Family Trip

Rob and Alison were nice enough to invite us to join them on their family trip to South Dakota. We spent alot of time in the car which turned out quite benificial and bonding.

This was our first stop in the way to our destination. I kept laughing the way Alison said it, she had the real "hick" accent to it.

As you can see, it was new and very nice so a great way to start the trip, in a comfy bed.

Isaac was showing us how strong he is but it turned out it showed how malnourished he is.

Send all wasted food to: 1197 North 1000 East, Lehi, Utah 84043, not to the starving children in Africa. Haha!

There was this old man at I-Hop that was making balloon animals for the kids. Isaac and Andrew got motorcycles and swords, Ren got a sword and a parrott to sit on his shoulder, and Sab got a fire breathing dragon. He was a funny man that obviuosly enjoyed making these for fun.

This was along the way in some weird town, someone had some creativity. Everyone wondered if both ways were functional.

Who knew that Wyoming and South Dakota had so many beautiful sites to see?

This handsome fellow was also staying in the cabin with us along with two deer heads upstairs, the boar had dirt and other gross stuff around his mouth. Yuck! The cabin was perfect for both families, just enough room for everyone perfectly in all the rooms.

Brotherly love, I mean cousins. These two really are great friends and really love hanging out with each other no matter where we are or what we are doing.

We got one pose from the kids before we spend time in LEAD at the gold mining museum.

The kids wanted to "Pan for Gold". Although Isaac is "mining" every day of his life, he also wanted to try for the real thing. Turns out that it is alot more work than it seems it would be. The dads stepped in to help the little guys and they all walked away with a small vile of 5-6 nuggets each.

The kids were exhausted after a short walk through the Presidents Park, but don't they look cute? Isaac, Sab, Danielle, and Ren.

Travis decided to have his pic with Reagan, good choice.

We made it to Mount Rushmore! It is a truely amazing landmark and it would take quite a bit of time to have hiked up and around but the kids opted out of that one.

I was messing with a few functions on the camera and got this awesome shot of the monkeys, Aiden and Ren.

Sab is still great for possing for pics. Whew! We went for a nature walk before our tour through a cave.

The cave was a "cool" place, not only because we were all dying of heat stroke after our nature walk but it was really interesting to see all the different formations and how long it took to get to that point. This part of the cave looked like frozen vomit so the boys had to make the picture as realistic as they could.
Two dudes sitting on the corner in Sturgis, South Dakota talking over their next plan of attack.

Even a week before Sturgis actually started, the streets were lined with bikes and some of the vendors were already set up. We couldn't pass up the opportunity to hit this hot spot at this time of the year. There were bikers all over the state enjoying the beauty of the mountains and all the landmarks.

This guy cruised by on our way to the car and we all thought that it was an really unique whatever, Harley-bug!

All in all, the trip was a great way for both families to have spent quailty time together. Thanks Rob, Alison, Danielle, Ren, Aiden, and Andrew for letting us come on your trip with you, we all loved it and love you guys!

Breaking Up The Band

After the girls spending a month together between San Jose and here, we had to send Torrey home. They had planted themselves down with Heathers Rock Band for days and that seemed to be the worst part about her leaving. They couldn't finish their world tour.
They are the funniest friends, they have all these code words and phrases that crack me up. One of my favorites was "Customer Service". They would use the customer service voice to say thank you for something specific and it would be funny because it isn't the response from the teenager that you would expect but it would still crack me up.

They were still not sick of wach other and are planning on 3 weeks at each house for next summer!

New Calling

I guess I am suppossed to be in Young Women! I am way happy but still bewildered. It will be a whole new experience with so many girls and all the leaders. I am the Mia Maid Advisor, whatever that means, I'm sure it will be fun but painful when it's my turn for the lesson.

I still love this picture, it's still on the wall in the building in San Jose.

Good Bye Lauren

It was time to send Lauren home today, Sab was sad but they had a blast in the two weeks that she was here.
We saw these really tall guys at the gate, they had to be at least 8 feet tall plus. They were on the summer olympic basketball team that played the Jazz the night before. They were from Iran.

Neighborhood Water Fight

Our neighbors organized a huge water fight in the cul de sac and it had a big turn out.

