Summer

I go back to work tomorrow. TOMORROW. Summer is over. I have no idea where it went. I have no idea where to even begin updating all of our summer travels and fun times. We have definitely managed to keep ourselves nice and busy despite Dillon being tied down with his 40 hours a week, 12 week internship. We filled any and all free time right up by going to Lava, swimming in the river, going to the Play Mill in West Yellowstone, preping for and going to Girls Camp, doing fertility treatments, going to weddings, celebrating 4 years of wedded bliss, camping, shopping and painting and selling for Little Yellow Door Design, visiting SV, fishing (a little bit), going to Priest Lake, visiting grandparents in WA, and much more! This has honestly been the busiest and fastest summer I can remember in a LONG time or maybe even ever. I'm definitely not ready to be back to work already. Oh well.

Well, once I get all the pics on the computer and organized I'll try to do a full post of all our fun.
So for now, here are a few pics of our good times this summer.

Yes, it was basically a 'no makeup' and 'messy hair' kinda summer.
Thus, all the sexy pictures. Sorry :)

Little Yellow Door Design

As I have said before, my sister Lacie and her little family have recently moved to Eastern Idaho. Let me tell you, I have LOVED having them only 20 short mins away!!! Since they have moved here we have gotten together and decided to start our own little business. Both of us have toyed with the idea in the past but never did anything with it. I can't speak for her, but I didn't feel like I was good enough to sell my stuff and not creative enough to make it look amazing. Well, with both of our brains together....I think we have been finding and refurbishing some stinkin' cute stuff! We are just getting started but have a few pieces done and are working on lots more. You can check out our website HERE. We will have our more official site up and running soon with lots more items, so keep checking back. Be sure to tell all your friends and family to come take a peek and help us spread the word. And don't worry, we will have a little bit of everything, both furniture and home decor items.

Bear Lake

Well, it wasn't quite how I'd hoped our weekend would look...but nonetheless, we still had a GREAT time at Bear Lake

Back in February I was at work and was talking with the ladies I work with about planning and taking trips and whatnot. I mentioned something about Dillon and I wanting to plan a fun trip for after he graduates to celebrate FREEDOM (and hopefully a job) :) One of the ladies mentioned that she has a condo, that she owns, at Bear Lake. She told me that Dillon and I were welcome to go and stay whenever we wanted...for free! :) I did some thinking and checked the calendars and told her to pencil us in for Memorial Day Weekend, thinking that by then we would have nice, warm, sunny weather to enjoy playing in the lake. (Ha Ha)

So, for almost 4 months, I kept this little secret to myself and planned and plotted how/when to tell Dillon. I knew I needed to let him know a little bit in advance to make sure he didn't need to work or had other plans or something, but I still wanted it to be as much as a surprise as I could. So I came up with the ticket idea. Oh boy, once I gave them to him it was one question right after another....right up until we were packing the few last minute items before we left. And that's when he guessed it. He knew we were going to Bear Lake but still had no idea where we were staying :)

Despite the windy/rainy/snowy/cold weather we managed to have a GREAT time! It was SO SO nice to have our only concerns be, "what movie should we watch?" or "how many people do you think are in the hot tub?" It was great!The weather finally cleared up for us on Monday and warmed all the way up to a whopping 60 degrees!!! So, we spent the day in the hot tub, in the pool, sitting on the beach and building a sandcastle.Although it wasn't anything fancy or exotic or tropical or even very far away, it really was an awesome (and much needed) step away from reality with just me and my hubby!
Thanks Connie SOOOOO much for letting us stay at your condo! And thanks Dilly for putting up with my surprise and going with me, I LOVE YOU!! :)

A weekend away in......

I gave these to Dillon the end of last week...
...I have had this planned since February.

We leave tomorrow morning...
....And he still has no idea where we are going!

He is driving himself CRAZY trying to figure it out :)

the Bastow's

Last week we had the privilege of having my sister and her family stay with us for most of the week. Although I'm not so sure it was a privilege for my sister and her husband.....

On Saturday the 5th we helped them move into their new house in American Falls. (My brother-in-law got a job working in Aberdeen and had been staying with us for a few days while he started his new job and Lacie and the kids finished packing up their house in Logan for the big move.) After a long day we finally got them all moved in and started the unpacking process. On Sunday I got a text asking when we had church and if they could come over and shower. Their new house (rental, thankfully) did not have a draining shower or a non-leaking, working plumbing for that matter. So, they came over for a shower and some dinner. Monday I got another text wondering if they could come over yet again for a shower and to eat dinner with us since their stove/oven was not working. Of course we said YES and we met in town for some dinner and they came and showered/bathed and stayed the night with us. Tuesday they headed back to American Falls to see what the plumber and electrician had fixed or were working on. Wednesday afternoon I got another text, there was an awful smell (mold? old drug house?) that was making the kids grumpy and sick; could they come stay for a few days until they found new place to live. They were moving out. Of course we said YES again and they stayed the rest of the week! :)

It was a stressful situation for them and not a very pleasant one but we sure LOVED having them here and had so much fun playing together. They were luckily able to find a townhouse they could move into immediately in Chubbuck so we spent the day Friday packing the few things she had unpacked and Sat moving them yet again into their next new house.

