People Care About My Blog :)

I just called my Mom to ask how my Uncle Todd's family were after the California earthquake that was centered in their town. (For those of you who know them and care, their doing fine with a few broken pictures and Sam's TV that fell on the floor.) My Mom asked me where my blog from our family reunion was. Apparently people have been asking her why I haven't blogged about it yet. First off, I'm so glad people care enough to read my blog and were waiting for an entry. That makes me so happy. Secondly, I'm still trying to get caught up on the month of July. I have this goal to finish blogging about the events in July before July is over. That means I have 2 blogs to complete in the next 2 and a half days. With a camping trip to get ready for it might be a stretch, but I'm determined to get it done. For those of you waiting for the family reunion blog, it's next so maybe I've already written it and it precedes this one. For those of you reading this, Thanks for caring!

Helping Hannah

Hannah and Gracie are the best of buds. Well they're as close as you can be when your 2 1/2 and 9 months. It's so much fun to watch them play together, they make each other laugh, and I love that Gracie doesn't like to go to bed at night unless Hannah in is bed also. I hope they always have the sisterhood friendship. Not only do they enjoy being with each other, Hannah is very concerned about Gracie. If she cries Hannah comes and tells us, if Gracie wakes up (sometimes this is with Hannah's help) Hannah comes to tell us, Hannah loves to feed Gracie her bottle (until she gets bored) and she's just all around a very loving two year old big sister. An example of this would be July 17th. I had just fed Gracie and left her in her highchair for a minute while I picked some things up in the living room. Gracie was not pleased with the idea of being left in her highchair so she started crying. Hannah was right there to help. I was picking something up off the floor when I heard this pouring sound. I looked up and into the kitchen to see Hannah giving Gracie some Cheerios, A LOT of Cheerios. Gracie was still crying so Hannah was still dumping. By the time I got the 10 steps to the highchair Gracie, the highchair, and the floor were all covered in Cheerios, the box was not so full anymore. It was one of those moments as a mother where you have to laugh, thank the 2 year old for trying so desperately to help, and then get the camera for a picture.

Hannah proudly showing off her helping skills. This was a few minutes after the dump and Gracie and already managed to push the mountain of Cheerios on to the floor.

As I was sweeping the floor I notice that the top of the highchair was not the only place full of Cheerios. I bet this was uncomfortable.

Ben Hears A Who

We had our first stay home (we didn't have to go anywhere) weekend on the 12th and 13th of July and decided it would be fun to take the kids to a movie. We had discovered a 'dollar' theater (it's called a dollar theater, but it's actually now $2.50, stupid inflation) just down from our house that was playing 'Horton Hears A Who.' The kids had wanted to see it and so we figured the noon showing would be perfect. The kids loved it and Kenny and I quite enjoyed it as well. If you haven't let your kids see it, I would highly recommend it. Ben was the biggest fan. I don't think I've seen him pay that much attention to a movie, ever. He was so engrossed in the movie that he would talk to it. There's a part where Horton is trying to run away from the vulture who is trying to take the flower with the Who's on it. Down in Whoville the mayor is trying to convince the Who's that they are indeed a small speck on a flower. The mayor asks the citizens of Whoville "What about the wind? (Wind caused by Horton's running) What does the wind mean?" The city council says, "It means it's kite flying time!" At which point Ben yells, "THAT'S NOT WHAT IT MEANS. THEIR IN DANGER!" He was so concerned and not at all pleased that the city council wouldn't listen to the mayor. I wasn't sitting next to Ben and so didn't get to hear or watch Ben, but Kenny said he was hilarious. It's so fun having kids.

Picnic With The Huckleberries

The Newbry cousins (minus 4)

Top Row: Missi, Savannah, Sarah Kate, Gracie, Hannah

Bottom Row: Cadence, Gabbi, Zack, Alli, Ben

Missing: Nikki, Maddi, Travis, Trent

The 5th of July we were still in Grace and April (my sister-in-law) thought it would be fun to go into the mountains and have a picnic. After trying and failing to get to some spring that apparently no one has been to in a long time (the road was overgrown with weeds) we decided to just drive up to where we go huckleberry picking every fall. The road is a dirt road that we've traveled many times and is not overgrown with weeds. It was a great idea until just short of the huckleberry turn when we heard a pop. We continued on to the turnoff and discovered our tire was flat. While Kenny went to work changing the tire, Helen (my mother-in-law) Mindy (another sister-in-law) and I took the kids for a walk up the road. They loved it and were disappointed and the swiftness of Daddy's tire changing ability. In no time we were headed down to a nice meadow where we had our picnic.

