Catching up...sorta

Our summer has been a busy one so I will just quickly throw some pictures out of some of the things we have done.

Car show. Notice when the children are smiling...with the NEW and FAST cool cars...forget the classics.

This picture was for me. This beauty is called the Vista Cruiser and this IS the car that my family drove growing up. My father was a used car salesman and could have picked for us anything off the lot to drive, but this is the beauty he chose. Ours however, was a dark green color with faux wood paneling along the sides...very HOT!

This is an abandoned train track that back in the early 1900's used to go all the way up to Yellowstone.

Breakfast is almost ready.

What doesn't look quite right in this picture...any guesses?

Hiking and Sunny's assumed position.

Stevey and these three (Clover refused to walk this day) went on a HUGE 4 hour hike to the lower Mesa Falls falls and had a great time. Clover and I enjoyed the afternoon at camp beating off the flies and worrying about these guys.

Dalton and his buddy McKade cracking themselves up while I am trying to take pictures of the snake bites they received from a snake attack which occurred during their filming a documentary entitled "Snake Attack".

My VICE or is it VISE! The kids will trash the basement and the little girls will get into the game closet (in which I am standing to take this picture) and empty out all of the games and puzzles while I am upstairs enjoying a peaceful moment away for the children....serves me right.

Some "twiners" pictures...Zoie did love it and Sunny just liked playing with her on the tramp.

"The cozy tree" debut. This is only one small section of the show....I love these skirts.

Sunny and Clover jumping off of the wall and playing...do you like Clovers skirt? A cozy tree original.

This is the billy goat that tried to eat all of Zoies hair during our trip to Bear World.

Zoie's billy goat eaten hair.

Sunny feeding a friendly little deer .

Our family of little bears

Spiritual Thought

Today during the opening exercises of Elders Quorum and High Priests (Bryan this is what the men classes are called in our church and Stevey is the Elders Quorum fearless leader) anyway, Stevey was welcoming all of the men to class and getting things started with a nice spiritual thought from the scriptures he was holding in his left hand while juggling our nap deprived 18 month old Sunny in the other. Where was mom you might be asking yourselves...I was in the woman's class, Relief Society leading the music, because that is one of my jobs in the church.

Well, Sunny got it into her head that it was dinner time for dad and he was going to EAT his tie. It's not too difficult to visualize Stevey looking like a million bucks in his church suit and scriptures in hand, with a VERY determined and angry child in other aggressively trying to shove her dads tie into his mouth while he is trying to talk. The more Stevey tried to avert the tie assault the louder and more aggressively Sunny went for it. Needless to say, I don't think the 40+ men in the classroom who witnessed the assault will remember what Stevey read from the scriptures today, but rather reflect on the event and get a good laugh all over again on this "sunny" sabbath day.

Bone and Back 2009

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It was Stevey's turn this year to run the Bone and Back Marathon. We had tried to put together a team but it just didn't work out and luckily our neighbors had to drop out which left an opening for Stevey to fill. The team name was "The Bleeding Cowboy" and they did awesome. The finished 10th over all and Steveys five mile leg/leg 8 the final leg he ran it in 37 minutes. It was a lot of fun to support him and the team.

Yellowstone National Park

It just sort of happened.

The family decided we wanted to drive up to Island Park, Idaho and check things out up there. Island Park is a VERY popular destination place for water skiing, hiking, weekend get aways, and it seems like every other person you meet has a cabin up in Island Park that they frequent.

We got up there and discovered that it seemed pretty good, I mean we really didn't know what to do or where to go. Anyway, we saw a sign that said 20 miles to Montana and then just a bit farther to West Yellowstone National Park. We were having a nice time in the van and thought what the heck and headed up North.

Once we got to West Yellowstone we decided to get a hotel room and make a party of it. One problem, we didn't pack anything little lone a diaper bag.

Once we got the essential shopping done (diapers, wipes, and two sale priced swimming trunks..one for Dalton and one for Zoie to wear with a sports bra she had on...her first and last two piece swimming suit.) we were ready to go. We swam in the hotel pool, ate Bison at a local restaurant, and watched too much TV in the hotel room before we all crashed for the night.

