Rock Climbing Fun

We made it to Salt Lake and we're spending some time with Kenny's sister in Woods Cross.  The kids were pretty bummed about leaving Idaho Falls so we wanted to find some fun things to do in Salt Lake to get them excited about the move.  We found a rock climbing gym and got a trial membership.  The kids had a blast climbing and watching all the climbers do their thing.  Hopefully we'll be able to continue doing fun things down here.

Ben climbing up the big wall.  He did an awesome job.  Like father, like son.

And he made it to the top.

Adam did well sitting in the wagon watching everyone.  He's such a good baby.

Dan trying out mommy's harness.  He also did well hanging out and playing with the  older kids.

Sarah helping Dan try his hand at climbing.

Gracie's an amazing climber.  This girl has no fear.  She got 3/4 of the way up the wall and I think she got more bored than scared.  I'm so proud of my little daredevil. 

Such a good little climber.

Hannah was a little more nervous, which is typical Hannah behavior.  We challenged her to go as high as Gracie and it took some serious willpower, but she did it.

She's a good little climber and I'm very proud of her.

Ben soloing it on the little wall.  He reminds me of a frog in this picture.

Nice form Ben.

Sarah was very excited to climb and then got on the wall and remembered she's scared of climbing.  It took her a while, but she made it to the top and she was very proud of herself.  She even said she had fun doing it.

I got to belay Sarah.  A little scary, but fun also.

Moving

Moving is always such a hard thing for me.  I grew up in the same house from the time I was 4 until college and marriage.  I never expected to move around so much, but there are a lot of things about adult life I didn't expect.  :)  I have enjoyed every place I've been able to live and while some I was more excited about leaving than others, I have fond memories of each place.  Idaho Falls is one of those places I could see myself and my family living in forever.  We spent 3 years of our lives there and they were wonderful years.  We had our 2 little boys there, met many wonderful friends, and really grew to love the area.  I will miss it dearly and always look back at our time spent there with fond memories.

Moving time came the end of July and I was not nearly as prepared as I would have liked to have been.  Luckily for my I had a lot of help from many of the women in my ward.  On Tuesday I took my kids to the church to be watched by the young women and then I welcomed at least 10 women into my home to help me pack.  I was expecting about 2 or 3 and was totally overwhelmed and overjoyed by the 10 or so that showed up.  They packed my entire kitchen, my pictures, my living room, and brought everything up from the storage room.  I would have been lost without them and I'm forever in their debt.

About an hour after they left my wonderful mother-in-law came to help.  She spent the night and the 2 of us were able to get many things done.  Sometime you need an outside person to come in and look at the situation and take charge.  That's what Helen did.  I had no idea what the next move was and I was still fighting the flu so I had no ambition whatsoever.  Helen was a huge help and I'm so blessed to have her as my mother-in-law.

Hannah and Dan helping wash the door while grandma snaps picture.

We had to go say bye to Mr. Guymon.  He sells cotton candy at the farmers market in town so on Saturday morning we dropped by to let Sarah say bye.

Mr. Guymon gave her a going away present of a jar filled with cotton candy.  It was entitled "The BFG's Dream Jar"  (The BFG was a book they read in class) and it was filled with cotton candy.  The writing on the jar reads: 'If you open this jar, you will dream about a young, brown-haired girl who left a place called Terabithia (the student-chosen nickname for their classroom) and traveled to a new home.  She went to a new school, learned new things, and made new friends.  Something that wasn't new was her love of learning and her imagination.  And those helped her biggest dreams come true.' He was an amazing teacher and I wish all my kids could have had him as a teacher.

After a week that seemed like an eternity and a lot of help from many neighbors and friends, I was finally done putting everything in the garage where we were leaving it all until Kenny was able to get time off to help load the truck.  I was exhausted and very ready to be done with the whole process.  

I had the 4 oldest kids sleeping in Ben and Sarah's room so I could clean out the little girls room.  We'll all miss this great big room.

The following week we left the kids in Grace with grandma and grandpa and Kenny and I headed to Idaho Falls to load the truck.  We planned on getting it done on Saturday, but we quickly realized it was going to take a lot longer to load than we originally planned.  We loaded the truck the entire day Saturday and then late that afternoon we watched the storm clouds roll in.  We crammed everything back in the garage just in time for the rain to come crashing down.  Realizing that the rain wasn't likely to end anytime soon we decided to call it a day and we headed to a movie.  It was a treat we weren't planning on, but we don't get out much together, just the 2 of us, so it was extremely nice.  We spent the night on our mattress in the back of the U-haul truck, and woke up the next morning ready for another day of packing.  The day started fine until Kenny started feeling sick.  Turns out he had the flu I had been fighting for over a week.  He did a great job helping load the truck while feeling so yucky and just as evening approached we were ready to head out of town.  

