The Tietjen Family

Family Vacation Day 4- Fourth of July Festivities at Grandma's

2014-02-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

The Fourth of July at Grandma's house!

It always means redneck tubing, a cookout, and of course fireworks!

The kids had a lot of fun until Peter got spilled out on the black top!

We called it quits after that!

What Andrew looked like after tubing!

We stopped in Blackfoot and let the kids buy fireworks!

They had a lot of fun shooting them off and seeing everything go boom!

Julia wore this dress last year and it went all the way down to her feet! I think she grew this year!

My mom made these yummy treats!

The perfect way to end a vacation!

With a BANG!!

Family Vacation Day 4- Soda Springs

2014-02-09T11:45:00.002-07:00

Soda Springs

Home of the Man-Made Geyser!

I can remember coming here as a child and my mom making me taste the soda water! It was disgusting! But I remember it! This lasted longer then Old Faithful and was almost as cool!

I would have thought it would be hot to walk on but I guess it wasn't! The kids had a blast running all over it!

We then drove over to Hooper Springs where there was once a world famous bathing pools. People would come and soak in the water and be healed from their cares. We bottled some of it and tried to have the kids taste it! The boys wouldn't but Anthony, Julia, and I did. It had a metallic taste but it still fizzed like I remember it.

This is what Julia thought of the water!

(If you can't tell, she is spitting the water out!)

We then loaded up one more time for the last leg of our trip!

Family Vacation Day 3- Dinosaur National Monument

2014-02-09T11:24:00.001-07:00

On the third day of our vacation (July 3) we drove for what seemed like forever to Vernal, Utah to the Dinosaur National Monument. We drove through tons of little towns that were surrounded by oil dykes. It was another hot day, hence all the red faces.

Here's what part of the monument. You could see the bones really close up!

Even get to touch some of them! The kids thought that was pretty awesome! I thought it was really cool too! The kids got bored pretty fast since there wasn't a lot of activities to do besides touch the bones.

Some of the scenery outside the building

They had a tram that would take you from the vistors center to the monument. We had to sit and wait our turn. It was intersting to hear all the different languages around us. Never would have thought of Utah as international stop!

On the tram

Outside the Visitor center

We then hit the road again.

We drove through Flaming Gorge, in a rainstorm, I might add, to get to Evanston, WY where we planned on spending the night. On the way, we passed some giant windmills and almost got in an accident when a truck had lost a tire but they hadn't cleared the lane yet. We felt very blessed as we ate pizza that night and swam in the pool!

Family Vacation Day 2-Heber Girls Camp

2014-02-02T12:14:00.001-07:00

We got up early and traveled to Heber the next morning where the rest of Anthony's family was camping out. This year for the family reunion they decided to go to the Heber Family Girls Camp. We missed the first day but made it there just after breakfast. We all had lunch and then went to the obstacle coarse and learned about working together.

This activity we had to swing every member of the family across the without their feet touching. The kids were easy and I will have to say that I have no upper body strength and after 3 attempts, a blessing happened. Turtles appeared that let me walk across their backs! I was so embarrassed!

We then went on to the next activity where we had to build a board bridge. It was lots harder!

Then it was our turn for the zipline! Peter and Anthony were the only brave ones!

The sandpit were all the kids played while they waited for our turn to be over on the zipline.

We then went back and had dinner and then played games and talked. We opted to stay in a hotel in Heber that night. We got there really late and most of our kids were asleep before we got there. It's hard to carry in kids and bags!

Family Vacation-2013 -Day 1- The Great Salt Lake

2014-02-02T12:01:00.000-07:00

This year for our family vacation we decided that it would be fun to go see the Great Salt Lake and let the kids wade in it and experience it all. It was something that I could remember doing with my parents when I was little and wanted them to have that same experience. We left the house around 8 or 9.

