Extreme Home Makeover

Extreme Home Makeover is in Idaho! They are doing a house for a family in Pocatello. It's a single mom with 9 kids. Their house caught fire, and a lot of the inside burned. They were staying in a hotel, and then ran out of money. So, for awhile they have been living in tents in the backyard and farming the kids out to friends and neighbors. I can't wait until the show airs, so we can get the full story.

We love the show! On Sunday we decided to drive down to the site, hoping to get a glimpse of the house. We got a glimpse of a lot more than that :)!

Here's the house. It's hard to believe that a few days before this, a totally different house sat on this lot.

Bailey was so excited to be there!
Sawyer in front of the house.

It's crazy to think of all that was going on at the same time. The were finishing up the outside, and doing landscaping. We couldn't even see all the craziness going on inside. They had the front walk way ready to pour, and the front trees planted in a matter of minutes.

Ty hadn't even been at the site. He was in a totally different state. You can imagine our surprise when everyone started cheering and he walked by! I had just turned my camera off, and by the time I got it back on I only got a picture of him walking away. That's him in front of the guy with the white shirt on. We decided to wait around until he came back out.

Our waiting around paid off! There he is! The kids thought this was the coolest thing EVER! They love Ty! I have to admit, that even I got a little giddy when he would go by.

This is Ed. He's one of Sawyer's favorite guys on the show. He was working in this same spot in a tent the whole time we were there. I can't wait until the show airs, so we can see what his project was.

Ty went by a few more times.

Right when we took this picture, Bailey yelled, "I love you Ty!" He turned around and laughed and said he loved her too! I thought she was gonna die. She was jumping up and down, and giggled the whole way home :)! What a fun experience!

Right when we decided to leave, Paul came over to sign autographs. He's my favorite! He was only taking pictures with the kids. Bailey was super excited to get to have her picture with him. That was the perfect end to our very own Extreme Home Makeover experience!

Mud Run!

The Mud Run is the BEST cross country race of the season! The kids love it, and the spectators love to watch it. This is truly 'gettin' down and dirty!'

Bonneville's teams before the race.

The girl's team won 'best/worst dressed, and the boys team won 'muddiest!'

The girls going up the sand hill after the first round of mud.

Sawyers first time under the board.

Doesn't that look like tons of fun?!?

The boys going up the sand hill. Sawyer thinks they look like the chocolate man on the Axe dark chocolate temptation commercials. Haha, pretty close!

And he just wouldn't be himself if he didn't pull a face or two!

Sawyer's stunt off the hay bail. I think this one may have even topped last years!

Second round through the mud.

They were on their way to the finish line. They were combing the bottom of the mud for shoes and stuff. I wish we would have had the camera ready when Sawyer pulled out someones old sock.

The finish!

Super Activity: Lower Palisades Hike

For our Super Activity this summer, we took the Young Men and Young Women on a hike to the lower Palisades Lake. It was really pretty, and really fun. I love all these kids! They always have a way of making me smile :)!

The whole group at the start.

Bailey and Marlee got to come too!

We ate lunch right here at the lake.

Sawyer and Bailey at the end. Bailey worn this bandanna on her head the whole way back. Every time I looked back at her I would start laughing.

As usual, it was another fun day with the youth!

The Duck Race

We had a great Saturday! Mark and I decided to take the dogs hiking in Kelly Canyon. We never found the trail we were looking for, but we went on some others, and the dogs had a great time.

We found a big trough for the cows. We brought the dogs up to it to drink, and Reeses decided to swim in it instead.

We have lived in Idaho Falls for 12 years, and we have never gone down to the river for the annual Duck Race. Bailey really wanted to adopt a duck this year, so we went. It was really fun! People can adopt ducks for $5, and then all the ducks race down the river. The first duck to go over the waterfall wins it's owner a new truck. The next few ducks win other prizes. All the money goes toward making the Greenbelt a great place. They have the Roaring Youth Jam down there, and all kinds of fun booths.

Bailey with the big duck!


We brought Oreo and Reeses down there with us, and they had so much fun.

Reeses was so happy to be with all the people.

They are waiting for the ducks to be released.

