Back To The Real World :(

So, I have just spent quite a few minutes trying to find my last post..... turns out it was about my trip to see Suzanne, Corey, Kristie and family, and Moab.  Such good times!  Since then, I have been working a little, but still sneaking in a little travel, visiting, and overall FUN times.  Oh, that is a life I could get used to!  I had so much fun in Havasu.  It is such a fascinating place!  It amazes me that I enjoy it so much!  For one thing, it is hot!  I am not a big fan of heat...but you know what they say about "dry heat"  ;)   And, I have only been there in March and April.   AND, I love lush green, beautifully landscaped yards (not mine...only in my dreams) and that is definitely not what you find in Lake Havasu City...but, there is something about being in the middle of the Mohave Desert that I find intriguing.  Maybe it is that fun little family with five adorable boys!  (Even you Levi....I know you secretly love me lots ;)  ) I loved visiting the old mining town of Oatman.  I have a few fun pictures that I wanted to put on the blog, but I am seriously clueless about how to do it, and no one is here to help me. I need an old person to share some of the fun facts about Oatman with.  For instance, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon there March18, 1939  I find that fascinating, ( because it is out in the middle of NOWHERE ) but it doesn't mean a thing to anyone else.... :)  That was ten years before I was even born, but still think it is so interesting.  It is also on the famous and historic Route 66 that goes for 2400 miles from Chicago to LA.   Another little tidbit.... world war 1 was partially funded by gold from the mountains there in 1912.  The mines were closed in 1942 because miners were needed to mine copper for WWII.  The mines reopened in 1990, but closed in 1999 when Gold prices went down.  They reopened in 2010.  Sorry....you have to learn a little history.

We got back from AZ on Sat., I worked for four days, then off again ... this time to Boise to see Wicked.  I loved it, but I knew I would.  It was so sweet of Lori and Lynne to include me in their little trip!  I had driven my car to Pocatello on the way to Boise, so on the way back I could just go on down to Clarkston to spend Easter with Aleisa's and Megan's families.  It was really nice!

If Melanie has time when she gets back, I will have her help me add some pictures.  Check out the post Lexi made last week.... I had to text Josh to remind him to post it because it was still in draft. When he posted it, it put it back a ways on the blog.  You might need to search a little  :) .  It has been fun to have my grandkids doing some of the blog posts!

Love to all of you !  My next trip will be to OR  for Grace's graduation!    XOXOXOXO

Quick update from my phone

We had a great week and a fantastic Easter in clarkston!  So many fun cousins and perfect  weather!

I am trying to do this on my phone but it is really slow... We still need to post about our fun week in Havasu and sylvie turning 8 months... That will have to be done on the computer. We are off to Moscow this weekend to check out some housing! Very excited to see what it looks like up north and get a feel for our future home! So it will be another blog post I'm sure!

But I truly love you all! Happy Easters!

Hippity, Hoppity, Hoo

Woo-Hoo, Hi Fam-ily!

We know everyone is super busy, but we really miss reading updates from all of you :(

We are anxious to get to Idaho to visit. Can't believe it's only a few weeks away!

We hope everyone had a enjoyable Easter Sunday.

Hi from ?

Hi this is Lexi! I finally get to post for the blog! This week we are visiting Corey and Kristie in Texas. We went to church with them. It was actually a lot of fun. We have been here since Saturday afternoon and Maddie,Isaac,Clara and,Nori are at school right now so I thought that it would be fun to post on the blog. And because I just thought it would be fun if my dad taught me how to post on the blog so I can post on the blog in the future😃. Yesterday me and Clara made brownies and it was really fun! Clara and I watched the grown ups +Maddie and Isaac play Wackee Six. Saturday night Maddie babysat because the parents went out to eat on my mom and dad's anniversary and we watched Frozen in the movie room. I hope you guys liked my first post and if you keep posting I will! And here are a few random pictures

                                               Lexi and Annie on the first day of school 2012

                                                          Daddy went skydiving last year!

Visitors!

