Why we WON'T be riding bikes to school........

Today was back to school registration day! 

Before we headed over to the school the boys told me they wanted to ride their bikes to registration. I had a bad feeling about it. The school is across 17th street which is a REALLY busy road and the sidewalks in the neighborhood don't connect from the road to the sidewalk if that makes any sense. You have to ride through some grass to get back on the sidewalk from the road. Whoever designed the sidewalks was obviously a complete idiot.

"PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE MOM! YOU NEVER EVER LET US RIDE OVER THERE!"

"So and SO ALWAYS rides his bike to school."

"It's ONLY one MILE away!"

After much moaning and groaning I finally cave in and decide that I will FOLLOW the boys over to the school in my car....just in case something happens.

So we're off. I keep trying to tell the boys to get ON THE SIDEWALK but instead they all decided to follow behind me. I pull over, stop all of the cars behind me and the oncoming cars to lecture my kids. Just as I am midway through my lecture a COP drives by.

After I make sure the kids cross 17th safely the cop pulls up next to me and asks me if everything is ok. "Yes, officer...everything is FINE." I'm so embarrassed I am BEET red. The cop drives off after making sure I'm not a crazy abusive parent. Then Dallin decides to ride through some HUGE river rocks. He starts over the rocks and goes FLYING off of his bike and cracks his helmet. Thank heavens he is okay.

We press on. Little Landon's legs are going a million miles an hour trying to keep up with his brothers. He goes so fast that one of his training wheels just falls off. Landon tips over. Tears and scratches. I load both he and his bike into the car.

Parker thinks this is the most awesome thing in the world to ride his bike to school until he tries to get up onto the next sidewalk. He drives through the grass but can't see how big of an edge is actually along the sidewalk. He goes flying off the bike as he catches the edge and goes soaring into the grass and is then RUN OVER by Dallin who is riding closely behind him. Awesome. Parker and bike loaded into car.

3 injuries, one cop, one broken helmet, THIS is why we just drive to school.

Youth Jam

We went to feed the ducks yesterday down by the waterfalls downtown. I had 2 big bags of stale bread that were calling for ducks, geese and seagulls.

 After being attacked by birds of all shapes and sizes and avoiding a few poop bombs we walked down the greenbelt and looked at the falls and watched the speed boat races. Boys were LOVING that!

 Across the river we saw a bunch of white tents and we could hear music blaring. We jumped in the car and drove over the bridge to Nate's work. We parked and walked over to see what was going on. We went over to the information booth and found out that YOUTH JAM was going on. Apparently it is a big art festival for kids of all ages. SCORE! We got our faces painted, made silly glasses, bookmarks and painted and played with a HUGE xylophone! WAY FUN!

The boys were thrilled to get the LAST 3 balloons of the day. But if you notice closely in this photo, Dallin is missing his balloon. Parker accidentally let his slip away. In true Parker fashion he was broken hearted and crying hysterically. Dallin immediately took his balloon off of his wrist and handed it to his brother. Parker embraced Dallin with tears in his eyes and thanked him over and over again. It was a very tender sweet moment. I just love my Dallin....the peacemaker in our family for sure.

Looking forward to the weekend! And GOOD luck to my man over in the STATE TIME TRIAL and to my little brother who is competing in his very first wake board competition!

Chukar's Game

So apparently I was wrong. A "CHUKAR" isn't a car sick kid after long drive on switchbacks. It is apparently also NOT a pregnant woman or someone with food poisoning. A chukar is a bird. To be exact it is: A Eurasian partridge (genus Alectoris) similar to the red-legged partridge, but with a call like a clucking domestic hen.

It is also the mascot for the Idaho Falls minor league baseball team. We got some free tickets and decided to take the fam to a game.

After 2 hours both Landon and Dallin were begging to go home and go to bed. Makes me laugh. They get tired and want to go to bed no matter how much fun they are having!

Parker on the other hand......was begging to stay. Mr. Baseball was in his element. ☺Check out that shaggy hair. We agreed that he doesn't have to cut his hair until school starts. He hasn't had a hair cut since May and he is starting to rock a bit of a mullet. Thank heavens school starts soon.

