Dallin's Seventh Birthday

Well, it's official. Dallin is seven years old. His birthday was on Tuesday, February 2. Groundhog Day. My little baby groundhog. Of course he wanted a hunting birthday again. I am still amazed by how much he loves hunting. You know your kid is well on his way to being a redneck when you search at Toys-R-Us for an hour and can't find ANYTHING for him, then stop at Cal Ranch on the way home and have trouble stuffing it all in the cart. And he was thrilled with every last target and arrow and piece of camo... weird. But whatever makes him happy. Especially when it makes his Dad VERY happy to have a little clone. The best thing about Dallin loving hunting so much is that Jason will do the whole birthday party. All I have to do is make the cupcakes and buy the cake. He decorates them, plans the games, takes the afternoon off work to manage 12 over-sugared six and seven-year-olds... it's great. Dallin's birthday this year started on Sunday with a party at his Grandma and Grandpa Yates' house. Here he is blowing out the candle on the camo cupcakes that Jason decorated:

A close-up of the cupcakes:
It's good that he's turning seven because he only has about seven teeth in his mouth these days.

Seven! Don't mind the Tang mustache. Showing off all his loot with Abby.
Then it was on to his friend party on his birthday. Here he is blowing out the candles on the hunting cake Jason decorated. The theme he chose this year was turkey hunting, so there is Hunter Dan, shooting at a turkey through some trees, a few decoys and of course, the candles. I don't think the turkey stood a chance.

Dallin's little friend Issac, in the bottom right corner, told us he was also turning seven that day. I really didn't believe him, so I asked his mom when she came to pick him up and she said yes, he really was! They were born on the same day. He is our neighbor on one side, and our neighbor across the street, Hank, turned 5 that same day! When my sisters came over later, they said they didn't know which party to attend because there were so many cars parked in the street.Dallin wanted to teach his friends the finer points of shed horn hunting, so he had Jason give them a little lesson on finding sheds and then they went down to the basement to search. Dallin takes it very seriously.Yay, they all found some!Then there was a shooting competition.

Then they played Pin the Beard on the Turkey. Yeah, I didn't know turkeys had beards either. Until one day I found a disgusting, suspicious-looking tuft of black hair in my kitchen, and Jason, upon investigating my screams, told me it was a turkey beard. Lovely. Thanks for bringing it home to share, honey.

And here we are, the whole family on his birthday. Including the new life-size deer target. I'm not sure if he has a name yet. I'll keep you posted. It is unbelievable to me that I really have a seven year old. Dallin is such a good, sweet kid and I'm so proud of the person he is growing into. He is soooooo funny. His first grade class wrote him happy birthday letters and his teacher made them into a book. It was so much fun to read what the kids wrote. Dallin obviously has a lot of friends and is definitely the class clown. Almost every single kid told him they like him because he is funny. A few of the girls said cute things like, "I like your freckles." "I like your hair." "I like your shirt everyday." "Hi, my name is Audrey but I don't think you know what I am talking about." Ha ha. One boy said, "Dallin, will you please be my friend? Please! Please! Please! Please!" What? I never had kids begging to be my friend when I was in first grade! Dallin is also very bright and loves to read and learn. I can't believe how much he has grown and changed in the last year. I wish I could just freeze time. He is at such a perfect age. Old enough to be such an individual but still young enough to need his mama. The house just isn't the same all day while he is at school. I really miss him while he is gone and can't wait to hear him come in the door and tell me all about his day. He loves recess, P.E., computers, basketball, Hershey's chocoate bars, and falling asleep with his ten stuffed animals from Cabela's in his arms every night. Dallin, I love you so much!! I'm so proud to be a part of your life. Thanks for letting me be your mom and learn from you everyday.

