I LOVE Island Park!

Let's hear it for Island Park! Wahoo! That's right! We just got back from a great vacation with fantastic friends, relaxing activities, beautiful sights, games galore and lots of memories! WE LOVE ISLAND PARK!

This was the third year we have gone to the Hafen's cabin and each year it gets better and better! This year we had a total of 5 families. 10 adults and 17 kids! That adds up to a TON of food, a lot of chaos, but sooooooooooo much fun.

The Hafen's ready to float the Buffalo River!

The Hunt's

The Sayer's

Sadly, I don't have a picture of the entire Hill family. This is Kim, Jared, Claire and Little Sophia.

Me and my best friend Janel. Isn't she a cute pregnant mommy? The first day we were the only two there with all our kids. We just sat on the dock while the kids played in the river. It's was dreamy!

The kids spent their time the first day searching for snails in the river. Kylie considers this one of her greatest talents! We're very proud. :) They found a million of them and started a collection in their cups. It was entertaining to watch them freak out when they would start to creep to the rim of the cup. The kids would scream, "Alert! Alert!" Cute!

Max and Brinley surveying the snail situation. Three cups is a lot to monitor.

Adding another one to the bunch.

This one was stuck to her hand. At first she seemed a bit alarmed, but got it off and into the cup in no time.

My little happy-go-lucky Brinley.

Little Wesley. Ahhh...my little buddy. He has this favorite hat, you see. He wears it 24/7. It doesn't matter if it's forwards or backwards he must have it on. He didn't want me snapping pictures of him so I got the zoom lens on and caught him off guard. He is seriously Mr. Personality.

One of the favorite pass times at "Jones Haven." 4-wheeler/motorcycle rides. The kids just can't get enough of it. (I love that Wes actually replaced his hat with the helmet in this one! The hat or a helmet of some kind. Take your pick - he'll have it on.)

On Sunday there were only 3 of the 5 families still at the cabin. We took an adult ride on the motorcycles and 4-wheeler. This time I stayed on the 4-wheeler. During the course of the weekend, I was informed that one of the spouses felt I should not be riding anything with 2 wheels and another told me that I am accident prone. I'm still working through those comments, and after I have shaken them off I will attempt another motorcycle ride again. For those of you who don't know the story, I wrecked on one of the motorcycles last year and then of course my infamous bike accident this June in McCall. Regardless of what they all think, I intend to continue to live life to the fullest and if it means that I wreck now and then, then so be it. :)

These were our "pre-pre teen" girls as they like to call themselves. Brayton, Zoe (Janel's little sister that is Natasha's age) and of course Tasha. They headed up quite a few adventures and special activities for the kids. They also made dolls for everyone and stared sewing sleeping bags for the dolls with old rags. I think they'll be finishing that up until we go again next year. They were also fabulous babysitters when the adults went on our little outing.

Saturday night after we went to Yellowstone all day, we set up a movie in the cabin and the kids got to watch it on...
THE BIG SCREEN! The kids love this tradition! What a party!

Of course Jones Haven is also known for it's treasured "Lollipop Island." Yes, it's true. On most summer mornings, lollipops grow on this magical island. Of course it is difficult to grow lollipops and so they don't appear every morning. But it is a ritual to have the kids line up from youngest to oldest, march across the bridge to the island and hunt for these delectable treats. It also seems to help to listen to the "Lollipop" song 2 or 3 times before you go hunting. These lollipops are more treasured than your average tootsie pop. There are several varieties that grow here...from Tootsies, to Dum-dums, to Blow Pops. This year, we even saw some Sugar Daddys growing. It is positively magical!

After the kids harvest their one or two lollipops, everyone has to line up on the bridge for a picture! Hooray!

Brinley catching some snuggle time with dad.

On Saturday, we made our trip into Yellowstone. This year we escaped any freak thunderstorms like we experienced last year, so it was a much more pleasant trip for all. This is one of my favorite spots in Yellowstone - Artist Point. It has been closed the last two years we have gone so it was nice to be able to go back this year and catch some great shots of the falls.

This is Brinley at the brink of the lower falls.

Good friends...Tasha and Zoe.

Shockingly, we didn't see many animals until we were headed out of the park. This was the only buffalo we saw the entire day. He was across the river at first taking a drink, and then we got to watch him swim all the way across and then he stood just off the road from our car. We call him "Bob" the buff.

We had planned to swim down Firehole, but it was closed. What a bummer. So we headed over to Old Faithful and got there just in time to see the geyser go off! Of course then we had to head in for some ice cream to complete the tradition. As we were sitting in the lodge, I realized that just about 14 years ago Shane and I were there for our honeymoon! Holy cow time flies by!

So this is the entire group! Man that looks like a lot of people...or maybe just a lot of kids. We sure had a great time. We feel so blessed to have such amazing friends. We're already looking forward to next year at Jones Haven, Island Park!

Buddy Boating!

Got friends? Thursday the girls each invited a friend to come up boating with us at Lucky Peak. It was a day of tubing mania, surfing fun and a little bit of disaster! (More on that later!) Brinley invited her little friend Ellie. They swam and snacked, and both endured a tubing ride that almost bucked them clean off! But they were tough chicks and didn't even miss a beat.