We loved having you here Bastow family and would have loved to have you stay forever, but for your sake I'm glad you guys found a place of your own that has working plumbing, good electrical work and smells good :)

A few pictures from our fun times........

We played lots and lots of basketball (with a volleyball, but don't tell Luke that) :)

Sitting and laughing with Uncle Dillon

Watching "sing" (as Luke called it)

Dancing to "sing"

Wearing Uncle Dillon's funny reading glasses

Playing Uncle Dillon's guitar

Basically they just LOVE Uncle Dillon

Sofia not so sure she liked the swings

She really did NOT like it

Brother LOVED it

Petting the horses (it was a process :)

Finally.
He thought he was pretty cool

What a mean mom, feeding her to the horse. Sheesh!

What a nice dad, keeping her at a distance :)

Playing with Skeeter
Luke thought Skeeter was hilarious when he got close

Sofia thought Skeeter was hilarious when she was WAY out of reach!

We also drew on the sidewalk with chalk and did LOTS of dancing to "Pump it" "Dynomite" and "Forget you" (over and over and over again. slightly obsessed!). It really was SO much fun having them here and we are SO excited to have them only 20 mins away! :)

Easter

It just wouldn't be Easter if we didn't spend the weekend in SV with my family having a giant egg hunt.  

Of course, this year did not disappoint.  My mom, seriously, goes WAY above and beyond to make the egg hunt fantastic!  My dad, although he constantly complains about the amount of eggs he is asked to hide (this year, 500!!) he truly loves it just as much as the rest of us.  He secretly gets a kick out of hiding the 'Big Egg' in the most unusual and disgusting places he can find.  We made out like bandits again this year with a total of $38, TONS of yummy candy, and some fun little prizes.

Sofia and her daddy finding eggs

Luke and his mama

Even baby Jack got in on the fun

Dawson sure found himself lots of stickers

The 'Big Egg' winners this year (yes, they found it together so yes, they shared)

Hunting for Easter eggs

Ahh....they do know how to share :)

Crazy Crazy Lukey boy

It must be twin thing. Crazy Sofia

Luke LOVED the swing, Sofia did NOT

It was such a fun weekend spent hanging out with all of my family stuffing our faces FULL of lots of yummy yummy food, finding Easter eggs, and laughing at all the crazy nieces and nephews :)

Wedding, Birthday and Conference

Whew, lots of fun crammed into one jam packed, family filled weekend.

To kick off the weekend we headed to Idaho Falls to witness the marriage of this beautiful couple.
We are so happy for Tosha and Logan and excited to have Logan join the family. It was a great day despite a few minor hiccups. Like it only raining when we were trying to take a few pictures outside of the temple, oh and the caterer for the wedding luncheon having the wrong day, no biggies :) But we made it through the day and the reception that night was BEAUTIFUL! Congrats again Logan and Tosha, we love you!

Due to extended family staying at Dillon's parent's house, we came back to our house that night to enjoy a restful nights sleep in our own bed after a busy busy day. Then it was up bright and early on my birthday to pack a bag and head back up to Shelley to spend the rest of the weekend. We got ready and Dillon let me open my presents from him before we headed out. He spoiled me with a fishing license, a few movies (including 'UP' YAY!!), some earrings, new tweezers and chocolate Reese's eggs :) I'm a lucky girl, thanks baby!We got to Dillon's parents house at the tail end of breakfast and the beginning of the first session of conference. It was so fun to spend the day with so much of Dillon's family.
Dillon's Aunt Lisa also had a birthday that day and before they took off we were able to blow out candles together and have some yummy cake.
(our camera is a little slow, thus the awkward "after the candles have been blown out" pictures)
The rest of the day was spent hanging out with the family that didn't have to head home and watching conference. That evening the boys all headed out to the priesthood session of conference and us girls headed out to the movies. There wasn't a very big selection of movies that fit into our schedule when we needed them to so we decided on "Mirror, Mirror" with Julia Roberts. It was a cute movie that kept us laughing, but still a little cheesy and predictable :)
The movie and priesthood session got over within just a few mins of each other and the boys headed in to Idaho Falls to meet us for some yummy dinner at Cafe Rio. After dinner it was back to Dillon's parents house for some hot tubing, MORE cake and candles and presents.
We were all WAY too full for more food so they sang to me, I blew out the candles, then the cheesecake was put back into the fridge for the next day :)

Thank you Thank you THANK YOU to all of Dillon's family for all the birthday wishes and hugs and to his mom for the cakes and present! It was a great day, I am one lucky girl.

Sunday we got to spend all day in our PJ's listening to conference and eating way too much food. I definitely thought that conference was extra amazing this time around. Maybe it was just because I actually stayed awake for ALL 4 sessions for once :) I don't know. But I felt like so many talks were written just for me just at the time that I needed them, I love it!

Basically it was just an amazing weekend and birthday spent with amazing family!