There were so many water balloons and squirt guns and even a rocket.

One of the dads even went and got a brush truck from his fire station and blasted all the kids and his wife pretty good.
Then he nailed Isaac plenty too cuz he was trying to get the fireman wet the whole time with a bucket of water.
Good times in the "hood".

Last Game Of The Season

Unfortunately it's over. It was so fun to go and watch him play!

C.C. made him an offer for money for as far as he hit the ball in the last few games.

He made $20!

Of course the medal is what it is all about! He can't wait to play in the "championship" games when he gets older! He was sad it is over but is excited about next year.

American Idol Concert!

So Alison sends me a text saying that she has three spare tickets if anyone wants to go. WHAT!

Then I had to see which set of girls wanted to go. McKayla said that Sab and her friend would appreciate it more, how cool of McKayla. What a giver. So Sab, Lauren and I went and it was really fun. Many of them were way better than they were that season. Carly sung an Evanesence song, I loved that, and some Heart. She had some awesome black boots too that went up to her thigh, way cool! Or course "Archi" was there and the screaming for him was unreal. So loud that you could hardly hear his songs. He sounded awesome and everyone loved him! I'm sure he got a few marriage proposals that night, and the night before.
And of course "The American Idol" himself. I really like David Cooks music but he's such a head hanger, it's kind of annoying. It was exciting to see them all and to have such great seats.
Thanks a million Alison and Rob for so kindly giving up his spot so Sab and Laurens dreams could come true. They were so excited and had such an awesome time.

Idaho!

I had to get a shot this, with my camera. It is on the other side of a screen for the drive in that is actually called "The Spud".
We hit Bear World on the way home! This big chubby dude was so cute all snuggled up to the tree after his feast, he probably had an itch and I just got him at a good moment.
On the way out the gate the bears were roaming and they say DO NOT STOP YOUR CAR! Well, for good reason, these people did stop the car and they were freaked out and their car got scrathed. Needless to say I kept on going when they were checking out my car.

I got a funny message from Summer on the way through Rexburg saying that we just passed them so we went back and hung out for awhile. Tegan was way funny playing with Isaac and screaming at the top of his lungs, funny for us but probably not when they all got in the car. JK Summer and Mark gave us the great news that their family will be expanding by one. Yeah!!!! Their family is already so cute, how fun to add another cute little Mortensen to the croud.

Jackson, Wyoming

The girls both had friends come to visit so I decided to take them all to Jackson for some entertainment. Everyone in Utah had been telling me that going the back way was WAY shorter. So we headed off and it only took like 6 hours. WHAT! We stopped on the way and I had to catch this image. Way hokey, but totally Wyoming.

My dad took Isaac for a tractor ride but I think it ended up the other way around.

They made it back alive and without crashing. We saw this Polar Bear in a store while we were looking for a souvenier for Torrey's mom.

This bear has been here in this store since I was a little girl.

We went swimming at the pool.
My dad works for the airport in Driggs so we got the inside scoop on a cool event. The Young Eagles is an organization that encourages kids to learn to fly at an early age, Harrison Ford is the Chairman. They spend the day taking kids for rides and teaching them about flying. Harrison Ford wasn't there this year but Grandpa was able to take Isaac up alone in his airplane.

They had a blast.

We had to go to Idaho for the airplanes so we had to take advantage of this Kodak moment.

This is in the town square on all 4 corners of the park.

Grandpa took us all shooting, it is always a "must" when we are there. Isaac shot a bigger gun that had a pretty good kick to it and after he shot it he said, "That's going to leave a mark!"

He loves shooting and seeing where he hit the target or the can.

This Jeep is used for many things at their house, we went shooting in it and cruising

around the property and all the kids have learned how to drive in it.

We spent some time down at the Snake River, skipping rocks,

building bridges, and getting each other wet.

Sab and Lauren "walking the plank" .

Grandma got Isaac a new bike for his birthday! He was a fan! We floated the "crick". (creek) We all started out and then we all wiped out and so the

3 younger guys opted to get out.

We went exploring around the 200 acre property and we made a stop at a tree that my brother and I found some old Indian pots under. The kids were excited to see if they could find anything but no luck. I think the kids all had fun just relaxing and messing around my parents' house.