The end of an era

It is so crazy to think that it has been two and a half years since I wrote this! Two and a half years changes a lot of things, but I never thought my time as Young Women's president would actually be over. We were released a week ago and I have to say, it has been a sad week. This calling was a huge challenge for me, but I really loved it and I love all the girls and leaders soooo much. I am going to miss the time I got to spend with them, which was usually at least twice a week. Sometimes more, if I was lucky. The good news is, I now have 25 babysitters at my fingertips. They are all such good girls. I can't even look at that picture without feeling a huge pang in my heart. Is pang a word? It just fits somehow. Anyway, I don't know why I'm so sad. It's not like I'm moving or dying or something and I'll never see these people again! Most of them live in my neighborhood. I'll still see them every week at church and whenever I decide to venture out of my cave during the week. But it's just that sometimes, change = bad. Sad. Mad. Well, not mad or bad but sad. Okay, I'll be honest, I've been sitting here for like an hour trying to upload some pictures of my time in young women's, highlights if you will, but blogger is not cooperating and I'm going a bit crazy. That is why I'm making no sense. So I'll just tell you a few of the highlights, and perhaps I will upload photos later. Yeah right, have you seen my blog lately? How many posts have I even done in the last year? Good luck getting any pictures from me. Moving on! Highlights: the funny thing is, the biggest highlights were the things I dreaded the most. Like, camp. Youth conference. Our Valentine's dinner dance. The big combined activities that I was in charge of, like the giant slip and slide, and feeding the homeless, and boating at Utah Lake. Oh man, those were some good times! I will miss attempting to play the piano for opening exercises on Sundays and listening to Alicia's outstanding lessons and eating the treats she was so famous for... I will miss hearing the girls talk about everything going on in their lives and all the things their parents would probably die if they knew they were telling everyone. Now Jason has been put in as first counselor in the Young Men's so I won't feel totally out of the loop. We just get to switch who leaves every Wednesday night at 7. Young women, I will miss you! Okay, now it's time for some closure, in the form of rolo cookies.

Denver Girls' Weekend

This past weekend I had the very rare and wonderful opportunity to take a girls' road trip with my mom and sisters (one of which is a sister-in-law, but really a sister, right Christa?). Two of my sisters were running a 10K in Denver, so the rest of us decided the best thing to do would be to drive out and support them, and we were right. Teresa flew from SL, and Kristen drove out from Wichy. (They did awesome in their race, by the way. I want to be them when I grow up.)We had SO MUCH FUN. No kids, no husbands, just US. We did everything we've always dreamed of, like going out to eat, and shopping. We're really not that hard to please. Just give us a little cash, a few days to blow it in, and we're happy.

The beautiful city of Denver.

In case you're wondering, yes, we are used to posing for a living. Have you met our dad and his camera? We figured out a long time ago the best thing to do when the camera is around is just smile and get it over with. Now we are grateful to our dad for all the pictures through the years, and of course all the training.

This is l-r: Teresa (daughter #4), Shayna (#5), Alison (#2), Me (#1), Kristen (#3), our lovely mamacita, and Christa (married to son #1).

Love you guys!!! Till next year....

Bear Lake '09

This past weekend we attended the Price Family Reunion at Bear Lake. It was so fun! I'm depressed that it's over. The entire Dan and Norene Price Family was there! Kristen and Steve came from Kansas, and everyone else was able to be there, too. It was so fun to have my parents, all eight siblings, five spouses and eight grand kids there. We rented a condo and spent Friday at the lake while the weather cooperated. It was supposed to rain all day, but the clouds just kept going around us, so we were able to play on the beach all afternoon. The kids LOVED it! Luke has been begging to go to the beach (or the "be-otch", as my sister Teresa has officially named it. and my dad laughed. what is this world coming to?) and the kids were so thrilled to play in the sand and waves. Bear Lake is truly one of my favorite places in the world. Probably because I was born there, in the beautiful town of Montpelier. I still love it. I'm still a little mad at my parents for moving when I was one.

The guys played a vicious game of Ultimate Frisbee, which Jason is still paying for.

Unfortunately, we weren't the coolest ones at the beach. Close, but not quite. I considered running after these people and joining them, but I didn't bring any twine to tie my stuff to the back. I do have some horns I could donate to them, though.

Saturday was cold, but Jason wanted to take the kids to the beach anyway. It was way too cold to get in the water, so Luke entertained himself by throwing goldfish crackers to the sea gulls and then trying to kill them with a shovel. I don't know where he gets it. Good thing his shovel was made of plastic and the birds were faster than he was. I do not want a stuffed sea gull on my wall.

Jason made a sandcastle in the form of a trout. He is quite the artist.

Abby was a good little girl the whole time, as usual. Our room in the condo had a closet big enough for her pack-n-play crib, so she slept in there just as well as she would at home. Every morning someone would ask if she had come out of the closet yet. Oh, my family.

On Sunday we went to Minnetonka Cave. It was my first time going there and it was amazing! I thought it would be a single cave room you walk into, look around, and then leave. Not quite! There is a sign outside the cave that says, "Warning! Can you handle 72 steep stairs?" More like 72 flights of 72 stairs each. It was quite the journey, especially carrying Abby the whole way! But it was fun. I love caves. My only regret is that we didn't see any bats. Next time, my furry little friends!