I absolutely love this sweet dog!

They are about to release the ducks!

And thousands of little duckies are off!

Here comes the first one. Bailey is hoping one of those is ours!

There was a row of these little ducks about a quarter mile long. It was so cute! Little kids were going in the water to throw back the ones that were getting stuck.

Maybe this one is ours :)

After the ducks went by us, we raced to the waterfall just in time to see the winning duck go over! It was so funny, because right when it went over, the whole crowd cheered for it. I love our little town. We are so easily entertained!

We might have to make the duck race an annual tradition!

A Boating Adventure

The Hughes wanted to take us boating on a Friday afternoon. So, Mark got off work early, and we headed up to Blacktail. The only problem....a big storm was heading up there at the same time. We could tell it was a fast moving one, so we decided to eat dinner under the shelter first, and hope it passed. We were right, it was a big one! There was winds, heavy rain, lightening, thunder, the works. It was fun to watch, and by the time we finished eating, it had passed on by. The good part....all the boaters had packed up and left because of the storm, and we ended up with the whole lake to ourselves. It was a little cold, but we had a great time!

Right after I took this picture, the storm hit.

Emersyn and Bailey

Jaxson, Ethan, and Sawyer

The goofy boys had fun on the tube.

Me and Bailey had fun too!

Mark drove the boat so Keith could go out on the water. He thought that was pretty fun.

Thanks Hughes for another great time. We can't wait to go again!

Cousins!

We LOVE when the cousins come to visit! Kim, Noah, Sydnie, Cali, and Bella came to Idaho Falls for a week. My kids had a blast with them. The girls made up plays, had sleepovers, planned a birthday party for Noah, played football, did each others hair, giggled, and just did all the fun things that girls do. The boys played the Wii. One night, we all went to the Chuckars game. We go quite often, but it was WAY more fun with the cousins! All the girls had Charlie the Chuckar sign their baseballs.

Bailey and Sydnie

Noah, Sawyer, Bella, Cali

The girls with Charlie the Chuckar.

This n That

Swim

Bailey took one session of swim this summer, and she passed the class. She was in 'shark' and that's the last class, so she's done with swim lessons FOREVER! I guess I have mixed feeling about that. I'm happy to not have to sit at the pool for an hour every day during the summer, but I'm sad too, because she can't possibly be that grown up already. Swim lessons have been a part of my summer for the past 10 years. I guess it's on to better things...like swim team! She's really excited about that.

She had to swim the mile. She finished it 10 minutes faster than she did last year, and she was the second one done. I guess all her running has made her pretty strong.

She was so excited when she got her report card and realized she was done with all the classes.

BC-XC

Sawyer went to Building Champions-Cross Country Camp. It was AWESOME! The Firth HS coach, Brett Hill, puts it on for high school runners in the area. They go up to a huge cabin in the mountains for 3 days. Sawyer made lots of friends, learned a lot, and ran a ton. It was just what he needed to get him motivated for the upcoming season. He wants to go every year until he graduates.

This was the whole group at the top of the hill after the Amazing Race.

Sawyer is at the top right.

Scrapbook Challenge
My Neighbor, Nicole, issued a scrapbook challenge for the month of July. I have been in a scrap booking rut, so I gladly accepted. Everyone was suppose to set their own goal. There would be prizes along the way, and a party at the end. My original goal was to get 15 pages done. I smashed that goal! I ended up with 22 pages, and 1 project finished! Thanks for the challenge Nicole. It was just what I needed!

Here's all my pages!

My project was to make a set of dinner conversation cards. Thanks to the help of Jenni, they turned out cute, and I'm really excited to use them.

Christmas in July
My friend Jenni started a themed dinner party group. Each month someone hosts dinner with a specific theme. It's been lots of fun. July was my month, so I did Christmas in July. It was the first time we had our spouses come, and we had a great time.

During dinner there was a storm. We looked outside and there was a huge, and very bright rainbow. I wish I could have got a picture of the whole thing.

Jenni, Keith, Colette, Curtis, Mark, Tricia, Lindsey, Justin, Tamra, Darrin. Kassie and Jeremiah were there too.