Out West - Wyoming

We drove through Yellowstone to get to my parent's old stomping grounds in Wyoming. Aaron and I both grew up going to Yellowstone, but with somewhat different experiences. Aaron's family went there to go fishing, take pictures for his Dad's artwork, and just enjoy Yellowstone. For my family Yellowstone was never a destination, it was just the best way to get to Burlington, WY. So, we usually only stopped when needed, and my memories of Yellowstone will always include my mom's very annoyed remarks toward the people who stopped to look at the wildlife (specifically those who stop in the road to look at the wildlife). Either way, we both have fond memories of this great place and enjoy talking about our childhood memories while driving through. 

 At Yellowstone Lake
(As a little side note - Aubree did end up having Lyme Disease. Luckily we caught it early enough that one round of antibiotics did the trick and hopefully we won't be dealing with any long term side effects.)

I am so completely grateful for the beauty of this earth and to have all my senses to enjoy it with and to have this family of mine to share it with.

 At the Old Faithful Hotel

 One memory I have of driving through Yellowstone with my family is the story of the lost spectacles. We made a quick stop for my dad to use the bathroom at one of those outhouse type things. When my dad came out of the bathroom his glasses weren't on him. He told us that his glasses had dropped down the hole and that he would need Ryan to get them. He told Ryan that he would hold him by the ankles and lower him down into the hole. Of course Ryan was not excited about this idea and quickly suggested that he hold either Stephanie or me by the ankles because we were smaller and would fit better. After some begging and arguing over who would do it, my Dad laughed and pulled his glasses out of his shirt pocket. (Nice one Dad! I wish we would have thought to ask him HOW they dropped down the hole...)

 We made it to Cody, WY where we met my Dad's brother and his family and my Grandpa and his wife at a rental cabin. (Unfortunately Aubree, Ellie and I got the stomach bug while here, which held on through some of our time in Utah.)

Aaron and some of the guys went fishing

 Grandpa and many of his great-grandkids

 Grandpa and many of his grandkids (all of his biological grandkids)

 Dad, Grandpa and Uncle Larry

Grandpa, his sister, and Grandma Midge (grandpa's wife)

 Me, Aubree, Ryan and Stuart

It was so good to see all of my siblings (even if it was for only one night). Also that night my Dad and Larry stayed up and told some of us a bunch of stories from their youth - so wonderful and funny!

 Potluck lunch at the church's pavilion in Burlington. It was nice to see cousins and Aunts and Uncles on my Mom's side and of course my Grandma Henderson. She is such a sweet and hard working lady. (On Sunday morning before church she had a homemade strawberry pie ready as a breakfast dessert.) I LOVE Burlington! So many wonderful childhood memories. And the people in Burlington are such amazing, down-to-earth, hardworking people. I'm proud to have roots here and share heritage with many of the people here.

 Dad, Alan and Larry

 Paddle boating in a little reservoir near Burlington

And last but not least, we finally got to meet our newest cousin, Kate! What a cutie!

Family happenings

 Now that we're in our little branch we get to have the missionaries over for dinner every week. Here we are with Sister Blair and Sister Preszlar. Sister Blair's first name is Christine, but she told me that her sister and a lot of other people call her Camile. Totally random, but pretty cool - Camile is a good name.

 The girls have been taking karate lessons. I just about die whenever I see Aubree in her little outfit doing her karate moves! (She is quite possibly the cutest human being on earth... in my humble opinion.)

 Nanny Nette sent Aubree some makeup when she found out that Aubree was always sneaking my makeup. (Stephanie and I used to have a hard time sharing our makeup and we would fight about it. I guess with three girls I'll finally have to learn to share my makeup - I was just hoping to wait a few more years.)

 Last time we went to the temple we went to Walden Pond. It was only a 12 minute drive away - so we will definitely be doing this again. Here we are in a replica of Henry David Thoreau's home. I read part of Walden Pond a few years ago, so it was really neat for me to be there.

 Me and my man Thoreau

 Walden Pond - we all LOVED being there! The girls thought it was nice to swim in fresh water and I loved being somewhere so historical and beautiful.

 Mystic Y beach - one of the only free beaches I've found in our area.

