August Family Fun!!! End of Summer!

 As a family, we headed back up to Kelly Canyon for a family hike! We saw some icky clouds roll in and thought we'd make an adventure out of it! We sure did! It poured for about 20 minutes, so we huddled under thick trees and sang songs while we ate some snacks. Daddy carried Evan just because it was so steep, but the kids had a fun time! It was definitely an adventure!!! We'll have to do this hike again, but hey, a little rain never hurt nobody!

                                                               

We headed to LAGOON for the last weekend in August and met up with Kimber, Nick, Talea and Grandma. We celebrated Evan's BIRTHDAY! #2!!! He's so cute! What a mellow loving little guy he is! He LOVES balls, throwing balls, hitting balls, catching balls and anything that's round. It was nice and hot, but we had so much fun! We got to go 2 days and boy was it nice to have extra time and the camper at the camp ground! We were super close to the front of the campground, and we loved hanging out in between the busy hours of running through the park! Happy Birthday sweet Evan, we love you!

End of Summer- August is here!

My kids LOVE to help daddy mow the lawn, and this year mommy left most of the lawn mowing to daddy- which meant a lot of warm summer nights were spent with fresh smelling grass clippings in the air. The kids feet get green, but they don't care. They love to help. And they have a great daddy that has alot of patience for helpers!

 

In August, right before Evan's Birthday, Aunt Susan Otto came to visit. We had the kids all dressed up for Sunday, since she wanted a nice family picture. :) She got them each books from Barnes and Noble (a tradition) and gave Evan his at a little family party we had. We gave Evan a few gifts, and then went to Lagoon as a family for that weekend and mommy's birthday too. It was so fun to have Aunt Susan tag along to Kelton's CubScout cookout with moms. She's an amazing woman, and we are so lucky to have her in our lives!!! So, here are some great photos of her reading with the kids, something they are learning to love from her!

 

Wolf Scouts Hike

  

We went up to the Kelly Canyon area and found some beautiful woods for the Scouts to Hike. Taelin and Chase got to come, but we left grumpy (and nap needing) Evan to sleep with Opa. The boys all had a blast skipping over muddy ponds, climbing tall rocks, staying on the trails (i'm such a meanie) and playing in the mini waterfall. We had a snack on the top of the trail overlooking the very East parts of Idaho Falls. It was an awesome day with some awesome boys!

 

(bottom R picture) L to R: Chase, taelin, Oliver, Mitchel, Elijah, Jon, Kelton, Rook, Trey, Ridge

(bottom L picture) Taelin and Tessa hanging out in the shade!

Bowling!!!

We {heart} bowling. We usually only make it through one game, but Opa and Oma treated us to a game at the Bowlero Lanes here in Idaho Falls. The kids LOVE helping Evan, and now they can actually bowl on their own! The boys watch the score, and Chase almost beat Daddy! Way to go guys! You all did great!!! Taelin always finds a pink ball (even if its too heavy) silly girl!

 

July 4th: Choffin Family Reunion

Lake Powell has been so fun! Beach days full of redish sand, sand castles, waching tiny fishies swim around our legs, and Daddy's fun sand castle vs water battle. Each time we head to the beach (rigby lake included), Daddy makes a deep mote and tower close to the water and then some people call "water" and some people call "sand" (ususally daddy) and then the water people grab buckets and then it becomes WAR! The kids LOVE that they beat daddy, every time! Courtney and Mommy have swim suit twinners!

 Our family photo (abby took it) and we all love that LaBron James on Beau's tshirt is looking straight at Kyle! 4th of July, we went to the Page Park festivities and ate lots of sno cones and popcorn! Later that day, during the hot hours, we took large balloons and filled them with water and played Water Balloon Volleyball! We tested it out with the kids in Kyle and Courtney's backyard, and it was a hit!!! We found a park with a big sign and played over that. Seriously, this one was so fun for everyone and with the Choffin's everything gets competitive, but everyone pretty much sucks at Water Balloon Volleyball, so mostly the afternoon was just filled with cool feet, occassionally wet people and lots of giggles. 

 

 

   We took a break from the heat, and headed into the High School where Kyle teaches and Courtney coaches, and the boys got their game on while the kids played in the gymnastics room and tried on cheer stuff! Taelin was in heaven!

 

We started our hike at 10:00 am and it got SUPER hot SUPER fast!!! The nice 3 mile hike ended with most of us on our last legs! Literally, Jacob carried mom the last 100 yds on his back since her knee was giving out. In the end, the water was warm or gone and the kids were slightly burnt, but mostly just red from being hot. It was pretty wtih all of the red rock and the kids felt like they were on top of the world when we let them climb high with some help. :)  The older boys carried the little ones on their backs towards the end, I think we should have had a lot more water! :)

OVERALL, a GREAT 1st FAMILY REUNION!!! Thanks Kyle and Courtney!!!

