Shelby is now 11!

Well the day finally came. She is now 11 and only one more year of primary to go. I can't believe that she is this old. Another clue that she is growing up too fast is we kept asking her what she wanted for her birthday fully expecting to have her some kind of toy that Curt could roll his eyes at (he always does that when the girls want a doll or some kind of girly toy) but instead she only asked for makeup (no), perfume (no), and things to do her hair (okay). So that is pretty much what she got...big girl stuff. Then I (Kirsten) took her on a mini shopping spree so that she could pick out her own clothes and get whatever she wanted as long as it was modest and not too weird looking (You never know these days)! She kept saying that it was the best birthday ever. We love her tons and she is such a big helper. We are so glad that she is a part of our family.

Austin's On the Move!

Well we took this about a month ago but we just had to put it on here. Curt took this when he was on our bed and I have to say don't worry at the end because Curt caught him! I love the heavy breathing, too! :o)

Memorial Day Weekend

Well this weekend we decided that since we haven't been up to see my brother and his family in Idaho Falls that we make that trip. We didn't know how it would go with Austin since he hasn't ever been very far from home but surprisingly he did very well. We drove up there on Friday night after Shelby's softball game and got there about 10:00pm. Then on Saturday we went up to Virginia City and Nevada City in Montana. They are "ghost towns" and we spent the day looking around and enjoying the scenery.

They had these weird fish all over up there.

This is the kids with our nieces, Aimee and Michelle and nephew, Colton.

Posing with the Indian Chief. Austin's hiding.

They had a few people up there playing the part.

The guy looks happy to have his picture taken, don't you think?

We rode a train from Virginia City to Nevada City where we went through an old music hall with old player pianos and organs that still worked which was very amazing because some of them were VERY old. We also went through the old houses and businesses that they had turned into a "museum".

On the train.

In the music hall.

This was in a two-story home there that had to be almost a mansion for back then. It was so pretty. We talked to a guy that worked there because there was just a different feeling about the house and he said that in the morning the workers will go in and straighten up and by the next day the beds are all messed up. Now they have it so that you can't go in the bedrooms, you can only look through the doorways. So they think there's a little girl's ghost that lives there. I swear you could feel it when you went in there. Not scary but just a little creepy.

Notice the fire hydrant...sort of adds to the ambiance, don't you think

(although I don't blame them)?

We rode the train back to Virginia City and then drove back to Nevada City so that we could pan for gold and garnets. That was very fun. We didn't strike the mother load but we got some. It was just nice to say that we got to do it.

We got a few specks of gold although you can't really see it in the picture.

My brother, Jeff, was so nice to watch Austin while we picked out the garnets in our pan.

We love you Uncle Jeff!

Then we drove back to Idaho Falls. We just relaxed on Sunday and then came home on Monday after playing Guitar Hero. It was a great weekend and Kaylee didn't want to leave because she had so much fun.

This is Aunt Julie, caught by surprise!

Aimee and Colton!

Michelle didn't want me to take her picture but I insisted!

Isn't she cute?

On our way home we stopped just outside of Idaho Falls at a place called Hell's Half Acre where there's volcanic rock in the middle of sagebrush and desert. It's always been something that we've wanted to do but we've just never stopped. There is a trail there that you can walk around and learn about how it was formed. It was kind of neat. Shelby was miserable while we were there because her allergies started while walking around there but it was very cool to see.

Needless to say it was pretty much a weekend of driving (3 hours up to Idaho, 3 hours to Montana, 3 hours back to Idaho and then 3 hours back to Utah) but WE CAN'T WAIT UNTIL OUR NEXT VISIT. Thanks guys for making a memorable trip for us. We love you!

Carson is a Graduate!

On Thursday, the 21st of May Carson graduated from The Discovery Preschool. He has LOVED school and is so excited to start kindergarten. He has learned so much this year including how to sign the alphabet. He tells us all the time what a certain letter is in sign language and it makes my heart smile to see how much he loves to learn. He amazed his teacher because he can already read...but there is still so much that he gets to learn. I just hope that he continues that hunger for knowledge throughout his life. I can't believe how grown up he is. We are so proud of him with all he has accomplished in his short little life already.

Kennecott Copper Mine

Well we've recently decided to try to do something fun as a family once a month. So to kick off our new family fun days we decided to go to Kennecott Copper Mine since neither Curt or I had ever been there. Before we went we told the kids that we were going there and Carson asked what it was. To describe it we told him that it's a REALLY BIG HOLE IN THE GROUND and that they had trucks bigger than our house. He was so amazed by that and couldn't wait to see the house-sized trucks. When we got there it was a REALLY BIG HOLE IN THE GROUND but the trucks look like they were normal size until it came next to a "normal" truck or a porti-potty and then you could see how truly big they are. It was just amazing to me.

I think Curt and I had more fun than the kids but they enjoyed parts of it like looking through the binoculars and running around the museum.

Later we decided to drive and see the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple. They said that we could park the car and walk around the grounds. It is really pretty and we can't wait to go see the open house.

Austin's Easter Outfit

When we had so many problems with our camera card with our Easter pictures on it we had to delete some of the cutest pictures of Austin in his Easter outfit. So of course we HAD to take some more. This is what we got. I love that little mischievous grin!

He's Growing TOO Fast!

Well this is what we saw the other day. I think the pictures explain it all. He can't even sit up yet!