Goodbye house!

So, we are actually selling our house. I thought this day would never come, and now that it is here. I don't know whether to be excited or devastated. I never planned on staying here longer than a few months, and I never planned on making any friends, but now that we have lived here over 2 years, I don't know if I can tear myself away from mountainaire. I love being in the woods in less than five minutes (on foot). I love the tree huggers that live all around me. I love the trees. I love all my book club friends, and running partners. Life just seems a lot more slow paced. Anyway, I am excited to figure out where we will live in less than a month. I really have no idea, but it will be fun to live in some little dumpy place with cheap rent for a while. It will be nice not to have the responsibility of owning a house. It has been a good little house, and I hope the new family loves it as much as we have. Things have not worked out the way we planned, but the Lord has blessed us in so many ways. Isn't it amazing how he knows us better than we know ourselves. Good times.

Ashley Lake Montana

Well, here we all are. The beautiful Fox family, minus Carrie because she is serving the Lord in Phillie. We all went up to Montana this summer to enjoy the scenic Ashley Lake. What a blast. Paul's brother, Jeff, married well! His inlaws own this cabin right on the edge of this beautiful lake. They let us stay there and even drove us around on their boat...all day, every day! It was honestly the most relaxing, fun-filled vacations I have been on in a long time! Gus kept asking us when we were going to go to Hannah Montana. He has no idea who she is, he just has heard it around, so when we said we were going to Montana, he thought we were going to Hannah Montana.

Here we are testing out the water for the first time!

Here is part of the group getting ready to go out on the boat. Every cabin on the lake has their own dock for their boat. Pretty cool huh!

We went to Glacier National Park. Seriously one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. You drive up the road called the high way to the sun, and I wonder how people can question whether there is a God when they see something as amazing as that!

As you can see, we had all the necessities! (yes, that is ice cream)

Here we are roasting hot dogs and s'mores for lunch one day.

There was this Robin's nest by their front door. The bird had abandoned the nest a few weeks earlier. Look at how perfect those little eggs look, and so bright blue. Robin's sure know how to lay eggs in style!

Just a little something we cooked up for the family talent show! It was funny because Gus had no idea what a chip n dale was so he thought it was some kind of super hero like Spider man. He kept doing all kinds of kicks and punches and telling everyone he was a chip n dale. He was so proud. If only he knew...

Here are all the grand kids with Jana. They made some super fun glasses with Granny!

My boys loved this tube. I wish you could have seen how hard they laughed when we played bumper tubes. Gus's laugh was almost sinister!

here's me just chillin with my little Cashew.

Daddy and Max tested out the water. Max would not let us let go of him.

I thought this picture was hilarious. This is me falling after I had learned how to wake surf. Very glamourous!

This is what it is supposed to look like. For those of you who have not done this, it is the funnest thing ever. You actually surf on the wake! You use the rope to get up, and once you find the right place in the wake, you can throw the rope into the boat and just surf on the wake. What a blast! I loved trying a whole bunch of new things behind this boat. I even got a lot better at wake boarding. I can get a little bit of air now. It is only a matter of time before I am doing flips and 360's.

There were no life jackets quite small enough for Cash. Poor guy.

Here is Gus holding a big toad that we found. I tried kissing it, but nothing happened, so I guess I am still stuck with Paul.

I got to take this Robin egg home with me as a keep sake. All in all, a great vacation. A whole week without cell phone service shared with all of my awesome family! What more could I ask for?

What Happens in Vegas, doesn't necessarily stay in Vegas

So, for Spring break, Paul's parents used their time share at a little condo in Vegas. ( That wasn't their first choice. Anyway, they had the condo for a whole week, but only stayed there until Wednesday, so we went and stayed there for the weekend. It was a blast! We stayed at the condo a lot because they had a fun swimming pool, and there was a kitchen where we cooked our own food. We did venture to the strip once, and it was fun, but not ideal hauling 3 kids. I don't even know what you would do if one of them got lost.

Here is Paul and Max in front of New York New York



















We made a special stop to the M&M store. Yum















Believe it or not, there are even some pretty places in Vegas. Here are the boys at the Red Rock National Park. They had a blast climbing on all the rocks. Gus is a little climber man. He was scaring me a little bit!














What cute kids!

Oh Boy! I've got Joy!

So has anyone ever heard of Joy School before? It is a preschool-type program that you can do with your preschool age kids. You just get a group of moms who want to do it. You buy the curriculum and each mom takes a turn teaching for a 2 week period, and then you just pray that you don't mess up anyone else's children. Anyway, we did Joy School this year with Gus, and he absolutely loved it. Here is a picture with him and his Joy School pals. We love these kids so much! One of the Joy School songs that they always sing is " Oh boy! I've got Joy! I do. I do. It starts in my heart, and goes to my head in a minute or two!" I know cheesy right, but the kids eat it up. I has really been a lot of fun!

Wigwam living

For our anniversary, we decided to go to the Snowflake temple, and then stay over night in a hotel. Luckily for us, the Wigwam hotel is in Holbrook, in between Flagstaff and Snow flake. We always said we wanted to stay in these. I must admit they were pretty old, and not very nice, but you can't beat spending your anniversary in a tee pee.



















They have a bunch of old cars parked throughout the whole parking lot. It really reminds me of the movie Cars. Here are some modeling pictures of Paul and I.




























This was our fifth anniversary, and I must say, the longer we are married, the more I realize that we haven't even been married that long. There was a couple working in the temple who had been married 55 years...only 50 years longer than us. Here's to another 50 years!

Fathers and Sons

So last weekend was father's and sons, and I am considering having all boys so that I can have one weekend all to myself for the rest of my life. Oh how delightful. Of course, this time, Paul did not take the baby, but Gus and Max were out of my hair for the night. They did, however, come home much to early the next morning. I had all of these visions of going garage selling the next morning and getting my house completely spotless before they returned, but I realized one night is just not enough time for all the things I want to do when I am not dragging kids along. Any way, here are some pictures. By the way, the bath tub water was completely brown when I bathed these boys the next day. Dirty, Dirty, Dirty!

Max still loves binkies when he is taking naps, but the other day, we were at grandma's house, and he got put to bed without a binky. When I went in to check on him after he was asleep, this is what I found. He made a make-shift binky out of a badminton birdie. Very creative if I do say so myself. He slept like a baby!