Antelope Island

This is what Matthew thought of Antelope Island! The sulfur smell was strong! We got to the beach and saw that it was going to be about a quarter of mile hike to the water. The thermometer read around 100 but we figured we had come all that way and had paid the entrance fee for the park that we were going to make a break for it. We changed the kids clothes because we didn't want theirs getting ruined and Anthony changed and we started our trek. The sand burned our feet as we walked down the hill of sand and across the beach. Families with kids were coming back up and the kids were all crying. The closer we got to the water the more brine files there were. Peter and Andrew were going crazy and running around screaming and crying because the files were sticking to them. We finally got everyone in the water where the files weren't so thick and we all had fun splashing and catching shrimp until the salt from the water starting hurting our legs. We had little scratches from other summer adventures and the salt was getting in it. We started back up the hill and everyone was crying because of the flies. And then we reached the hill and the sand began burning our feet! By the time we got to the van, everyone was miserable and crying! Awesome start to our family vacation!

We them decided to go to Temple Square. We wondered around and saw the Christ statue and looked at the gardens and the replica of the temple in the visitor center.

Matthew had to go to the bathroom so we entertained ourselves.

We were able to go up close to the temple, which I have never done either. A nice senior missionary took our family photo.

We then walked over to City Creek and got some dinner at the Mcdonalds and let the kids play in this awesome playground.

We then went back to our hotel and did some swimming in our hotel.

First Month of Summer... Otherwise known as June

2013-10-13T15:48:00.001-06:00

When going through the photos, I saw this one and knew I had to put it on the blog. There once was a day in the not to distant past, when all these vehicles were cars and not vans! Now everyone is Anthony's family drives a van! Even his parents! Totally makes me laugh!

Peter has loved doing scouts!

This is a bike rodeo that they did! He had a lot of fun!

One night we escaped to the park! I took photos and we let the kids run!

Our first official hot dog roast in our new pit!

We planted three boxes this year. This is the middle box. It has cherry tomatoes and red pepper plants and carrots. The other two boxes were filled with zucchini and pumpkins. We also had two round containers with more carrots and some peas!

This little kitten adopted our family for a few days. We ended up dropping her off at some neighbors who later adopted her.

We headed up to the college gardens one Saturday afternoon and let the kids run and explore!

Some of us girls at Father's Day!

Not sure what this picture is... but thought it was fun!

At the end of June I had signed up to do my first 5K with a friend! I ended up hurting me foot or knee or something and had to walk it. Anthony was a good sport and it did it with me! Love that man!

And Julia hit 30 pounds! Yeah for no more 5 point harness!

Matthew Turns 4 and Swimming Lessons

2013-10-13T15:24:00.001-06:00

Matthew turned 4 in June! He was so excited! He was so excited to get his birthday doughnuts and to have his cake! Matthew brings so much laughter and excitement into our home! He is always willing to take on a dare or do something that he thinks will make anyone laugh! He also likes to think of himself as big like his brothers.

He bought the watch at the DI after Peter got one for his birthday! He wore it every where! He doesn't know how to tell time but he liked feeling big like Peter!

The Cake!

He wanted a dinosaur cake... one that looked like a T-Rex but this momma just doesn't have that talent. This is what he got instead and he loved it! It's actually a pan of Zucchini Brownies with frosting. I never put frosting one so it was super special!

We also had swimming lessons in June and the all the kids but Andrew did it! Andrew decided that swimming wasn't his thing so Julia got to take over his lessons. They all loved it! Especially Matthew and Julia!

Matthew is a born swimmer! He was always out front of his class and had to be told often to slow down and to stay where his teacher could see him.

Julia loved putting her face in the water and especially loved her teacher, who happened to be a bride that I did photos for! One day after getting in the van, Julia said, " Me teacher loves me! Me loves my teacher!"

May = school out, mayhem, outdoors, and Mother's Day

2013-08-18T16:40:00.001-06:00

My husband knows me so well and suggested after coming home and seeing me little stressed about life, that we venture down to the nearby campground and take some photos. He knows how it relaxes me and makes me feel human again!

This has become Julia's new smile...insert shaking of head here!

Anthony is such a good dad and always takes time to explain things to all the kids.

He also takes them on all kind of adventures! The kids love it!

Matthew has definitely developed a wacky sense of humor this year. He'll do about anything to get a laugh and usually has all of us in laughing in no time!

