More Summer Fun

This is just a quick update from a fun night at the neighbors from this summer. We had been wanting to go play with them but our schedules never seemed to match up so one day when everything finally aligned we had a pizza party over at their place and it was great to just sit around and visit. The kids loved the chance to run around and eat outdoors and Roslyn enjoyed the chance to be dressed down a little more than usual. As you can tell pizza and popsicles make any day, or messy face, SOOO much better!!!

Riann's Last Day of Preschool

Riann had her last day of preschool this last week and it was a lot of fun. This was her second semester at the preschool up on campus and she has had a great time learning. Because they ended during the summer her teachers decided to let them have a water day for their last day of class. They had a ton of fun water activities and they even let me bring up Colby and Roslyn to join Riann for the last part of class. Colby had a great time playing with the big kids and Roslyn did a great job hanging out while I helped in what little ways I could. Riann loved showing us everything about her classroom and getting wet where ever she could. It was a great day and I'm so glad we got to share it with her.

They had a fun bucket and pulley set up where one person filled a bucket at the bottom and another person pulled it up to the top of their "castle" and then the person on top poured it back through pipes that lead to a pump that the person on the bottom used to fill their big tub. It was fun to watch Riann get excited about how the whole cycle worked.

Colby loved being up top and helping dump the water back down to Riann. He made quite a mess but enjoyed every minute of it. This was his favorite inside activity.

Once we checked out everything inside, Riann wanted to show us all of the fun stuff they had going on outside. Everyone seemed to like the giant puddle they made in the middle of the play area the most but there were lots of other things to do.

Colby was in heaven playing with the big kids and he had a great time running around and checking out everything he could. It was a little hard to get him out of the fort outside and back in the car to go home. I can't wait until he's old enough to play here soon. He's gonna LOVE it!!

Riann and her lead teacher Ms. Stephanie. She was so kind to Riann and it was so fun to watch them interact.
We miss seeing her every week.

We are really hoping that Riann can get back in for the winter track in 2013 and that Colby can join her up there at the toddler labs. They really do a fantastic job at the campus preschool and we hope that the kids are accepted again. There is LOTS to learn!

The Ice Caves

Our second family adventure this summer was to the Ice Caves. Paul got to go out to them on a "field trip" with one of his Auto classes when he was in school and had a great time. I've been living out here for almost 10 years and hadn't been out to them yet. Paul's family was coming into town for his graduation and we were trying to figure out fun things we could do with them in town. We decided to head out to the caves to see if we could find them (so we weren't driving around in the dark if we decided to go out with family) and to just check them out.

They're really out in the middle of no where and if you didn't know where to look there's no way you would find them. Paul kept telling me "they're just up there" and I was expecting to see some kind of mountain with a cave at the base, kind of like you see at the beach, but all of the sudden we were there and looking at a giant hole in the ground. It was pretty cool. Paul explained to me that they are formed from lava tubes that have crumbled and when you get down there you can really see how it all "works". We didn't go any further than the edge because they're not made for kids but it was fun to see what they looked like and where they were. It was Roslyn's first real off-road adventure and quite a bumpy ride but Riann helped me keep her steady and she seemed to enjoy the ride and slept for a good portion of it.

Here are some photos from our adventure. The kids had a great time. Hopefully we'll be able to take them back out when they're older and really get to explore them. 

Checking out the entrance. Paul made sure to hold on tight so we didn't lose the kids over the edge. It was pretty steep.

The first photo on the left is the entrance from the top. To get to the entrance you had to hike down in the opposite direction into the "tube" and crawl through a hole that brought you down to the mouth of the cave. It was too steep and "crumbly" to climb straight down to the entrance.

We picked up some dinner on our way out there and had a "picnic" once we were there. Before we headed back for food I hiked down into one of the tubes for some pictures and got some shots of  Paul and the kids from up above.

The "car shot" from this adventure. Riann LOVED the mud and asked us to hit every mud puddle we could on the drive. It was fun to get a little dirty while we were out playing.

Just some fun shots from the area around us. We got a pretty awesome lightening show while we were out there and the photo on the bottom right is looking back at Rexburg from where we were.

Grandpa came to visit!!!

My dad came to visit for the weekend shortly after Roslyn was born. The kids had a blast playing with him here and at his hotel. It was a great visit, even if it was short. It was so wonderful to have family around for a little bit and we try to soak up every moment we can because we don't get to see family as often as we'd like. I wish we could be closer and see family more often but we're so grateful we can have visits like this that build so many sweet memories for the kids. They talk often about seeing grandpa and are always excited for his next visit.

The kids LOVE going swimming at grandpa's hotel. Every time we pass the hotel he stays in they ask if they can go see him and go swimming, even when he's not visiting. This visit he brought them life jackets and it was wonderful. Colby spent the whole time enjoying floating around and Riann was able to be independent and swim on her own. She loved it and it was so fun to watch her. She's getting so big!!

He brought the kids a bubble machine and they love playing with it. Colby would stand as close as he could to it and play. He'd sit there and let them pop in his face and just laugh from having so much fun.

Riann wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get a better picture of her. She loves being out in the bubbles and running around trying to "catch" as many as she could.

Before he left we made sure to get a picture of him with all of the kids.
They love him so much!!