We love RS!!

Roaring Springs is our favorite summer "stay"cation destination! Thanks Jas for coming along to help out with the boys. Even though we decided not to get passes this year we have gone a few times. We probably won't go again this summer so I just wanted to post a few pictures!

Run into the ground.....

My sis took this picture of Parker from our last boating excursion and I decided it needed to go on the blog. He is SOUND asleep and stayed that way for a good long while! He is definately all STARNES...those boys can fall asleep anywhere at anytime. All of this summer sun can really wear a guy out!

My afternoon project

We bought some barstools for a screaming deal 2 years ago when we moved into our house. They were on clearance at Target for about $18.00 each. I didn't LOVE them, but they would work just fine for 2 little boys who were excited to eat up at the island in the kitchen.

I thought that the microfiber seats would hold up alright...or at least I hoped they would.

2 years later......it doesn't matter how hard I scrub, the food, marker, glitter glue, grape juice, and pen stains will NOT come out. It disgusts me every day.

My mother in law suggested I recover them. Today I finally did it. I took the old microfiber off and gagged when I saw how nasty it was underneath. 3 boys really did a number on those babies. I found a cute print and put some heavy duty PLASTIC over the top of them. I staple gunned until I got a couple of blisters on my hand and VOILA......here they are:

I LOVE them now!! I keep thinking about all the TIME I am going to save cleaning up after meals!! Good idea LeeLee....I should have listened to you earlier!

Twilight Criterium

Summer is here in full swing. We are trying to enjoy it and not complain too much about how HOT it has been!! Friday we went to Settler's Park with a bunch of friends. It's a really fun park with a bunch of water features. We haven't been over there since we first moved back to Boise. I wish it was a little closer to our house but it is well worth the 20 minute drive. The kids loved it!Saturday night was the big Boise Twilight Criterium race downtown. The temperature on the asphalt was a sweltering 116. Nate was SO excited to participate this year. He did such a great job throughout the race but unfortunately took a fall with 4 laps to go. He is fine but very disappointed to say the least. O well....it was a blast cheering him on. We are very proud of him. Jared (his friend and fellow riding buddy) took first place! We had lots of friends and family come and cheer all of our guys on! We were all screaming our heads off! The boys favorite part was playing in the water fountain over at the Boise Center on the Grove...heck, it was so hot, I was even running through the fountain!

Our Silver City Adventure

Grandma EE (my Grandma) is so much fun. I am so lucky to have her in my life. She is always ready for an adventure at the drop of a hat. Last year while reading through a Family Fun magazine, I came across a little day trip idea. It was all about this little old ghost town called Silver City, Idaho. I called EE and told her all about it because I knew that this was something that she would love to see.

We took off this morning about 9am. We packed water and a few snacks and with our MapQuest map in hand we were ready to go we hit the road. The first 50 miles of the drive were no big deal then we hit the windy dirt road. It was the LONGEST 15 miles of our lives. We were driving on a one lane road up a scary ledge and we had yet to see one other vehicle ANYWHERE. After driving by the sign that said, "Warning, you are accountable for all fees associated with search and rescue beyond this point" I decided to check and see if we at least had cell service. :) Luckily we were good.

About halfway up the mountain we ran into quite a site. A SWARM of Mormon Crickets. That little bug that climbed into Nate's ear the other day was NOTHING compared to these gigantic monsters. The boys were LOVING it. They were laughing and screaming that this was the BEST day of their lives. The crickets were literally 4 inches long. We just plowed right through them with the car...crunching right along. (chill up the spine)

Two hours later we finally arrived in the city. Unfortunately the little hotel that we were planning on having lunch in was closed. Silver City IS a ghost town but there are a couple of little shops that are opened in the summer...but only on the weekends. So we just poked around and looked at some of the old buildings. There was a really cool old church, school house, general store and other little homes that have been around since the 1800s. We threw rocks in the stream and ate our snacks before we left to head back home.

We stopped in Kuna at the BEST little Mexican restaurant on the way home. Immediately after lunch we stopped at the car wash to get all of the bug guts off! It was disgusting.
What a fun day!

It's time to get up!

Alarm blaring, crying, puking, kids fighting, these are just a few of the ways I have been awakened from a good nights rest.
Yesterday though....we had a couple drastically different wake up calls.
First off at about 5am Dallin comes running in our room with blood all over his face. Poor kid looked like he had been shot. After cleaning off his whole face it was determined that he just had a pretty bad bloody nose. He has never had one before and was therefore freaking out about it. We had blood all over our bathroom floor. It looked like a crime scene. After calming him down and stopping the bleeding we all went back to sleep.
One hour later Nate jumps out of bed screaming and hitting his ear with his hand. He was yelling, "There is a BUG in my ear! It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!" I couldn't stop laughing. I really was concerned about him but honestly.....the way he was dancing around shaking his head, I couldn't help myself. I thought maybe he had been having some sort of crazy dream or something. He said he could feel it crawling around and buzzing it's wings deep down his ear canal. I get the heeby jeebies just thinking about it again! He started spraying water in his ear and I ran to get the bulb syringe. A couple of good sucks later we got the teeny little beetle out.
This isn't a great picture, but that is the bug on the ledge. SICK!


After that, we were up for the day.

THS/BHS 1999 Class Reunion

After teetering on the fence for awhile we decided to go ahead and go to my 10 year reunion. Friday evening was a BBQ for families over at Municipal Park. No pictures....forgot to pull out the camera.The BBQ was a lot of fun. It was so surreal seeing all sorts of long lost faces. I've known a lot of these people since elementary school. It was fun seeing all of the shocked expressions when I told them I had 3 kids!

