Yellowstone Falls and Old Faithful

When you have such a large group of people it's basically impossible to all do something together.  Usually what happens, someone tells the others their plans and whoever wants to join does.  The day for Old Faithful we decided to meet up with the half of the group that decided to go.  Devin only sat still if he had a sucker but he would easily go to any of his uncles and they all helped keeping track of him.

After Old Faithful we split off again.  Abby went with the older girl cousins in Tracy's car and we gained Preston in ours.  It was great for a little change up and to hear more of what has been going on with Preston.  During our drive up to the Falls, we got stuck in the Plains due to all the bison roaming around.  There were hundreds!  I've never seen that many at once!

This picture just doesn't do it justice

There wasn't any cell reception so we couldn't get in touch with the other groups so it ended up just being us.  But we had a great time even if Alec had a major bloody nose on the way!

 Getting a drink

 Love how they were mesmerized- it's one of my favorite sites too.

   So beautiful!

Yost Family Reunion

We were so excited to fly out to Idaho and meet up with all the Yosts!  Our family reunion this time around was being held in Yellowstone - it was such a beautiful drive and Todd grew up a couple hours from here.

 After flying and driving most of Saturday, we got in pretty late in the night to Yellowstone.  We then turned around and drove back to Rexburg early Sunday morning for a baby blessing.  Tyson and Lindsie were blessing their newest daughter and it was nice to have most of the brothers there.  And lucky for me, one of my great friends from Texas was living close by.  It was great to visit with the Morris' for an hour.

 The kids were anxious to get back to where we were staying to play with cousins so the rest of the day was spent getting reacquainted with cousins.  Love that they have someone close to their age to hang out with and be good friends with.  And there are a lot of Yosts so never a dull moment.  You can always find someone to do something with.

 Alec kept calling Tegan "my friend" all week long.  These two played so well together.  Tegan loved playing with Alec's Rescue Bots and Alec was thrilled to have someone who liked them too.

 Being close to Yellowstone we went into the park several times.  Our first stop was "Fire Hole".  Todd told the kids how he used to swim there when he was younger.  The water was a little cold but the kids were willing to get in - we talked about coming back and doing it but we never did.

 Abby pretending to be Bigfoot.  If anyone is familiar with Studio C's "Photobombing 101", this is where my kids get all their photo poses - Cheerleader, Bigfoot, and Astronaut.  

 Drive around for a bit seeing some of the smaller hot spots.  Yellowstone is so beautiful and one of my favorite places.

 Devin was a great little hiker- he loved getting out of the car and exploring.

iFly

In Christmas 2014, we gave the family gift cards to iFly - indoor skydiving.  We finally used them in June.  With the gift cards, we received a video of our flight too.  The videos crack me up and Olivia did get a little scared being up so high in the tunnel.

ABBY'S FLIGHT


Abby IFly from sassy momma on Vimeo.

KAITLYN'S FLIGHT:


iflyKaitlyn from sassy momma on Vimeo.

OLIVIA'S FLIGHT:


Olivia iFly from sassy momma on Vimeo.

TODD'S FLIGHT


Todd iFly from sassy momma on Vimeo.

STEPH'S FLIGHT


Stephanie ifly from sassy momma on Vimeo.

Rock Climbing, Splash Pads, and Sewing

Kaitlyn loves rock climbing so we made a made a trip to get some climbing in.  I always think we'll have more visits but we end up doing other things over the summer.  Alec wasn't old enough to climb but he wanted to come along just to watch.

 Kaitlyn almost to the top!

A sunny afternoon we tried a splash pad out with cousins.  We were the only ones there for the first little bit and it was so nice.

IMG_0025 from sassy momma on Vimeo.

Looks like Devin is smoking something here.

 Benson doesn't look too thrilled

 Playing ninjas

 Waiting for the bucket to drop

One of our summer goals was to make pillows for the girls.  Laurie was so great in giving so much of her time to help make pillows.  It ended up taking more time than we thought so we only got 2 out of 4 pillows done.  (Abby's and Alec's are still waiting).

 The pillows turned out so cute!  The girls did a great job picking out what they wanted.

Summer Fun - Part 3

One of the funny stories from last summer was that I was taking the kids to redeem some ice cream coupons that they earned at the library.  It's lucky that we had them because as I pulled into the restaurant, I realized I had left my wallet at home.  The only thing we got was the vanilla with no upgrades.  The kids were good sports about it because I had no money with me.  We'll just have to do it again another time.

Kaitlyn playing her last Academy game.  She decided to quit soccer and try softball.  She wasn't happy playing anymore, the fun was gone and she didn't care for her new coach.

 Just a couple cute shots of these watermelon loving baby!

My kids love nerf battles!  It's also fun when cousins come with their nerf guns too.

 Abby set up rules for this day and the funny thing - she broke rules 1, 4 and 6 within the first five minutes!

 Not able to play in the nerf battle

 Devin is like a cat with boxes - he has to see if he fits!

 Pinto beans in a tupperware box have been a fun, somewhat clean indoor toy.

Summer Fun Part 2

More summer highlights:

*Soccer games for Kaitlyn and practices in 100+ degree weather - yuck!

*volleyball camp for Abby - made new friends that were going to her middle school.

*Nerf gun fight with the neighbors

Kaitlyn got a new desk and helped put it together for her room.

 7-11 slurpees on 7/11 day!

 We had dinner at our bishops house.  The conversation with our kids was hilarious and a little embarrassing.  One question the bishop asked the girls was "what do you want to be when you grow up?"  Abby answered, "Awesome! But I'm already that."  

This is Abby's thank you note to the bishop's wife.  The red paper is watermelon (which we had) and she cut out the other pieces of the meal too.

 Playing outside early in the morning when it's cool!  Devin loves playing with his sisters!

 I love how Alec went to bed holding his superheros.  Such a little boy thing to do.

 We spent one afternoon at Legoland and it was so crowded! 

 Legoland ended with the splash pad and I thought we'd be there a long time but the kids were done after about 20 minutes.  Guess the crowds wore them out.

 Devin was sick one week and while we were getting dinner ready we can around the corner to find little Devin asleep on the floor.  Poor little guy.

 Private swimming lessons for Alec because I knew he wouldn't do well in another pool.  Kaitlyn and Olivia were able to get a couple diving lessons in too.  Our teacher was great and was really patient with Alec.  The first lesson, Alec just cried "Mommy!"  the whole time.  I told the instructor just to go ahead and put him under and do whatever he needed to do.  Alec did much better the next lesson and he did learn to swim across the pool by the time we were done with lessons.  The one thing that worked was having me in the pool too and being part of the instruction.

 When it's hot out you go to Chuck E Cheese.  We headed there with cousins to spend an afternoon. 

This is Alec when Chuckie  came out.  Alec screamed and was so terrified that he wouldn't let go of my hand.

 Devin loved the little train ride.

 Kaitlyn won a ton of tickets with some video game.