More pictures

Here are some more pictures from our vacation. This one is all of us at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. It was slightly different from a zoo. A lot of the animals were all together in a huge area to better simulate what life would be like in Africa. The girls had a great time even though it was hot.
This is Alexis and Camryn at the beach. As you can tell they totally got knocked over by a wave.
Marina is helping Staci by putting sand on her back. When Staci stood up it went straight down her shorts. I had to laugh.
At first Marina hated the beach. She would not let me put her down on the sand. So we put her on a towel and she started sticking her finger in the sand, then her toes, and eventually she was rolling around in it.

This is at the Sea World kids play area.
Also, Sea World. Josh doesn't like the spinning rides so I took all the girls.
This dolphin came right up to the glass to look at Josh. It sat there for about a minute and just looked and him and chirped a couple of times. I love dolphins.
Here are the crazy animals at the Wild Animal Park.

As most of you know, I am an avid fan of history, especially Civil War history. I really love reading about Abraham Lincoln and currently I am reading Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin. In it she has a Lincoln quote that I really like so I thought I would share, "No man resolved to make the most of himself, can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper, and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog, than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite." It reminds me that sometimes it is best to just let things go then dwell on them and bring myself down.

Disneyland

Once again it has been a long time since I have posted a blog. But we have been really busy with the end of the school year and then we went on vacation and I did not have reliable internet at the place we stayed. Anyways, at the end of May the girls had their dance recital. It was a lot of fun to finally see the girls dance. They both love it and do pretty good, I will post of pictures later. On June 18th, we left to go to California with my family. Well it was supposed to be with my family. My sister and her husband ended up not being able to go because of work and some other issues. My parents went, but left after just a couple of days because my grandpa was on the verge of death. He did die on June 26th which made the vacation not as fun, but he was ready to go. My grandpa was a great guy and I will miss him, but at least he is in a place where he is no longer sick. Therefore, the family trip ended up being my little family, my little sister Staci and her boyfriend. He also had to leave early for work. But thanks once again to Staci for being there and helping us so much!! You are AWESOME!! Back to the happy stuff. We went to Las Vegas for a couple of days, then on to Disneyland!! The girls loved it, of course. And I have always loved Disneyland. I thought it would be so busy and hot, but it really wasn't too bad. We went on everything we wanted to and then some extra. We also went to Sea World and the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I will post some more pictures over the next week, I just wanted to get a few up. I took a ton of pictures and I will post my favorites. One thing I have learned over the past years is that I love to travel, even with three kids. It is so fun to go new places, or old places, and play and have fun. It is worth the hassle of packing, repacking, unpacking, etc. Just a few more comments. As I mentioned my grandpa (my mother's dad) passed away while we were gone so we came back Sat and on Sun went to the viewing and then the funeral on Monday. It was hard to see someone close to me die, but I was blessed to see him one last time. We had planned to leave for vacation after Josh got off work on Wed the 18th, but I knew my grandpa wasn't doing well and I was prompted again and again to try and leave early. So Josh changed his schedule so we could leave at 1:00 in the afternoon. We drove straight to grandpa's and saw and talked with him. We were able to say goodbye. I am grateful for that.


Here are the girls on the tea cup ride. They loved it!!

More pictures soon!!

This month has been crazy. We are getting ready for the girls dance recital on Saturday. I am excited to see them dance. They had their dance pictures taken yesterday. The costumes are so cute, I will post some pictures later. Camryn had her end of the year play last Friday. She was Droopy the Bunny and her best friend, Aubrey, was Fluffy the Rabbit. They were quite the pair. The performance was two hours long, I have to admit that it was kinda long, especially for little kids, but they did a really good job. The first half was a singing program and then the second half was the play. My parents were able to come up to see it, I'm glad they are close enough that they can come up for the weekend for things like that. I don't really have much to say (I usually don't) but here are some pictures that I have taken recently.

Here is Alexis at the track at Riverton High School. Her school had an activity day there with lots of different activities for the kids. One neat thing about her school is they really emphasize the importance of physical activity and eating healthy. (which is the opposite of the schools in Kentucky)This is Camryn and Aubrey. They are so alike. If they could they would play together all day, everyday.

Here are a couple of pictures of Camryn at her program. In the first one she is introducing herself. She said, "I'm Camryn Fowler and when I grow up I want to be a paleontologist!" In the second one she is in her bunny outfit. Camryn is so full of happiness, joy, and excitement. She brings a lot of laughter and joy to our family. I can't believe she is going to be in Kindergarten next year.

Weekend Fun

Josh's parents took the kids Friday night for a sleepover at their house. Of course, the kids were so excited and they had a lot of fun. So while the kids were gone we decided to have a get together at our house with some friends. Well, a couple of days before a lady in our ward called and asked if we would host a couple of the Orem Institute singers that night. So I said yes and we ended up having two college boys with us that night. Then, a neighbor friend (who was also hosting two boys) agreed to feed the boys we were hosting and then after that they all came over to our house. We ended up having about 23 people here. Everybody left at about 12:00 and then we ended staying up until 2:00 a.m. talking to the boys who were staying with us. What made that night kinda interesting was the fact that one of the boys staying at my neighbors was Donny Osmond's son. So he came over and hung out here and played guitar hero with Josh. What is also interesting is when he saw Josh he said, "you look familiar, do I know you?" Josh, who did not even know what Donny Osmond looked like or any of the Osmond songs, said, "I don't think so." Turns out he had served in the same mission as Josh's little brother Ben and Josh and Ben look a lot alike. Small world. So here are some pictures from this past weekend. Enjoy!!

