3,542 miles of smiles

Here is our family just after embarking on a 3,542 mile road trip. Here's how it went:
stop one: SLC Utah
Stop two: Kalispell Montana
Stop three: Calgary Canada
Stop four: Grand Junction Colorado
Stop Five: Flagstaff Arizona
Stop Six: Phoenix
It took almost 3 weeks, and we loved every minute!

Our first stop was in Salt Lake City Utah where we visited my sister Kary and her family. I was lame and forgot to take a lot of pictures there. We also got together with my whole Jeppson side of the family and the Gustafson side of the family. We took a lot of picutres on this day when we went to Lagoon. I used to go to Lagoon all the time when I was little , so it was amazing taking my kids there. It was magical all over again. As you can see, Dot loved it.

Here are my little men enjoying a ride together.

Obviously, the little kids got very tuckered out. This is my niece Aleah at about 4 o'clock.

Here are my beautiful nieces Linsdey, Lauren and Abby with our beautiful cousin Sierra all about to ride the egg drop!

I though Cash and Aleah looked so cute together in this little car...like they were on a date

I love rides, even if they are the ones that usually make people sick. I don't seem to have that problem. So Paul made me go on the twisty rides, and I didn't mind a bit!

I totally did not know that Les was in this picture

Cash was so tired, he just crashed on the couch. Looks comfortable right?

On our way up to Montana we stopped at a dairy in Idaho Falls called Reed's Dairy. We had heard several times of a delicious concoction they make called a brown cow. This is where they take their unbelievably rich chocolate milk and pour it over their insanely creamy ice-cream like a root bear float...but much much better. We ate them there, and then we packed their ice cream in a cooler with some dry ice accompanied by 4 half-gallons of chocolate milk, and we took brown cows to Montana and Canada where we proceeded to eat them every night of our trip.

Here are the kids in front of the dairy cows

that same day, we went to the outer edge of Yellowstone park and visited Cave Falls where we were able to get out and do a little hike. We did our best not to be eaten by misquitos

There was only one other person there, and we got him to take our picture

BRRRRRR!

After we bought the shaggin wagon, the upholstery started to hang down off the cieling, so we bought this funky fabric, and reupholstered it with the help of our neighbor, who knows how to do those kinds of things. We love it, and I even made some throw pillows to match, which really came in handy on the road!

Here we are at the Neilson's cabin at Ashley lake...one of my favorite places on earth. The water was freezing, so Paul and I were the only ones that went wake boarding or wake surfing. So that meant we got as much time as we wanted!

But afterward, we got to sit in the hot tub

The kids absolutely loved the tube rides. I have never seen them smile so big!

Gus, Max and Holli went by themselves

I asked Holli to give me a pouty face, and this is what I got. Love it!

Here is Paul looking all studly in his wet suit

Max, Gus, Cash and Holli all did this easy ski. I can't believe how big these kids are gettting. It is so fun watching them do these things

Gus loved playing dress up with his cousin Holli...they have girls, we have boys and this is what happens when they come together
Here is Dot crawling under the chairs at Jeff and Jocelyn's house. I think she looks adorable

3,542 miles of smiles: Part 2

Our final destination point on this trip was Calgary Canada, where Paul's brother Jeff lives. We made it, and I think we did it with style. One of our first points of business when we arived was to go 5 pin bowling. As you can see, it was a hit! Paul's dream, while we were in Canada was to go curling, but turns out, there is nowhere to go curling in June. It's just a winter sport. I saw some real tears when we found this out. I'm not sure if we would have even gone to Canada had we know that before hand, but we made the best of it anyway

I love Holli's hair!

The little kids used the ramp

Even Dottie had a blast



Here is the whole Crew. We had the bowling alley all to ourselves. I guess that's how it is when you go bowling at 10 AM

Another day, Jeff and Jocelyn borrowed bikes and trailers so we could go on a bike ride/wiener roast in Fish Creek Park.

Cash did not want to get out of the trailer

This is the day we went to Banff. This is the beautiful Lake Louise. It took my breath away!

Gus took this picture. He is an artistic genius!

Here are the beautiful people who we went to visit: Paul's brother Jeff, his wife Jocelyn and their two girls, Holli and Alise. Love these people!

We had a picnic lunch by lake Moraine

Lake Moraine

Isn't the color of that water amazing!

This was a common sight along the way

Here is a picture of us on the back patio of the Banff springs resort. You can stay there for a small fortune...maybe some day

Here is another day at the neighborhood lake. A lot of the communities in Calgary have these lakes with beaches to play on in the summer, and in the winter, they use them for ice skating.

The kids had fun making rivers. Here is Cash relaxing in the hot tub they made

Paul and Jeff told the kids that if they let the dad's throw them in that they could have ice-cream when we went home. They all did it, but Holli really didn't want to. She wanted the ice-cream so bad that she suffered through being thrown into the water. What a brave girl. I also would do just about anything for a bit of ice cream

Later, we buried the kids in the sand. As you can see, it was not Alise's favorite form of recreation. Even her soothie couldn't make her happy

these little kiddos looked so funny all stuck in the sand. I think some people thought we were a little mean burying the screaming babies, but we needed this picture, and it was well worth it!

Holli and Max were the pioneers

same day, same lake

Here is Dot at a park in Helena Montana on our way back from Canada

We stopped in Salt Lake again on our way back from Canada so we could take pictures with my Grandma Gustafson. I saw my Grandma 4 times the week before but kept forgetting to take pictures. My grandma is 92 years old, and has lived in the same house in Down town Salt Lake City since she was 2 years old.