A few of the things we'll miss about Idaho Falls:

Our friends and neighbors and our kids friends.

Our beautiful house that was perfect for our family.

The windmills.  Whenever I saw them I knew I was close to home.  I love those windmills.

The view out the back of the house.  I loved having horses in the backyard and the view of the hills and again, those windmills.

The falls themselves.  We had so many fun outing to visit the falls.

The close proximity to Yellowstone and other beautiful areas.

Rimrock Elementary and all it's wonderful teachers.  It's going to be hard for any school to be as wonderful as Rimrock was.  It's so hard to leave a great school.

The small town feel.

Speech and the wonderful people the kids worked with.

Surprise Going Away Party

I got a call from a good friend of mine two weeks before we moved from Idaho Falls.  She said her daughter, Clarissa, and a neighbor girl, Carol, wanted to throw Sarah a going away party.  I was so excited and I knew Sarah would absolutely love it.  We chose the date of Tuesday, July 26th and I was told make sure it was a surprise.  We told Sarah she was going to have a play date with Clarissa, but she was not expecting the surprise that was waiting for her when she got there.

SURPRISE!!!!!

Yeah!  She was surprised!

Sarah has a scrapbook she's making of all of her Idaho Falls friends and I told her I'd take a picture of her and Clarissa before she played.  It was a handy excuse to take the camera and get some pictures of the event.  Sarah was extremely surprised and excited for the party.

They each got masks and Sarah got a crown.  What nice girls!

All the girls who were there to surprise Sarah (and AJ, of course.)

After the initial surprise the girls had a little popcorn and we took pictures of Sarah with each of her friends for her scrapbook.

Shaylee came late so we had to get one more picture of all the girls.

Silly picture time!

Clarissa, one of my favorite little girls and such a good example to Sarah.  Clarissa threw the party and we're so grateful to have known her and her family.

Carol, another one of my favorite girls and a fellow party thrower.  I'm so grateful Sarah has had great friends like Carol to surround herself with.

Carina, Sarah's longest Idaho Falls friend and our neighbor.

Destiny, our neighbor across the street who Sarah plays with often in the summer.

Shaylee, a friend from school and church.

Teja, a great friend from the ward.  I wish these girls had been able to play together a little more.

Whitney, Sarah's best friend from Mr. Guymon's class.  We'll sure miss Whitney.

Gabriela, Sarah's friend in our neighborhood who was out of town for the party.

After pictures it was time for dancing.  What little girl doesn't love to dance?  I snapped a few pictures and then decided to allow Sarah some time with her friends (and I needed to get home to rescue grandma from the other 5 kids.)  Sarah said she had a wonderful time and was so surprised.  I'm so grateful that she has been able to have so many wonderful friends.  Their influence on her has been so fun to watch and I hope that wherever we go she'll be able to find friends as wonderful as this group of girls.

Dancing time.

Oh, to be a kid again.

Speech

There are many things about Idaho Falls that we will miss and one of those things is the Speech and Language Clinic and the wonderful speech therapists our kids were able to work with.  Hannah has spent over a year working with Jamie and we have been so pleased with the progress she has made.  Jamie is amazing and Hannah has responded to her so well.  She looks forward to every Tuesday when she gets to go see Jamie and do crafts.  We're so grateful to Jamie for all she's taught Hannah and all she's taught us as well.

Hannah and Jamie on the last day of speech.

About a year ago we noticed Daniel was showing signs of having the same speech issues that Hannah has.  We jumped on it really quick and got him evaluated and qualified for speech.  Gracie, who has picked up a lot of Hannah's speech, was also evaluated and she qualified to take speech.  They were both given Amber as their speech therapist.  I remembered Amber from a few years back when Hannah original speech therapist had a baby and I was very excited for the kids to see her.  Amber was wonderful and both kid's speech grew by leaps and bounds while seeing her.  Dan started saying sounds and then words and Gracie worked hard on kicking her habit of talking like Hannah.  We will miss Amber and all that she taught the kids.

Daniel and Gracie with their speech therapist Amber.

Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls, Twin Falls Idaho

On our way home from the Boise reunion we decided to make a short stop in Twin Falls.  There are beautiful falls there called Shoshone Falls that Gary (my father-in-law) used to visit often with his father when he was a boy.  I'd never been there and was excited for the chance to stop with family and extend the reunion just a little.

Our family in front of the falls.

Mindy's family in front of the falls.

Grandpa telling Sarah stories about when he used to come to the falls with his dad.

After looking at the falls, Grandpa took us to a stream with a small waterfall of it's own.  The kids had a lot of fun splashing in the stream.

