Holidays and Snow

This year we went home to Pocatello for Christmas. We had a lot of fun and made some great memories.

We got to go to Grand Targhee skiing one day. Ali did great and mastered all the beginner runs.

We were so excited for Christmas we couldn't wait.

We put in our requests to Santa.

We got pj's on Christmas Eve.

Santa found us.

We got to hold the baby.

Our family in our new Christmas duds.

Our family was very spoiled this year and we are so grateful for this wonderful season.

We don't get snow very often up here so when we woke up to snow this morning I decided to take the kids out to play in it.

Grant's 2

Grant had his 2nd birthday on Sunday. He was very excited to open presents, but we made the mistake of giving him these 2 shake and go cars first. He was soooo excited for them and loved them so much that he didn't care about any of his other presents. I included a video of him just after he opened them. He was so excited every time they would talk. He really loves the Disney movie Cars lately and loves cars so that is what his birthday was full.

We didn't have cake until after church and a little nap so he is just waking up in this picture.

Grant didn't care about his cake at all. All he wanted were his cars.

This is the only video we got, but it shows how excited he was.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween to everyone today. We kept our tradition carved our pumpkins for family home evening and had donuts with some friends. Ali carved an owl, Grant wanted a kitty, I did an easy mummy and Danny designed a scary face.

We got to start our Halloween off early yesterday. Grant got to get dressed up in his future golfer outfit and go to Ali's school party. Ali found a bride costume and got so excited to dress up as a real wedding girl. After the school party we got to go down to the downtown businesses and trick or treat. I didn't know how Grant would do, but he jumped right in and began asking nearly any adult "tick or teat" in his cutest voice possible. Then he would say thank you every time he got candy. He was so quiet I don't think half of them heard him but he was adorable. So we are all geared up for today. Ali has a soccer game today and then it is off to Lewiston's businesses trick or treating, the churches trunk or treating, and then Ali will probably get to do some real old fashion trick or treating up our street. We are very excited for our big fun day and then tomorrow is Grant's second birthday.

HApPy HaLoWEen!

Soccer

Ali decided to give soccer a try this year. I think she really enjoys it, but she didn't know anything about it so she has had a lot to learn. Danny and I sat and watched her on Saturday and decided she is the prissiest one out there by far. She is getting the hang of it and really moves, she just moves on her tippy toes making her look very girly. Along with soccer came the really cold weather and I'm not liking that very much!

Pinocchio

Ali and I participated in the Missoula Children's Theatre a few weeks ago. 2 people come into the school on a Monday and they hold tryouts and practices after school and by Friday they are performing a cute little play. This year the play was Pinocchio and I got reeled in to playing the piano for them. It was kinda fun to be involved. Ali got to play the part of a toy and she was the best little ballerina up there. It was a BUSY week, but I think it was fun. Thanks to my mom for watching Grant almost the whole week!

Ali's 7th Birthday

Sorry this post is slow coming, but I have been busy. Ali turned 7 on September 18th. Grandma Kristi was here for her birthday and she got pretty spoiled. I was horrible about pictures too, but here are a few.

2nd Grade

Summer is officially over here in the Evans household.  We closed our shaved ice stand for the last time last night and Ali started her first day of 2nd grade today.  She was pretty excited to go see all of her friends again and get use to the school routine.  She was sad to say goodbye to swimming and playing at home all of the time.  Grant was excited for her too and kept saying "Ali gool, Ali teacher", but had a rough morning because he knew something was going down.  He kept clinging to me and wanting me to hold him.  Once Ali was gone he played just fine by himself and I think we will do just fine without her.  Ali wouldn't let me walk her into class today, she is too old for that I guess, but I saw her outside playing as I drove away and she seemed to be right back in the swing of things.   

This is Ali's new lunch bag that she ADORES because she thinks it looks like a purse.  

 Just a little side note:  I'm soooo glad I'm done with that ice stand!  Until next summer we get to enjoy that shaved ice in the convenience of our own home!!

Kids

I haven't put too many pictures of the kids lately.  So this morning I snapped a couple pictures of the Grant and Ali to post for Grandma.  I bet she misses them after having them stay for a week.  So here you go, Grant and his big eyes and cheesy grin and Ali having to get into the picture any way she can.  

Roughing It!

 

For those of you who know me, know that me and camping don't mix very well.  I am getting better and went camping once last year and just went camping with my parents last week.  The incentive to go camping was that we would camp on the beautiful Dworshak Reservoir and boat the whole time.  I still didn't care for the whole camping portion, but the water and environment were beautiful.  As you can tell by the pictures, we were really roughing it. 

This is where Ali wanted to be the whole time.  She loves tube rides and she even started liking crazy rides with her mom and dad.  Grandpa even dumped us once and she lost her goggles in the lake.

Danny is going to die when he sees these pictures, but that is what he gets for always posing funny when I get the camera out.  I took 4 pictures the whole time so they are the 4 I'm posting.

I'm spoiled too!

Since Danny got his new truck I've been complaining a lot about how spoiled he is and that I don't get anything I want.  So, I guilt tripped him into buying me my new appliances that I have been wanting since we moved in.  I've really wanted stainless steel appliances, but I can't ever justify spending that much on something that just stays with the house.  Well, I got my way and here they are.  I love my new REALLY quiet dishwasher!!!  In fact, I might go buy a cheaper one to leave in this house whenever we move so I can keep this one.  You can't hear it running.  In fact Danny asked me yesterday if the dishes in the dishwasher were clean or dirty while it was running because he didn't hear it.  This is a much needed improvement over the old one that we had to yell over while it was running.    

