Tam's Visited States

Boating and Camping with BUGS!

We took the kids to the lake for a couple nights of camping, boating and swimming. Well everything was great until when we woke up the next morning and found earwigs until in our bed. O' gross, I hate earwigs, out of all the bugs, I hate earwigs!!!

Other than the earwigs we had a great time. Cade learned how to water ski!! Yeah for Cade! Great job with not giving up.

Cade was a fish, we could not get him out of the water. Aaron on the other had loved getting his feet wet, but that was about all.

Aaron's hair was so cute blowing in the wind.

Ask an eight-year-old for a picture and this is what you get!

We brought some hot wheel cars for the boys to play with. They spent any free time they had driving their cars up and down the boat trailer.

Ask Craig to take a picture and this is what you get! Love you babe!

Learning to ride a bike!

Aaron took it upon himself to learn how to ride his bike. He was so determined to ride, I have a feeling he will be keeping up with Cade by next year. He started first by going down our little slope on our driveway. He soon learned how to ride on a flat surface. It is amazing how difficult something that we all take for granted can be for a two year old. The biggest challenge has been watching where he is going. He frequently drives on the grass and then gets himself "stuck" as Aaron would say.

Yellowstone 2009

The yearly trip to Yellowstone would not be the same if there was not some trauma. This year it was not family trauma but weather trauma. On Saturday we took our little rafts and floated down the river. The older boys (Cade, and Preston) were determined to walk the river. I spent the entire time trying to stay dry and keep them in the boat. Aaron decided he wanted to feel the water and went over the side, thank goodness for life jackets. The cold water gave him a little shock, but overall he was good and ready to get back in the water the first chance possible.

The killer of the trip was our Sunday float down the river. Ok, yes we shouldn't have been floating down the river on Sunday, but we were on vacation and justified it. Well the heavens wept on our little adventure. Dark clouds were overhead when we started, but we hoped that they would stay in a distance and we could make it down the river before the storm. Well the first storm came when Cade would not obey and ended up grounded. The next storm came in the form of sleet, rain, and hail. O'my'gosh did it rain. It rained so hard that we just sat in our little rafts and could not even open our eyes. When the rain lifted we were drenched to the bones. At the end of our run, we went to go pull our boats out of the river and found leaches stuck to little Parkers legs. The leaches have returned (Is this our punishment for floating on Sunday? Who knows!)

With all the trauma we still had a great time and I loved spending the time with my sisters. I also accomplished a personal goal and ran 8 miles in the beautiful country of Island Park. The only thing I will do next time is find a more comfortable spot to sleep. My back ached from sleeping on a flat mattress one night, the floor the next and finally sleeping on a mattress the third night.

Ok, maybe it wasn't the greatest trip, but I still had fun. What's not fun about cramming 17 people into a tiny three bedroom cabin for four days.

Preston dragging our boat down the river. It is good to have older boys to help pull the raft of the sandbars!

Aaron drenched after taking a little swim in the river. Lesson learned!