The funnest girls trip to Solvang!

Our destination for my annual girls trip this year was to Solvang, Ca, which is about 45 minutes north of Santa Barbara. It is such a darling little town. It was a Danish settlement and is now a very quaint tourist spot.

Just a few miles outside of Solvang we took a little hike to a beautiful little waterfall. Two of the girls are pregnant and they were troopers!!

We had breakfast in a Danish restaurant...can I just say one thing about Danish pancakes.....YUMMY!
Even though it was really windy and a bit cool I had to make at least one trip to the beach. I loved every second being there! From left to right: Thira, Shauna, Marie G., Me, Marie W., Jessica, and Kathryn!
Had to have a little fun while I was at it! :)

I couldn't believe how well this turned out with my little camera. There were so many beautiful flowers! I think Idaho has maybe 2 that are blooming right now!

Thanks girls for such an awesome vacation!!

A very cool music video!

Playing around with macro

One of my favorite things with photography is taking close up pictures (i.e. macro). The main difficulty in doing this with little cameras is being able to close enough. So it's fun to finally be able to get really close now! These flowers are super tiny! Each flower is as big as a ball on a straight pin.

Scouts & Animals

Over a year ago I was called to be in the Cub Scouts as a Bears Leader (which has been so much fun! We get to play almost every week...can't beat that!) Recently they changed me to a Webelos Leader. Anyway, last summer I went to a Scout camp for Leaders for 4 days straight and had a ball! We had to set 5 goals called Paw Prints and when you finished them you received a pin that goes on the patch from the camp. Here I am receiving my pin, which Jon was able to pin me! I love how the leaders can find accomplishment in what we do along with the boys!
About a week ago Jon was able to purchase a new horse for us at the DNCFR (only Idahoans probably know what that stands for :) ...Dodge National Circuit Finals Rodeo) auction. He is a 6 year old gelding and we named him Deuce. He is well trained so hopefully we finally have a horse that won't freak out on us amateurs when we use him!
This picture really doesn't do him justice...within 2 minutes of him being put in the pasture he decided to roll around in the mud...there goes all that nice grooming that was done for him for the sale!
Our kitty Gatsby has the most amazing blue eyes but it is so hard to capture in a picture. I thought this one turned out pretty good.

What a beautiful day!!

I was so ecstatic that the weather was gorgeous for Easter! It just somehow helps to enjoy the day! I wish Jon could've been in this picture with us but he stayed after church for choir and I knew I had milliseconds before the boys would change out of their church clothes!

Don't ya just love Josh's expression! He did not want to take pictures.I just love Easter morning when the boys come straight from bed to see surprises from the Easter bunny...I love their messy hair and tired faces!


Can't have Easter without coloring eggs....Andrew was super into it this year...he did most of the eggs!
I just thought this fruit pizza I made looked pretty. :)
Hope your Easter was wonderful!!

Is this considered camping?

So Sportsmans in Pocatello is going out of business (just to reopen in October...weird!), but Jon was able to pick up this heavy duty wall tent for a good deal. It's huge inside, as you can see it takes up half of our garage...Jon was excited to set it up! :) Jon felt strongly that this would be a good asset to have for emergency preparedness, which if for some reason we ever had to leave our house this tent would keep us warm because we have a wood stove we can put inside. Pretty cool! Anyway, the kids had a campout in it last night. Guess we're getting them prepped for summer!
Even Gunner joined in on the action for a little bit!

Lehi Legacy Center Swimming

What a fun day we had down in Lehi, Ut this last saturday! First we stopped at My Thai, which is absolutely delectable, and met up with a bunch of family!! Then we couldn't pass up going to Cabelas on our way down to Lehi. And our last stop was swimming at an indoor water park. The kids were in heaven.


Matt just loves to mess around with Caleb...and I think Caleb loves the attention!Look at Laura's cute little prego belly! She's due at the end of June with a baby boy!
Andrew was terrified of the huge dumping bucket that spilled water every few minutes all over the place. Here's Matt trying his best to convince Andrew to come in the pool.

We finally gave up getting him over by that play park and brought him to the baby pool. He was the oldest one there, but oh well he was happy!

All of us adults and Caleb and Josh hung out in the main pool quite a bit and tossed a water ball around. We had fun throwing the ball at unsuspecting victims! (Not strangers of course!)
I had to show proof that Jon actually swam! :) He had a fun time!