Back to back to back trips!

We've been gone 10 days yet it feels like its been a whole month! We have been busy busy cramming in the last of our summer fun since Dallin starts 1st grade this week. Boo Hoo...but that's another story which is sure to continue later this week.

We started off by heading over to Rexburg to see Nate's sister Kelsey and her hubby Logan. Uncle Logan took us over to his job site and let the boys drive REAL tractors. Parker's dreams have literally come true! They moved huge rocks and piles of dirt and even busted up some concrete.

Even the biggest Starnes boy was in on the tractor action! After playing in the dirt with the "big boy toys" I mean....tractors....we played with some adorable little farm kittens. SOOOO cute! (Even though I am SOOOO allergic!)

Later that evening we headed over to Idaho Falls to cheer Nate on in the Allan Butler Twilight Criterium.

Nate had an absolutely AWESOME race! He ended up with a very close 2nd place finish! We were all screaming and cheering like a bunch of nuts! I'm not gonna lie....I'm pretty proud of that man of mine. It is incredible how far he has come over the last year and a half.

After that, Nate headed back home and so the boys and I met up with Grandma EE and we cruised on over to Yellowstone for a couple of days. Yellowstone really is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We did lots of walking and the kids were troopers about it. We saw buffalo, lots of elk, deer, squirrels and a yellow bellied pot gut. They boys loved filling out their ranger packets and recording the animals that we saw.

Our favorite parts were the geysers, (Old Faithful of course) the paint pots, and the waterfalls. The boys weren't too fond of the sulphur smells though!

Yellowstone is one of EE's most favorite places in the world. I know it was HER dad's (my Great Grandpa Carlson's) favorite place to go and so I was glad that she could share her memories and stories of Yellowstone with my kids. We had some stressful moments which is bound to happen with 3 boys in tow but overall it was a fun trip and I am glad that we made the time to go.

After Yellowstone it was time to head to Utah for the Whitaker Family Reunion.......that post to come later..............

BOYS CLUB!

I feel like a slacker in the "play date" world this summer. They boys have been asking for months if they can have this friend or that friend come over.

I decided to nip it all in the bud by hosting a "BOYS CLUB" party at the house. What do you do at a boys club party you might ask yourself? EVERYTHING BOY!

Here's what we did:

Built stuff with sticks and glue:

We made gack/slime/flubber. Whatever that sticky concoction is called:
Took shirts off and flexed after we playing with fingerpaint:

Went CRAZY playing with shaving cream:

Played some water balloon games:

Which of course was followed immediately by an out of control water balloon fight.



Then we enjoyed some dirt and worms for a snack:

Then it was time to send all of those energetic and NOISY little boys HOME!!!

I realize that I must technically be a little insane thinking I could handle 10 boys by myself. Luckily my siblings came over to help with crowd control! It was such a blast...I think I had just as much fun as the boys did!

This boys club meeting is adjourned!

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.