June Summer Fun

On our way to Idaho Falls we stopped in Twin Falls at Culver's.  Some friends of ours from Wisconsin opened up Idaho's first Culver's.  We will be stopping there frequently for a butter burger and frozen custard.  

 Barry and my sister Lisa have an ebay store where they sell clothes.  Barry was pretty excited about his new inventory!

Summer nights have been filled with Barry's softball games.  He really loves it and enjoyed being on this team.  

 Kara and her friends made cute little notes to deliver around the neighborhood with peanut butter cups.

I went to find Tanner at the church and he wanted a ride home on the back.  It worked out, but was a little scary!

 Kara got to go do a service project at the Boise Temple with the activity day girls.  They each were given a little cup of flowers from the Temple to plant at home.

 Emma had a birthday party at Christensen's Pond and they invited the whole family.

 Out of the blue, Kara asked me to play catch with her.  She had never really played before, but was a natural and wants to play softball next year.  She got Tanner to play catch with her too only they tried to throw the ball really hard at each other and now we have a nice baseball sized hole in our new fence.  We have been playing baseball in the back yard, with a wiffle ball.

 My Parents and Grandma stopped by after their cruise to Alaska.  We had dinner together before they had to continue their journey.

Jaxson's 1/2 Birthday

When you have a birthday in December, sometimes it is more fun to celebrate your 1/2 birthday.  Now Jaxson knows he is 3 1/2 not just 3 any more....just ask him!  Tanner, Kara and Kendra helped plan the party including making the invitations and the cupcakes.  We just invited neighbors and Eli and planned the party for just an hour, which was perfect.  The kids had enough time to play, eat cake and then it was time for them to head home.  

 Lisa let us borrow her big blow up water slide for the party.  (Kendra photo bombing this is one of the best parts of this picture)

Jax got a dollar in his card, which he thought was pretty cool!

Family Reunion

This year the Acor Reunion was in Eastern Idaho in Swan Valley at an old ski resort turned into summer camp.  On the weekends they rent the cabin out to groups.  So we stayed Friday and Saturday nights.  Stacy was over the reunion this year and did a great job!

The cousins were all excited to hang out with each other again.  They started where they left off last time they were together.  Tanner really missed Dakota, but didn't mind being with all the girls most of the time.  

 The first night we all had dinner together and the kids played hide and go seek.  Then we set up the projector for a movie.  We also started a fire to warm up, which surprisingly was not too smokey in the lodge once the movie was over, we all went to bed and one last log was put on the fire.  It was soooo smokey.  We couldn't sleep upstairs in the main room, so we crashed the kids area and bunked with them, hung up a blanket in the doorway to block the smoke and opened the window.  It was better, but just as we fell asleep Jaxson woke up dancing having to go to the bathroom.  Barry couldn't open his eyes, because he needs drops since his surgery to open them after sleeping, so he got my groggy attention.  We were pretty far from the bathroom, so I decided that because we were right next to a window without a screen I would hold him close to the window and let him go out the window.  I held him up but then realized as he was sitting on my leg that it was too late, he had already gone while he was dancing on the floor.  It ended up being a pretty restless night.  The next morning after breakfast I went to the car to take a much needed nap.

Barry found a critter trap and had to use it!  He caught two ground squirrels with Cheetos as the bait. Stacy planned some fun Minute to Win It games.  We divided into three teams, the Gators, Team Awesomeness, and the Stallions (all the adults).  

 Later that day we went fishing.

 After fishing we went to the Square Ice Cream Store.

Cam flipping burgers!

 We were so glad that newly engaged Justin and Kinley were able to make it for the reunion.  It was fun to get to know her better.  These two played hide and go seek with the kids and kept them entertained.  Tanner, Cassidy and Rebecca were a little disappointed that Justin and Kinley gave up looking for them when they had a "really good" hiding spot in the dumpster.

 The Idaho Fish and Game would come by the creek and check on the fish.  Everyone was interested in watching what they were doing.

The second night was much better, no smoke, lots of sleep.  The next day was Fathers Day and also happened to be my birthday.  We cleaned up the lodge and went to Idaho Falls for a little stop.   Barry and DeAnn made me a nice birthday dinner and cake.  I really appreciated it!
It was great to spend some time reconnecting with the Acors!

McCall, Idaho

Uncle Lynn bid for a one week stay at this cabin in McCall at Tanner's scout auction and he won!  Lucky for us he invited us to stay at the cabin too.    

It was such a great cabin and all of the kids kept themselves busy and happy!  

In the yard around the cabin was a little meadow with lots of dandelions.  We made all the girls crowns and there was still enough for them to have a bouquet to hold.  Some of them made bracelets as well.

The rest of the evening was spent grilling pizza and the kids hiked and explored the area and created costumes from leaves, sticks, bark, flowers, and moss.  They were very creative (I don't have the pictures uploaded yet to show) and they even had names associated with their costumes: Kendra was Mother Nature, Porter was the Barren of Branches, Kara was the Ruler of Rocks, Micah was King of the Creatures, Tanner was Guardian of the Grasses, Peyton was Royal River.

Of course s'mores were necessary that night!

 The following day we headed to Payette Lake for a little swimming and playing.  We worked hard on the music video that we needed to finish too.

 Kara was digging and found clay which she collected and they all began to make clay pots which kept them very busy.

Ice Cream Alley after swimming sure hit the spot.  I love the little boys blue eyes!  Later that day Barry and Seneca took Tanner, Kara, Micah and Porter to Skunk Lake to go fishing.  They met Lynn and his dad there and caught a lot of fish.  They also brought a lot of fish back to the cabin, so Seneca smoked them in the campfire and apparently they were delicious!

On Friday we went for a drive up further into the mountains.  Uncle Lynn knew of a place called Crystal Mountain.  The kids were thrilled to be able to ride for some of the time in the back of Uncle Lynn's truck.

 We had lunch at the base of where we would hike to the top.  It was amazing to see so many crystals.

 Jaxson liked hiking in the snow when ever he could.

 We were hiking on a rock bed of crystals.  The kids and adults collected many!

 Jax thought this one would be nice to take home.

 This was the view from the top of the mountain, just beautiful!

 Here is the whole crew of happy hikers.

 Later we went back to Payette Lake and let the kids play in the splash pad there.

We finally finished our Belcher Family Music Video "Good Time" that we started back at Thanksgiving.  It was fun project to work on together!