After our lovely continental breakfast we headed out for the Park and were thrilled to discover that they were having a FREE day at the park ($25 deal) that day. Our mini van erupt with cheers and celebration over the news and our day was set to be the best day ever. Almost immediately upon entering the park we came across our first bit of wildlife...a buffalo (hopefully no relation the one we ate for dinner the night before). It was so amazing.

Stevey was like a kid in a candy store (or a life long lover of nature in Yellowstone for the first time) and took so many beautiful pictures and just couldn't get enough of the beautiful sights everywhere.

Enjoy only a couple of the pictures of our spontaneous trip and it really was one of the funnest activities ever. By the way, it was so awesome that my kid want to leave Idaho and move to Montana because it is so cool...go figure.


The final stretch home...crashed.


Here we come...


A natural boiling mud pot.


Hello handsome.



We got here five minutes before eruption...perfect timing.

This was so amazing and there were thousands of people there.

This was the highlight of out trip. I don't remember the name of this hot pool but the colors were incredible. We hiked up a steep mountain side to get birds eye view and we were not disappointed (yep...I carried Sunny up in my arms and we both survived).

Another natural hot spring...there are over 10,000 of these things all over the park.

Snack time...

More buffalo in the distance.

They are SO massive

In the city of West Yellowstone they have these painted buffalo all over the town and will auction them off later in the year....remember the cow thing in San Antonio...same thing.

Leave it to the girl..

Funny story.

Two weeks ago our neighbors the Look's, who live two doors down, decided to start water balloon bombing us (Stevey and I). All of the kids where at their house (all being our three big kids and their two) and in on the mischief while Stevey and I were doing yard work stuff. A water bomb missed me by ten feet and that was by launching a 'hail Mary' type shot over the roof.



Anyway, Stevey and I went into our back yard and started taunting them by jumping on the trampoline and yelling Christ like insults at them to no avail, they just kept missing us. I then starting encouraging them to let the girl (Zoie) give it a try so that we might FINALLY get hit because obviously these boys just didn't have the SKILLS to get the job done. Miss Kim and Mr. Matt, our neighbors held the launcher for Zoie and she let it fly. We were looking around hoping to see where it went....BOOM!!! Her balloon NAILED Stevey smack dab in the middle of his chest! I was SOOO FUNNY and needless to say there was much celebration on both sides. Like I said earlier, if you want something done right leave it to the girl.



And YES...it REALLY hurt...he took it for the team!

Cub Scouts

Dalton is a Cub Scout now and he had a great first pack meeting. He earned his Bobcat, Wolf, Gold Arrow, four yellow beads, and camping segment. You might be asking yourself how in the world he got this all done in one month and I will tell you...one motivated mother and willing son. Now for the rest of the year Dalton will work on getting his Silver Arrows, and other segments. Great JOB Dalton!

BAPTISM

He is 8 and baptized....AAAH!

Dalton's baptism was great. He had been preparing himself for this wonderful day for a long time and was very excited for this event....we couldn't be more proud of him.

The following day, Sunday, when the bishop called Dalton Stevey Conder up to the pulpit to receive his baptism certificate and to be officially welcomed into the ward, he sprinted up the isle, bounded up the stairs, and came to a screeching halt next to the bishop without feeling the least bit irreverent and was completely serious about the business at hand....Dalton is so AWESOME.

Dalton and Ryan (in the suit jacket) were the two baptized at 11am and then his friend McKayla (far left) was baptized at 12pm.

wii anyone!

Farewells and Parties

One Year has come and gone and we can hardly believe it. After a year of being seperated from their dad and older brother Kyler, Shaylee and Braden are now reunited with them and starting their new adventures with their revamped and fun dad together as a family.

What a year it has been....

Shaylee and Braden made a ton of friends here and ended the school year with terrific grades. We wanted to throw them a huge farewell party with some of their school and neighborhood friends and hoped that it showed them that we (Stevey and I) really don't hate them (yep that 'hate' word came up a lot when accountability and consequences were in question).

We love them very much and wish them the very best and we are very grateful for all the experiences we had together here in Idaho.




delicious food for many...


Braden was acting tough, but you can tell that he was sad to say goodbye to me.


The clan for the last year.

Cousin Ambria for the bbq.

Shaylee with some neighbor kids and school girl friend.

Braden with some of his school buddies and two fun girls.

The jump house we rented for the event...lots of fun.

Almost all of the kids with Shay and Bradens princess farewell cake.