Peter with his marching stick!

Andrew's model prose!

Not really...I'm just not sure what he was doing at this moment!

We then went up for a drive near the temple! Always a peaceful view!

Julia and her awesome smile!

The last day of school this happened! Matthew found a small hole in one of the bean bag chairs. He commenced to make it bigger and then dumped the contents on the floor. When we discovered the mess, all four kids were rolling in it and had then clinging all over the clothes. The kids then preceded to run through the house, dropping them everywhere! Was not one of my finer mommy moments!

Anthony sent pictures to his family and the video and one sister-in-law commented on how well we handled it and that we didn't even yell. I quickly corrected her and let her know that there was yelling! It took a solid hour to clean up all the balls. We had to suck them up with the hose and then dump into a garbage sack. But they was so much static that the ones in the sack would cling to the ones being poured out. We finally crunched up tin foil and put it in the bag and it helped. Anthony got the shop vac that we had just recently invested in and tried sucking some up but forgot to do a step and so it shredded the balls and plastered them on the wall behind him! It was awesome!! We can laugh now and were in a couple of days! What a way to start summer!

Loves being a little monkey!

This was our memorial day project! We built a firepit!!

It has been the best thing ever! It took all day because we were making it up as we went! Our first marshmallow roast was a success.

In primary, the leaders had the kids fill these out about their moms. This one is Matthew's!

I love the 3rd, 4th, and last question!!

The Rest of April

2013-08-11T15:21:00.003-06:00

We spent the first two session of conference at our house and then went to Firth the next day to do an egg hunt and watch the other sessions. One of the activities we did was make bead necklaces and Peter and Andrew made key chains from craft lace! That was bar far the favorite!

Apparently Julia and I were exhausted one day after church!

We attempted to grow our own lettuce! It didn't work so well! One of those not so good pinterst ideas!

She must have been really tired! She only does this if she is completely exhausted!

Peter's Baptism

2013-08-11T14:50:00.002-06:00

Peter was baptized on April 13, 2013! It was a cold and miserable day but inside the warmth of the Spirit warmed us all! (Oh that was soooo cheesy!)

Peter's cousin Jilysa is two weeks older then him and so they got baptized on the same day!

Grandma and Grandpa Tietjen got home from their mission just in time!

This is Peter's other cousin Jarsden! Peter really looks up to him!

Alex (Jarsden's bro), Peter, and Jarsden

We didn't get any pictures with my family because they were being awesome and went to my house to finish all the prep work for the luncheon we had afterwards!

March

2013-08-05T11:56:00.004-06:00

Some day our kids are going to put together a band and be rockin'! They can constantly be found playing the guitar or beating on pot or pan!

One night Anthony and I bought Wreck it Ralph for the kids on Amazon and we finished painting our basement. I know it looks like a puky pink but it's actually a dark brown that really makes our basement feel comfy and homey! It only took us a year to get all the walls painted! At this rate, we should have the whole house done in about 6 years!

March 13th Anthony's parents arrived home from their mission in Australia! It has been so awesome to have them home and to feel complete as a family again! It makes me homesick for my brother and sister but I soon we will all be together again too!

To do Julia's hair it usually consists of one episode of her choice of cartoon and my working as fast as I can to get all the tangles and snarls! She's getting better about sitting still but we can't go without our Dora the Explorer! (Thankfully she has moved on to old Disney cartoons with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck! My sanity was saved!)

All my family came over to celebrate Peter's 8th birthday and my brother, James, 27th! Naomi had started to crawl around by this time and was keeping us all entertained!

Grandpa and Jacob are quite the buds!

Great Grandma Monson brought cupcakes for everyone! This is Peter blowing out his candles!

James got numbered ones! There's no way that we could fit that many candles on two cupcakes!

Jacob sneaking into daddy's candy!

Peter got the game of Twister for his birthday! It was a hit till we lost the spinner!

This was the highlight! The game of Battleship!

Too bad the pieces only last a few days!

The big one!

The first remote control car to enter our home!

Doesn't he look so excited?

Peter was so excited to start scouts! This was his first day!