June Fun!

 Zoo Fun with the Mickelsen Family

Taelin LOVED the tiger, and they all had fun in the kiddy area climbing around and running a ton (hence the lack of pictures). Soooo nice to have the summer here! 

 

Each June, around Father's Day, we attend the Air Show in Rexburg (by ourselves this year). The kids LOVE the planes and we sit across from the airport at a park, set up camp and let the kids play at the playground, with frisbees, and snacks! I love watching my kids just staring at the sky with their necks titled upwards, and sometimes with their hands over their ears for the super loud old planes :) Some of the pilots are so talented, they stall the planes straight up and then free fall (which is Kelton's favorite). The jets and trick planes are also a favorite, but to tell you the truth, we all enjoy the nice weather and cool show. We've never felt disappointed heading out on a fun June Saturday. We walked around the duck pond this year to see if we could find better seats of the runway, and we did- but alas we returned to the playground for the younger kiddos. Lots of white tails and wondering eyes. One of our favorite summer traditions!

Happy Father's Day to a great Daddy! He didn't need anything big, but a ton of little fun things! He's became a master griller using his smoker, and we're all reaping those benefits this summer! Happy day daddy! (missing evan) We think you are the best!!!!!

Chase turns 6! June 5, 2012

I love giving gifts to this kid...and this is why. He is always so expressive and gets SOOOO excited. The first picture is from Oma's house the day before his bday, then his friend party was soon to follow....NINJA STYLE!

 We had a ton of stations, borrowed gymnastic mats, had relays and trampolien fun! Face painting, head bands, learned to write japanease writing...it was overall a lot of work, but a lot of fun. Lately, the kids have been into "Power Rangers Samurai" and so simply because I dislike Power Rangers, I was glad that Chase was happy with a compromise and just doing a Ninja theme. :) Love this kid!!!

End of School 2012

Kelton here at the 2nd Grade Carnival (that mommy put on) with his Bestie Houston Facer. These two have been together since Kindergarten, and have loved every minute of it! Can't believe they will be in 3rd grade!!

Chase finished his Kindergarten year with Mrs. Keller! She is fantastic, and he LOVES her! She always kept his attention and he always would come home saying, "school was great mom." He loved to tell stories about her dogs, people who were naughty in class and about all the funny songs she taught them like "i tittle tat, i tittle tat, a tootie tat tat." :) and "PLATIPUS!!!!!!!"

CaTcH uP!!!! June 2012, (ie. Tball season)

This year, we started a mommy n me tball, and it was fun to have all the kids get together, and get all the help from the moms, since wrangling 7 kids together to enjoy something they know NOTHING about, is tricky. Taelin LOVED her friends playing with her. Evan thought he could play during everyones game, and often ends up behind the plate at Kelton's game trying to play catcher. :) Gotta love his passion for anything with a ball.

 

Kelton got to pick our name this year, who wooda guessed, of course he picked Texas. It was fun! Kelton played an awesome first base and catcher. What a great group of boys!

 Chase's league starts a lot sooner (end of May), and it was soooo cold most games! But, last year of Tball for this little guy, most of the time if I was missing a kid, I'd let him play and he was hitting better off of live pitching than the tee. So excited for next year!

 Cobie, Chase, Davis, and Luke

Opa would come and help (since Daddy went to straight days shift) during the games, and it was funny to see Evan take off and run away. He would always try to get into the game and onto the field. :) silly boy!!!

 

We are SOOO excited for summer!! Can't wait!

Memorial Day 2012

MEMORIAL DAY 2012

We drove down to grandma's house for the memorial weekend and took a VERY scenic drive up in Vernal. We thought we were headed to the Flaming Gorge...but no. Its okay. It was a fun adventure. I cannot for the life of me find the picture of the whole family together! urgh! oh well. we stayed at grandma's and saw Avenger's, played a lot of basketball and hung out! Miss you guys!

Hawaii Final: Part 13, Weekend Wrap Up

Date Night in Waikiki

A beautiful walk at sunset...and I only had my small camera! ah! But we got a lot of pictures, which just speaks for seriously how beautiful the night was. We had a cute little tag along Pepper Jean, and she got her ears pierced! Which inspired us to get Taelin's done the next day, which ended up being a day of relaxing and spending time with some amazing friends that we love.

As we say goodbye to Hawaii...we feel ready to leave after 2 weeks, and mommy is ready for daddy to start driving again (his license expired so she got to drive the whole time). As we headed home for a red-eye flight, we got celebrate Dakota's birthday and have one last hawaiian meal by our gracious hosts the Allred's. :) Thanks guys for an amazing vacation and for being amazing friends! We love you guys and we miss you!