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7.29.2013

Weekend in Nampa

This last weekend we made our way up to Nampa, Idaho to visit my Grandpa and Grandma J.  It had been 4 years since Louis and I had visited.  This was our first ever road trip with the kids!  Things went well on the drive.  I did end up spending most of the drive in the back seat with the kids, which was less than awesome, but it could have been worse.  We planned on breaking up the four and a half hour drive by stopping in Twin Falls to see the falls and walk around the temple, but we missed the exit!!  We didn't even realize until about 10 miles past the exit.  Oops!  Instead we stopped at a convenient store and walked around a little bit and got some lunch.  After that we only had a little over an hour to drive.

Our first day was pretty relaxed.  We went straight to their house and caught up for a little bit and decided what we were going to do for the rest of the day.  Avery was shy at first, but warmed up pretty quick, especially after the toy closet was opened.  She found a football and pulled Grandma J. outside to play!  Avery would throw the ball and kick it while Grandma sat in a chair and watched.  
After we decided what to do the rest of the day we headed to our hotel so we could unpack the car and Mary could take a nap.  While Mary napped I went across the street and shopped!  I saw a sign for Gordman's and had to go!  I've heard great things about it from Kami, but have never been because it's in Riverdale.  It is a dangerous store, there is so much and everything is at such a great price!  After Mary's nap I fed her then we met up with Grandpa and Grandma to go have dinner.  I can't remember the name of the place we went.  Some pizza place.  It was kind of like Firehouse Pizza here in Smithfield and Logan.  So really good!  
After that we headed back to the hotel and decided to have a late night with the kids and go swimming!  It would be Mary's first time really swimming.  She loved it!  Avery even liked it!  Success!  By the end Avery was even jumping off the edge and letting me catch her!  It was lots of fun.

The next day we headed over to their house and we all drove over to the Farmer's Market to walk around.  It was super tiny, but nice.  My Grandpa is having some problems with his leg and so he only walked around for a few minutes and then went to sit down with Grandma.  After that we headed back to their house so Mary could nap and just relaxed.  We played a little golf of course!  Then had lunch.  I wanted to do something for my grandparents so I had made Chicken Salad for sandwiches that day.  It was delicious.
When Mary got up and we fed her we headed out to an arcade!  We had planned on bowling, but Avery was having a lot of fun at the arcade so we stayed their!  It was her first time and she really enjoyed it.  Avery got some fun prizes with her tickets too!  If we come up again next year she's going to have even more fun!  After the arcade we stopped to get gas then stopped at McDonalds to get dinner.  The total was 18.93.  (That was a good year!)  After we got some Mc-fries and Mc-burgers and Mc-apple slices we headed back home to eat!  Then we enjoyed some ice cream and cake!
Then I ran across the street to ask a neighbor for help giving Grandpa a blessing for his leg.  Louis gave him a blessing and Grandpa said his leg was already feeling a little better!  We hope he gets things figured out with it soon.  Then we sat and talked for a little bit and took a picture of all of us together and then we headed back to the hotel!

Avery really wanted to go swimming again, but we had to say no.  She was a little sad when we put her in her pajamas and not her swim suit.  While I got Avery to bed Louis took Mary into the hall to crawl around.  He said he got lots of comments "I remember those day!"  "Doing a bedtime walk?"  When both the girls were in bed Louis and I sat in the hall and played some games until we were ready for bed.  One of the men who had talked to Louis earlier when he was out with Mary came back and said, "Play the ace of spades!  Got the little one to sleep huh?"  Haha!  

We headed to bed a little early because we decided to leave at 5 in the morning so the kids would sleep most of the drive home.  It actually turned out pretty well.  Louis drove most of the way so I got to fall asleep for a little bit too.  While I was sleeping Louis went the wrong was and we ended up driving through Pocatello.  It was a fun detour though!

Then I took some "scenic" pictures because I was thinking of my mom and how we would always take the "scenic route."  Megan and I would say, "This is so scenic!"  
It actually really was really pretty.  Even though it is just fields.  This one was from my phone and it kind of turned out old looking.  Pretty beautiful!  No filter.  (except for our dirty van window from the rain)

Here are some more pictures.  It really was scenic!  We live in a beautiful world.  I am very grateful for what we have been blessed with. 
Does anyone remember when I thought the sun was really yellow flowers?  I was totally convinced that the big yellow spot on the mountain in the valley was flowers and I insisted and insisted that they were!  Then finally I noticed, "Oh, that's the sun."  Well in the bottom picture, those are really yellow flowers.  

We all had such and great weekend and enjoyed our time with my grandparents so much!  We love them and are so grateful for the great, loving, gracious people they are.  We hope to visit them again next year!

7.25.2013

Avery the Photographer

Like I mentioned yesterday Avery enjoys taking pictures.  Here are some fun pictures she's taken!







She's a budding photographer I'm sure.

7.24.2013

New Camera

Avery broke our old camera.  I showed her how to push the button to take pictures on it and she loved it!  One day she tried to do it without me, and when she was finished, the lens would not go back down.  I wisely decided to get a protection plan when I bought the camera almost a year ago.  Walmart sent me an e-gift card to buy a new one.  We decided to get a nicer one with the discount.  We received it yesterday!  When I got home from the temple Avery said she wanted to go to the temple too.  I will never say no to that so we all went up and took a walk around the temple and tested out the new camera!  We had a very good time.  Avery hugged a stranger and said hi to everyone we walked by.  She also enjoyed smelling the flowers.  Mary had fun crawling around and trying to touch the water in the fountain.







