Corless Coeur d' Alene Vacation 2008: Day 3-5

Tuesday, July 15th

My turn to cook and clean the kitchen. And I got sick. So nothing really happened for me that day. Jeromy got to go golfing with the boys, though. And the girls had fun at the lake while Mommy took a nap. Thanks for watching the girls, Shelly!

Wednesday, July 16th

Played in the lake again, and just relaxed while the guys went golfing, again. We were very blessed with great weather the whole week, albeit a little hot in the afternoons, but it was usually quite nice down by the lake.

Thursday, July 17th

The Mommies all got to go shopping! No kids and no hubbies!! They had an outlet mall there, and they had a Disney outlet store that was kinda fun.

And everyone finally convinced me to go out on the jet ski. I'm totally converted now. They rock!! It was so much fun! And the lake was so beautiful, especially once you got past our end of the lake a little bit. Way cool, we're totally getting one someday.


Heather, Abby, and Audrey enjoying the water.


Hannah, the house we rented, and all 400 steps up to it. Well, it felt like it at least. Being on the side of a cliff, it was a very tall skinny house, but it was great.


Granddad video taping the kids playing. See, I told you it's hard to get a picture of him without his camera.


Audrey learning how to swim. She firmly states that she taught herself everything there is to know about swimming. Well, not in so many words, but it was hard to give her any pointers.


Audrey's dog paddle turned wounded butterfly stroke.

Corless Coeur d' Alene Vacation 2008: Day 2

Monday, July 14th


We spent Monday at the local amusement park, Silverwood. It's comparable to Lagoon, but we like it much much better.

First things first, we had to go on the carousel!


Audrey and Kailey in the bucket thingy.


Kierra, waiting for her turn to get on the buckets. It's funny, she was so excited waiting in line, until it was her turn and then she was terrified to get on.


Poser


Kierra and Logan on the airplane ride.


Our family filled up the whole train. When we finished the loop, nobody was in line so the conductor asked if we wanted another go. The adults were all too dizzy, so we passed. It's sad that as you get older the less you're able to handle at an amusement park. A kid ride! Giving you a headache!! The first real ride of the day!!! Sniff, sniff, I must be getting old.

Daddy and Kierra getting ready for the train to start.


Laurel and Audrey.


Going...


Going...


Gone!


Cameron pretending to be sick. What a goof.


Kierra and Logan on the helicopter ride.


Uncle Cameron and Kierra on the Ferris Wheel. My mom said that when she saw the kids getting into the bucket seats, she started going into worry-overdrive, telling everyone to hold onto those babies! I was around the corner feeding Jacob, so didn't notice, but now I see why she was worrying! Just one little bar to keep in wriggling little ones! Yikes!!



Getting dressed after the water park. And showing off muscles??


Audrey telling about her fun time at the waterpark and getting ready to go back to more roller coasters!



As we were leaving, Kierra was pushing the stroller and practically hopping up and down as she ran to keep up. She was being so cute that I really wanted to take a picture, but now I'm thinking a video would've been better. Oh well.


Silverwood was a lot of fun! Nice weather + good company + fun rides + delicious food= YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!

Corless Coeur d' Alene Vacation 2008: Day 1

I will now attempt to post about our trip. Sorry in advance for the length.

Technically, our vacation started on Friday the 11th, but we were driving that day and the next, so it didn't really start till Sunday.

Sunday, July 13th

Church

On the way out to the cars after church, Audrey, Logan, and Kierra just took it upon themselves to hold hands through the hallway and out in the parking lot. I thought it was so cute so I had to run after them, dodging people, while rummaging through the diaper bag for the camera. So cute!


Since we were still in our Sunday best, we took the opportunity to take family pictures. Plus, we had such good backdrops with the beautiful plants, so we couldn't pass it up. There wasn't anybody else around to take a picture of all 20 of us, so we split it all up.

The Wilson's: Me and Jeromy, Jacob (8 months), Audrey (4 years), and Kierra (2 years)


The Thurgood's: Shelly and Justin, Parker (10 months), Logan (3 years), and Kailey (6 years).



The Hamblin's (minus a twin, just imagine Heather holding 2 babies that look the same) : Heather and John, Ashley and Emily (I think this one is Emily?) (1 year), Abigail (2 years), and Hannah (4 years). And yes, they are very busy parents:)


The Corless Kids: Me, Shelly, Heather, Laurel, and Cameron (oh, and Abby too). Hey, how come we didn't take any pictures of Grandma and Granddad??


Logan and Kierra playing


All right, this tie's comin' off!! Nice curtsy, Kierra!


(One of my) Favorite nephews. He's beyond hilarious.


Okay, sorry, another pic of Logan, but seriously, everything he does makes me at least chuckle.


It's hard to get a picture of Dad without a camera attached to him when all the cameras are out.


