Spring Break in McCall

Kenedy wanted to take some of her friends to the house in McCall for her birthday over Presidents Day weekend back in February. Because of all the snow days the kids had to go to school on Presidents Day and her plans were put on hold until Spring Break. 

Sunday night I met Alison halfway to Nyssa with Ryker, Avynlea and Rylee and she took them back with her to Nyssa to stay until Wednesday. When I got back home I finished getting things ready and at 5:00 Kefford and I headed off with Kenedy and 5 of her friends up to McCall. 

The next morning we got up, had breakfast and just hung out. At about 11:00 4 of the girls decided to go sledding and they got themselves ready and headed out. After about an hour I was laying on the couch when Anna came running in asking for Kefford, I could hear her telling him something about him being needed to help carry Lauryn up the hill because she got hurt so I pulled on my boots and ran down the driveway over to where they were sledding to help out while Kefford rode the four wheeler over. As I was going down the driveway I could hear some pretty horrific screaming and I got really worried. When I got to where the girls were I found Lauryn trying to get around the railing that was at the top of the hill, she was deathly pale and crying pretty hard. They were sledding with 4 of them on the sled and Lauryn was in front. As they were going down Lauryns foot got caught between the front of the sled and the snow and they all toppled forward, as she was falling forward she said she felt a pop on her ankle and then terrible pain. She had to first pull her foot up out of the snow where it was caught which was hard because it got buried pretty deep and then scootch back up the hill with the other girls trying to help pull her up. Kefford was able to get to her and he carried her back to the 4 wheeler and got her back up to the house. We had to get the boot off of her so we could see what we were dealing with and the poor girl was in a lot of pain and was doing some pretty good screaming. We called her parents to let them know what happened and that we were taking her to the emergency room. 

After the boot removal and before we left for the hospital I took this picture of the girls.

L-R Ashlyn, Anna, Emily, Hannah, Kenedy and Lauryn

Kefford and I took Lauryn in while the other girls waited back at the house. After talking to her Dad to get consent to treat we were taken back to an exam room and Lauryn was put on the bed with an ice pack. A Nurse came in to take all of her vitals and I thought it was cool that the bed was used to weigh her. After the Nurse  left Kefford sat on the bed so her could weigh the two of them together. It was Kilograms rather then Pounds so we did not really know how much weight it was but he had fun playing with it and it made Lauryn laugh.

X-Rays were taken and the Dr determined that she fractured her ankle and fitted her for a boot. I was so relieved that it wasn't anything worse. Her parents told Lauryn it was up to her as to whether she would stay or go home,  Lauryn really wanted to stay and Kefford and I were ok with that. 

When we got back the girls all decided to go in the hot tub. Lauryn put on her shorts and sat on the edge with her right foot in the water. I am glad she didn't have to have a cast because the boot enabled her to still be part of all the fun. 

That night we all sat around and played "werewolves", it was a lot of fun and these girls were making us laugh so hard. 

The next day Kefford and I took the girls to go swimming at the Hot Springs. Kenedy wanted to go to  Gold Forks Hot Springs in Donnely but it was closed on Tuesday so we took them to Zims Hot Springs in New Meadows. The girls had a lot of fun and Lauryn was able to take her boot off and go swimming as well. Kefford and I opted out of swimming and just sat and watched them. It would have been nicer to have been able to leave and do something else but there is not anything else to do in New Meadows so we were kinda stuck there. It wasn't bad though, I enjoyed watching them have fun. 

Hannah, Emily, Kenedy, Anna, Ashlyn and Lauryn

On our way back to McCall we passed the 45th Parallel so I made the girls get out for a picture.

After swimming we went to a pizza place in McCall so Kenedy could treat her friends to pizza with the money her Grandma gave her for her birthday for this purpose. It was a bit more money then we were expecting and I had to chip in a bit but it was not bad. 

When we got back we made s'mores and played "werewolves" till about 11:30 and I went to bed. I am not used to staying up so late but luckily I was able to sleep in a bit more then I usually do. Wednesday morning we cleaned everything up and after lunch packed up and headed home.

Kefford and i really enjoyed the time in McCall with these girls. They were fun and kind and it was nice to get to know them better. It would be fun to do this again in the summer when we could get outside more.

