My Ammon

Okay so his real birthday is not until Thursday, but we celebrated this past weekend because Travis was leaving and we didn't want him to miss this kids' birthday again. Ammon was more than happy to celebrate on a different day once he realized it meant it would be sooner. He decided last year he wanted a mailbox cake for his next birthday, and he has never wavered from that and has counted down for a year now. I hope it was worth his anticipation. And I made him an ice cream cake which was very nice for holding up a big mailbox.

Noah made real letters with poems and notes, and made little packages to put some little presents in for him. He loved that.

Ammon barely makes the cut off to start kindergarten here in Virginia. In Idaho he wouldn't have made it and I wouldn't have had to go through the torture of trying to decide what would be best for him. In the end I decided to enroll him this year in preschool instead and start kindergarten next year. As I watched some of his little friends get onto the bus this morning, I panicked again and questioned if I had done the right thing. But I have to think more long term and I think it's good. And he's very excited about preschool which will start next Monday. I think I would have had a heart attack all day if I had had to put him on that bus with his brothers. And all day every day just seems way too much to throw him into. This did not factor in my decision, but I can't imagine poor Micah's dismay if I had taken all of his brothers from him at once. As it was he asked me several times today about Noah and Kaden.

Anyway, we love Ammon. He is still my little boy who needs a lot of hugs and cuddles. In fact he would have me carry him around still if I would give into that.

My best friend

Oh my. The times I have the hardest time keeping record of our lives is when there is so much to say and keep record of, and I fall so behind and don't know where to start, and therefore do nothing. Very sad indeed.

I mean how could I not make some sort of note or entry at least somewhere close to our 10 year anniversary? It's been 3 weeks now, and that is a big deal. But when time is short, the task is overwhelming to try and express my feeling and happiness, and awe of how quickly 10 years can fly by when you are with the most amazing husband ever. We were clearly remembering when we first got married and tried to speculate where we would be and what we would be doing 10 years from then. And we blinked, and here we are.

I know it sounds corny, but I remember back when we were engaged and every conversation with other people was about marriage and full of advice. It was sometimes discouraging because from what most people told me, we had to enjoy that honeymoon stage while it lasted, which would be for about 2 years, and then it was all downhill from there. I was such a romantic and wanted to really be in love and be one of those old couples I saw in the street holding hands and gazing into each others eyes still.

But it's true that you see couples who are married for 40 years even and then they get divorced and those stories devastate me. But they are good because they really reinforce the fact that your marriage is alive and living and needs constant nourishment. And with that, you can look back to those first 2 years and realize that you didn't even know at the time what it was to love someone. That love can really grow in so many ways.

And that's all I'm going to say about that, because now I'm embarrassed. I am just so grateful for the man I married and for the years we have had together. Here's to many more decades, with each better than the last?....

The Wind Caves

After almost 10 years of marriage, I one day realized I had never shown Travis the wind caves, so I made sure that we would go and hike them this trip. It's about 2 1/2 miles each way and the second half is down hill, so it seemed like it would be a good one for all the kids too.The whole hiking gang, minus me and Val and Shauna. It was us and all of our kids, Val and her 4, Lana and Aros and their 3 1/2, Melissa, and Shauna and Drew and their kids except for Ang who was at Girls Camp still.

So I MISSED the beautiful fresh air of these mountains! We have not taken our kids truly hiking nearly enough, and that has to change. They did great, even though I think Ammon was exhausted by the end, and it was so much fun.

I wonder if some of the adults were secretly glad to be hiking to a 2 and 4 year old leg pace...

Val's create carrier, since she loaned hers to us...I still feel bad, Val, but Daniel does look very comfy...

Hmmm, it's hard to tell in this picture. This was our first sighting of the cave. Just when the kids were starting to complain and say how tired they were, they got the extra motivation of being able to see the final destination...

Oh, there you can see it...

Rest stop.

Val and Daniel heading up the last hill before lunch.

Everyone is happy after lunch. Food usually helps everything in my house...

Almost there...

Hiking up into the cave

I didn't get any pictures in the cave. We didn't even have flashlights, so we had a flashlight every 4 people or so and I was just trying to keep track of kids and shine lights. They had such a blast, though. I can't believe I have never brought Travis here before!

This is after coming out again, and then Trav checking out the waterfall.

Wildflowers. They were in full bloom and so beautiful!!!

Everyone soaking their feet after getting back to the beginning. Oh my COLD water...

Vacation #2--Idaho/Bear World

My parents still had to work so before some of the gang arrived we did a few things, like visit Bear World...This white elk is incredible!

Cubs playing.

MY cubs...

Feeding the animals.

This wasn't the smallest fawn, there was one that was only FIVE days old!

The rides were enough to be fun for our kids with their ages, and simply enough we didn't have to stay there all day...