BEFORE

AFTER

Spoiled!

While the kids are away, Dad's got to play!  The kids stayed with grandma for a week, so Danny must have been a little bored.  He took me to the car dealership today and this is what we came home with.  

This past week our family went to Florida for a little Disney Vacation with family.  My sister Tess lives there and we met my parents there too.  It definitely wasn't a relaxing vacation, but we had a lot of fun and made tons of memories.  This is a really long post, but for journaling purposes I wanted to add all the pictures we got.

Grant is packed and ready to go!

Day 1

Our flights were delayed a few hours so we didn't get into Florida until about 4 in the morning, but we were up and getting ready for our first adventure around 8.  For our first day we decided to go to a water park in Disney World called Typhoon Lagoon.  We were there from 10 until 7 and had a lot of fun.  At the very beginning we got into the wave pool waiting to play.  The thunder roared and a GIANT wave came towering at us.  It took us all out and under and was CRAZY.  Later on in the day when we were prepared for the giant wave we enjoyed trying to ride it and playing in it.  There was also a lazy river that Grant enjoyed a nap in, tube rides and tube coasters, and body slides.  We had a lot of fun in the sun!

This is the wave pool and when the thunder rolled the wave would go to the top of the wood fence on the side.

  After the water park closed we headed to downtown disney for some dinner and to walk around some shops.  We ate at a really cool restaurant called T-Rex cafe that was a dinosaur themed restaurant that we all thought was really fun.  

  

Day 2

This was our first of 2 days at Disney World.  We started the morning off at the Animal kingdom.  We started with a 3D Bug movie for the kids and they all hated it.  Us adults thought it was one of the coolest rides, but Ali screamed bloody murder through the whole 8 minutes because she hates spiders and it looked like they were coming at her and spraying her with water and all that jazz.  We didn't get to see too many animals there because we didn't get to take the safari, but we caught a lot of cool rides.  

Then in the afternoon we headed over to Disney Studios.  It was sooo hot this day that everyone was getting sick and exhausted, but we kept moving.  There were fun rides here, but Ali's favorite was the Little Mermaid 3D show and the Toy Story 4D interactive ride.  The Toy Story ride didn't have any fast passes left when we got there and we were dreading the 2 hour wait, but somehow my sister and I sweet talked some little innocent worker (I think he felt sorry for 2 young girls with 3 kids) and he took us to the front of the line and let us on.  We were SOOO happy.  And it was a really cool ride that you got to shoot at different 3D screens and compete with your fellow rider to see who made the most points.  Sometimes things would fly at you in 3D and they would shoot air to make it feel like they flew right past your head.

After Disney Studios we headed over to Magic Kingdom for the night parade and fireworks.  It was CROWDED and crazy and hot, but we all tried to make the most of it and have fun.  The fireworks were well worth it all.  They put on an amazing show!!  Sorry Clarkston, you just can't compare. 

Grant was bored of waiting for the parade.

Day 3

This was our second day at Disney World.  We were up and going early even though we had had a late night the night before.  We started back at Magic Kingdom.  We got a couple of fast passes for some of our favorite rides and we were able to skip all of the long lines and just go go go.  Ali's favorite part of Magic Kingdom was splash mountain and getting to meet the princesses and Mickey and Minnie.  

Then we headed over to Epcot for the second half of the day.  We enjoyed Epcot too and Ali's favorite ride at that park was Soarin' which was a ride that felt like you were hang gliding.  I saw the fireworks that night from afar while Danny and Ali were still in line for Soarin', but they said the fireworks were worth missing for that ride.  I'm sure the fireworks would have been awesome if we could have gone and seen them in the right spot.

Bruce ate Ali at the Nemo ride at Epcot.

I'm not a very good photographer, but almost.  

Day 4

We got to go enjoy the day at a beach!!  This is my kind of vacation.  I thoroughly enjoyed the east coast beach with WARM water and beautiful sand.  My sister took us to a  beach called New Smyrna Beach and they supposedly get the most shark bites per ca pita at this beach, but I was told not to worry because that was probably just for the surfers.  We enjoyed body surfing and playing in the sand and finding shells.  Near the end of the day at dusk I went out to play on a sand bar out in the ocean.  I took Ali with me and soon Danny joined us.  Not 5 min. after Danny came he grabbed Ali and started swimming as fast as he could back to the beach yelling at me to get out of the water.  I started laughing hysterically at him telling him I wasn't falling for that one.  After a few seconds I could tell by the look on his face that he meant business and joined them as fast as I could.  Supposedly Danny saw a big shark (fin and all) swim over the sand bar right by us.  I'm glad I didn't see it and can play dumb, but it makes for a good story I guess.  We only have one picture from that day because I was too busy playing.  

Day 5

My sister Tess is pregnant and so she was kind enough to stay home with the kids this last day so we could go enjoy the awesome roller coasters at Universal Studios.  Universal has 2 parks and we bought the express pass so we could go to the front of each line.  So we zoomed through both parks in one day hitting nearly every ride.  By 4:00 Danny was sooo sick he had to sit out of the last couple of rides.  I guess he should have taken some Dramamine before we left!  It was fun and we got soaked on a couple of rides at 10 in the morning so we stayed cool all day too!

You can look hard, but you won't find a dry square inch on us in this picture!  I've never gotten so wet on a ride.