Bye Bye Summer :(

Yesterday was a VERY gorgeous day. I knew it was one of the last few days of perfect weather for this year, but still I didn't take advantage of it. Stupid, stupid me! I also knew that today was supposed to be a "colder" day, but I didn't know it was going to snow. Yes that is right, I did say snow. It's been snowing/slushing all day. How sad, I am SOOOOOO not ready for the arctic Idaho Falls winter to begin. Guess I need to get the winter clothes out.

Soda Springs, ID

Last Saturday we drove to Soda Springs (about 2 hours from here) for a family get together for Jarom's mom's side of the family.

Waiting for the Soda geyser to blow.

Woo-Hoo!

Emily rode with us and endured the day with our kids. What a good sport.

I don't know why I continue to buy my kids toys. They love dirt and rocks probably even more than the expensive toys. These kids were filthy when we got home.

Jarom's family listening to stories about Uncle Don Harding.

Amber, Katie, and Natalie.

After the party was over, we decided to follow Jarom's parents home the backway. (Through the mountains to look at the changing leaves.) After driving for 1 hour and 45 minutes, we ended back up at Soda Springs!! It was quite the experience. (Always something right?!) So we endured 2 more hours and took the freeway to be sure to find our way! We made it home in the end and then enjoyed homemade chili and watched a BYU football game to end the night.

Wedding Crashers

I don't know if you heard about this crazy lady and her daughter who have been crashing people's weddings and stealing their gifts. Anyway, CBS Early Show did a bit about it. Josh Vantress is a relative of mine. You can actually see my Grandma sitting behind the bride. My mom sat at the same table as the nutjob and had a good ol' conversation with her. Why are some people SO wierd?!!!

Here's CBS's story about the wedding crashers if you are interested.

Boston

So, as some of you have noticed (Fur), I have a Boston countdown up now. Yes, we are going to Boston. Jarom is going for HP and has a free ticket that needs to be used before the end of the year, so I am going too. I am also taking Kate, because I can't stand the thought of leaving her again. So, I need ANY ideas you all can think of to entertain her for the 6 hour flight (on my lap), which I will be doing one way without Jarom's help. YIKES!! Seriously people, suggestions galore!!!!!

Road Rash

Alyssa came home from school today with a wet paper towel on her forehead. When she took it off I saw this: (you might need to blow it up to get the full affect)

Apparently she fell off the monkey bars this morning and totally road rashed her face. It's very lovely.

Tub time for Carter

I filled the tub for Carter a few minutes ago, when I went in to check on him, this is what I found:





Socks on his hands and feet!

Beautiful decorations

I just had to post this picture so that my friend LeeAnn could see how similarly our kids "decorate". This is how I found Mimzy's cage last night for Jarom's party. (Don't mind the carpet swatches on top. I am still trying to decide what to put in my basement.) I am not sure which kid did it, but I am going to take a guess and say Halle. She is constantly tying ribbon to things. Sometimes her bedroom looks like a spiderweb with all the ribbon tied from the bed and taped the opposing wall, with bits of paper and toys tied in here and there. It's so funny and she thinks it looks just beautiful and like a palace.

Happy Birthday Grandma Friedenberger!

Today is Jarom's Grandma's birthday. It's fun to have their birthday's so close. Often times we celebrate together. We hope she has a wonderful day and we love her lots!

He's officially 32!

The party's over and now it's time to clean up. Jarom is officially 32. Thanks to everyone who came. We had a full house and that always makes it so much fun. Here are a few highlights.

We got Jarom a mini fridge to keep at his office. I think he was pretty excited about it. Now all he needs is a microwave and bed roll and he can live there.

"Look! It can even make ice!"

There were so many candles that the frosting started melting.

"Your Son!"

While I was posting Jarom's birthday blog, Kate had shut the office door and Carter was locked out. He started pounding on the door so I said, "Who's knocking on my door?"
Carter-"It's me, Carter."
me-"We don't know any Carters. Carter who?"
Carter-"Your son!"

I didn't even know he really understood what a son was, but he does. It totally cracked me up.

Happy Birthday Jarom!

Happy 32nd birthday to our wonderful dad and hubby! See you tonight when you get home for the big party. We love you!

Attn friends and family! (Incase you're in town and I forgot to tell you, I seriously can't remember who I've told and who I haven't, there will be cake and ice cream at our place at 6:30. Hope to see you all here!)

Too many sisters!

These two have no problem filling the day with messes while the older girls are at school. Here's what I found them doing today.