 As we walked out of the ball park and passed the designated smoking area and the beer booths I couldn't help but snap a shot of the temple in the background. It was just beautiful in front of a purple sky.

 Summer nights and FREE baseball! A good thing!

Rigby Lake

Each time we drive up to Rexburg we pass through the small city of Rigby. There really isn't much there but we always see a good sized lake right off the highway with tons of people hanging out along the beach so I decided TODAY was the day we would check it out for ourselves. We packed a picnic lunch, umbrella, sand toys and our little raft and headed north.

What a wonderful day we had. We set up all of our things and the boys headed straight for the sand! It reminded me of days spent on the beach in CA. Not QUITE as much fun but it is as good as it gets over here I guess! ☺

 There was also a dock with a slide on it not to far from the beach. Parks (of course) was the only one who was brave enough to give it a try. Dal made it up the steps but had a change of heart at the top.

 Then the boys came running over to me saying "The Shuldburgs are here!!" Holly is a good friend of mine in the ward. She is my visiting teaching partner, fellow preschool mom, Zumba friend and she has 3 boys as well! We packed our stuff and moved right on over so our boys could play together.

 5 hours later we came home to a delicious crock pot dinner....gotta love the ready to go dinner after being gone and in the sun the entire day!

Couldn't resist a little crack shot.

Rigby Lake......a new favorite. ☺

A Boise re-charge.

The spouse had a hearing in Pocatello on Friday and a bike race in Boise on Saturday so we decided the best thing to do if we wanted to see him at all this weekend was jump in the car and come along! Honestly though, I needed it. A Boise friend and family re-charge was so in order.

While Nate was at the courthouse for a couple of hours the boys and I hit up the Pokey Zoo. I ♥ this little zoo!

That evening we met up with Nat, Robby and fam and went swimming. Baby Bryan is growing SO fast. And he is SOOOO cute....I can hardly stand it!

 The next day while Nate was racing in 100 degree temps (no thanks hon☺) we met up with the Koppings at Ivywild pool.

That night we had a few families over to my parent's house for a BBQ. It was SO much fun. I have just really been missing my Boise friends like crazy the past month or so. They just make me laugh and forget about the stresses of life. Great friends are SO good for the soul, especially one's who love you for WHO you are and make you feel better about yourself by just being around them. It's amazing to me.....I don't really miss Boise (the city), I don't miss my house (as much) anymore, I'm adjusting to the colder weather, and I don't miss my husbands job AT ALL, but I really miss the people. My family and friends.

We played games, pigged out, and let the kids play and play until the sun went down. ***Quick side note here...I've decided that I am NEVER TALKING again! Yep you heard me right! So my DEAR husband thought it would be fun to take about a million pictures of me while I was explaining how to play one of the games. If I really look like this or make this many facial expressions while explaining a game I think someone needs to just slap some tape across my face and never let me speak again. SCARY!!!

  

ANYWAY....after that, we put the kids to bed and the adults headed to MERRITT'S COUNTRY CAFE again for some delicious and terrible for you SCONES! YUUUUUUMMMM!

My friend canteen is filled again....for awhile anyway! What a great trip. 3 weeks left until school starts. I bought all of the boy's school supplies and tucked them away...now we don't have to think about it again for at least a couple of weeks! ☺

Check this guy out.....

Yep.....he is mine, ALL mine!!! ♥

FUN close to home!

It isn't really summer until we do the annual camp out in the backyard! Our neighbor was telling us how her son wanted to go camping so badly but with a new baby she just didn't feel up to it. Enter: Camp Starnes. One tent, a fire with smores and hot dogs, a table with crafts, and a MOVIE set up in the tent. Invite neighbors and there you go! A great night for kids and adults. Best part.....I got to sleep in my OWN bed at the end of the night! ☺

Tonight for family night we took the boys over to a park nearby with some small hills. We got some big ice blocks and took the kids ICE BLOCKING!! Yippee!!  

We all came home muddy and wet but it was worth it!