Rockband

Jeromy and I just recently acquired a Rockband set for our Wii, so we brought it with us, yeah! Everyone was itching to get it out by Sunday afternoon, so we did, and then of course got addicted to it and wouldn't leave it alone the rest of the day. (I know, not a great Sabbath activity, but we were doing it together as a family, so there's some justification in that, right?)

Dad, on the mike, using his nice choir voice to sing Nirvana? Hmmm...


Heather on guitar, Cameron on drums, and John on camera.


Oh, ya, so lets just say that "You are my dirty little secret" are NOT the words you want to hear come out of your 4-year-old's mouth when she happens upon a microphone. I'm thinkin' this becomes an after-kids-are-in-bed game from now on:) And after playing all those heavy rock songs and learning the actual lyrics for awhile, we decided that we can't wait until some other types of songs come out for it.


Gone Fishin'

That night after dinner, the kids wanted to try their hand at fishing, and they did pretty well! Kierra caught her first fish! Jeromy was so proud.

Isn't it beautiful there? We were at the end of Twin Lakes, which is right next to Coeur d' Alene. And we had a private dock and everything at the home we rented.


My little fisherwoman (I love the pigtails!!)


Jeromy pulling Kierra's fish out of the water.


THE fish.


Kierra (she's so stinkin' cute, I can hardly stand it!) reeling it in. Since just about all the kids were able to catch a fish in a relatively short amount of time (20 minutes or less), Kierra thought she'd give her Uncle John a few pointers (since he was out there for about an hour with no nibbles). She said, "You have to say, 'Here fishy fishy fish.'"


Uncle Cameron showing Audrey how to fish.

Memories

Okay, so we're back now from our trip! We got back last night, and I've been tackling groceries and laundry all day, soooo the trip pix are gonna have to wait. But I thought I'd post this idea I found on my friends' blogs and thought I'd give it a try.

Leave a comment on my blog of a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you've known me for a short time, or a long time, anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. Ready, Set, GO!

(I feel like listening to that song from Cats:)

Trying Something New

We had a ton of errands to run yesterday, and the kids were surprisingly very good! I was amazed! We went to several places, most of which were down in Provo too. I commended the girls for listening to Mommy and being so good, and I treated them to McDonald's for lunch.

Last night we all went to the Stake Center so Jeromy and I could have our temple recommend interviews. Since we had to bring the kids with us to the church, we also had to bring them in with us for the interviews (crazy!). Jeromy brought Audrey in with him and she was very excited to tell the counselor all about her day. The conversation went something like this:

Audrey: Guess what!
Counselor: What?
Audrey: I tried something today I've never tried before!
Counselor: Oh really? What?
Audrey: I listened to Mommy!

I'm pretty sure it wasn't the first time you listened, Audrey (although some days it feels like it), but I'm really glad you're so excited, sweetie! So, let's do it more often, okay?

Sweet Potatoes and Turkey

I was feeding Jacob his lunch and out of nowhere he decided to blow raspberries and cover me with sweet potatoes and turkey (not unusual, but it just surprised me). So I gave a small shriek of surprise and said, "Oh Jacob, you got sweet potatoes all over me. Yuck." Then Kierra reprimanded me. "Mommy, that's what baby's do, you can't get mad at him." Oops, sorry, didn't know I was mad at him. Thanks for keeping me in check, kiddo!

Crawler

It's official: Jacob can crawl!

Hike in Alta Ski Resort

Yesterday we went exploring. We went up to Alta Ski Resort to have a picnic and a short little hike. The girls loved it, especially going on a hike with Daddy while Mommy fed Jacob in the car. It was such a beautiful day. Then we went exploring our new hometown, Draper, showing Daddy where the library is and then we drove by the temple that's being built. What an amazing view up there! If there wasn't any smog, I think you could see the SLC temple, as well as the Jordan River one and the new Oquirr Mtn. one in Daybreak. It was a great day!

Watching The Fireworks

We had fun with fireworks this year, as much as the wind allowed us! We tried to do sparklers, but had an accident that left a gruesome burn on Audrey's cheek, so Jeromy threw them away. We're sure glad it wasn't an inch or two higher! Yikes!


Messy Popsicles


One Messy Girl!


Jeromy was so excited to do fireworks, he wasn't even watching them.


Watching the Fireworks

4th of July Party

Our ward/neighborhood put on an awesome pancake breakfast (complete with dutch oven eggs- yum!) yesterday morning. They even had a bounce room thingy which Audrey beelined for right after she finished eating.

Then after breakfast they had a children's parade and they even brought a whole bunch of cool stuff for the kids to decorate their bikes. They had streamers, flags, windmills, noisemakers, party horns, you name it (we were very sad to find out that during the water fight, someone stole Audrey's flag and windmill, but left the noisemaker and party horn. Why couldn't they have stolen the loud things?).


Decorating Audrey's Bike


The only wheels Kierra owns belong to her baby doll "schtroder." She was very happy with only 2 balloons on her stroller.


Like Audrey's fancy helmet, blowing in the wind?


