We went to City of Rocks over the 4th of July weekend. We just stayed one night. The boys had a blast climbing all over the rocks. We tried to get the boys to do a little repelling, but I think they are still a little too young and need to get a little bigger. It was too scary for them.

We had a heck of a time finding a camping spot. It was already filling up for the holiday. We got lucky though, and ended up with a pretty sweet spot. We had like a little cave there behid Tyrel and it made for good shade and playing for the boys.

Making yummy smores!

Stuffing his face with a marshmallow!

Luke keeping his feet toasty warm by the fire! It was pretty windy that night and made it hard to get good sleep.

I spent the first 2 weeks of July down in Utah to just hang out and be with family and to be there when my sister had her baby. It was lots of fun. We went to the Living Planet Aquarium. It was way cool. The kids got to see all kinds of sea life and other animals and reptiles from around the world. They even had a place to pet the stingrays.

We even got to go to Lagoon with my Mom. It is Lagoon's 125th anniversary this year, so they had a deal going on that week, so we couldn't pass it up. Thanks Mom for going with us and going on the rides with my boys. It was a blast!

We spent the 4th of July over at my sister's house and watched street fireworks and the kids did sparklers. I also burned the crap out of the bottom of my foot, chasing after Easton in the street. I accidentally stepped on some hot embers from his sparkler. The rest of the time there we spent just visiting and eating and the kids played on the slip n slide and played with the neighbor kids a lot. It was a fun 2 weeks!

After we got home from Utah we just hung out at home for 2 weeks and the last weekend in July was the Gierisch family reunion, which I didn't take any pics of, but it was fun and everyone in my family stayed at our house, except for Tia's family, they had a hotel room. Tyrel came home the next week and we went to Lagoon again so we could something fun while he was home and before school started. Then, 2 weeks later, it was fair week, so my brother Shane and his family came down to join in the festivities. Lame me didn't take pics again. The kids had soooo much fun jumping on our new tramp with the hose spraying. Easton and Sam played pretend Harry Potter and even created a new character for the movie. His name was Eric and Easton played his part.:) They played the Wii plenty also. Logan & Katie enjoyed dressing up as superman and a pretty princess and played "save". Luke mostly just followed whoever around and did what they were doing or just did his own thing in his own world. Of course we went to the fair and rode the carnival rides and got us a maple bar. Yummy! It was fun, fun, fun! It was a crazy, fun filled summer and went by soooo fast. Now I am ready for school to start and get back into a routine and early bedtime! Logan will be starting Kindergarten this year so we are excited for that, and Tyrel will be homein about a week and a half! Yay! We are not moving to N. Dakota beacuse it's too expensive, but more importantly, we are expecting baby #4! I want to be closer to home for lots of help! Not to mention the frigid winters up there. I am 14 weeks and have a due date of Feb. 20th. We'll post more about baby when we find out what we're having! Hoping for a girl, but planning on boy! We find out in about 2 1/2 weeks!

Summer plans!

Well Tyrel will be home again in one week! We are counting down the days! He'll be home for a week and then we will all pack up and go up to North Dakota with him for a good part of the summer and see what it's all about up there. It's possible we will move up there for a while since Tyrel wants to stay up there for a few years, but we will keep our residency here in Idaho since this is where we want to be in the long run! It will be fun and interesting and a crazy adventure. I know the summer and fall months will be okay, I am just dreading the frigid winter! So..... we will see how it goes after the summer and just go from there! We just love flying by the seat of our pants.......or atleast Tyrel does =)

The dentist!

Well I took the kids to the dentist last month and they all made out okay except for Logan. He had possibly 4-8 cavities, so they told me they would have to put some silver caps on his teeth and they would have to put him to sleep for it since there was so many. He did okay. He was nervous being there and didn't want anyone to touch him. I couldn't be with him when they put him to sleep so I had to sneak out when he wasn't looking. They said he only fussed for about 15 seconds and then went right to sleep. When he was all done, they brought me back and I could hear him crying cuz he was trying to wake up and didn't like any of the nurses touching him. Once they brought him to me he was fine, just a little groggy still. So he had a total of 5 caps put on. He was back to his old self by the time we got home! It was kind of hard for me to let them take him back without me there, cuz I knew he would be scared once he knew I wasn't there, and I knew they were going to put him to sleep, but it all turned out okay! Note to self: make sure you brush & FLOSS your kids teeth so you can hopefully avoid this kind of stuff!

SURPRISE!!

Well Tyrel surprised us and came home 2 weeks early. I had no clue he was coming. Both his parents knew and they were keeping it a secret. It was so nice to have him home for a week. The boys were glued to him the whole time wanting to wrestle and play and just sit on his lap. He has left again and has been gone for about a week and a half. He'll be gone for 2 more weeks, then come home again. I have been busy with the kids and just haven't gotten around to blogging. This past week was spring break. I packed up the kids in the car and drove to Logan for the weekend to visit my brother and his family. He is going to school to be a helicopter pilot, so we took the kids to the airport and looked at the helicopters, but I am lame and didn't take pictures, but it was fun and the kids had a blast playin on the Wii with their Uncle. Luke had a blast playin with all the girl toys. He played with the strollers and shopping cart, and even played with the dollies. So now it's back to school until SUMMER! That's what's goin on with us lately. Hopefully I'll have a more exciting post next time.

It's gonna be a long 5 weeks!

Well, Tyrel left for North Dakota yesterday morning. He left around 8:15 and got there around 9:00PM that day. It's about a 12 hour drive, but he had to stop to get gas and eat, stuff like that. I called him throughout the day to see where he was and to make sure he was wearing his seatbelt! I did way better than I thought I would when he left. I didn't even cry! That is a big thing for me because I do not like to be away from him for long periods of time. I think by the time it was time for him to leave, I was SO sick of the anticipation of him leaving for five weeks, that I was just like, just hurry up and leave so we can get this over with. Also, all the stress and pressure of getting everything that we needed to get done before he left. Even though I didn't want him to leave. I have been keeping busy with the boys and the puppies, but I know when the down time comes, like on the weekends and in the evenings, when he's usually here, it will get harder. I am staying positive and looking at the big picture. I have already had several people talk to me and offer help at any time or just to see how I'm doing. I appreciate it so much. The reason why he'll be gone for 5 weeks at first is because the first 2 weeks is just training, and then he'll start his regular 3 week on 1 week off shift. He said there is around 2 feet of snow up there and it's just pretty much like Idaho, flat and windy. So I think he'll be used to the weather, and it is supposed to warm up quite a bit this weekend. He passed his physical and drug test today, so tomorrow he'll get the gear that he'll need with his boss and then probably just hang out for the weekend until he starts his training on Monday! The last night he was here, we went to Pizza Hut with the boys, then went and got Root Beer to make root beer floats. We rented a movie to watch together while eating our root beer floats. So hopefully I don't go completely crazy, and we are looking forward to him coming home! Then he'll turn around and do it again, but for 3 weeks!