We had SO MUCH FUN this past week with Grandma, Mel, Dan, Stori, & Sylvie here!  We've lived here for almost 3 years now and with them here visiting we finally did a couple things that we've been wanting to do, but just hadn't taken the time to do yet.  Of course we went to the lake a few times and showed them the London Bridge.  We took a road trip to a little old mining/ghost town about an hour away.  On the way there we spotted "Elsa's castle" and lots of cool desert scenery.  We took a ferry ride across the lake, took family pictures (thanks Dan!!) and went swimming at Dannette's sister's house.  Kirk and Dannette just happened to be visiting last week doing some projects at their vacation/rental house.  Levi and Stori developed a love/hate relationship and Sylvie made friends with Tyler and gave him lots of loves.  It was nice to have some visitors and we hope they had as much fun as we did :)  When Levi woke up the morning they left to go back to Idaho he said "I don't want Grandma and Stori and Sylvie and Mel & Dan to be gone." :(  

Only about 6 weeks until we head to Idaho for a visit! It looks like we will be there from Memorial Day weekend through 4th of July weekend.   Taylor has scout camp starting July 6th so we are going to try to be back in time for that, but might just drop him off at camp in Vegas a day or two late on our way home.  When will everyone else be in Idaho???

Hope everyone is doing well!  Love you all!

Dan did an impromptu photo shoot with Ryder while we were at the Lake one day and got these adorable shots of him! Ha!  He was totally posing for them!!  What a cheese!

All tuckered out on our way to Oatman.

The desert version of Elsa's castle

Feeding the Burros in Oatman

Mining museum in Oatman

Cousins

London Bridge

 Swimming at Deb's house

 Ferry ride across the Lake

I'm hoping Grandma, Mel, and Dan will post some pictures too!  They took a lot of good ones :)

Birds, bees and pigs at the Peterson farm

          First off we said goodbye to the good ol minivan last week. The kids were so very sad and were actually pretty bummed. It has been a great van with so little problems and so reliable it's whole life, but was on it's last leg.  We were looking at Burvans and realized they were way too expensive and our car payment would be crazy high. So we were going to save for a few months and use our tax returns to put down and then Joel had a brilliant idea. We sell the truck (which we only use to get firewood, pulling the camper and yard work/get hay bales) which is paid off and use that money for the Suburban which is 4 wheel drive ad can tow, and a trailer! He is so smart. So he posted the truck on KSL for a couple thousand over blue book (because that is what they were all posted for) and had it sold the next day! So we went and checked out the Suburban we had been watching. It was a 2010 with black leather interior with super low miles. It was owned by an older couple with no kids so I don't think the back had ever been sat in. No DVD player but we are getting one put in next month. I LOVE LOVE that we have tons of space, and can go places like Oregon, and Lake Havasu now and we get the same gas mileage as the van! The next day Joel had a cute little old trailer picked out that was a tandem axel for the big wood load and 10 feet long. We have already used the trailer many times in the yard!
           Maizy had her 5th grade Olympics. They were so fun to watch. It is a really big deal that they practice for a long time. Her team color was blue so we were very focused on blue around our house for the last couple of weeks.

          We also got two adorable, and I mean ADORABLE pigs! They are brother and sister. The small one is a boy named Bronker and the girl is named Petunia. Bronker is sweet and friendly and Petunia is high strung and protective. We got bees yesterday and since Joel was at work I had to hive two swarms by myself. The Godfrey's came over to watch and it was actually pretty fun. I only got stung twice which were totally my fault. I didn't have on long sleeves and I had bees all over me. I didn't know there was one under my arm so when I put my arm down I squished it. Then one went up my pant leg and it was around behind my knee and I for some reason swatted at it and of course squishing them makes them sting!
          The kids are finally getting to use their Christmas present! Weather is getting nice and the kids are loving their new playset! For General Conference Maizy wanted us to make President Monson's mother's recipe for ribbon cake. It is so dang good and Miles thought it was too! Here he is
with about a 6th of the cake. Joel and I kept watching him go over and cut huge pieces, then when there was that much left he just picked it up and started chowin' on it. He makes me so happy!(even if he did yell at me to "SHUT UP!" today during the closing song in sacrament meeting because he didn't want me to sing.) He also decided to use my shampoo and make himself a very full, very bubbly, bubble bath!
           This picuture of Thomas is just because it is probably the only one like this that I will ever get. Since he was born he can't sleep unless he is in his crib or bed or car seat. So I don't have any sweet pictures of him sleeping. He was cold so I wrapped him up and he fell asleep. I was excited to take lots of pictures of him.