My favorite place . . .

Island Park, Idaho


This is my all time favorite place to be on the 4th of July and here are some of the reasons why . . .



Celebrating milestones- because we live far away from family we miss out on alot of family events but in July we were able to help my grandmother celebrate a little belated 80th birthday!!!!



Entertainment- Not everyone's family is willing to participate in games like my family does and this year we had a Minute To Win It game night, it was a good laugh!






Four Wheeler Rides!! I have never been real excited about riding the four wheelers but we did take some rides this year that were alot of fun! We rode over to Big Springs to feed the fish (or really the seagulls because the fish didn't eat much) and over to Ponds Lodge for Huckleberry shakes- YUM!







Candy Cannon- Oh yes the annual shooting of the candy up in the air for all the kids to gather up, they love it!


Boat Rides! All the grandkids love having a boat ride. And my fam, well we would love to have our own boat so we love the boat for rides and for waterskiing! Devri, had her first boat ride and loved it- I thought she would hate wearing the life jacket but she didn't seem to mind.



Tubing and Waterskiing- Blake and I love waterskiing and this is our chance to go! This year we also were able to help some of the grandkids learn how to ski- not my kids- but it was fun. And of course tubing, Blake had fun going with his nephews. My kids didn't dare go with him, not quite the dare devil their dad is.



Playing with Cousins- This is the best reason of all, my kids LOVE playing with all the cousins. I'd say they love to swim but really they don't like the cold water and play around it but don't really swim. They loved the super soakers to spray each other and also love the paddle boat!


Even Devri loved to play, and she didn't seem to mind the cold water!




Storms! That may sound strange but storms come all the time in Island Park and sometimes they get pretty exciting. This year there was a storm on the 4th of July which resulted in no fireworks in the boat this year (bummer!) but was quite the excitement as the adults run down to the lake to make sure the boats are okay! Blake ended up all wet this year helping my uncle with his boat.




Fireworks! I love watching fireworks from the lake, even though we didn't get to do that this year we watched them from the car and you can even see the lightening in the distance from the passing storm.








We loved it and can't wait for next summer!!!!!!

our holiday projects

Rocket Poppers

Star Paint Cookies
We made these with Ben's friends and they all really liked it.

Decorating our 4th of July shirts

We used potato stamps for the stars

and pipe cleaners to make fireworks



Not bad!

A while back I said I had planned all these activities to help keep my kids busy this summer, well I haven't gotten them posted since we've been out of town but here was one of the kids favorite. Piggy Pancake Night!! Yes, so easy but they loved it. And earlier we had made strawberry syrup a request from Ben.

Happy Fathers Day!

The kids had a great time making gifts for dad, too bad he didn't get a good breakfast- I was just too tired from our late night!

And a Happy Father's Day to my Dad!!! Thanks for all you have done and still do for me!!!

Way to go slugger!

Congrats, Ben for finishing your first season of baseball! We look forward to many more.

First week out of school . . .

And here I thought life might slow down a little once school was out, WRONG! This last week has been crazy. It started with a quick trip to Utah for Grandpa Chappell's funeral. We will miss him but forever remember his stories.

Here are all the Chappell kids (except Casey) and all the grandkids.

Here are the 3 newest Chappell grandkids, the first time they've all been together. And quite a challenge to get them all to look at the camera.



We also took the kids to the circus this week. We found those hats at Target and the kids decorated them before we went. They were so excited and enjoyed every minute of it, except the walk out to the car afterwards. We even saw some friends there which made it all the more fun. Devri wasn't sure what to think. She was so excited watching the opening act and the next time I looked over at her, she was fast asleep. I guess she enjoyed herself too.


Since school is out I planned activities to keep the kids busy. One of them was rainbow pudding. Ben was most excited about this one. He loves pudding!



We rounded out the week attending Annie at the SuperSummer theater with some friends. It was a first for us but probably not the last, we had a great time. I was surprised the kids stayed awake through the whole show since it didn't start until after 8pm but they liked it. And since they had friends to keep them busy before the show, time went by fast. Next time I think we won't bother with the chairs- it was much harder to see sitting in the chairs.

My little project

I've been meaning to post this for a while but always seem to get side tracked. Anyway, this was a little project I was able to complete in my spare time (that means late at night when everyone else was asleep). I made the skirt, top, and the headband, but its especially cute on my smiling baby!!