Road Trip: Island Park Idaho

We took a week long trip to Island Park Idaho.  It started out with a pit stop at Bear World in Rexburg.  We saw a ton of grizzly bear, black bear, elk, a moose, goats, etc.  The bears were up close and personal.

This bear was my favorite.  He actually was begging for food.

Cute bear cubs.

They also had some pretty mild amusement park rides.  Brett is probably on the verge of being too big to enjoy them. But he still road every one of them.

Brett and Caleb both enjoyed the petting zoo.

Daddy did as well.

The weather at island park was a little on the cold and wintery side.  There was still a ton of snow up there and it was still falling.

We spent a day at West Yellowstone and shopped for Caleb;'s new monkey hat and watched the Yellowstone IMAX movie.

We spent 2 days at Yellowstone. We saw a ton of waterfalls, old faithful, roaring mountain, etc.

Brett and his brother had a good time at the condo.

This was us at old faithful waiting for the show to begin.

That day we also got to see a Grizzly Bear and 2 cubs.  They were pretty far away but we all saw them.

Except for Caleb, this bear was the only one he saw

Brett took lots of hikes with either mommy or daddy while the other one stayed in the car to watch Caleb.

We also spent some time at Big Spring.  The fish that are normally there were non-existent this trip but we found a muskrat to feed bread too.

Brett and dad tried to fish but it was way to windy.  Brett ended up sitting on this log and watching daddy try.

On the second day of yellowstone we got caught in a big traffic jam.  Bison were all over the road. It took a LONG time to get in.  While we were driving a car coming the other direction hit a pile of bison poop at around 50 miles per hour.  The car in front of us was covered and their windows were open. 

Brett got to have a special one on one ranger guided talk because we missed the scheduled one due to the traffic jam.  He learned all about bears and the difference between a grizzly and a black bear.  The rangers were so good with him.

AFter that he turned in his guide and became a Jr. Ranger.  He is also a Jr. Ranger at Mesa Verde

Vacation is great but its also nice to get home.  I was sure happy to see this sign.

The entire time we were there Caleb kept steeling Brett's pillow pet.  So when we got home Caleb got his own Pillow Pet which he loves.

Brett and Caleb also had a great time Swimming.  We didnt make it every day but pretty close. 

My Little Mozart/The butterflies are free

Caleb LOVES to play piano.  However loud it is he sure seems to enjoy it. 

 It was finally time to release the butterflies.  I was kind of excited to get rid of these crawly little things. I just knew they would get out and land on me in the middle of the night.  The second they were released Brett was saying he wanted to grow some more.  what a freaky kids toy. 

The Campout/McDonalds

Friday night was Brett and Mommy's special camp out.  We camped in the trailer at the side of the house.  Brett was SO excited.   He loves getting in and out of his bunk bed.

We even had visitors come to tell use good night. 

Caleb sure loves his big brother.

Brett and Mommy played scrabble, operation, and colored.

We went fishing

we crawled in our cave and watched the movie RV and then read books

Brett even made his own bed

Needless to say it was a great night.  We didnt get that much sleep but we sure had fun.

Saturday was Brett's last soccer game for the season.  He played really good.  He scored a few goals, threw in a ball scored by his teammates and just had a great time.  He was running down the field kicked the ball in for a score and fell over.  2 other kids ran right over him.  So his neck got a little sore but later at McDonalds he was telling another kid in a soccer jersey all about the big goal he scored when he got hurt.

 After the game we decided to go to the brand new mcdonalds that opened this week.  We thought we would just go through the drive thru, but when we got there, we saw a special Bee going into McDonalds so we had to go hang out for a while.  The bee gave Brett his card with his autograph on it.  Brett just couldnt figure out why someone would want a piece of paper with someone elses name on it.  I love Brett for thinking autographs are dumb. This saved us a lot of time at Disney world and I assume it will continue to do so. 

Caleb really liked Mcdonalds too.  It had a little toy and slide just his size. 

Butterflies/End of Kindergarten

For Brett's birthday this year, he wanted the Live Butterfly Garden they advertise for on Cartoon Network all the time. You get a little net bag and then you send off for mail order caterpillars. Then you watch them grow each day until they for chrysalids (sp?). Then they hatch into butterflies. Due to the fact that I can not grow a plant to save my life I figured this would never work. But of course now I have creepy crawly flying butterflies hatching. Its really kind of gross. It was easier than you think. Hard to get a good picture but there are these hard little shells with butterflies popping out and blood that goes along with it. ICKY!!!!

I just have to brag about my little Brett! I am not allowed to call him a baby anymore. He tells me he is a Kid and I cant call him baby. I always call him that. Anyway his final report card came home today for the kindergarten year. He got straight 4's for the entire year!!! What a good kid. He never got in trouble in kindergarten once (knock on wood there is one week left). His teacher is awesome and Brett loves to learn.

Best Mothers Day Ever

Mothers day this year was perfect. I got to wake up in the morning and spend some time with my mom! Its been a rough year for my family medically and we havent got to spend much time with them. It was really good to see mom and dad and let them have some time with the noisy kids. We completely took their house over and left our wake of destruction behind us. It was so nice to see my mom and dad. I think they loved having us there, but are probably enjoying the silence tonight.

Happy Mother's Day Shirley!

We are so lucky to have not one but 2 great Mom's in our family.

Happy Mothers Day Deb!

Now for my Mothers day. It started out with a gift card for 3 hours of spa treatments. Includes a massage, facial, pedicure and soaking tub. I cant wait to set it up. The card came with a Poem Brett insisted on....

"Valentines are Red, Valentines are Blue, This Valentines says I love you."

But it didnt end there. I also got a pumpkin plant, a necklace with a mom and 2 children, a card, and a lanyard made especially for me by my son Brett and my mom!

But the best part of being a mom is just these two faces.

Brett got invited to another neighborhood girls birthday party. I love taking Brett to the store to buy girl stuff. He makes faces and says how icky it is but then he picks out the most girly stuff possible. He picked out my little pet shop and then this great princess bag. Then got a princess card and tissue paper to match in pink. He just knows it has to be girly for a girl.

So this is the week I started my new job.  So far its going good. Everyone is really nice and its great to have a friend already there.    One of things that is sort of a negative to me is that I have to dress up.  So far (its Wednesday today) I have worn high heels each day this week and dressed up.  My feet are killing me.  I dont know how people do this all the time.  I am so excited for Friday to put my Keds back on. 

The drive is awesome so far.  I got gas Monday night and drove 2 days and still have over a 1/2 tank of gas left. I am guessing only 1 to maybe 2 fill ups per week!!!!! 

Everyone else in the family is doing great.  Justin and Brett have started their summer already (brett still has a few weeks of school left but is staying home instead of day care).  Today they went to the movies and tball.  Caleb gets the best of both worlds.  He gets time to play at day care and then gets daddy time as well.  I am so jealous.