One day after the boys had earned up enough money they each bought yo yos from Amazon and they got to paint them and decorate them!

Matthew and Julia got to do water colors!

Such concentration!

Forgot to rotate this one! Opps!

They tore up our road for almost four months while they replaced pipes and the road top! It was crazy!

The rest are from Peter's friend birthday party! We did a pizza theme!

They did a chef relay where they had to put stuff on and then run to the other end of the room!

We did a balance a ping pong ball on a spoon as well!

Then we broke out the Kinect!

February

2013-08-04T21:04:00.002-06:00

February always brings more snow but a little warm temps that turn into low temps later at night. I was so proud of all my boys when they saw a neighbor chipping away at the ice and rushed out to help her! What a great way to show love during the month of LOVE!

My girl! She makes my heart happy with her ability to find the happy in almost anything!

Valentines Day was filled with parties, candy, and sweet cards! Anthony and I gave each of the kids a cup with hearts on it along with these heart shaped bubble wands and balloons with hearts all over them! I think I even threw in a box of conversation hearts!

This was the Peter and Andrew's gift to their teachers!

And this is what they gave to all their classmates!

I miss the days that you could just send a card with a few conversation hearts in the envelope! Now it seems like it has to be bigger and better! My kids came home from school with treat bags filled with candy from their classmates! CRAZY!

President's Day was spent playing with hot wheels and waiting for Daddy to come home so that we could go sledding. An old tradition! One that might have to change to the Saturday before!

Daddy finally made it home and we headed for the snow hill! Julia loved sledding...this being the first year that she could really enjoy it!

Matthew wasn't brave enough to go alone but thankfully he has a brave daddy!

Andrew loving the speed!

Climbing up the hill was a feat in of itself! Matthew did pretty well but would get frustrated because it was so slippery that he would slide two steps for every one he took!

Julia took the easy way out and never got out of her sled. She would slide down and then wait for someone to pull her back up!

The hot cocoa is the best part of any sledding trip!

On the last ride down the hill, Peter and Andrew slide into Matthew who was struggling up the hill and he biffed it hard on the ice! Poor kid! A family movie night filled with air popped popcorn made it feel so much better!

My birthday was the beginning of the February and I was in a foul mood because Anthony and two of my kids got sick canceling all celebrations. My sweet visiting teachers and friends brought me a bouquet of my favorite flowers, which totally made me feel better!

Family Bowling Day was a hit one lazy February Saturday!

Anthony has headband that goes over his ears that he uses when he snow blows. He usually has another hat on but this time he didn't! He ended up with this!

The boys enjoying days snow piling from the snow blower!

Peter had to write a report in school on his hero and he picked...

his DAD! I thought it pretty awesome and made Anthony feel special!

January

2013-08-04T17:50:00.001-06:00

January started out freezing and cold! It was below zero New Years Day! Julia willing agreed to pose for me before I had to leave for a photo shoot! She's getting so big!

We later went out to Tiff and John's for some sledding and hot chocolate!

Julia is proving to be quite capable of taking care of herself when it comes to her three brothers! All three of them are under her here!

We found Peter like this one night after we had sent him to bed! I think he was doing a little sneaky reading!

My sister, Rachal, left for her mission to the Tempe Arizona Mission at the end of January! This was her farewell hugs to everyone!

We arrived home to find that we were snowed in! We couldn't even get into our driveway! This is Anthony's car!

Satruday before her farewell, Awesome Aunt Rachal made one last snowman with her boys!

Julia and Kaylie have become best friends! This is them having a pillow fight after Rachal's farewell!

My farewell hug! It was so hard to say goodbye!

Matthew being what he is...a complete HAM!!

New Years Eve we had Rob and Susan's family over to ring (or pop) in the new year! We had about 50 feet of bubble wrap that the kids pop when midnight hit!

Matthew became a Sunbeam the beginning of January and has loved it!

This is my first real paycheck for doing Santa photos at Anthony's Christmas office party!

Story time! Such a good big brother!

