin and limited cell phone service, but we still were able to use a little bit of technology to keep these hoodlums happy.  Here they are with Grandma Stewart playing on the iPad.

(Peter, Rigby, Lora, Isabelle)

At some point the exhausted adults had to rest without worrying about the kids running away and getting lost or having world war three over the limited number of toys; so, popcorn and a movie came to the rescue.
(Audrey, Isabelle, Rigby, Peter, Marissa)

Here are Peter, Scott, and Adeline waiting around the fire for . . .

 

. . . their clever little set-up to roast dinner.

 

YELLOWSTONE

We had a few picnics in Yellowstone.
(Grandma, Isabelle, Lora, Peter, Adeline, Rachel, Rigby)

Here are Rigby, Isabelle, and Peter plotting.  Rigby was all about collecting sticks and Peter was all about collecting rocks.

A must see-Old Faithful.

Scott, the kids, and I stayed a little later in the park and swung by the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.  We were hoping for "better pictures" with our "better camera," but it was so hazy from all of the wild fires that our pictures were not too great.  It was still beautiful though!

When I go places with all three kids, people always say, "Wow, you have your hands full!"  I think this picture epitomizes that comment.  I love these kid-o's so much no matter how "full" my hands get.
(Peter, Adeline, Rachel, Rigby)

On the way back to the cabin, we got stuck behind an accident.  A motorcyclist crashed into a SUV; it looked pretty bad.  We plugged the kids into the DVD player (worth it's weighted in gold by the way) and Adeline rode in the front with me while we drove about 3 miles in 2.5 hours.  I hate to seem casual about such a sad event, but despite circumstances it was really a pleasant evening to just sit and look at the scenery while the kids were happy.  We were able to get a beautiful picture of the sunset.

THE TETONS

We took a day to visit Jenny's Lake and the Tetons.  We thought we would just get our feet wet, but the kids took that idea to a whole new level.  They all had a blast-especially Rigby.
(Rigby, Rachel, Adeline, Isabelle)

Peter always tries so hard to skip rocks like Scott.

I love this picture of my two boys.  Rigby is such a daddy's boy.
(Rigby, Scott)

Another picture of Rigby just to solidify the fact that this kid LOVES the outdoors-water, sticks, dirt, rocks, anything outdoors.  He was appropriately named after two towns in Idaho.  Love ya Rig!

 WEST YELLOWSTONE

My grandparents generously paid for us all to visit a reserve for injured wildlife that is in West Yellowstone.  We got see a lot of birds, some wolves, and some bears.  The boys loved hanging out in the bear traps on display.

The chill "Riglebee Bear."

The ferocious "Peter Bear."

Sweet baby Addy just hung out with me in her backpack carrier.  This is Scott's new favorite picture of her.

BIG SPRINGS

Big Springs is just a natural spring where you often see wildlife and there is also a little cabin with some historical items on display related to the area and former inhabitants.

We saw a HUGE bull moose just across the water.

Other than that, the kids just fed the ducks, Rigby collected his stick, and we dangled our feet in the freezing cold water.  If I had not been holding his hand, I am sure the kid would have jumped right in. 

Here is my sister Marissa just chilling on the boardwalk.  During the trip, I told her I was going to take her senior pictures back to Texas with me and find a Texas boy for her, so she can come live near me.  In fact, I am more encouraged by the idea now because this last Sunday a guy in our ward talked about how he met his wife while she was living with her sister for the summer.  Watch out Maris!

Isabelle chilling at Big Springs.  This is one of my favorite pictures of her now.

We loved it there in Idaho so much that we were a little sad that we had to go back to Houston (no offense Texans).  We like Houston, but we just miss the mountains so much!  Maybe in a few million years Houston will have mountains and not just high overpasses:(.