Friends

You know, I've been thinking lately about my life and how it is not at all how I pictured it would be. And yet I wouldn't change anything. When I got married I pictured Josh and I living in Utah for our entire lives and always being close to my parents. We would go visit them on Sundays and they would be close for all the kids school stuff. Of course that is not at all what happened. When Josh mentioned to me the idea of going to dental school I completely dismissed the idea. I could never live in Kentucky, that's where hillbillies live. I know I have family there!! But we did go to school and it was such a growing experience for me. I met the best people there. We made really good friends and I have to say those friends became my family. When I had Marina my family was across the country. My mom and dad, and my mother-in-law, did come and help for a couple days, but they had to go back home (I don't know why ;) ). Anyways, I had such great friends to help me and I don't know if I ever said thank you. So thank you to all my Kentucky family. Thanks Deanna and Jessica for taking my kids to school and picking them up. Thanks for just being there for me. And now here I am in a small town. For those of you who knew me in Kentucky know I am not a small town person so this has been an adjustment. My family is closer and I do see them a lot more which I am grateful for and Josh's family is here so that is nice. But last summer I found myself bored quite a lot. Then we met a bunch of great people who are now our good friends. And I have to say my friends here have made living in this small town fun. So thank you to my friends here for being my friends and helping us to adjust to life here. Friends are great, they just help in so many ways. So thanks again to all my wonderful friends!!!!
On a different note, I just had to post this, last night we had a guy here installing new fire alarms and he was probably in his 20's and I will admit he wasn't ugly. Anyways, he was talking to me about some paperwork and Camryn came up to me and tried to whisper (she doesn't really understand what it means to whisper) "He is so HANDSOME!!" I couldn't help but laugh and he turned bright red. Then Camryn turns to Alexis and says "I'm going to marry him!" He went even redder and I just laughed. Camryn provides lots of comedy for our home. In fact the other day I was going to exercise and Camryn asked me why so I said because I wanted to stay in shape. She then asked "What shape do you want to be? A triangle or maybe a diamond?" I just laughed. Now every time I exercise or talk about being healthy Camryn says "That's because you don't want to change your shape." So again I just smile.

So here we are in St. Louis. Not a place I imagined myself at this time of year. But my paper got accepted at a graduate history conference so we had to go so I could present it. My kids stayed with my parents for the weekend. We had a lot of fun, although it was cold the entire time. While we lived in Kentucky we drove through St. Louis many times, but we never stopped because it was either raining or the wrong time of day. That and we had a long drive ahead so we didn't want to prolong it more. Anyways, this time we went and saw the arch and went to the museum underneath. Then we went and saw Ulysses S. Grant's house. Unfortunately, it was closed and we could only look through the fence, but still I had the opportunity to stand on Grant's property, so awesome. For those of you who know me well, know I love Grant. He was one of America's greatest generals. It was a great experience and I'm glad I went, even though I was terrified to present my paper. It went well, and I was reminded once again how much I enjoy history.

Yes, I have finally taken a moment to blog. So not too much has been going on with us, just the same old stuff of living life.

Guess who came to Riverton???? I know it is hard to see in the picture, but that is former president Bill Clinton. I know all you die hard Republicans are like--what?! I would never go see him!! But I like Bill Clinton and I always have. You have to admit life was pretty good when he was president. Anyways even if you don't like him it's not everyday a former president comes to Riverton, okay it's pretty much never. So I had to take the opportunity to go and see him. He spoke well, like he always does, and I'm glad I went.
Here I am in Utah with my sisters. We went and saw the Blue Man Group at the beginning of Feb and finally got our pictures with our shirts. The concert was a lot of fun. I haven't had matching clothes with my sisters since like 1985.
When we went down to Utah we took the girls to see Disney Princesses on Ice. They loved it. There really wasn't a story line, it was just all the princess stories summarized which was kind of lame. But alas I went because I knew how much my girls would enjoy it and they did. In fact I remember going to Disney on Ice when I was a kid and I always really loved it so I wanted to take my own kids. And I will admit it, I also enjoyed the show.
Here is Easter morning at our house. We hid candy and eggs and the girls found it all. Of course, we had an Easter lesson about what Easter is about and why we celebrate it. When I was a kid we always hunted for candy and eggs and I still knew and understood the real reason behind Easter so we have continued the tradition with our kids.
Pretty girls!! The girls loved their new Easter dresses. Marina picked out her dress. I held up two different ones at the store and she keep pointing to this one saying "oooooh, pretty!" Even though they look like springtime it does not feel like it outside. In fact, yesterday it snowed. I have never been more ready for springtime than I am this year. After living in Kentucky, where by this by of year it was warm and the trees were blooming, this Wyoming winter is killing me!! Everything here is still brown and it has been so cold this past week. Oh well, guess I'll survive.