Stanley Vacation and the Kiddies

I finally got some pictures of our weekend in Stanley with the family a couple weeks ago. I freakin love Stanley and the Sawtooths. I've been going up there pretty much since I was born.

We took the horses up, dad was in SLC, so I had to drive all 4 of the horses, that was a crazy heavy load. The first day I took all the kids to Valley Creek across the highway. We attempted to fish with no luck, found a frog, saw some deer with 2 baby deer, searched for clams, and Marlee almost drifted away in the creek. Marlee, her friend Sheridan, mom and I rode the horses to the store, then ran up Nip and Tuck hill a few times. I forgot how awesome it is to run on Jamir, he's so fast and a little insane, it's almost scary.

Saturday we went to Redfish Lake. There were high winds last month and blew down a bunch of trees around the lake, our favorite beach looks like crap now apparently, so we had to go to the crowded beach. The kids still had fun though. Steph, Laura and I played nerts and spoons with some of the kids. I love seeing the kids start getting into the card games...and then winning.


Sunday before we went home, we went on your favorite hike up Iron Creek trail to the "Big Rock". It's only like 3/4 of a mile up. Last year I'd gone alone and went a little past the Big Rock and found this valley with the mountains all around and the creek going through it. It's one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. So Laura, Ross, Kirk and some of the kids went up there to check it out with me.


Here's Teagalicious.

This is post part 2. Steph went to Vegas this past week with Marlee. Paul dropped the other 4 kids off at our house. I made all the kids make a sick face. As you can see, they're good at it.


Then Ryken walked in with this sweet headband on.

Noelle and I went to the grocery store with the kids. When we were walking back to the car Noelle found this present on the ground.

I'm So Smart...and Lame

I'm one of the most obsessive and over analytical people I know, and it's usually about the most pointless things...i.e. - this whole post. That said...Breaking Dawn, the 4th and final installment of the Twilight series is dropping(yes, I said 'dropping') on Saturday Aug. 2nd. I'm so freakin' excited. I've never been excited about a book release before, it's kinda weird. I've been kinda stressed about it because I live in Idaho and I know tons of people are going to be buying the book here. There's no way I'm going to be able to just walk into Borders or Barnes & Noble on Saturday morning and just causally pick up a copy. Not gonna happen. And I'm not going to order it online, because they'll probably SHIP it on Aug. 2nd and that's not ok with me. I want to have it in my hands ASAP. So then I thought, maybe Costco, they had a buttload of the other books in the series a few weeks ago. But then, what if they don't get the shipment in til like, Monday or something? So here's what I did...I was at the mall on Saturday with Noelle so I decided to go over to Borders and put a copy on hold. I walked up to a girl and said I needed to put a book on hold. She asked what book, I said Breaking Dawn, she said "oh, of course...well that's easy." She then tells me that I can go on Friday night at midnight because they're having a release party with games and a costume contest and there will probably be a line to get the book. I'm just like, seriously, dude, I just want the book in my paws so I can read it, I'm dying here...so, no. Also, Borders is expensive I don't want to deal with Borders, really. So here's my plan, and, I know how ridiculous I'm being...I'm going to go to Costco Saturday morning to get the book, IF they don't have it, I've got one reserved at Borders. Dude, I'm so smart. Btw, I know there are other Twilight fans here, if you want to reserve a copy of the book at Borders, you have to do so before July 27th or you're not guaranteed a copy.

Alright, I thought I would just get it out there since I've been obsessing and bugging people about it. Could I be any lamer?

Dark Knight

I'm still waiting to get pictures from Stanley from last weekend to post on here...but in the mean time, I'll talk about The Dark Knight(or as mom calls it 'The Black Knight') which I saw yesterday. I'm not like, a big Batman fan or even a super hero movie fan for that matter. I usually end up watching them eventually but typically find them drawn out and boring. But I really wanted to see this one. The movie itself was good, definately one of the best super hero movies in my opinion. For the most part, everyone did a good job. But in all seriousness, Heath Ledger's portayal of the Joker was insanely good, and not just because he's dead now. That guy could act.

4th of July

So Steph and her 5 kids(plus Marlee's friend Sheridan) were in Boise for the 4th of July weekend...and still are.

Friday we had a BBQ at my parents house and then later watched the Meridian fireworks. I'm going to have to disagree with Russ...the Meridian fireworks are the best fireworks show west of the Mississippi.

Saturday we all went down the Main Payette river. Dad and I took catarafts and Paul guided the paddle boat with 13 people in it, including 8 kids - insane.

On the last rapid, called 'A.M.F', Dad went down first...he went to the right and was bumped around some, so Paul went down the left and was turned backwards. So I decided to go down the middle...not a good idea. As I got to the hole, it was way bigger than I thought. The cat started going sideways, as in, the right tube that Marlee was on, was practically under water and Sheridan was on the other side up in the air. Luckily we evened out. I've been in boats that have flipped and fallen out of boats, but that was the closest I've been to flipping my own boat.

Here's all of us. In the background, you can see Noelle, Marlee, and Sheridan, and myself on my cat. You can see Mom and Dad in the wee back.

