What Makes You Beautiful - The Piano Guys Version

Okay, this is so cool!! This is one of my kids' favorite songs right now and the arrangement and video don't disappoint. (We watched it 3 times in a row!) We love The Piano Guys and are always thrilled when they post a new video. Enjoy!

How Savannah Washes the Dishes

Sunday Afternoon

I don't know how they were able to stay in this position for all the laughing!! Good times. :)

Friday Funny

The Birthday Girl

A big Happy Birthday to my baby girl! What would we do without our Sadie-bug? Seven years already. Sadie, you're growing up way too fast! I sure love you, baby. I hope this is your best year so far!

Sadie showing off her new birthday elephant necklace. (She LOVES elephants!)

We're Home! (My 500th Post)

500 posts! It sure sounds like a lot...until I realize I still have 9,500 left to go. :)  I guess that means I have a lot of happy things to look forward to!

Well, we made it home. We got in just before 10pm after 15 hours on the road today and 5,014 miles round trip!! That sets a new record for us. Wow!!

By the way, I've found where I want to live. We drove right through it on our way home and I wanted to stay there forever. Take a look:

Isn't it beautiful? After leaving Idaho on Thursday, we drove through Northern Wyoming before dropping down to Colorado. There must have been a good 2 hours of this scenery with gorgeous little (and big) log homes tucked right into the hillsides. We drove through an occasional town with a few stores scattered along the main street, but it was so rural and green and inviting! I'm not sure how I'd feel when all this green ends up covered in snow for months on end - and there's no college in sight which greatly reduces our job opportunities - but a girl can dream, right? I even had glimpses of Scotland as we had to wait for a huge herd of sheep to cross the road before we could continue.

I know we've driven through Wyoming several times over the years, but I don't remember seeing Wyoming like that.

I miss it. {Sigh.}

Okay. Back to reality! It's late and tomorrow will be busy. It's good to be home!

Idaho

I am so glad we decided to go to Idaho! It was fun, relaxing and beautiful. While I'm usually ready to head home after 2 weeks away, this year I'm not sure a month would have been long enough. It's been a great trip!

Some highlights from Idaho include:

Meeting Sawyer for the first time. What a cutie!

Cousins! Somehow I missed getting a picture of Benson (Sawyer's big brother), but his sisters Ana and Ruby sure brought a smile to Sadie's face! She has missed these girls!!

Ana and Sadie

Sadie, Ana and Ruby in Grandpa's '32 Chevy

Connecting with old friends. Savannah and Sam became friends with grandma and grandpa's next door neighbors last summer. While their reunion was brief, it was fun to reconnect!

Treon and Savannah

Sam learned how to drive Grandpa's '32 Chevy!

A few last minute instructions from Grandpa.

Off they go!

Rexburg! We visited one of Jeff's former colleagues, Samuel Clay, at BYU-Idaho. He showed us around and we spent a good 3+ hours on campus. We also got to see Miranda, a friend from Charleston who is currently attending BYU-I. We all enjoyed Nielsen's Frozen Custard so much at the end of our visit that we even went back for seconds!! Yum!

This is taken on a cute little porch in the middle of the beautiful gardens at BYU-I.

The Fourth of July in Menan. What fun! They have foot races for every age group along with gunny sack and wheelbarrow races and tug-of-war. We loved it all! We spent a good chunk of the day visiting the various vendors for cotton candy, corn dogs, indian tacos, snow cones and face painting. It was fun to just hang out with cousins and enjoy a small town celebration! Some of the family returned tonight for their fireworks show. Good times!

Sterling in the sack race

Beautiful summer evenings.  Between the full moon and the beautiful sunsets, the sky put on quite a show for us each evening as we sat on the deck and enjoyed the cooler temperatures. 

Jeff's parents recently received their mission call to serve in the Atlanta Georgia North Mission. They leave mid-month so it was fun to spend time with them before they go. They'll be stopping overnight in our little corner of the world on their way to Georgia so we'll get to see them again soon.

Not pictured (sadly): Boating at Ririe Reservoir. Jeff and I did some slalom skiing and Sam got up on two skis. We all took our turns on the tube and it was SO fun! With no wind and perfect temperatures, we had a great day on the water.

We're all packed up and ready to head for home. We hit the road first thing in the morning. Good night!

Utah!

We spent a week in Utah while Sam and Savannah attended Especially For Youth (EFY) at BYU. The most common phrase we heard at the end of their week was, "Best week of my life!" They both had the time of their lives and are already saving for next year.

We kept plenty busy while they were gone. Staying with my brother David and his family, they incorporated us right into their family and we had a great week. Little Libby loved Jeff and Jeff alone. She would let him hold her anytime, then tried to pretend the rest of us were invisible. Christopher (Crit for short) completely stole my heart with his big bright eyes and completely innocent trouble making skills. It swept me right back to Sterling and his tornado toddler days: Lots of independence with no concept of how that creates more problems than it solves! Ha! Jeff was able to trick him every single night into falling asleep in his arms. Little Nate has a pretty good grasp of the world and is such a pleasant kid. And Emma is a beautiful girl, very graceful with an independent streak of her own.