 The girls went to their first vacation bible school (VBS) last week and had a fabulous time! There are VBS's pretty much every week of the summer put on by different churches in the community. I chose the Baptist church that my friend goes to and was really happy with how they organized it and what a positive experience it was for the girls. I think it was a good way for them to see the positive things in other churches and how much we have in common. And last but not least (in fact probably top of my reasons why) I also enjoyed having a free break for three hours every day - unfortunately I got very little accomplished.

Aubree won these cool sunglasses at VBS.

 Aubree and her friend at the VBS BBQ.

 The Mormons, the Catholics and the Baptists at the BBQ

 Playing Apples to Apples. Aubree would just choose random cards from her pile and she ended up winning by a landslide.

 I taught Carly and Ellie how to hand stitch some little dresses for their stuffed animals. Here's Carly's end product.

This is what Aubree would look like with bangs.

When I saw these at the candy store it brought back happy memories of when my Dad would come home from a business trip and bring us Neccos.

Dear Mom and Dad,

These are a couple of things that I have in my house that remind me of you:

These encyclopedias that I inherited from you a couple years ago. I have memories of asking you questions Dad, and if you didn't know the answer (or if the answer got us thinking of more questions), then we would get out the encyclopedias. They also remind me of you because you are kind of like an encyclopedia yourself - you know all sorts of things about all sorts of things. :) It makes you a very interesting person to talk to - and you are a great conversationalist!

We have lilacs just like these in our backyard and they smell delicious! I have some in a vase on our dining room table and it makes our home smell like heaven! They remind me of you Mom because I know how much you love lilacs and flowers in general. I always liked to go flower shopping with you so we could make centerpieces for your tables. It made me feel good that you trusted me and thought I was a good enough florist to make these arrangements for your home.

I love you!
Camile

The Blizzard of 2013

This past weekend we experienced one of the biggest blizzards to come to New England in the past century! It. was. BIG. We woke up to at least two feet of snow on Saturday morning. We also woke up to a very cold house because our power went out after dinner on Friday night. We spent the day in our 48 degree home with double layers and robes on. The girls had a wonderful time playing outside - it reminded me of my childhood winters in Idaho. The piles of snow along the sidewalks were taller than the girls.

(I totally remember walking up the sidewalk to my home through piles of snow on either side that were taller than me. I also loved when the snowplow would come by and make a nice little snow hill in the middle of our col-de-sac where we could sled and play to our hearts content. Love those memories!)

Luckily we kept our hot water during the power outage and have a gas stove to prepare food. Also, one benefit of losing power when it's so stinkin' cold outside is that you don't have to worry about losing the food in your fridge and freezer. On Saturday night the temperature got down to about 10 degrees outside so we spent the night at our friend's, the Abston's, house (they didn't lose power). After church on Sunday we came home to 37 degrees inside!!! So, we went outside to warm up (yesterday's weather report says it was a 33 degree high yesterday, but it was pretty sunny, so it felt really nice)! We planned to spend the night at Abston's house again last night, but just as we were getting ready to go to bed we found out that our power was back on. Hooray!!!! We are so grateful for our friends for letting us crash at their house, but it is always so nice to be in your own home (although the girls don't think so - they were very disappointed to leave).

I'm so sad because I looked and looked for my camera to take pictures of the beautiful snow and the girls playing and Aaron shoveling, but I just barely found it today and now it's raining and the snow is disappearing! So, these are artistic renderings of the blizzard of 2013. (I'm not sure why they are so blurry.)

by Ellise Parson

by Carly Parson

December, Part I

Something we've really enjoyed since moving out here is having the missionaries over for dinner each month. They are such awesome young men! You can just feel the spirit that they bring into your home - we love it!

 December's dinner was a little different than usual. First off, they had their zone leaders with them (the ones in the front) and so the girls were even more hyper than usual. (Our girls get super hyper and show-offy when ever guests come over.) And instead of a regular dinner, we had breakfast for dinner. The type of breakfast you never have time to make in the morning - waffles, pancakes, eggs, sausage, hash browns, juice... mmm mmm!

I remember one time having the sister missionaries over at our house when I was a little girl. My mom forgot they were coming over and we were having pancakes for dinner that evening. My mom was pretty embarrassed because she usually goes all out for those sort of things. But the sister missionaries said how much they loved it, so 20 years later, I thought I would give it a try!