Changing the tire. Better him than me. :)

Sarah Kate, Hannah, and cousin Gabbi heading up the mountain.

BenBen being a boy with a stick.

Hannah and Grandma Newbry on our hike.

Our mountain picnic.

We had a wonderful short picnic and then headed down the mountain again. The rest of the day was spent much the same as the day before. The kids played together, napped, ate Grandpa's homemade huckleberry ice cream, and then we washed them off with a soak in the hot tube (this time Gracie got to go in and she was a big fan. Kenny and his Dad took Ben (who was all girled out) and Gabbi (the oldest cousin there who was little kidded out) to a place called 24. They got to climb down some rocks to the river below and splash around. It was a perfect outing to the the kids who didn't really fit in all the time.

Eating Huckleberry Ice Cream

Swimming in the hot tub

Gracie is our water baby and LOVED the hot tub.

We had a great 4th of July weekend and my sadness at not being in Virginia was quickly gone, though I still would have loved to have been there. We went to church on Sunday and then had a very slow drive home that afternoon. Funny thing about our flat tire. When Kenny went to get it replaced on Monday (the hole was to big to patch) we discovered that when we got our back tires replaced on the way home from the Disney Cruise in May they had put two different sized tires on. So after a lot of talking and waiting we got two new, matching tires for the back, free. We decided to just replace the other front tire so now we have four new matching tires, two of which were free, and a spare that is a normal sized, not very used tire to put underneath. I guess that flat was a good thing afterall.

The Geyser

Watching the geyser before it went off.

As I mentioned in my previous blog, we went to the geyser in Soda Springs after the parade. The kids had never been there and it's a fun little place to visit. If you've never heard of it or been there, it's a man made geyser discovered in 1937 as an attempt to find hot water for a swimming pool. They found hot water, it was just in the form of a 100 foot high geyser. Now the geyser is the only captive geyser in the world and it goes off every hour. It's a wonderful geyser because this geyser is caused by carbon dioxide gas mixing with the water and unlike Old Faithful the water temperature only reaches the low 70's. They allow you to walk around the geyser and even run through it's spray when it goes off. I had only been there one other time (when I was pregnant with Sarah Kate) and so I was excited to go back and show the kids.

If you know Hannah at all, you know she loves bubbles. Kenny showed her a spot where the water came up and formed little bubbles. She was captivated saying "bubbles" over and over.

Ben enjoyed playing in the water as long as the geyser wasn't going off. The geyser itself really scared him.

Gracie is our water baby. She loves, loves, loves to play in the water.

This is Sarah Kate and some of her cousins playing in the spray of the geyser. They got soaked and loved every minute of it.

I thought this was a cool picture of Missi. See, I told you they got soaked.

Normally this wouldn't be a noteworthy blog, but the kids did have a lot of fun and a funny little thing happened while we were there. It was funny because it didn't involve me, but I think it would have been funny even if it did involve me. Follow the pictures and you'll see what I mean.




When we arrived at the geyser it had just finished going off so we had to wait and entire hour to see it go again. The kids enjoyed running and playing but the parents got a little bored. My mother-in-law, Helen, and two sister-in-laws, Mindy and April decided to wait at the bench that was located at the end of the geyser. I put our camera bag by them and headed to the geyser to take some pictures of the kids when it went off. The three of them were enjoying watching the kids play in the spray of the geyser. The funny thing about the geyser is that it tends to change direction and . . .


Watching the kids get wet in the spray became a little too familiar to them. The funniest thing is that Kenny and I were standing up on the geyser trying to dodge the spray as it changed locations. The next thing we knew the mom's were all getting drenched. This is a picture of Kenny, with Hannah in his arms, running to get the camera bag I had left on the bench. When he approached everyone, who were all still standing there trying to protect their cameras and baby Zack, he said "Move." It was like a light bulb went off. 'Oh yeah, we can move.' It was too late they were all drenched, but watching them all huddle there and not move an inch for a couple of minutes was very entertaining.



Everyone was pretty well soaked. The good news is that everyone dried and I think they can look back on it now and find the humor in it (right?) The cameras were ok too. That's important because the story wouldn't have been near as funny if the water had broken any of the cameras.