We Are Still Alive!

So, here's the story.....Aaron and I decided to take off for pretty much the WHOLE summer!! I know it is pretty crazy but we are having a lot of fun. 

Sorry to those of you who think posting is gay without pictures, but I can barely figure out the whole thing on my own computer, let a lone my mother-in-law's laptop!  We have been up to McCall Idaho, Burley Idaho, down to Midway Utah and up to Evanston Wyoming. This is like the best summer ever! I love to just travel around and have a good time visiting with family and STUFF!!

I just thought I would leave a little note to let you all know what we are doing.  I hope everyone is having a great summer!! I will try to catch up on things once I get home and back in to real life. IF it's not too overwhelming!!

Smith Family Vacation to McCall Idaho

To start the vacation off we had to travel for like 12 hours to get to this sweet little town of McCall in Northern Idaho. And.....we were in the motor home. It was quite the drive. Madison, Brayden and I went up to my grandma's with my sisters and mom on June 1st. On June 3rd Aaron picked us up in Payson. He had Porter, Ryan and the motor home. As we started off we were pretty excited to go on a little family vacation. We arrived in sweet Burley that night and stayed at the "Burley House." We then woke up the next morning and headed to Boise. Which was about 2 hours from Burley, to where Nicole had flown into-she was kind enough to come and help try to control my zoo while we vacationed. After we picked her up we thought we were pretty close. Little did we know we had to drive up this canyon that took a car like 2 hours, but in the motor home took twice as long. I may be exaggerating, but PRETTY SURE I'M NOT! We got to McCall and it was raining. But, that was o.k. we just came from very warm weather in Southern Utah. Anyway, the vacation was fun and I was SO thankful Nicole was there. We didn't take much of a variety of pictures, but this is what we got.

The first night we were there we all headed down to the indoor swimming pool. I have come to realize the one trait Ry got from me was the fact that he's not so much a fan of the water.

It took some coaxing but we got Ry in the water for a picture.

Porter and Brayden are the fish in this family.
Cute Boys!!

The next day the sun was shining so we took advantage and went on a bike ride...
Here is the group.

Brayden was being pulled by Aunt Aubrey in this thingy that goes behind bikes....
He did good for awhile but kept touching Kennedy.

That's weird that Ry is with his daddy!!

Madison and I on the tandem bike. I love this bike, Aaron and I need to get one.
The only problem was, later on the vacation Porter got his foot stuck in the back spokes. He ended up obviously being ok, but it freaked him and I out!

This is how Ry, Brayd, Aaron and Porter came back.
The ride was too long on Porter's bike and Brayden got tired of the thing he was riding in.

We all, meaning like 20 of us, got in the motor home and found this pretty lake
Our Cute Little Family. I can't believe all my babies were looking at the camera.

Daddy's little girl

Ry looking at the waterfall. What a cute little man!


Thanks for all your help Nicole! I'm not so sure we would have survived without it.

Earlier this year my sisters, my mom, and I all decided we needed to start planning girls trips to go on every year. Since we all live in the St. George area we thought we needed to get away somewhere fun. After much thought we decided to go up to my grandma's house in Payson, Utah. That way we could get away but it wouldn't be too expensive and we could go shopping! What else would you do on a girl's trip? Pull weeds at your grandma's house? Well, yes! We did that too.

We left after church on June 1st and loaded up my mom's suburban with My mom, Heather, her son cam, Me, Madison, Brayden, Joanna, whom was pregnant and Bud, whom was pregnant also.

Starting out.....I guess we aren't really light packers huh?

Grandma was such a trooper. We walked to the park Sunday evening and she came with.

We found this sweet toy so we all had to try it. Here's Heather.
That's me

Jo and her pregnant self!

Bud's turn-also pregnant.

Madison went back and forth 6 times without even letting go! She was so proud. She challenged me-I won. I still have to let her know I'm tougher than her. It's not going to last much longer. She is so dang competitive.

Brayd even wanted a try.

This is the only picture I got of my mom at the park and she isn't even looking....What the heck? Oh well, at least it doesn't look like we left her home.

After the park we all went home and had some ice cream....

Cute grandma always has ice cream at her house. It sure looks like she enjoys it!
After the feast of ice cream we all went to bed to prepare for our shopping day!

This is how Brayd and Bud got their energy for our big shopping day that was just ahead of us.
Good 'ol Rice Krispies!!


Oh this picture is BEAUTIFUL!!!!!
Bud will forever make me laugh. Can we always hang out?

So, quick question........who in their right mind spends $60.00 on a stuffed animal? Me, I do, I do! I could not believe it. My sister Heather told Madison all about these cute little Buile-a-Bears. She told Madison that if she was good I bet your mom will buy you one. What am I supposed to say to that? Afterall, it was a girls trip.