Highway Cleanup, Meridian Temple and Girls Night

Saturday morning Kefford took Ryker and his friend Baiden, Avy and Rylee and Kenedy and some of her friends to clean up the Peterson Orthodontics Adopted Highway. The cheerleaders have to do a minimum of 20 service hours in order to earn their Varsity Letter and Kenedy along with some of the others needed a couple more hours. McCoy and Anna came along to be nice and help out. Kefford also had some of his and Kelsey's patients come and help out with the cleanup.

Kefford took these pictures and posted them to the Peterson Orthodontics Facebook page and I took them from there. 

He said that they found a lot of roadkill along the highway but they don't touch those, only the garbage.  Having the kids their with friends helped pass the time and make it more enjoyable. It only took them a couple of hours and them Kefford took all of the kids out to Pizza for lunch to thank them for their help.

Baiden and Ryker

Sarah, Kenedy, McCoy and Anna

Avynlea, Rylee, Emily and Hannah

After the kids got back Heather and I took Rylee and Avynlea over to the Meridian Temples Visitors Center which turned out to be closed. We got out and walked around a little bit anyway and looked at the Temple being built. 

We took pictures by the stone they had on display and then some in front of the Temple.

Avynlea wanted a picture where it looked like she was holding Heather and Rylee in her hand. It might have ben better if she were further away from them but it looks pretty good.

After the Temple we went home and got ready for a girls night out/in. It was the Women's General Broadcast that night and while Kenedy was on a date Heather and I took the two girls for dinner at Red Robin, my favorite. We stopped in at my friends daughters wedding reception to say congratulations and drop off the gist. While we were there Avy and Rylee enjoyed eating all of the treats they had, I could see their bellies getting more full and knew they would never be able to finish a mea l on their own so I had them split a child's meal. It worked out great, it was enough food for them and I didn't have to pay as much, win/win!

We got home in time to start watching the meeting with Kenedy coming in from her date just a little bit later. The meeting was being broadcast at our Stake Center but we decided it would be more comfortable and fun to watch it together at home. We shut the boys out of the TV room and watched away. I bought the girls little cross stitcheries and during the music I showed them how to do it and let them et to work. It kept them busy for a bit and they liked having a new creative thing to learn, Avynlea got a Beauty and the Beast stitchery while Rylee got a Bunny. I didn't get Kenedy one which was fine because she doesn't have as hard a time sitting still and she was busy doing her make-up for a group hangout she was going on after the meeting and looking at her phone until I told her to put it away.  

I really loved listening to the messages and always love listening to Elder Eyering, between helping the girls and my mind wandering I missed some of his message so I re-listened to it online the next morning and just loved it. So inspirational and uplifting, all of the talks were and I am so grateful to have been able to watch and listen with Heather and my girls. I made cookies in a cup and after the meeting we went down and had a mug of hot cookie with vanilla ice-cream on top, so delicious!

I drove Heather to the airport the next morning which was really sad. I had so much fun having her here and hated to see her go. I am grateful that she now has a job that gives her the time off to be able to come and visit and I hope that she comes back soon! It was a really fun week and we had a lot of fun, had a lot of laughs and made some good memories. It was really awesome for my kids to have more time with their Aunt Heather and they thinks she is pretty amazing and hilarious!

Please come back soon!

Date Night

Friday night Kenedy had a couple of friends over for a date, they were going to have a cupcake making contest and then watch a movie. While they were working on making their cupcakes Heather and I left to go on a date of our own. I got a text from the frozen yogurt place saying Friday was two fill your cups for $7. We love frozen yogurt and went to take advantage of it. While we were waiting to pay an older lady was being really rude to the two young girls behind the counter. I felt bad for them and did not think they deserved the treatment she was giving them. I waited until she was done and leaving and I said loud enough for her to hear that they were doing a great job. 

We enjoyed out frozen yogurt and had a nice sisters bonding time!

 When we got back the cupcakes were finished

 and were waiting to be judged, I was not in the mood for anymore sweets so it was up to Kefford to be the decision maker. He tried both of them and declared Anna and Aiden the winners. He was in the mood for chocolate and theirs was an all chocolate cupcake. The next morning I tried a bite of each cake and I liked Kenedy and McKoys better. They had a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting. It was decorated with crushed up graham crackers, tiny marshmallows and had a marshmallow under the frosting, it was delicious!