All the little kids on the paddle boat.
On Sunday we played red rover. Mom, Russ, and I played with a bunch of the kids. Russ was on one side with Mason and Teagan and he was not going to let go of the boys hands, even if it ment ripping their arms off. So when they called Mom right over, poor Teagan was in the line of fire.


After Mom plowed Teagan over, Russ said to her, "Uh Sinny, I think you hurt him." and Mom defended herself by saying, "I play to win!" Hilarious. Teagan will love this video when he's older, but for now, whenever I play it, he tells me he hates me.

Cabin and 'self' photoshoot

Well I went to the cabin in Stanley this past weekend. I went alone, but it was so nice up there that after 1 day, I was wishing someone else had come up with me. I wanted to spend time outside, but it's kinda boring alone. It was relaxing though. I did some reading, watched a couple movies, watched some episodes of Arrested Development(which is genius), and attempted to catch some fish. This is me on the way up, I was excited.

I think I'm wearing the same shirt as last time, well, that's embarrassing.

I tried to fish on Valley Creek, it was just too high and fast to really catch anything, but I love the view. Growing up, Dad said that when the 'X' in the middle of the Sawtooths still has snow in it on the 4th of July, it's a good snow year. I don't know if he was full of crap or not, but, there's still snow in the 'X', so I'm assuming it is indeed, a good snow year.
This is me on the way home, I never like leaving Stanley. Also, there were some super annoying slow drivers, as usual.
I rarely have pictures taken of me, let alone, taking pictures of myself, but, what would a self photoshoot be without the 'Marlee' pose?

The Scooter

Russ bought a scooter. It arrived yesterday. He had to finish assembling it with dad's 'help', which provided Russ with much frustration and us with much entertainment. Everyone wanted a ride. Here's Noelle and Russell.

Dad gave it a little whirl. He didn't like it much.

Even Nicole wanted a ride. She's been wearing that lay since she got it a week ago. It doubles as a dangley, how convenient.

Nicole holding on for dear life.

Me with Chase.

Russ with Bo.

And my personal favorite:

NYC Part Two

Ok, here's my second New York blog...and it's a long one. We got home Friday afternoon. Our plane departed at 7:10 AM EST which is 5:10 at home - yowza. I've been fighting sleep ever since. I came home to Steph's kids for the weekend then back to work on Monday. This is my long explaination as to why it's taken me so long to update my blog.

Alright, so Tuesday we went on a 3 hour boat tour around the island, which was coolish, and informative...it was also hotter than hell fire. As you can see from the pictures below, it was quite enjoyable:

Then later we went to Cental Park and the Met museum. You can't tell from this picture, but Noelle and I did like Central Park.

Marlee and I with Alice:

Laura playing with her new camera:
Laura and I can not take a serious picture to save our lives:

Wednesday we went to the World Trade Center then to Canal Street. I love Canal Street, you can get knock off designer sunglasses, handbags, etc. I got a Dolce & Gabbana handbag and pair of sunglasses. Later we walked through SoHo to Washington Square Park where there was a guy painting a girl's body. She was topless, then later, bottomless...except for a g-string. Is that legal? I don't know, but it was hilarious watching guys stop and stare and take pictures. Much like this black guy is doing in the picture below. Thursday was our last day in New York. We went to B&H, which is an electronic store on 34th between 7th and 8th, I believe. Seriously, you should go to this store just for the experience. It's 2 stories with probably 200 employees, 99% of which were Jewish, and many of those were Orthodox Jew with the shaved heads and curled sideburns. Coming from Idaho, this was quite the sight. They also had bowls of kosher taffy type candy everywhere. At one point, Noelle was taking a handful of candy and an employee gave her a bag for the candy. So Noelle and I decided to stalk up at each station, filling the bag. If you wanted to buy something, you'd get a tag, go to the checkout, then go to another area to pick it up. They would order it from the basement and ship it up and you would literally see it on a coveyor belt above your head. At one point, Laura's item was lost in transit.

For lunch we went to Serendipity. The restaurant the movie was named after. Their food was really good and their frozen hot chocolate was delicious.


Then later we were walking around 7th Ave near Central Park in search of the infamous Black and White cookie. They have them everywhere in NY but the best ones are suppose to be at little bakeries. Needless to say, we ended up settling on Metro Cafe, a chain restaurant. But they were still good. But on our search, I bumped into a woman with her 2 kids. Laura said it was Uma Thurman. Laura is known to bull***t me - often...so I didn't believe her. I said "no it's not." she said, "yes it is." After going back and forth and me almost believing her, Laura finally said she was kidding and then as if on cue, Noelle says "no, but there's Roseanne's sister from the show, Roseanne." And to quote Noelle, she looked a little disheveled. Then not 5 minutes later, we past the guy that played Garrett on Crossing Jordan.

We rode the subway a few times, which is actually pretty cool, although, I wouldn't want to do it on a daily basis.

This is a picture Laura took of a random girl at FAO Schwarz toy store. Someone is obsessed with their camera. The girl was super cute though, and I don't say that about many kids.

On Saturday and Thursday night we stayed in NJ with Steph's friends Matt and Jesse. Thursday evening they took us to the Jersey shore with their 2 boys. Their little boy Liam is probably the cutest kid I've ever seen, excluding my own nieces and nephews.


Alright, so that's it. I am DONE.