Poor Carter, I guess he's got too many sisters. He's painting Kate's nails with water colors. It was so cute, how could I get mad?

Happy Birthday Deidra!

Today is also my sister-in-law Deidra's birthday! Happy Birthday! Thank you for all the fun things you do with my kids. We're so glad we live close to you guys now so that we can see you so often. Hope your day is great and that Kade makes you a yummy cake!

Happy Birthday Fur!

Today is my roommate Jennifer's (Fur) birthday. At least I think it's today. For some reason I had it in my head that it was the 23rd for years, but was finally set straight that it's actually today. Anyway, we used to go out for fried cheese sticks and dinner for our birthdays when I lived in Boise. I am totally missing that now! :)
Apparently I need a new family picture of you guys. Look how tiny your kids are! Hope you have a VERY happy birthday and get to do something fun.

Soccer and sleep.

Didn't you know that we play soccer in the baseball diamonds here in Idaho? :) Today was Carter's first ever sports practice. He is taking a Pee-Wee Soccer class through the city. He was SOOO excited to go tonight and when we got there he jumped out of the truck and said at the top of his voice, "I'm ready to play some soccer ball!" His classes are parental participation classes which I didn't find out about until I got there. (Uh, thanks. I am wearing flip flops and have all 4 kids with me, but no matter. ) Thankfully Jarom showed up shortly and took over for me.


And yes......drum roll please.....that is Carter SLEEPING in HIS bed! I have no idea what has triggered it, but every night this week he has gone to bed by himself in his own bed. No fighting, whining, or anything. He's only stayed in his bed all night once, but he has NEVER just gone to bed on his own before. So I think we may be heading in the right direction (again). And this time the sticker chart is A LOT longer, and the reward isn't a living creature. (Although I do love Mimzy.)

"Happy Day to you."

September is a big month for birthdays for my family. Ever since we got home from Hawaii Kate has been walking around singing "Happy Birthday". I've tried to catch it on video, but she stops performing everytime I get the camera out. So, I finally caught some of it today. This video is a little long, so sorry about that, but as her mom I think it's adorable. (And nevermind her snotty nose, she has a little cold.)

Milk?

Saturday I took Carter to the grocery store with me. I said, "Carter, we need to get chicken, pudding, and rolls. Don't let me forget, K. Now what do we need?" His answer, "Uh...milk." LOL! Very typical male answer!

Happy Birthday Mimi!

Are you REALLY turning 24 today???!!! Man that makes me feel old.

Happy Birthday to one of the best Aunt's in the world! We know we can always count on you for a four-wheeler ride, a snow cone, a great hair cut, or a trip to the pet store. We love you and hope you have a great day!

"Howee, pank!"

Just a few minutes ago Alyssa came up to tell me that Halle had just dumped a little bit of water on Carter's head. (He's sleeping.) So I told Halle to come up and talk to me. I asked her, "Halle, did you just dump water on your sleeping baby brother's head?" She nodded yes. So then I told her, "You can go to your room and think about how naughty that was. It's unacceptable behavior!" She started to walk off and then Kate, who had been sitting in my lap this whole time, said, "Howee! Pank!" (aka Halle, spank) and then proceeded to hit Halle on her way out of the room. Oh boy! Can't imagine where she might have learned something like that.

Blogger Buddies!

All right! I've decided it's time that all you non-bloggers need to get a blog. (I.e. Michelle, Dayne, Jen, ect., ect.) I would love to add you to my link list and see what's going on in your lives. So, if you take the challenge, send me a link so I can visit often. :) Hope to see you soon......

Happy Birthday Natalie!

SURPRISE!!! Bet you didn't know today was your birthday did you? :) Actually, my sister-in-law celebrated her birthday on September 4th, but we (as you all know) were out of town and away from the pictures on my computer. So, sorry about the late birthday post, but I still wanted to make sure I wished you a VERY happy birthday. I had to steal a few pictures from your blog. I can't seem to find any of mine from our visits to L.A. and Vegas. I think I just haven't transferred them back to my hard drive from when my computer died. Natalie and her cute little niece, Evelyn.
One of my all time favorite pictures of Natalie donning her biker gear!

Halle and Alyssa with Natalie on her wedding day.

Back to the ol' grind.

We're back home and already listening to the fighting, waking up 90 times during the night, wondering what to make for dinner, cleaning mess after mess, and all the things that come along with family life. But, I am grateful to be home and be with my kids.