Saturday we had the chance to take a tour of the school (s). Our senior class was split when the new high school was built. Tiff (one of my best friends since elementary school) and I met up at walked through Boise High. We have TONS of memories cheering for games in the old gym. We ran into Aubrey and her family. It was so much fun to see her.

After the tour we went over to a fellow THS graduate's restaurant. Blake Lingle started the Idaho Fry Company so we went over there for some lunch. It was absolutely AMAZING! Really good food!

Last night was the big shin dig over at the Grove Hotel. As we walked in we were greeted by some teachers from our past. Mrs. Trumbo was one of my all time favorite teachers. She taught 5th grade. She recognized me immediately. We were screaming and hugging....too funny. This was the only picture I got of her and she is half blinking:

It was fun to dance and visit with old friends. We ate some EXPENSIVE food that wasn't that great and pretty much just watched everyone drink up our registration money. (AND they made us pay for a soda....whatever!)

My favorite part of the weekend would have to be the night that Tiff, Kali and I got together and went through stacks of old pictures and watched our old "music videos" that we made. We would dress up in all of these outrageous outfits and make up dances to all sorts of Backstreet Boys, Shania Twain and other hit 90's songs. We laughed so hard we were rolling on the floor. Good times.

10 years...wow. Where has the time gone? Some people looked exactly the same, some looked nothing at all like they used to look, some people I remember as jerks were really nice and some jerks were still jerks.

All I know is that when the night was over and my Nate smiled and took my by the hand and led me through the door I felt so grateful that the high school days are over.

YW camp

Back from camp and all is well. (All except for my mom's walls and ottoman that Landon decided to destroy with permanent marker!)
Camp was awesome. The theme this year was "Anchor your Souls to Christ." Each ward was a "ship" and we decided to call ours the USS DOGS. (Daughters of God) We wore our hair up in pig tails to resemble dog ears and chanted "Who let the dogs out" a time or two! haha.
We had lots of fun hiking, doing service, playing games, making crafts, and performing skits. It was so beautiful up in the mountains and so strange not having to chase after little boys for a few days!
We stayed up late, ate GREAT food, and enjoyed growing closer as a YW group. I love these girls and am so grateful for the time I get to spend with them.

4th of July weekend

We have had such a GREAT holiday weekend! I've said it before and I will say it again....4th of July is my FAVORITE holiday (next to Christmas). Family, friends, fireworks, food and freedom. It doesn't get much better than that!

This year we went camping and boating with the family over at Lake Owahee. It is seriously the most incredible lake. Hardly any boats, flat and warm water (it was 81 degrees). It's a pretty sweet deal. Shhhhhh...its a secret.

Here was the view from our camp site:

And here is my sweet little boy right after he fell face first into the road and skinned his nose: Still smiling.....

After camping, we hurried home to get ready for the 4th of July BBQ and fireworks display at our house. One perk of driving over to Oregon to go boating is driving right by the "really good" fireworks stand. heehee We had lots of families come over and join us in the fun. Here is my flag made of cupcakes: YUM!


Such a fun weekend.....I'm already counting down until the next 4th! Time to get all geared up to to camping AGAIN this week but this time with the YW. I'm sure I'll be nice and sleep deprived upon my return......

Sum-Sum-Summertime!

Honestly...how did we ever live before digital cameras? I bought a Kodak one time use camera to capture the memories of the last 2 weeks and all I can say is WHAT A HASSLE!

I dropped the film off....came back in an hour and it wasn't done. I went back to pick it up today and when I put the cd only HALF of the pictures were on it. I took it back and had to go BACK yet again to pick it up an hour later. 5 of the pictures ended up being random "in the purse" shots.

I guess the pictures that I did get ARE worth it. Good thing my sweet hubby bought me a new camera today.

ANYWAY........here's what we've been up to the past couple of weeks:

My Dallin boy had his LAST day of kindergarten. He is in year round school so he didn't get out until the end of June. He had a good year and looks forward to being a little more challenged next year. I can't believe that I am going to have a 1st grader. It is going to be hard on all of us when he goes to school for the full day.

I promised the boys forever ago that on the last day of school we would have a lemonade stand. The boys have been begging me for YEARS to have one. I didn't want to let them down so we got everything together for the big sale. We were inspired by the Harris family and their ability to earn $75 at their sale by making boxes that the kids wore that said, "pick your price."

Sadly, our stand didn't even come close in profit but we did have a fun time. I think we'll do the stand every year on the last day of school. We'll make it a tradition.

Here's a breakdown of the finances:

Lemonade Stand from Bed Bath and Beyond: on clearance for $7.49

Lemonade: 3 frozen concentrates for $2.07

Ice: $1.29

Cups: $1.00

Special Lemonade Canister with nozzle $5.49

Total spent $17.34

Total Earned: $8.00

Equals out to be $-9.34. Haha! It was fun anyway! My favorite part was when Parker said, "Sheesh Mom, we are going to be rich! Don't worry, I will share some of my money with you."

This past week we went up to Sandy Point with a bunch of friends. We had such a fabulous time letting the kids play in the water and sand. Uncle Jason came along too. He's such a great help with keeping all of the kids entertained.

Yesterday we went to Roaring Springs with some friends. We didn't get season passes this year but we hope to make it over there a few times during the summer. We played hard all day and went to bed early!
We're keeping cool and staying busy! Wouldn't want it any other way!