Kylie invited her friend Brooklyn. They LOVED the tubing and swimming, but they also loved the SURFING! The water was a sweet 76 degrees and with the 100+ degree weather, they were both anxious to jump in the water and go! Kylie didn't even wear her wetsuit (it's a miracle)!


Natasha invited her good buddy Emi. Emi is an experienced boater girl and was all in for tubing adventure. She was out there just waiting for the doubled up wave to send her soaring. The girls did a lot of swimming, diving, and cannon balling as well. No suring from the "big girls" this trip. I guess the little ones showed them up a bit there. Maybe next time.


Kylie was livin' it up as a surfer girl. She had a smile plastered on her face from the time she got in until the time she got out. She and Shane surfed most of the time without the rope (which is no easy task with 2 people on the board). She'll be surfing on her own in no time.

Jammin' to her favorite songs, Kylie was in heaven. Oh yeah baby!

This was Brooklyn's first time surfing and SHE WAS A NATURAL! They got right up and Brooklyn's smile was ear to ear. She loved it, and told Shane that this was her favorite boating trip ever. Great job Brooklyn! Looks like you're ready for the big waves in Hawaii!

Brinley was actually the first surfer in the water. She had been waiting and waiting since our last boating trip with the kids. She is fearless and told Shane that she thinks she is ready to surf on her own now. Well...maybe not quite yet, but someday huh? Last time they surfed without the rope Brinley was a little unsure, but this time she was ready for the fun!

Great job my little surfer girl!

After driving for several hours in the HOT sun, I needed a little bit of surfing before we headed off the lake. All I can say is, "Ohhh Yeah!" The water was so nice and the wave was pretty good. I even had little Ellie and Brinley in the back of the boat cheering me on. What more could you ask for?

This was my buddy on the boat. In our matching swimsuits (we need to coordinate a little better) Todd thought we looked like the Doublemint sisters. Mel and Todd were awesome with all the kids! I think all the kids adopted a new "aunt and uncle" after this boating trip.

Todd and Shane blowing up the tube.

Okay...so remember I mentioned a little bit of disaster? Well...this is it. Just looking at these pictures makes me a little bit sick. To make a long story short, Shane's been teaching me to trailer the boat. He was guiding me on and in the process the boat got a little sideways. He told me to give it a little gas and when I did, the prop hit the trailer. OUCH. Ouch, ouch, ouch. You can see that it just shredded the blades.

Shane was so nice about it (as he usually is about things like that). I guess I'm lucky because I was a lot harder on myself about it than he ever would be. So anyways, I guess the price of boating just went up. :(

Till next time...

Garage Sale @ Mimi's!

For the last week, we've been having more fun than we know what to do with! The kids and I drove to Seattle and spent a week sorting, tossing, organizing, moving, and clearing out items in my parent's house. We worked from the time I got there to the day I left, but it was worth every minute! I convinced my parents to hold a garage sale on Saturday...and just to add to the fun it was in the upper 90's there that day. Brinley was so cute standing in front of the house waving this sign. When no one was stopping, she would say, "it's not working right now."


Natasha was soooooo into the garage sale! As soon as we were ready to start organizing the items and pricing things out, she was there with her stickers and her sharpie pen! She was dedicated to the cause and she was all about selling...selling...selling!


This was one pile she was working on of cookbooks! During the sale we had a tarp full of cookbooks for sale. Someone came and bought an entire box of these "mini" cookbooks! What a steal huh?


Brinley was all about the stickers. She would put stickers on anything she could find. When I went back to price things, there were sometimes 2 or 3 stickers on it! She was right in there earning her wages (they all earned some of the proceeds from the sale for their hard work.)


Kylie was not quite as interested in the whole affair. She did come out to help stick on the stickers and help with some of the pricing. However, she found other things to keep herself occupied. Apparently garage sale fun isn't so much for her.

Because I love my mom so much, I swore that I would not post any "before and after" shots. However, I am posting the pictures from the garage sale because I believe that Melanie and Natasha's organizing skills should be celebrated! Just look at this appealing garage sale setup!

Notice the tarp with the cookbooks behind the toybox? Nice job organizing that Kylie!

There's my dad's 10 speed bike from 30 years ago. It had only been ridden once or twice he thought. Bummer we weren't able to find a new home for that!

Me and my favorite sis...we were having soooo much fun wheelin' and dealin'! Mel had so much fun that she hurt her back! But that didn't stop her from makin' deals and speaking spanish to all our spanish speaking customers.

We convinced Natasha to stand and wave this sign to attract customers. She even did it with a smile! Later in the day she took the wii games down and started waving those around too! She would approach the customers and ask them if they had a wii and if they were interested in some wii games. She was also working really hard to sell her watch. She wanted to earn some money so that we could get some new games for the wii and so she could earn herself a digital watch. Way to work it girl! When all was said and done we earned about $360 at the sale. Not bad.

On Monday before we left, my mom and I took the girls to one of their favorite Seattle spots...Ivar's fish and chips! They LOVE to go down and feed the seagulls!

The seagulls will swoop down and snag a fry from your fingers if you hold it out for them. Sometimes you can throw it up in the air and they'll catch it mid-air!

My cute girls basking in the Seattle sun! Wait a minute...isn't that an oxi-moron? "Seattle Sun?"

Natasha all done throwing fries at the gulls.



Mimi and the girls! What a great ending to a busy week!