(Sigh) My Rambo


Here's the crowd at the start of the parade. Audrey is the one in purple, checking to see how many people were behind her. We waited there at the beginning for her to loop around the neighborhood with everyone else, like a big girl. When she finally came near the end, Jeromy found her pedaling as fast as she could and in tears, saying, "I'm not as fast as them, Daddy. I'm not winning." Poor thing thought it was a race! We felt so bad!



There she is, almost to the "finish line." She didn't give up!

Happy 4th

2 Months In Draper

Well, we've been here a full 2 months, so I thought it was about time to get the "what we miss/what we love" list on here.


Things We Miss About Our Old Place

-Great friends
-Great community we felt a part of
-The home we became parents in (I am a very nostalgic person)
-Our awesome "on-the-ball" ward
-My old Albies (Albertson's for you non-couponing folk) that took all my prescription coupons and loved us couponers-- I think I'm alone here in Draper :(
-The Provo Library- they are so involved with kids there! I loved sitting with Kierra in the story bowl pit while Audrey went to the big kids storytime. Plus, it was nice to win the grand prize (a computer!) a couple years ago in their summer reading program!
-My awesome hair dresser, Jamie, who I will still go to as long as we live in the same state!
-Hard water (we have a water softener here, and we loathe soft water)


Things We Love About Our New Place

-It's Huge! It has 4 big bedrooms upstairs, each with walk-in closets, and a huge loft! (pictures will be posted soon!)
-Jeromy can get home in about 10 minutes! Rather than an hour!
-I can do dishes etc. while watching the kids play or watch TV
-The loft: I can do coupons, blog, crafts, etc. while the kids play on the other side of the room
-Our yard! We have an awesome swingset and enough lawn for the kids to run around and play ball, plus we have a garden! Yeah!
-Proximity to Ikea- it's such a great store!
-Room to grow in basement (whether that means finishing it for more bedrooms or expanding our food storage down there :)
-My very own library! I have my big red couch and reading lamp next to 2 bookcases filled with my favorite books
-Our neighborhood Albies is right next door to Rite-Aid and Walgreens (and Smith's- but we don't like them too much), and a hop skip and a jump from Costco and WalMart. What more could a coupon-freak ask for?
-Draper recycles! From shopping bags and newspaper to plastics and small appliances. I'm very excited about this!!
-My new washer and dryer, they're front loaders with so many different functions that you really have to read the manual before you do anything. It has an internal water heater to extra-heat the water for the awesome sanitary function. This comes in very handy with a potty training little girl, let me tell you!

My Night

So I didn't get to bed till midnight, at which point I took the girls to the bathroom so they won't wet their beds. As soon as I got to the potty with Audrey and pulled down her pants, she flipped out. She has a hard time figuring out what is reality in the middle of the night, and so she started screaming. For a HALF HOUR! Neither of us could calm her down or fully wake her up. She kept saying things like, "Kierra lied!" "I want fish!" or other gibberish. Yikes!

Between 3 and 5 (I don't remember) I fed Jacob.

At 7, when Jeromy was leaving for work, the girls started screaming because they heard the garage door go (which is just underneath their room) and didn't want Daddy to leave. So before I could even wake up, they were down in the garage flagging down their Dad. He gave them a hug and I told them they could cuddle with Mommy in my bed. So we all piled up in my bed to sleep a little longer (they usually don't wake up till at least 8).

At about 8, Jacob and Kierra woke up, so I sent her in to his room to play with him so I could buy more time.

At 8:30, I got a swift kick in the back, on purpose, because apparently I was taking up too much room on the ONE foot edge of my QUEEN bed. Whatever.

Needless to say, we didn't really start the day off right. And now I'm really regretting staying up to read last night for many reasons. And I think we've decided that Audrey just can't handle being woken up in the middle of the night, so if we do take her to the bathroom, it will be only a short while after she's fallen asleep. We CAN learn from this!!! I must!!!!

Determined To Be Irreverent

So tonight during family scripture study, I was feeding lines to Audrey to say. She was supposed to say, "...because of us." Instead, she said, "because of Kierra," and then snickered a little bit. Kierra (not paying any attention to the giggling and Mommy and Daddy reproving her sister) said, "I'm in your scriptures, Mommy?" She was thrilled. Well I'm glad one of them was listening!!

Then a few minutes later, Kierra was saying the family prayer with Audrey's help (we have Audrey help Kierra when they're fighting over whose turn it is) and Audrey was determined to get her parents to laugh, I guess. She had Kierra bless everyone in the family, then, "Bless Daddy, and please bless Daddy's car, and please bless Mommy's silly car, and her head..."

I'm not sure if she's testing her boundaries or what, but ever since we started family scripture study a few weeks ago, it's been crazy. We thought they'd be able to handle a whole chapter, then it turned into just a single page, now we're lucky to get a column and still feel sane enough to put the kids to bed. Me thinks we're being tested to see if we're actually serious about this goal. Baby steps, keep thinking baby steps.

Do any of you have any tips and tricks regarding family scripture study or prayer you'd like to share?