Alcova Lake Wyoming

 Some neighbors invited us to spend a long weekend at their trailer house on Lake Alcova.  It was such a nice break.  We went hiking, jetskiing, and played on the beach.  The girls had a blast playing in the lake with our neighbors two large labs.  It was hot but it was great!  The girls especially loved being pulled behind the jetski in a tub.  They are little daredevils!

 On our way back home, we stopped by Independence Rock and Martins Cove-both great pioneer locations.  It was wonderful to go there with Bailey and Erin and talk about pioneers.  It went right along with Pioneer Day that was a couple days after. 

We got a Kitty!

Josh surprised us girls a couple weeks ago by bringing home a little kitten.  We were all so excited.  The girls have been loving it to death!  He's pretty tolerant of them though-except for the occasional bite that especially Erin will get when he is done being held.  It's so fun to have a kitty again, even if it is sometimes a pain and a bit of work.  His name is Smokey and he is very playful and very social-he loves being around us and if he cannot find anyone to be with he will meow.  Even Josh can't deny that he loves having the little guy around.  We love our new addition to the family!

Girls stuff

Thankfully we were back from our trip to be around for all the end of year things at school.  Bailey's class put together a play and I was so impressed at all the hard work that was done to pull it off.  It was such an amazing play.  Bailey was Snow White and Gretal.   She had all her lines memorized plus everyone else's lines too.  She got a lot of compliments on her singing voice as well.  She has such talent!

 After the play we came home and pulled out Erin's other front tooth!  She has been working on that tooth for months now and was excited to finally lose it.  You wouldn't tell that she is so toothless in the front by looking at how she eats.  She'll still eat an apple just fine...I wonder how she would handle corn on the cob though... :)

Europe!

Josh and I had the opportunity to go to Europe for 16 days this month and what an amazing trip it was!  So many people keep asking me what my favorite part was and we did so many wonderful things that I can never think of one specific thing.  So to answer the question now I just say that I could be free--I didn't have to worry about being a mom, a housekeeper, a gardener, or anything else.  I could just be me which was wonderful.  We went with Josh's parents and had a lovely time with them.  I've put in a few of the pictures below (I took almost 500 pictures!) and so show SOME of the things we did.  Thankfully I kept a journal each day otherwise they wouldn't be any way to keep track of everything we did.  We started in Holland, then to Belgium, Normandy Coast (in France), then Paris.  Whew!

 The pictures start at the end of the trip and go to the beginning so--Paris first!  Eiffel Tower!

 Notre Dame.  I got to feed tons of cute little sparrows here.  They will only take sweet breads to there was a man there that gave me a piece and then all of a sudden I had half a dozen birds sitting on me!  Felt so weird!

 Had to go to the Louvre of course!

 Palace at Versallies--The gardens/fountains were beautiful and amazing!  We were lucky as the fountains only run one day a week and we happened to be there when they were going.  The Palace was so grand--could not imagine living in such a place!

 On our way to Paris we stopped by at Claude Monet's house and gardens-I can see where he got a lot of his inspiration. 

 Normandy Coast-D-Day location during WWII.  Above is the American Military Cemetary.  There was a wonderfully done visitor's center that really made you appreciate those men who gave their lives during that campaign in the name of freedom. 

 Josh on Omaha Beach, I cannot imagine storming this beach trying to take this area while being gunned down and bombed.  Josh brough home some sand from this beach. 

 During our stay at Normandy, we stayed at this Bed and Breakfast--a Chateau built in the 1600s.  I totally felt like I was in a Jane Austen novel with how we lived while we stayed here!

 Holland:their version of a Park-n-Ride with Bikes!  I cannot believe how many people commute with bikes.  Everything is so close together that cars aren't too much of an option.  We even saw bikes that folded down and collasped to the size of a small tire so they could take them on the train.

 Spent a day in Amsterdam-nice city but glad we weren't staying there as there are a lot of areas that are not great.  Went through the Red Light District (in the day thankfully, never would go at night!), so sad to see the girls in the windows and weird to smell people smoking marijuana in the coffee shops. 

 Most of the tulip fields had been harvested but we saw some amazing acres of colors as we drove through the countryside.  Interesting to watch them mow down the flowers to make larger bulbs. 

 Two of the days we spent with Jans and Tiny-Josh's Aunt and Uncle.  It was great to get to know them better and spend time with them and their family.  We were able to make some good family connections while in Holland.  And thankfully they spoke pretty good English so we worked things out nicely!

 In the city of Utrecht we toured around with Josh's cousin Ewout (who we hadn't met before) while Josh's parents had a different family activity to go to.  With him we climbed to the top of the Dom Tower--456 steps I believe it was.  The beginning ones were easy but the stairways got narrow, the stairs got narrower, steep and made out of stones that were a bit slippery.  Going up was easy but coming down I had to go SUPER slow.  But we did it and it was amazing! 

 In Holland they sell fish on the streets.  Gary really likes Salted Herring--salted, kinda like pickled...yes, raw. So I tried a bite and it was not yummy.  Maybe a acquired taste.

 Amersfoort, Netherlands.  This is where Gary grew up.  It was fun to walk around with him and listen to memories of the area.  This is the original gatehouse.  A lot of the original wall around the center city is still there. 

This is a picture of the courtyard behind out little hotel in Amersfoort.  The white building straight ahead was Gary's house when he lived here.  His Dad's print shop on the ground floor and they lived above.  This courtyard and also the area on the other side of the brick wall used to be Gary's backyard.  Fun to stay so close!

It was such a great trip.  Tried  a lot of new foods, including escargot (yuck!).  Had so many delicious breads and pastries.  I ate duck several times which was great.  Loved eating baguette's and croissants for breakfast each morning in France.  So many memories made!

Happy Easter!

I have the most beautiful girls. Don't they look so grown up in their Easter dresses?

Baby Animal Days!

We had a great time at Baby Animal Days this year. I had prebought our tickets so we were the first people in. The girls got to pick which pony to ride and the only line we had to wait in was for the train ride and only about 10 minutes. By the time it got busy we were done seeing the animals and were doing other things. We stayed 4 hours this year, never that long before. It was fun because the girls were really interested in talking to the mountain men, watching the sheep getting sheared (35 min. watching), etc. It's nice that they getting old enough to appreciate all the things available there.

Erin LOVED the goats. Bailey's favorite was the bunnies (just like last year). Was the perfect Baby Animal Day for us!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Aren't these pretty cool leprechaun traps? The girls think it is great to try to catch one each year. And sometimes a leprechaun even sneaks into their rooms and messes around with the trap but doesn't get caught! :) This one is Erin's. She says that they like marshmallows.

Bailey built the ladder with toothpicks and marshmallows and at the top of the cooler is a paper with some pretend gold stuck on it. When he tries to get the gold the paper falls and he is trapped!

The girls got haircuts and Bailey decided she wanted quite a bit taken off--almost 6 inches! She looks great!

Erin got 3 inches taken off but wanted her hair in braids so you can't really see it. My Beauties!

Our anniversary is next week and we decided to celebrate as a family. So we planned a pretty special evening. We got dressed up and went to dinner to Kamin (delicious Thai food that we all love)

Then we went to Celtic Night. The group performing was Leaping Lulu-we know the drummer/singer and have their CD's so we knew it was going to be great. There were also Irish dancers that performed as well. We got tickets up in the box seats so the girls would have a great view of the concert.

Anxiously waiting for the concert to start....

It was an amazing evening. Such a great time. A night to remember.