DECEMBER

2013-08-04T16:03:00.001-06:00

It's pretty frighting that I'm just starting to blog December and its already August! Yikes!! I better hurry up I'm going to be so far behind I'll be ahead!

My amazing sister in law Andrae graduated with her Bachelors in December! I think she is awesome for doing all that she did in order to graduate!

Their daughter Naomi is super cute!

One of the only photos to be taken on Christmas morning! I'm always so busy playing and opening the gifts to spend time behind my lens! Oh well! We still have tons of video thanks to Anthony!

This was taken later on Christmas when we went down to my families for a party and to hang out! All the older cousins squished in the sled! What fun! Julia really did have fun even though she isn't showing it!

Poor Jacob wanted out so bad but had to wait for Daddy to make rounds before he could head out!

We were lucky enough to run into Santa three different times! This was the first at Broulims! He goes to the strangest places!

Matthew showed no fear and climbed right on up! Julia on the other hand refused to be seated on Santa's lap!

Peter's class put on a Christmas program where they sang a whole bunch of really cool songs! It was a lot of fun!

Andrew decided a few days before Christmas that all he wanted was his two front teeth!

Our lopside Christmas Tree! Note to self... straight tree next year!

Rachal went through the temple for the first time! It was amazing to have almost all of us in the temple! I can't wait till we can all be together!

So old neighbors braved the weather and came up to support Rachal!

Julia found it exhausting to have so much Christmas and fun!

Valerie and I got matching water jugs! I love mine! I have used it several times already!

November

2013-04-21T21:17:00.002-06:00

The rest of November went pretty smoothly...compared with its start!

Julia finally discovered the joy of dress up! She loves wearing this everywhere!! I love it!

My brother is in the Marshall Islands so we have to ship his Christmas to him really early. We made him snowmen out of white pom poms! It was so fun that we did it for Anth's parents too!

Anthony got out his guitar one night and helped each of the kids play a little tune!

Peter had a Thanksgiving program that we attended! It was a lot of fun!

Julia discovered scarfs and couldn't be happier then went I wrap one around her neck!

Matthew fell while we were at play group and hit his elbow on the gym floor. I became worried when it started swelling and he couldn't extend it. I ran him in for an x-ray that he wasn't too thrilled about. He wouldn't let them get a good picture! He fought off me and three nurses! They decided that he was probably okay if he was fighting all of us!

Just a little side note: all of us except Andrew had a x-ray this year! CRAZY!!!

We spent Thanksgiving with Anthony's family this year. Because there are so many of us (66 total) we split in to small groups and have dinner and then get all together for pie. We had dinner at Ashley and Michelle's house and were joined by Charles and Nancy and Lynn and Rebecca! It was great to be all together! We had a very small football game until Andrew got in the way of my elbow and got a bloody lip.Oh, the memories!

We then headed over for some pie and chatting and that Anthony went to Walmart with his brother to try and get some Black Friday sales. No luck! Maybe next year!

Anth's Appendix Story

2013-04-21T20:56:00.001-06:00

Two days after Halloween, Anthony's company had a trick or treat event at their workplace. For the third time ( with not a little grumbling) I got the kids into their costumes and drove over to do one more round of trick or treating. Anthony walked around with us and then started complaining that his stomach hurt. We both just brushed it, blaming the Chili Cook Off that they had participated in earlier. But as the night progressed, the pain got more intense. I have to admit that I was a little perturbed that he would choose that night to get sick. I was thinking all the thoughts that all wives out there think about Men colds and how we don't get sick leave. I blame the THREE days of Halloween I endured, plus the sugar crazed maniacs that also go by the names of my children. By 9:00 he was in a lot of pain and asked for a blessing.I then called some good friends who came right over. They both remarked how bad he looked. I had started repenting of my selfish thoughts by then. We both just thought that it was food poisoning

By 11:00 Anthony felt prompted to go to the hospital. I too felt the feeling to go and to go now. I called my wonderful sister who dropped everything and came over to stay with our kids while I ran him in.

After getting some good meds and getting a CT scan and waiting for 4 hours, it was discovered that his appendix was infected.