I love this smile on her face. She is really the best grandma. She made some really great childhood memories for me and my cousins.

Then we were off to Grand Junction Colorado to do some ranching with Uncle Andy and Aunt Andrea. Andy and Andrea just got married a couple of months ago, and my kids think he is awesome because he is a cow boy.

They all took their turn riding a horse

This is our attempt at getting a picture of all of them together. Pretty good I think

Gus and Max sitting with Uncle Andy down by the creek

Cash playing with aunt Andrea

Here we are when we arrived back in Flagstaff on the 4th of July. A bit of a sorry looking bunch. We definately wore the markings of being on the road for almost 3 weeks.

Our 1987 Buick Century Wagon got us safely there...and back. She was a gem the whole way. The boys are holding the throw pillows that I made to match the roof of the wagon. This was such a memorable trip for me. Everything a long the way was even more fun than we imagined and we were all sad to come home to hot Phoenix Arizona.

Sugar and Spice and Everything nice

Baby Dot got blessed and we just feel so blessed to have her as a part of our family. What a little miracle she is! Here we are outside of the church building on her blessing day.

Here is her first cook out in the woods. She just loved roasting marshmallows!

As I before mentioned. I love to get this girl dressed. I feel like I had my first child all over again because I remember doing the same thing with Gus. I dress her up in her cutest outfits, and then I feel like I need to take a picture to capture how adorable she looks. Poor Cash never changed out of his pajamas, and sometimes would wear them for 2-3 days if he didn't spit up or poop on them. Dot is definately a fashionista

Here she is all in white on her blessing day. Loved this dress. It was a hand me down for a 2 year old, and I just took in the kneck and it made a perfect blessing dress!

I just love this picture because she has her finger on her temple as though she is contemplating something. Maybe she is thinking about something. Maybe she is remembering where she came from, or maybe she is just dreaming about milk!

Dorothy Louise Fox (Dot, Dotty, Dotty Lou which ever you prefer)

Hey all, the glorious day arrived that our beautiful baby girl transitioned safely from inside to oustide of my uterus, and let me tell you... she is perfect! A sweet little bundle for a mother to cuddle. Everything went great! My boys haven't successfully killed her yet, so I would say we are doing pretty well. She was born on September 5th which also happens to be my brother Simon's b-day, so happy birthday to you Simon! She was 6 lb 14 oz and 20 in long. I just love to dress her in the frilliest, girliest things possible. It is really quite strange. I didn't know I would be this way, but I think I am just binging now that my pink frilly fast is over. I will post some pictures soon. Oh happy day!

Lost in the Woods

Max is my little middle man, in between Gus and Cash, and I feel like some times he might get the shaft because he is in the middle and the other two demand so much attention. Well recently, Max has made sure that he gets the attention he needs. On the 5th of July, Paul had the day off work, so he decided to take the boys fishing at the cow pond in the forest about 3/4 of a mile from our house. While they were fishing, I went running on some trails with my brother and sister in law, Kevin and Alison. So we dropped Paul and the boys off at the cow pond and left on our run. We were gone for about an hour and when we returned to the cow pond, Paul and the boys had already left, so we headed home. When we caught up with Paul, he only had Gus and Cash with him, and he proceeded to tell us that Max was nowhere to be found and he had not seen him for a half-an-hour. I panicked initially, but then Paul and I said a prayer, and I was able to think rationally. Everyone split up in different directions looking for Max, and I ran home on the trail thinking maybe he went that way. I grabbed our cell phones when I got back to the house and then ran back out to that cow pond where I figured they would have found him by now, but they hadn't. By then, he had been missing for at least 45 minutes, so I called 911 thinking they would have to get search and rescue out there to look for him. When I got ahold of the dispatcher, I said that we were in the forest by Mountainaire and one of our children had wandered off. She immediately asked me if it was a 3 year old boy and a flood of relief washed over me. She said that he had been walking on the trail, and some hikers found him and took him back into the neighborhood. They said when they found him, he was just crying and walking, and when they got closer, he just layed on the ground and cried. I am so glad they told me this, because when I met them to go get Max, he didn't even seem like he was even slightly scared. He was all smiles, and when I cried and gave him a hug, he just looked at me like I was crazy. Then, when we tried to tell him that he needed to stay with the family, he kept saying that he didn't want to stay with dad. He was being such a stinker, so I was glad to hear that he was actually scared, because I don't want him to make a habit out of this. It is really funny though because now he knows how terrified we would be if we ever lost him and he uses it against us. When he is really mad at me he tells me that he is going to run away and never come back. I expected my kids to threaten me with this at some point, just not when they were 3 years old. I just love this kid so much, and I can't imagine what life would be like with out him. I am so grateful Heavenly Father trusts me to raise these little children who were his before they were mine. Sometimes I feel so inadequate.

Here is a funny picture of Max with a bug catching net over his face. We just could not stop laughing about how ridiculous he looked. He looks just like an old lady!

This is pretty much what he looks like after any project. He is definitely my messiest kid. I think Cash is cleaner and better at eating with a spoon and he is two years younger. Also, Max still drools which is quite comical at times.
This is a picture of Max after we went on a night hike this winter in the woods with the boys new head lamps. We kept trying to pull the head lamp up higher, but he would just pull it right back down over his eyes again. Gotta love this kid. We're so glad he's a part of our family

On a separate note. I am now 7 and a half months along in this pregnancy and we are all getting excited to have a new little girl in the family, although I am a little nervous since we can't even keep track of the children that we already have!