The stranger Avery hugged took this picture for us.

This picture makes me laugh.  Just because she's lounging against the temple!


Cool picture taken by Louis

Can you see me crouching down behind the bench holding onto Mary?  
No?  Good.



Picture taken by me!  I think it's beautiful!





Elder and Sister Keeffer

My parents left for their LDS mission to Milan Italy on Monday morning.  
We got to spend their last day in Utah with them.  

It started out at Ben's Sacrament meeting.  Which was interesting.  All I'm going to say is that I really wanted to walk out of that meeting and I wish that speaker the best.

After church we went back to Ben's and took some pictures with my parents.  
It was very different to see them with a missionary name tag on.



After lunch my mom and I went on a nice walk.  It turned out a lot longer than we planned because we kept wanting to walk up just one more street to look at the houses.  We both chose multiple houses we were going to live in.  After out walk we just sat around waiting for the rest of the family to get there.  Then we prepared dinner.  We had an Italian themed dinner of course!  
I made Spaghetti Carbonara, John and Courtney brought garlic bread, Megan made a salad, and Ben provided Gelato for dessert.  After dinner we sat and talked for a long time then said our goodbyes.


It was incredible to see the transformation that has already taken place in my parents as missionaries.  They had a different spirit about them that I had never felt before.  They are happy and sure about the path that they are on right now and you could easily see that.  They are going to do amazing work and we really hope to be able to visit them sometime in these next two years.  

7.11.2013

We Went to the Zoo

On Monday we went to Willow Park Zoo up here in Logan.  We like it.  It was our first time this year, but we plan on going back again!  Avery really enjoyed it this year and was excited to see all of the animals and learn more about them.



Looking at the birds

We always love the monkeys!

My girls and me

Avery loves turtles

Looking at the turtles swimming

The zoo now has a turkey!

I'm trying to yank Mary off the fence!  She has a good grip!

Feeding the ducks

The Emus! 

Avery really loves turtles.  Here she is showing me
her turtle stamp and her turtle necklace.
Don't you love her eyelashes!

The zoo was so much fun, I was glad Louis was able to come along with us.  
I also wanted the share this picture of Avery from later in the day as she was eating some applesauce.  
She's so cute and fun!

7.09.2013

Mini Date

Louis and I had a cute little mini date last night. 
About 9:30 last night I said to Louis, "Let's get a blanket and go lay out on the grass."
Okay!  
It was so simple and nice.  

We laid there on the blanket talking and asking each other questions.  
We each made a wish on the first star of the night.  At first we could not remember the little rhyme you say when you wish on a star!  

*  "Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight."  *

We also counted the stars as they started coming out.  We got to 19 before there were too many. 
It was a very good night together.  I love my husband.

I also like to document things by taking pictures.  Louis hates the flash, especially at night!  It is so hard for him to keep his eyes open!  We were laughing so hard trying to get a good picture!   
This first picture still makes me laugh!  Which is why I have to share it!  Enjoy!


7.08.2013

If Anyone is Wondering

This was the aftermath of our shopping trip after our no-spend month.  We spend almost $150.00.


7.07.2013

No-Spend Month

A few months ago Louis saw this post on someone's blog about a family doing a no-spend month.  Louis thought, "we should do that"    So last month, we did!  It was an adventure!
What is a no-spend month?  It is a month where you don't spend.  You pay your bills and that's it!
I didn't know we were for sure doing it until the day we started!  We had talked about doing it, but hadn't decided for sure.  On the first Monday of June Louis said, "Are you ready for our no-spend month."  Um, I guess.  So we didn't really adequately prepare, but I figured we had a pretty good food storage so we'd be okay.  We ran out of quite a bit of stuff!  Q-tips, trash bags, cotton balls, bread, paper towels, yeast, dishwasher detergent, whole wheat flour, butter, gallon-size ziplock bags, chicken, sunscreen and more!  We did without most of them for the month.  My brother Ben gave us some dishwasher tablet things which we were very grateful for!  My mom gave me a picture from her house and packaged it in a large trash bag so that saved us!  Josh also bought us a few groceries when he was in town  We did end up buying a few things.  #1-birthday presents for Joel and Sterling.  #2-Chicken, butter, paper towels, and bread.  #3-baby food for Mary!  Can't go without that!
Before I broke down and bought bread we had made our own.  We even ground our own wheat for flour!  That is quite the arm workout by the way.  Then we ran out of yeast so couldn't make anymore bread!  The homemade bread was tasty though and I've made more of it since then.

Isn't the flour beautiful!  You better all say yes, because this took about an hour to make!


I also resorted to making my own whole wheat tortillas, also with my homemade wheat.  They turned out very tasty, but not so soft and foldable for burritos.  I'll have to try a different recipe next time.

I think this last month was very good for me.  It gave me the discipline that I have not had lately when it comes to spending.  We were able to save almost $600 which was really nice to see go into our savings.  Even though it's going to go straight to school in August!  I think if we do it again, which we probably will, I would give us a $50 allowance for "just in case" purchases.  Other than that I wouldn't change anything.  It gave me a chance to try new things which was really fun!