Losers

In the hopes of expanding our family soon we decided to buy a van. Yes. A. Van. I never thought I'd buy one but to tell the truth I love it! The kids have their own space. The seats clean easy. It has a built in TV. I can download my music onto my radio and don't need to have the CD's. I have a place for my purse. Many cup holders. Seats fold down. Ahhhhh. It's pretty nice!

We tried to sell our car and didn't have luck so we took it off KSL for a few weeks. We decided to lower the price some and list it again. Bill's friend had mentioned he had luck selling his car after parking it at a soccer field on a Saturday since there's a lot of people there for games. Since Bill had to work really early Saturday we left it at a soccer park Friday night. Duh.

I got 2 calls Saturday morning morning from two different cops informing me that my car was basically trashed. It was TOTALED. Someone thought it would be fun to jump on the car, throw 3 big rocks through all the windows, slash my speakers, ruin the radio and dash, break every single mirror and light. LOSERS. Fortunately for us we still had insurance which covered it. They called it a complete loss and cut us a check. Lesson learned. If you want to get rid of a car fast - leave it overnight in a parking lot! :) Kidding.

Catching Up

I have much catching up to do. It took me MONTHS just to finish my post from our Easter weekend getaway! Summer is here so now I have a lot of down time - which I'm loving (now that we're all getting over being sick!) I hate to lump a bunch of things together as if they are less important than their own post, but alas. At this point I'll be lucky to get anything blogged!

Stella Bella had her 11th birthday in May! This year I've seen the most changes in her physically. Her teeth are looking fabulous and I can see her face transforming out of the round-cheeked kid phase into adolescence. She has managed to keep her sweet, thoughtful personality as she's gotten older. She is always thinking of others and is quick to share with her brother. I am so blessed to have her as my daughter and can't imagine our family without her. Her name means "shining star" and it fits her perfectly! She is a shining star in our family and a great example for her younger brother. We didn't have a big party this year. We simply celebrated with family. It was wonderful!

Schools out!!! Can I get a hallelujah? I have to say that last school year flew. We were so busy with school, homework, sports, guitar, swim, adoption classes, finishing the basement (woot!) it all went by in a flash. However, I was so ready to have things slow down for a few months and really enjoy life and everyday moments again. The kids were thrilled to be done. Although, Tristan did cry on his last day because he said he was going to miss Ms. Kirkland. Hmmm. That was a bit unexpected.

We picked the kiddos up from school and headed straight for Yellowstone! Our big summer vacation for this year. Bill and I would have rather gone somewhere different this year since we just did Yellowstone last year, but the kids won out. We took our trailer this time and stayed at the Madison Arm Resort like we had the first time. I love it there! Right off the lake. Beautiful view. Flushing toilets and showers. Need I say more? Heaven.

I didn't take a lot of pictures this time around. Oddly enough my camera card took right off from last years Yellowstone pictures! We saw Old Faithful erupt right on time. Ate lots of ice cream. Ravens ate all of our food. Did a few small hikes. Got rained on both times. Saw 12 bears - 10 black bears including babies and 2 grizzlies. We finally saw a moose! My favorite. We had lunch surrounded by elk in Mammoth. The kids hid the food for the bears at the Grizzly and Wolf Museum. They thought that was pretty cool! Bill got sick :( But he did catch the biggest brown fish of his life! Most of us had fun canoeing and paddle-boating. The sunsets were beautiful and the fog on the lake in the morning was equally beautiful. We started our summer out with a bang!

Since then Bill and I both got pneumonia. Stella and I had the flu. Who gets sick like this in the summer time! We do. Luckily Tristan hasn't been sick and now we are healing and I am looking forward to having some fun with the kids now.

Last time carpooling with all these cute kids for this school year

Last day of school. Man, how they've grown! 

Can you feel the excitement?

Foggy Morning on Hebgen Lake

Old Reliable Faithful

Love these kids!

Walking around Old Faithful

A quick hike to a mosquito infested waterfall

And then the rain started...

 Grizzly and Wolf Museum. 

The wolves were actually up and active this time!

Hiding food for the bears 

Lunch with the Elk

T and Bill fishing off shore

Like father, like son. Looking for wolves.

Tristan went to his first Scout Camp ever! He had so much fun! I was able to go with him on the first day. Next year I'd like to be able to go to both. He was happy he got to shoot a bb gun, dig for "gold", and got a wolf sling shot. Day 2 was Star Wars day which I missed. Luckily Melissa went and made sure to get some cute pictures of the boys. I spent that day going to Cinderella again with Stella. (Love that movie!) We had a fun little girls day.