It was probably worth it. She loves her little bear and it sure is cute. I just probably will never do that again. Especially after Aaron found out how much it cost. He couldn't believe it!! He kept asking me how much it really cost because there is no way it could have been that much. WHOOPS!!

With all that shopping we had to stop and get some food. It was yummy. I think Joanna must be taking this picture because she is missing.

Brayden loves Balloons. That is all he wanted in the mall, not Madison's $60.00 stuffed animal!

Brayd likes his gum and Madison's prized possesion.

We had great fun on our shopping day and Joanna found some cute pregnancy clothes, despite her complaining that nothing fit her right. One of the joys of being pregnant I guess.....


The next day we got up and did yard work around my grandma's house. I was leaving at about noon to meet Aaron by the freeway so we could continue up to McCall Idaho for Aaron's family reunion. Of course we need lots of energy to do yard work.

Good thing Heather knows how to work in the yard. I'm pretty sure her and my mom could of done it all a lot faster if me, Jo, and Bud wouldn't have been there. At least they wouldn't have been distracted.

This is how good of a worker Joanna is......Nice picture of my back-side huh?

We got some good pictures of Jo. Brayd looks pretty happy.

This is how the girls trip ended for Brayd, Madison and myself......It sure was fun to get away, even if I did bring along 2 of my babies. I know Aaron had a good time with Porter and Ryan. Even though my dad did take them for a whole night. What the heck!!

LET'S DO IT AGAIN!!

We Planted a Garden!

My mom and dad sold their house and are just renting now so my dad didn't have anywhere to plant his garden. The nice daughter that I am let him plant his sweet garden in my backyard. Yeah I know it was a little tough to find a spot for it but we managed!

My most favorite garden vegetable are peas! I LOVE 'EM!! Really, I can't get enough of them. We planted like 10 rows of the yummy little things. They didn't all make it, but a lot of them did. I can't believe how much Madison, Porter and Ryan love the peas also. They take their friends out there and show them how to pick peas and pull on the "zipper" to get the peas out of the pod.

This is the first pea we picked. It was SO DELICIOUS!! And, Aaron talking on the phone. That's is weird!

This is our sweet little garden! Porter was picking the peas and taking them to Madison while she opened them and fed the babies. I was running around the track.

Madison is so cute, the other day I told her I was going to be sad when we didn't have peas anymore. She said to me, "it's a good thing we will always have peas though now, huh mom?" I guess she just figures they are like a tree. Once you plant them they stay forever. Oh, How I wish!!

Family Home Evening

For Family Home Evening we went to "Jumping Jacks". It was a fun little activity for us to do with some friends. We were planning on the park, but of course the weather turned bad on us at the last minute for the second time!

The big slide was definitely the biggest hit. Ryan and Aaron had a good time on it. Aaron even surfed down it, and made it to the bottom. I can't get that picture to upload though. Maybe later.

Nicole, Ryan, Madison, Chloe and Porter took on the big slide all in a row! It was amazing no one got seriously hurt, just a couple, well a lot of burns. Oh yeah, Aaron did fall out of the baby toy which was pretty funny! Stuff like that just doesn't happen to him. Only Me!

Here is our whole family on the sweet little plane they had there. We had a good time and will for sure be back!!

Mother's Day Tea Party With Joanna

I was so sad that I couldn't make it to Porter's special Mother's Day Tea Party. But, I had a really good reason why, this was my problem......Madison's Kindergarten program was the same day at the same time! What are the chances? I had already been to Porter's gymnastics program and he has another end-of-the-year program. So, I thought I had better go and support my baby girl! So I did, but Porter agreed to let Joanna "be his mom". I am so thankful I have family close that are so willing to help me in my desperate time of need!

Porter was a good singer!

He's a monkey, but he is also my baby boy! He seemed to have a great time with his Aunt Joanna while she was "his mom."

Joanna's plate of good stuff!

Porter's plate of GOOD STUFF!

What a beautiful little boy I have! I guess he loves his cheese?

Madison's Kindergarten Program

What a beautiful little girl I have! Inside and out. She is so good to help me with the crazy boys in our family, and is always so willing to do WHATEVER! I can't believe she is almost in 1st grade and growing up so fast!

I'm going to be a doctor,

and cure you of all your ills.
You won't be sick so very long,
if I give you one of my pills.

That was Madison's part in her program. She looked so cute all dressed up like a doctor-which she really wants to be-. She did it so well, she had it memorized, and didn't even mess up!

One of the songs they performed was quite the silly one. The kids looked so cute with their "Thumbs up, elbows back, knees together, bottoms up, eyes closed, and tongues out!"

Madison and her two best friends, Halli and Serina, whom she loves to play with pretty much
EVERY DAY!!

Madison graduated from Kindergarten and may have been the only one that got a kiss from her teacher!

GOOD JOB MADISON, WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!