When we got home, Kate wouldn't even look at me and cried when I would take her from my mom. Broke my heart! But as the day went on, she forgave me for leaving her and now won't let me out of her sight. She freaks out if I even go into the bathroom without her. She's not going to let me pull this stunt on her again.

I don't know if the other kids were more excited to see Mom and Dad or to get their souvenirs. They've had fun playing with all the goodies we brought home.


I am finally tan enough to really look like Kate's mother. She looks like a real Polynesian in her little grass skirt. It's adorable.
Yes, she got her coconut bra! Halle can't get enough of the sea shells we brought her. She keeps them in her little wooden box from Yellowstone. :)
Alyssa refuses to even try on her coconut bra. :) But she does have some pretty good hip action.
Here's the cutest little ukulele player on the planet. He LOVES the ukulele and outfit we brought him. He WON'T let me take the outfit off. He even slept in it. It's pretty cute.


What a great time we had! Our favorite stops were Kona, Kauai, and Oahu. All great places to take the kids and go back!! Hope we get there again someday.

Oh, and my poor foot still hurts like the dickens. However, I think the dry Idaho air is helping it start to heal a little bit. Today it actually had a scab on some of it. Guess dry Idaho is good for something. :) (I really do love Idaho.)

More adventures from Hawaii!

Everyone always talks about the cute towel critters you get while on a cruise. It's true, we got towel critters and mints on our bed each night. This little turtle was my favorite.

A view of Waimea Canyon in Kauai. It's like the Grand Canyon of Hawaii. Very pretty!

We rented this car and it had a permanent hood ornament, a dead frog. We thought it would fall off as we drove, but it was pretty much baked on, so we had to get a picture of it. We laughed every time we'd get into the stupid car.

There were chickens EVERYWHERE on this island. And I mean everywhere, Walmart, the bank, the highway, stateparks, the beach. It was like pigeons or seagulls for us. It was crazy.

Jarom has wanted to learn how to surf for forever, so he took a surfing lesson while on Kauai. We paid for a group lesson, but Jarom lucked out and was the only one in his group, so he got a private surf lesson. This is the land portion of the lesson.

Jarom and Joe, the instructor.

They started out on the "bunny hill" (baby waves). After Jarom stood up several times there, Joe took him out to the real stuff.

I was trying to get a shot of me with Jarom in the background, but the waves were big enough to completely hide him when he was in the dip. They were about 4-5 feet high. WAY too high for my comfort, but Jarom LOVED it.



He really did ride a BIG wave in, but I missed most of it. I looked up and saw a surfer coming in and he looked so natural that I didn't realize it was Jarom in time to get the camera going for the coolest part.

The last night of our cruise, we sailed past the Napali coast line along the shores of Kauai. What an amazing sight, the mountains come straight up out of the ocean.


Can't go on a cruise without taking a shot of the sun on the ocean.

Our final stop was Oahu, where we had about 10 hours before our plane took off. So we rented a car and explored the island. We found the temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center (but didn't feel like we had time to see) and just had a good time cruising around the island.

We took a little train tour of the Dole Pineapple Plantation. (Yes, I am a dork.)

Look how cute this tiny baby pineapple is. It won't be ready to eat until it is 20 months old!

Okay, we admit it. We're LOST geeks. We love this stupid show, and spent the better part of the day scouting Lost filming locations. We found the mother load, complete with a guard protecting all the "stuff" at the Lost survivors camp. It's in a fairly remote beach surrounded by private property; we found a website that guided us to it. We were the only people there at the time, so it seems to remain somewhat of a secret. It was so cool to see the set, we just wished the actors would have been there too.
The bored guard, keeping all the "stuff" safe. He was hilarious. He asked us if we watched this show (of course we answered yes), and then told us he didn't watch it. Of course he gets to see the real thing, actors and all, so the show would probably be dumb to him. Jarom asked him if Evangeline Lilly (Kate) was hot in real life and the guard just grinned. :)



Here's a scence from the actual show with Sawyer sitting in the same chair and next to the tent that the guard is sitting in in the picture above. We found several other filming locations including the beach where the plane wrecked in the first show, but they weren't as cool as this sight with all of their actual stuff.

On this same beach we saw SO many Sea Turtles. They were amazing. I can't get enough of these Giant Sea Turtles. They are just such a peaceful animal; I loved watching them. This one was the biggest one we saw and it was BIG. There were many others in the water swimming right along the coastline and several basking in the sun.
Look at the size of that thing!

We ended the entire vacation with dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, Honolulu. This is somewhat of a tradition for us. Jarom always gets a souvenir hat and pin. This one was full of Elvis memorabilia.