Happy Anniversary!

Rick and I celebrated our 17th Wedding Anniversary at BYU Education Week in Idaho (pretty exciting, huh?)  We went up to Idaho a couple of days early so that we could have a chance to celebrate.  We learned that the hotel we were staying at (AmericInn) had some fun theme rooms and so we stayed in one of those our first night.  It was nice to have an evening and an entire day to relax before we started with Education Week.  Here are some pictures of the "chivalrous Knight Suite" we stayed in.  

 

Fun at Grandma Jensen's

Grandma had a "backwards party" for the kids and their cousins.  They wore their clothes backwards, ate under the tables, ate with the wrong side of the utensils, and ate their dessert first (I am sure that was their favorite part).  So if you are wondering where Rick gets any of his wacky ideas -- wonder no more!

 Janelle took these darling pictures of Jani and Jenna (our niece, Jamie did her hair)

 I snapped a few pictures before Rick and I headed out to Idaho.  Check out this slide.  The grand-kids are not allowed to go down it until they are five years old.  I think I remember the kids catching Jenna at the top of it last time we were here though.  Josh turned five last April but this is the first time he actually dared go up the ladder (which is just as scary as going down the slide) and go down the slide.  Way to go, Josh! 

 

Jared had to show off his back flips for me...

That last picture is kind of an optical illusion -- it makes it look like Jared is hanging upside down from the swing set!  And not to be out-done, here is Jenna doing her "trick!"

And of course the kids love the giant swing set...

 

 The kids were having so much fun with Grandma, I think they forgot to tell us good-bye!!

 

Facials and Massages

Gerilyn is not only a school counselor, she is also a certified Massage Therapist.  So she gave all of the girls facials and massages while they stayed with her.  Looks like fun! 

 

 Jani's mud matches her eyes!

Jani's Youth Conference Pictures

Well, I've heard little tidbits about our Stake Youth Conference.  They went to the "This is the Place Monument" and went hiking at Ensign Peak.  They visited the Salt Lake Temple Visitor's Center and listened to "The Spoken Word" at the General Conference Center (which Rick said was absolutely incredible).  They went to the family history center at the Joseph Smith Memorial building where they all had the opportunity to do indexing.  They watched the movie "17 Miracles," (Jase said that this was his favorite part of Youth Conference).  They ate lunch at "The Lion House" (Rick claimed it was amazing), went to a fireside by John Bytheway, and had a dance with a Stake from Salt Lake. (This was Jase's first dance and he wasn't too excited about going but he actually had a great time and is looking forward to attending more in the future).  The group attended church Sunday and a fireside later that night.  Rick skipped the fireside in order to come help my mom with our kids while I was in the hospital with Jaiden.   He then met back up with the group Monday morning for the "24th of July Parade."  Unfortunately most of the stories I heard from the kids had more to do with shooting silly string at people and writing love notes then being touched by the spirit, but lets hope that something sunk in (besides a "crush of the week.")

 

 Janika trying to decipher some difficult hand-writing while Indexing....

Janika with the young women from the sixth ward...

They thought it was cool that the bathrooms had pink marble walls....?

Janika exhausted after being woke up too early....

Pranking the boys by writing them creepy love notes...

Janika with Alyssa Johnson

Awesome floats at the parade...

So many things to see and experience on this trip and yet I find the most random pictures on my teenager's camera....

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa Westra's

Since Rick, Janika, and Jase were attending Youth Conference in Salt Lake, I hung out with the five youngest at my mom and dad's.  At Grandma and Grandpa's house the activities included swimming; launching water balloons with their Grandpa and their cousin, Conner; dancing to "Just Dance" on the Wii; reading stories; and making art projects.  Rick and Janika and Jase got back on Monday and that night my mom invited my sister and brothers and their kids for pizza and games.  Jeni and I brought some fireworks for the kids to do.  It started raining in the middle of sparklers but the kids finished up in the garage. It was fun for the cousins to play and the adults to visit.  It's moments like these that I wish we didn't live so far away from family!