Hannah hanging out by the small waterfall.

Lilly and Landon headed to the waterfall.

Adam loved the water and just had to get in, even if it was kind of cold.

Adam in his happy place, the water.

Holderness Family Reunion

 Back in July we were able to attend the Holderness Family reunion in Boise.  We debated for a long time whether or not to attend this year, due to our upcoming move and the many unknowns in our life.  However, with Kenny's grandpa's health declining we knew it was the last reunion with him, so we decided it was an important trip and we needed to go.  I headed out on Friday morning and met a bunch of the family at Roaring Springs water park.  At first I thought I was crazy for taking all 6 kids by myself, but there proved to be plenty of willing hands to help me and we all had a great time.  I was even able to get away from the little ones a few times and take the oldest 3 on a few water slides.  It was a great day that would have been better only if Daddy had been able to join us.

The Lazy River.  What fun!

My cute little baby LOVES the water.

I didn't see Ben most of the time we were there.  He was off riding water slides with cousins and having a blast the entire time.

Grandma helping Gracie snap a picture.

Gracie's turn to smile.

Hannah and her cousin Savannah.

Doesn't she look like she had a lot of fun?

Waiting in line for lunch with DanDan.

Hanging out with the little boys and Grandma.

Saturday brought a lot of family time, a magician, and Daddy.  We began the day by hanging out at the hotel.  It's amazing how cool it can be for kids to hang out in a hotel, especially when the hotel is full of cousins.  At noon we headed downstairs to see the magician.  The kids had a blast watching him set up and they could hardly wait for the show to begin.  The magician didn't disappoint and Hannah, Ben, and Sarah were even chosen to be part of the show.  Towards the end of the show the kids looked over and saw Daddy sitting there watching them.  He had arrived from Washington and we were all so happy to see him.

The kids watching the magic show.

Hannah's turn to be a volunteer.  She was a little embarrassed and a little confused by the magician.

Hannah got to ride a magic carpet and it seemed as though  the carpet was floating in mid air.  Of course she couldn't see it and was not terribly impressed but the other cousins in the audience were.

Ben and Sarah got to roll the big dice for one of the magic tricks.

Dan was happy to see Daddy and enjoyed wearing his sunglasses.

After the magic show the magician made balloon creations for all the kids.  They each got to choose what they wanted and there was a wide variety of creations in the room when everything was said and done.

Hannah was one of the first to get a balloon and she chose a ladybug.  Her balloon popped within a few minutes, but the magician was nice enough to make her another one. This time she tied it on her wrist so it wouldn't break again.

Dan got a turtle and he carried it around everywhere with him until it finally popped that night.

Gracie got a heart hat and had to have pictures with her cousins who also had balloon hats.

Gracie and her favorite cousin Gabbi with their balloon hats.

After the magic show we had some lunch and then hung out with Daddy.  We ran a few errands and then headed over to Kenny's Uncle Kevin's house for a family dinner.  It was a lot of fun to hang out with family and to watch our kids play with cousins that they don't get to see very often.  Family time is the best part about reunions.  After the dinner it was back to the hotel for some bed jumping fun and then sleeping time.

Playing with cousins at Uncle Kevin's.

My little boys sharing a bed and having a bottle.  These boys sure love each other.

Hannah jumping from one bed to the other.

Gracie wasn't brave enough to jump the gap between the beds so she improvised.

The girls got really creative on finding ways to get from one bed to the other, a human bridge.

Sunday morning we packed up the room and headed back to Uncle Kevin's for testimony meeting.  Kenny has an amazing family and it is always so wonderful to hear their amazing testimonies.

The entire clan after dinner on Saturday night.  What an amazing group of people.

Grandma Holderness has always paired off the kids and taken pictures.  These are the pictures our family was in.

Mom and Dad's group (the oldest cousin group.)

Sarah's group with Jonathon, Devin, Missi, and Alex

Ben's group with Savannah and Alli

Hannah's group with Ella, Cadence, Kieran, and Samantha

Gracie's group with Zack, Lincoln, Michael, and Jaden

Dan's group with Ava, Carlie, and Mable

Adam's group with Bailey, Cooper, and Kody

After testimony meeting we were able to go back to Grandma and Grandpa Holderness' house and have the kids be welcomed into the Silver Dollar Club.  It's a club Grandpa had made up for all the great grand kids.  They each got a silver dollar, the oldest child in each family got a dollar Grandpa had saved from his parents.  It was such a nice thing for them to do for each of their great grand kids.  I just feel bad I didn't have my camera for pictures.  I'll have to get them from my in-laws.  :)

Grandpa and Grandma Holderness.  They have built an amazing legacy.