Being brave for the kids! We try and take pics when stuff like this happens, so that they can see that you don't need to be afraid. (In reality, I think we were both a little scared!)

After talking with the surgeon, I hurried home to update my sister and grab a change of clothes and other things. This is Anthony right before they took him back for surgery.

I went up to his room while they did the surgery and slept like a log on the pull-out bed chair thing! I texted all the family (Anth's and mine) to let them know what was happening. I called his parents in Australia and kept them updated as well. Everything went very smoothly and we spent two days in the hospital recovering. Kind of like a mini vacation for the two of us...okay not really!

This is a week of not shaving. He only made it four days without going back to work. I commissioned his brothers to make sure that he didn't lift anything and to try and make sure he took it easy!

He was told not to lift anything for 6 weeks. I teased him that he timed it just right because all the bikes need hung in the garage and all the Christmas totes brought down.

So thankful for all the family and friends that helped us out in our time of need! For all the babysitting so that I could stay by Anthony through the whole ordeal and for all the meals afterwards.

The rest of our October

2013-04-21T20:22:00.001-06:00

The rest of October flew by with Conference and all the fall festivities.

One of our conference activities was to build marshmallow temples. If you look close you can see the another one point out from under the couch. Magazine collages are always a big hit!

This is how Julia helps clear the table

Anthony borrowed a fog machine from one of his brothers (I think) for a mutual activity. He tried it out in the backyard and gave the neighbors a scare! They thought our yard was on fire!

Julia sometimes has a hard time going to sleep if she takes a late nap so here she is staying up with us coloring in one of her coloring books.

Already for church!

Julia is gets upset because all the boys have ties and she isn't allowed to wear one too! I'm wearing a scarf so she really feels left out. We found this old pink tie that was one of the boys and let her wear it around. Made her feel all better!

This is what a typical after church time looks like! Julia sacked out on the couch, catching up on a nap, and me and Suzy getting a quick snooze!

And this is Matthew's after church routine... sneaking as much out of the cupboards as he can!

Julia must have been really tired this day! She fall asleep at the table!

The beautiful sunset we enjoyed as we journeyed to a pumpkin patch in Rigby!

Selecting the right pumpkin always takes a lot thought... well okay... 10 minutes!

Especially when its freezing!!!

I love the fall because that's when all the big apples come on! I ordered a box of these from our local farmer! They were huge and oh so good! I can hardly wait till next year!

The annual craving of the pumpkins!

I wisened up this year and bought LED tealights from the dollar store to put in our pumpkins! So much better then trying to use ones you have to light! These ones stay on no matter what!

Matthew and Julia reading together! So cute!

My Halloween crew!

Peter was a pirate! Urg!!!

It sure came in handy when pirate day was earlier that week!

We did a ward Halloween costume swap and we got this awesome costume on loan!

Matthew decided he wanted to be a bat at first and then changed his mind when the actual holiday came!

I think we were going with a butterfly for Julia! I can't really remember!

She loved her wings and went through two pair before Halloween even came!

Julia let me talk her into wearing this for a few seconds! She thought she was so pretty!

The Straw Maze and October Birthdays

2013-04-21T19:08:00.003-06:00

One of the many Monsons traditions that we have is to go the Straw Maze every year. We usually end up picking the nastiest, coldest ever and this year was no exception! It's wasn't really cold just a really windy!

I love my new I-Phone!! It makes it really handy to take photos without having to haul my big camera and HEAVY lens around!

Great Grandma and Julia...she had just recently joined the world of Facebook and used this as her profile! I have one hip Grandma!

The kids had fun jumping off the hay into a big pile of lose hay!

We then headed back to our place to have birthday cobbler and presents! It was Rachal's 22nd birthday and she surprised us all by turning in her mission papers a few weeks before it. She received her call two days before! One day after her real birthday!

Tabitha also had a birthday! Happy Birthday to all!

Rachal's Mission Call

2013-04-21T19:00:00.000-06:00

My amazing sister, Rachal, chose to serve a mission. We all waited on pins and needles for that mysterious white envelope to arrive! The day that it arrived we all gathered together to hear the big reveal!