Some of the activities we enjoyed (and wish I took more/any pictures of) include:

• Dropping Sam and Savannah off at BYU and exploring campus all afternoon.
• Getting 2 new swim suits - here and here - that I LOVE! (I don't generally have a good relationship with my swimwear.)
• Visiting Kennecott Copper Mine. (Pretty impressive!)
• Karaoke and dress-ups in Dave's new toy room. What a fun room! They thought of everything!
• The Splash park with cousins and meeting my newest niece, Skylar.
• Meeting my blogging friend, Karey, for the first time. She was exactly how I thought she'd be - down to earth and genuine - and we enjoyed some yummy salmon tacos at Cafe Rio. Yum!
• Attending Emma's dance recital.
• Watching a movie on the fence in the backyard.
• Visiting with one of my missionary companions, Larsen, and a family friend, Lloyd, who used to live in our little corner of the world. 
• Visiting with "Sister Couch," a.k.a. Mindy, who served the last 6 months of her mission in our ward 5 years ago and who Sadie adores! She just happens to be my brother Steve's wife's sister. Got that? 
• Helping the kids make candy bar cards for my mom and dad's 45th wedding anniversary.
• A Peterson Family reunion. All my mom's sisters were there and many of my cousins and their families. I haven't seen some of them for over 15 years!
• Skylar's baby blessing. (I didn't take a picture of her in her beautiful dress. Rats!

Cousins at the Splash Park! (Molly, Taylor, Sterling, Sadie, and Kenna)

Kennecott Copper Mine. That is one huge hole in the ground! 

The massive trucks that haul rock in the mine use these 12 foot tires. The trucks easily dwarf a school bus!

A few of our favorite people:

Savannah and Skylar

Tanya

Emma

Nate

Levi and Savannah

HR (Handsome Rob)

Molly

Kenna

Crit (my buddy!)

Libby

Taylor

Before our trip, we didn't know if we'd be up for a visit to see Jeff's parents after 2 weeks on the road. But we're not ready to head home just yet. It's off to Idaho!    

Taking It Easy

After California Adventure on Thursday, as tired as we all were, we grabbed a quick meal and headed back to Nevada. We got in at 12:30am, just in time for Sam and Savannah to grab a few winks and a shower, pack up again, and meet the youth in my parent's stake at 4:00am for their Youth Conference.

While they were enjoying the Manti Pageant and other activities in Ephraim, Utah, the rest of us were taking it easy - swimming, visiting the splash park, watching the long-horned sheep that come down and graze at a nearby park, and feeding the fish at Lake Mead.

Jeff was in his element fixing things at my parent's house: installing a washer and dryer, fixing the oven, hooking up the DVD player, fixing a phone problem, etc. My parents joked that they should fly him out every six months. :)

The boys with long-horned sheep in background. I love Soren's scrunchy face!

It was a much needed break after long days of driving and Disneyland! And how are Sam and Savannah holding up? I worried we'd taken on too much with the Youth Conference right on top of everything else, but they came home happy, having made many new friends and both of them better for having gone. Hooray!!

Today the kids sang "Jesus Once Was a Little Child" in my parents ward with Savannah on the piano and Sam on the violin. So beautiful! It always makes me cry.

Goodbye, Nevada! We'll be in Utah this week!

California Adventure

You should have seen Sadie yesterday. What a trooper! She took great pride in the fact that she was willing to go on any ride, hands in the air, smile on her face, and no screaming! Then she would happily point out that Katie and Savannah were not nearly so brave. Ha!

Sadie with Grandpa once she perked up. :)

Unfortunately, after her first ride today (Tower of Terror on which she was every bit as brave as yesterday), she started fading fast. Before long it was obvious she had a fever and didn't feel well at all. Still, she never complained. We got a stroller for her and she was able to sleep a little. After a few hours, I approached a woman with a baby and asked if, by any chance, she had some children's medication. Thankfully she did and forty-five minutes later Sadie was feeling much better. Yay!

Radiator Springs

We loved California Adventure. The new Cars ride lived up to the hype and was worth the wait. Fortunately, Jeff had gotten us all fast passes earlier in the day so our wait was only 45 min, not the 2.5 hours  for everyone else! We also loved Soarin' Over California, the Aladdin Musical, Tower of Terror (somehow this one struck me as funny and I laughed until I cried!), California Screamin' (I only liked this one when I was sitting in the back. The front was a different story...yikes!), Toy Story Mania (I got the highest score of the family. Woo hoo!!), and the Grizzly River Run (we were all drenched!).

Paradise Pier at California Adventure

Soren and Flik

A great day!