I am wearing Jason's shoes in this picture because all I brought were flip flops, in case you are wondering about my freakishly large feet. My feet are freakishly large, just not THAT freakishly large.

And here we are, every one of us! I love my family. Thanks for the fun weekend, Mom and Dad!

I can see clearly now!

So I had Lasik eye surgery in March, as a result of killing a deer in October (thanks, Jason!). I was blind as a bat, so it was a huge improvement, but my vision still never got really CLEAR. It was always just a rat hair foggy, and I couldn't see far away very well. I kept waiting and waiting for it to improve, but finally last Monday I had a follow-up appointment and the doctor suggested that I have a "touch-up". Well, I wasn't sure what I thought about that because honestly, the surgery is just a little bit freaky and I didn't really want go through it again. I was nervous because I thought, if they couldn't get it right the first time, would they really be able to get it right the second time? I mean, there are only so many times they can chop into your eye. But I figured, what the heck, it's just my eyesight. What have I got to lose? ahem. But, I decided on the spur of the moment to just go ahead and do it. I was nervous all week, and finally last Saturday I did it! And I am SO happy to report that I can see! I can see! It worked amazingly. I am so happy and thrilled that I just had to share. If I've been ignoring you in the halls at church, or at Wal Mart, it's just because I couldn't see faces very well, so I've been avoiding looking at people because I'm pretty sure they think I'm looking at them strangly when I give them a weird squint and then look away. Really, it's just because I couldn't be sure who I was staring at until I got up close. But now I have no excuse! If I ignore you, it's because I mean to. And I'm sorry about that.

Belated Yellowstone Post

Well, something about summer makes me a lazy blogger. Probably because there are other things I would rather be doing than sitting at the computer! But I do miss it a little bit, so here is an update on our fun and crazy summer that is winding to a close all too rapidly!

The first big event of summer was Girls Camp. I didn't really get any good pictures from that, but it was really fun. It rained almost the whole time, but the girls were such good sports, and we had a gigantic car port tent thing that we could all huddle under and eat treats together. What more could you want? It was so fun! I love my ward. We have such a good group.

The week after Girls Camp our family took a trip to Yellowstone in our new trailer. It was a great trip and so much fun to be together and carry our house on our back like a pack of turtles. Who all share the same shell. At least that's what it felt like. There's nothing like being able to pull off to the side of the road and "camp" by a city park and use their amenities so you don't have to stink up your own bathroom. Ha ha. We actually only did that once, in Jackson, WY. They have very nice facilities near the baseball park, if you want to make a note to yourself.

Abby did so well on the trip. I knew the boys would be fine, but a toddler who has just learned to walk is always a bit of a... challenge, especially on long road trips. She loved the trailer and settled right down every night in her pack-n-play and slept till morning. Whew!

The big antler arches are always a fun stop in Jackson.

But the boys spent the whole time chasing small rodents and feeding them bananas. This little guy probably had the worst tummy ache later. He ate several.

Jackson has a great visitor center, where Dallin started his souvenir collection, courtesy of Jason. He's a nice parent. I, on the other hand, am not.

Abby loved running around everywhere we went. She is such a funny little drunken sailor!

She still loves her daddy!

What is a trip with Jason without a few little fishing stops along the way? Jason, Dallin and Luke had so much fun, and Abby and I had a great nap in the trailer. Fish away, boys! Take your time.

Once in Yellowstone, we saw tons of animals (I'll spare you the pics). The most fun was all the grizzly bears. We saw five! I don't know what the boys are looking for in this picture. They probably don't, either.

The first buffalo you see in Yellowstone is exciting. The 400,000th buffalo... not so much. Luke still wanted to pet him, though.

Jason prides himself on spotting animals and being the first one to start a "commotion" (when about 75 cars pull off to the side of the road to see what everyone is looking at). I have to hand it to him, he is really good at it, and as a result the Yates family spends a lot of time doing exactly what you see in the picture below. Watching Daddy look through his spotting scope. I get a lot of reading done this way.

Fishing Bridge is always a good time. We camped for two nights at the RV park nearby. We also saw a grizzly bear roaming around right by the bridge one evening! Good thing we were on our way out.

Lukie picks flowers for me wherever we go.

Yeah, cheesy, whatever.

Dallin learned to skip rocks on this trip, which made for some fun little rest stops.

The boys in the woods.We also went to the Grizzly Discovery Center in West Yellowstone, and Bear World in Rexburg. It was a fun way to start the summer! And if I try to include any more of the summer's activities in one post, it is going to get really long, so TTYL, or whatever kids say these days.