She got called to the Arizona Tempe Mission and she was to report on January 30th! We are all so proud of her and so excited that she made this choice to serve a mission.

Love you Rachal!

Our NYC Adventure

2013-03-17T21:31:00.002-06:00

Two of Anthony's brothers decided to take their wives on to NYC for a few days over Spud Harvest. Anthony talked me into and then talked my wonderful mom into babysitting for us so that we could have an amazing trip! We decided to leave three days earlier then Anthony's brothers so that we could enjoy more of the sites! We stayed for seven days instead of their four! It was amazing!

I'm a pretty nervous flyer! I couldn't sleep the night before because worrying about making the flight on time! We caught the shuttle at 3:00 and were very surprised when we arrived in the SLC airport 2 hours early! Gave me plenty of time to get nervous! As you can probably tell in the photo!

I finally relaxed half way through the flight and took time to snap a few photos with my new I-Phone!

We landed in NYC Saturday night and after not eating all day and getting little sleep I was super motion sick! I crashed hard when we got to the hotel! The next morning we woke finally refreshed and ready to go! This is us standing on the subway platform waiting to catch our first ever subway! We were planning on attending church in the ward that meets in the bottom of Manhattan Temple. We underestimated how long it would take us to find our way and missed sacrament meeting. Oh well!

We headed over to Central Park after church!

It was amazing! It was our favorite part of our whole trip! We walked around for two hours and only saw a fourth of the park!

One of the street entertainers

The next morning we decided to spend the day at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island!

We got to Battery Park just in time to stand in line for two hours!! Just to get to the ferry! It was worth it though!

Looking at the NYC Skyline

Anthony tried out the panoramic view on my phone's camera

View from the ferry

After the Statue and Ellis Island (where I had my first ever NYC pretzel by the way!), we jumped on the subway and headed up towards 5th Ave. We walked around the financial district and saw the famous Market Bull.

We went inside here but hurried out after a few minutes! I totally felt out of place in this opulent building in my tennis shoes and jeans!

The next day we spent killing time at the Empire State Building!

While on top of the building, it started to rain and then started snowing!! It was surreal!

Anthony in front of the Apple Store!

The rest of the day was rainy and over cast and we had our first experience of talking down a street vendor when we bought an extra umbrella!

St. Thomas Catherdal, where we hanged out to get out of the rain for a little bit.

We accidental found ourselves in Times Square. It was amazing! Loved it!

The next day, after meeting up with Anthony's brothers and wives, we headed to the Museum of Natural History and then here! It was awesome!

We wondered around Times Square some more...

The M&M store!

Us all together!

Our last stop for the night was at Grand Central Station, where I got the most amazing cheesecake!

The next day, Anthony's brothers headed to the Statue and we enjoyed sleeping in and decided to go back to the Park!

It was misting...hence the umbrellas!

The Reservoir

I had to get a hot dog!

It was all about the food for me if you couldn't tell! I even got to ride in a taxi, though it wasn't a yellow one...sigh...

Our final stop on our trip!

This show is AMAZING and we fully enjoyed it!

Flying home was so much better and I was hardly stressed or nervous!

Our kids surprised us with this awesome surprise!

What an adventure!

Thank you, Anthony for talking me into this adventure!

Field Day

2013-03-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

This is the first Field Day that my kids have actually participated in! They held it in September since the weather is often very iffy in Spring here! Peter had his in the morning so we packed up and went down to watch him participate in the events!

This giant twister game was awesome! He totally rocked it!

Then it was time for tug-of-war!

The girls won the first round!

They then had it been the kids against the parents and teachers! We (the parents) lost royally!

Those kids are super tough!

Then it was time to play with a giant tent thing!

(don't you love my terminology!)

Andrew's time was in the afternoon! We got there just as they were playing a soccer game of some sort!

They then ran some relays!

Overall it was awesome and my kids had a lot of fun!

Spud Day Parade

2013-03-08T10:57:00.002-07:00

Anthony told one of my sisters-in-law that there are two events in September that you can't miss no matter what! Big Monson traditions...

