Alex's 8th Birthday- A long Affair!

We sure stretched Alex's birthday out this summer! When his actual birthday came around, a lot of his friends were out of town, so we started with a family celebration. Then we had his baptism with lots of family and friends here to celebrate with him, and then a week later we had his birthday party.

This post will be about all the birthday stuff and I'll do a separate post for the baptism!

Here's a few pictures from our family celebration:

Cade always gets grumpy when it's someone else's special day

For his party he wanted to do a movie birthday party. The BFG had just come out so we set a date and invited his friends to join us at the movies!

Waiting for friends to arrive

Show time! They were all so good during the movie!

After the movie we drove the boys home for cake and presents! Alex had a blast with his friends and it was the easiest party ever! :)

Happy 8th Birthday to the most passionate and kind-hearted kid I know!

A trip to Idaho

Last year when we visited BYU-Idaho, my percussion professor mentioned that he might retire and have a big 25th year of teaching concert. Sure enough he announced a big concert including alumni to happen in June. I knew Dan would be working a lot (summers are his crazy times), so I decided to bring my Mom along. It had been a long time since she'd been back up to her ol' stomping grounds. I didn't realize just how much history she had in Idaho! I knew she had lived there when she was young, but she didn't move until she was 12 or 13, so Idaho holds a lot of memories for her.

We did everything from Yellowstone, to Teton National Park, to Jackson Hole and then of course a visit to Rexburg for the concert. We camped for the first few nights, and boy it still gets chilly up in Idaho!

YELLOWSTONE

Teton National Park- SOOO beautiful

Giant potato in Driggs!

Cader potater?

The campsite was in Island Park, ID and it had a HUGE firepit and an indoor heated pool, for $15/night! Not too shabby!

S'mores

I even cooked a dutch oven meal all by myself!

It was yummy...

This is a picture of my mom in front of the cabin he parents used to own and they would go to all the time when they were living in Idaho Falls. The cabin is in the Island Park area.

We made a fun little side stop at a place where my mom used to go fishing, the Henry's fork at the Snake River. It was a great spot to feed the seagulls and there was a cute little trail through the woods to a cabin that was built by Johnny Sack, a short man who was very good at building. The water was super clear and you could see huge fish hanging out under the bridge. 

Then we stopped by Mesa Falls. In all the time I lived in Idaho, I'd never been!

Once we arrived in Rexburg we got settled into our Super 8 and enjoyed the pool and playing games!

I had a great time in Rexburg showing my mom around campus and seeing how much it had changed since she went to Ricks College. We both got to meet up with good friends and the concert was a blast. I ended up playing in 3 songs and it turns out Bro Tay was not retiring, just celebrating 25 years of awesomeness! I'm glad I went since I probably won't make it up to Idaho again before the military moves us.