4th of July in Teton Valley

We went to Driggs for the Fireworks for the second year in a row. Pretty sure we'll go to these from now on! They are so much fun and quite the show!

It was a dark and rainy day. The Tetons stood out bright white against the dark mountains. It was awesome!

I heard there were around 10,000 people there. We made our way through the crowd to the little side hill.

It was a very nice spot and I think we will plan to sit there again next year. Of course Ian will get to go "off-roading" with the stroller :)

We missed Brooke... but still had fun listening to The Beach Boys and eating treats waiting for it to get dark.

It's seriously a great firework show!

I love 4th of July! But I'm pretty sure I say whatever current holiday is my favorite...

Memorial Day Weekend in Yellowstone

We love going to Yellowstone. We went Memorial Day Weekend and actually bought the seasons pass this year!

Bored in the car already... had to take a picture of Ian!

Slowest moving line ever to get in to the park! If we only knew this was going to be the theme of our trip...

Gotta take the Firehole Falls drive everytime!

On our way to Old Faithful... we were pretty much stuck in traffic our whole Yellowstone trip. It took hours to get to Old Faithful.

The traffic jam culprit...

You would have thought people had never seen buffalo before...

We went to minimal geysers. We spent most our time sitting on the road being bored :)

Plus it was kind of cold and rainy.

At least it wasn't snowing like most Memorial Days in Yellowstone.

We had fun though. Yellowstone is one of our favorite places to go!

Easter

I love coloring Easter eggs! I don't think I'll ever be too old for that!


I've been going through a lot of old pictures and found this one. I think it's awesome my mom has the same wire racks for drying eggs as we had 20 years ago...

Jordan got extra creative this year and painted his eggs.


I'm definitely not as creative and obsessed with perfection as I used to be. I was totally fine with dunking my eggs in one color and calling it good. Although my "lemon-lime" egg was my favorite this year.

Kaylee and Jordan posing next to their self portrait eggs :)

I am plenty old to find the eggs the "Easter Bunny" has hidden though. This year I requested that my eggs be pretty easy to find. Turned out, I had a lot more fun hunting eggs I could actually find.

Oh, he's just so handsome :)



One of my favorite eggs of Jordan's... Angry Birds :)

It's not Easter without a little snow on the ground! We had quite the blizzard a couple days before.

Holidays aren't quite the same without Brooke. When we were coloring eggs, Kaylee asked why she got all the broken eggs... She claimed it was because Brooke wasn't there. Too funny!

I love that Jordan and I still have the same Easter baskets we had as a kids. Best Arctic Circle kids meal toy ever...

We got so much candy! Mom likes to spoil us... I'm pretty excited for our Red Lobster gift cards. That was a new addition this year. The raspberry cheesecake cake pop and chocolate covered oreo were sooooo good! I have to really be in the mood for oreos, but it was delicious! Oreo covered in caramel, then in chocolate. Best thing ever! I'm ok with that tradition continuing mom! I'm gonna have to try to replicate them in the meantime.

Kaylee decided to "roast" her peep. Didn't turn out quite as good as she hoped... I love my family!

Christmas 2011

Yes, I'm posting about Christmas at Easter... I don't want to make bows at the moment, so I guess I'll get caught up on Christmas. Then, I think I'll be done "catching up". I wanted to document our first Christmas in our first house though.

The days of going in to the woods trying to find the perfect Clark Griswold tree seem to be gone. Many memories of doing that over the years... Good and bad.

Ellen: Clark, Audrey's frozen from the waist down.
Clark: That's all part of the experience, honey.

I think I still get called Audrey from time to time... That's what happens when you watch Christmas Vacation every year! I may or may not be a complainer...

This year we passed up going to the charlie brown lot and went to an actual nursery to get our tree. They were practically the same price if not less expensive. (Well the ones in our price range anyways.) We had rows and rows of trees to pick from. The little guy was so helpful with all sorts of tips and tricks. And the best part... we were in an enclosed building and it was nice and warm. Best Christmas tree experience ever! I'm sold... I'll be going there from now on.
I love Poinsettas. I don't really know why. They scream "old lady" to me, but whatever. I wanted one, so Ian let me get one. Like he would tell me no... I don't know if he's ever told me no to anything I want. Love that guy!

Poor Ian, was still freezing from a long day of changing out all the basement windows.

Getting our tree at the nursery was the best thing ever! They cut the bottom, bagged it up, and even loaded it in the truck for us.

It was such a cute, perfect little tree. We had lots of fun picking it out.

We are still collecting ornaments... This year for my filler ornaments, I made glitter balls. The best part... the glitter is on the inside. No mess! I found the fun tutorial on pinterest. Totally loved the way the lady wrote the tutorial. I was laughing pretty hard.
Here's the tutorial if anyone is interested.


I had fun decorating my mantel. I realized my mantel is longer than I expected... The lit garland I got was 9' long and fit perfectly! I got some other things to make some cute Christmas wreaths, but those didn't happen. We'll shoot for next year....

We had our usual Christmas Eve dinner at Mom's house. Although for the first time in 20 years... we didn't have clam chowder in bread bowls for dinner! (Appetizers as dinner was still pretty tasty though. I'm just attached to tradition.)

Kind of a crazy family picture, but a family picture none the less. RIP Winston. I don't like animals, at all, but he was a good dog.

The main thing I got Ian this year was weights. I had so much fun loading them in to the shopping cart... then on to the checkout counter. I'm glad he's happy about them though. And his arms are getting nice and big like they were when I first met him. Mmmmm :)

And my favorite gift of the day had to be Kaylee's one piece pj suit. Fits her perfectly! :)

First Thanksgiving

Finally! We weren't the ones who had to travel for Thanksgiving. Where we just got in to our house, I really wanted to host Thanksgiving this year.

Lots of preparation, but the hard work paid off!

I almost puked touching the raw turkey... and I may have forgot to take out the neck... but for my first turkey, I think it turned out pretty good!

Dad giving Ian a carving lesson.

There's the neck! How was I supposed to know. We removed the bag of nasties... I didn't know there was one in each end!

Yummmm! Dinner turned out so good! All the usuals! Turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, green bean casserole, corn, rolls, veggies, cranberries, and Grandma's salad!

I love this picture. I forgot Brooke wasn't able to come. I may need to invest in an apron for next time.

We used the dining room for the first time since we refinished the floors. I love my dining room! I need to finish painting a little and get it all decorated. Where we had just moved it, it served it's purpose just fine though!

Jordan had a Japanese friend come to dinner. It was fun. All us "kids" played mario kart together like old times.

Lots to be thankful for! Awesome husband, great family, and owning our house top my list.