The State Fair and the Spud Day Parade!

We went to the fair this year but I left my camera in the van and so sorry about no photos! It was fun and a fun experience that I love sharing with my kids.

The morning of the 'big" parade! Every year right before the harvest of the potatoes begins, they have a parade and activities in the park to celebrate the harvest! Our kids love the parade and I don't mind it either since its short (about 20 minutes) and I don't worry about them getting trampled when running out to get the candy the floats throw.

Peter showing off one of his finds!

The whole crew!

Grandma Monson explaining to Matthew the best technique for collecting candy!

My Dad got this horn forever ago! Its loud and annoying and perfect for parades! (He also loves to use it at girls camp to get the girls up and moving... wasn't so popular there!)

Each of the kids took a turn but no one can blow it like Grandpa! He used it to gain the attention of the float riders so that we could get more candy!

Aunt Rachal taught us all the right way to cheer to get the most candy as well! Demonstrating her wave and two thumbs up!

Matthew trying out her technique!

The other great thing about the parade is the seeing all the cool way that they bring the ideas of potatoes to their floats!

Miss Russet

Always a crowd favorite!

The Go Carts!!

They haven't been around for years but they made a re-appearance this year!

Some of the floats and trucks were just a little two noisy for some!

Peter showing off his spoils!

Andrews bucket!

We had enough candy to fill TWO gallon baggies that I gave out at Halloween and still have a large bowl full to eat for ourselves!

Look at his smile!

Perfect contentment!

A Birthday Party at the Zoo

2013-02-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

My dad and Andrew's birthdays are a ONE day apart so we often celebrate them together. This year we decided to go to the zoo and then eat pizza at the park.

The kids always love the petting zoo.

Julia wanted to wear a hat just like her brothers... but I didn't have any girlie ones!

All the cousins...minus two.. baby Jacob and baby Naomi!

Andrew's favorite present came from Grandma and Grandpa

A BEAN BAG CHAIR!

Blowing out the candles!

Grandpa's turn!

Even more cake and presents!

The boys really liked the ball and mitts that we got them. They played catch for hours!

AUGUST

2013-02-20T12:31:00.001-07:00

August is a busy month with the finishing of summer project, school shopping, and the beginning of school.

Throw in the County Fair and end of summer family activities and you get a lot of fun!

This year each of the boys put in a photo at the fair!

I let them take our old camera out and shot around. It was a lot of fun.

This one is Matthew's.

Everyone got a plain white ribbon... which Matthew was excited about!

Andrew got third place in his division! I was so proud of him. He also earned a dollar!

Peter also got a participation ribbon and was a little upset that he didn't place higher. We talked about how sometimes that's life and that maybe next year he'll do better. I think he'll try for an art project. Something that he enjoys more!

I put five photos in this year.

I decided since I have started charging for my photo sessions to classify in the Professional Division. I was so nervous but then so excited when I saw that I had received 1st and 2nd place! The prize money was so bad either! As I looked at the other professional class photos I noticed that there was only one other photographer in that class... haha! Oh well!

Anthony has been wanting to make taffy with the kids FOREVER! We finally did and it was a lot of fun!

The last Monday of summer vacation we headed to the nearby campground to enjoy one last campout! We didn't stay over...but maybe next time!

I did some canning! Something that I absolutely love! I did cherries, peaches, pickles, zuccinni, and carrots! And maybe more... I can't remember anymore!

Just some fun summer pics! Cookie making and dough eating was a must this summer! We assigned an activity to every day and Wednesday was our baking day! (Monday-Library; Tuesday- Park; Thursday-water; Friday-farmer market)

Julia helped me practice my natural lighting technique in the bathroom!

And we had a baby blessing! My brother Shaun blessed his baby at the beginning of the month and its always fun to get together with family to celebrate a new baby!

FIRST Day of School

2013-02-19T13:59:00.001-07:00

This year Peter is in the Second Grade!

He is super excited to start school again!

Andrew was excited too but was a little nervous as well! He has the same teacher that Peter did and he was super excited to be all grown up and going to school.

Lining up to go inside!

All ready to begin learning!