 Anna, McCoy, Kenedy and Aiden

Camelsback Park

I was looking for something to do on Wednesday and asked friends on Facebook for suggestions. One of my friends recommended hiking at Camelsback park. I remember going when Kenedy and Ryker were really little and while I didn't remember much about I have heard a lot of positive thinks about this park so we decided to give it a try. I was worried that the trails were going to be too muddy and we wouldn't be able to do anything once we got there like table rock so I called the Parks and Rec department to talk to them and ask them how the trails looked. She  assured me that all the trails have sufficiently dried out and we would be good to go hiking. 

I was really impressed with the look of the area when we got there. It had a lot of different trails that wrapped around the area and intersected with each other. We hiked for about a mile I think and really enjoyed ourselves. 

After we hiked we let Rylee run around the playground and Heather and I got to swing on the swings. We wanted Rylee to take a picture of us and the first picture that was taken was a selfie by Rylee. 

She finally decided to take the pictures we wanted and I like how they turned out. Our heart in the bottom picture did not look as much like a heart as we wanted so we retook it and had Rylee fix the problem finger areas. 

It turned out much better and Heather and I laughed that the picture looked like an engagement or dating picture. Nope, just a best friends sisters picture!

Rylee got a hold of my phone later that night and took some more selfies including her creepy eyes face that she likes to do.

I liked going in to my room later that evening and finding Avynlea reading her scriptures on my bed. The Beehives made a goal to read two chapters a night in the Book of Mormon so that they could finish the entire Book in 4 months. Avynlea missed a couple of nights but she caught herself back up and is doing a good job accomplishing her goal.

Fun in the Sun and Projects

Thursday was a beautiful sunshine day and after dinner the kids, minus Kenedy,  biked over to Hero's Park while Heather and I drove to drop off cookies to a couple of friends in the Ward and then we met them at the park. The park was really busy because of all the families taking advantage of the sunshine but Ryker, Avy and Rylee had fun running around and playing amongst the chaos.

Avynlea had to make a cell model of a plant using any materials she wanted for her science class. It was due the week after spring break but her teacher told them they would get extra credit for turning it in early. Avynlea wanted to make an edible plant cell and decided to make a cake. 

The sun coming in was making it hard for Avynlea to see what she was doing so she put on her sunglasses while she worked.

She picked the perfect time to do it because Heather is a Biology Teacher and was able to give her ideas and tips. 

The cake turned out looking really good and while Heather and I helped, Avynlea did most of the work making all the different components. 

I was worried about her taking the cake to school on the bus and didn't want anything to happen to it so I told Avynlea to leave it at home and that we would bring it to her school in time for second period. Which we did. A couple of the other kids in her class also brought in cell models made from cakes and so this class had a lot of yummy things to eat. 

Rylee started a quilt on her last track break for Kylie's baby but then it got put on hold and was not finished. With her baby due so soon I knew Rylee needed to finish her project this track break and had her get to work Thursday and Friday to finish it. She was able to get it done and it turned out so cute, again so impressed with my kids talents and skill and we love how the quilt turned out.

Avynlea made a couple of really cute stuffed animals for Kylie's baby, an elephant and a seahorse rattle. They were really cute also and we are excited for the baby to use them and love on them. 

Beauty and the Beast

After we got done at the Temple we hurried home to eat dinner and then leave to go to the theater to see the new Beauty and the Beast movie. We were all really excited to go see this movie, I tried getting Avy and Rylee to wear the Belle dresses we have that I made for Avy for the past couple of Halloweens but they refused. These girls are too old for dressing up to go to the movies, bummer. 

Just us girls went since Ryker and Kefford had no desire to see the movie in the theater. We went to the 7:00 show which worried me just a little because I get really sleepy at night watching movies and I tend to fall asleep. No worries though, this movie was so good and I stayed awake through the entire shoe, it wasn't even a struggle. We all loved it and I would go to watch it again in the theater I liked it so much. I probably will not, but I would, and definitely will be getting the DVD when it comes out. 

As we were leaving Kenedy was really excited to see a promotional for the next Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

We also found the big promotional for Beauty and the Beast and took Avynlea and RYlees picture with it, two cute girls!