Ellie, Elder Young (front), Wekesser (back), Woodruff (front), Nordin (back), Carly, me, and Aaron.
Sadly, Elder Nordin is being transferred soon - he is a great missionary!

Don't these two girls look so sweet and innocent and lovey?!

 Don't let it fool you! For a couple weeks it seemed they were fighting non-stop! Seriously, I was going crazy (still am going crazy some days).

So, I decided to try out this idea I saw on Facebook - zipped them up in my coat. Aside from Ellie peeing her pants, it worked! They started getting along and thought it was so fun to be zipped up together.

(Aubree, what are you doing in thin cotton shorts and t-shirt in December?! Silly girl!)

 Aubree and some friends ate lunch at our house last week and afterwards Aubree lined them up to wash their hands in the bathroom. Well, I kinda' forgot about them and went about doing other things until a few minutes later when the little boy told me they were washing their hair in the sink with soap! Sure enough, they had bubbles all over in their hair (and had a great time in the process).

 Ellie in front of our advent calendar. Angela gave us this beautiful quilted advent calendar about 6 years ago and I love it ....  and kind of hate it. I hate it only because my girls expect either candy or some super-awesome activity to be in one of those pockets EVERY day! We put candy or a ticket for some fun activity in there occasionally, but my girls are always (overly and dramatically) disappointed when it's just our Christmas scripture for the day in there.

And last but not least, (and I'm really kind of embarrassed about this even though I shouldn't be) - Ellie got lice a couple weeks ago! We were getting ready to go to a friend's house for dinner last Sunday and Ellie wanted me to redo her hair. So, I do the part and see something in her hair - maybe lint or a fuzzy or something - but it MOVED! So, long story short (even though Aaron doesn't think I'm capable of making any story short), we spent three hours in her hair alone and quite a bit of time in everyone elses and did lots and LOTS of laundry, and we are now lice-free! (Luckily and miraculously no one else in our family had any.)

Here the girls are with coconut oil in their hair to aid in the lice-combing process.

My aunt gave this book to my Mom as a gift when I was younger. Up until the late 90's the Idaho Falls Temple was the temple that my relatives in Wyoming came to. So, if there was a youth temple appointment or a relative getting married we would have a houseful! Of course my brothers and sisters and I would give up our bedrooms and there would be people camped out on couches and on the floor. I LOVED it! It was fun to play with cousins and listen in on adult conversations and just to have a house packed full of people.

This week for us has been the week the relatives came.

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First, the Souths. Josh, Franci (and bun-in-the-oven), Kaylie, Anna, and Suzie. The girls all love each other so much - they say they're long lost sisters. But, just like normal sisters, things get a little dramatic with that many girls under one roof! (It didn't help the stress level that the AC was broken and our thermostat reached 90 degrees on Saturday!)



We cooled down at the swimming pool - all of our girls are little fish! Carly and Kaylie put the life jackets through their legs and looked like little sumo wrestler/swimmers. 



Kaylie and Carly are so similar and truly such good friends.



Anna is two years younger than Ellie, but love, love, loves her so much and wishes Ellie was her big sister.

 Matchy-matchy for church

We also went to Temple Square while they were here and Antelope Island to take a quick dip in the Great Salt Lake.

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Next, the Parsons - Kathy and Leon came the day that Franci left. They only stayed one night, so we only got to see them for a few hours. Leon just got a cochlear implant a few weeks ago (it's an implant that will help him hear again) so they've been coming up for doctor visits.  

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And finally, Sophie and Scotty. Ang, Jimmy, Conner and Kali are in Oregon for a cousin's homecoming. So, we get to have Sophie and Scotty stay with us for four days. Just so you know, four days is a lot of days for me to have FIVE kids!!  But I'm determined to make this a fun and happy adventure for all of us. (And it helps to know that Ang is going to return the favor sometime when Aaron and I decide to go on a vacation together.)

 I tried to get a picture of the kids watching Aaron pull out Carly's loose tooth. It was quite the show - Carly cried and cried for about 5 minutes BEFORE Aaron even pulled it - I wish I had it on video. And this is the 5th tooth she's had pulled! She was so scared, and it was making the other kids nervous too.