Yellowstone Trip

We went up to Idaho to go on a little trip to Yellowstone with Annette's family and her sister's in-laws. It was very fun!

We stopped at BYU Idaho for about 45 minutes on Friday when we drove up.  We saw the Thomas E. Ricks gardens.  Thomas Ricks is the kid's great great great great grandpa.

On Saturday we did the north loop of Yellowstone.

The Visitor Center had lots of cool information.

We found some cool dogs that we petted.

Here is our Christmas card photo.  Just a few months early :)

Elizabeth loved all of the yellow stone since it is her favorite color.

The kids were really great with all of the driving!

Charles was a great driver during the entire trip.  He wasn't driving, but waiting for some of our carpool here.

Annette did great helping kids, passing out food, and navigating once we got a map of Yellowstone.

We saw a coyote.  Very exciting.

When the kids saw this photo they thought the sunbeam was a geyser.

I loved these trees that grew in a swirl.  Such beautiful colors.

The scenery was so beautiful!

We got to see a bison heard multiple times which was very fun.

And we saw a lone bison walking down the road backing up traffic. 

 On Sunday after church we went to a lake near our cabin.  We took a little walk around it.

On Monday we did the south loop.  Old Faithful was very exciting to see!

We walked around the area of Old Faithful and it was beautiful.

The Austins brought a heat gun thingy.  The hottest pool that I heard about was around 190 degrees.

Charles and Lizzy ran up to catch up to Annette 

We ate lunch in the parking lot. 

Eliza got a ride from Peter and loved it. 

On Tuesday we woke up to snow which was fun.

 On the way back home we stopped in to see Charles' uncle and aunt who are both professors at BYU-Idaho.  Charles' uncle gave us a mini tour of campus and his friend in the Special Collections section of the library showed us some cool stuff.  We saw a Bible from France made in the 1200's using animal skin for pages.  We saw a page from a Gutenberg Bible.  And we saw a first edition Book of Mormon.

Elizabeth is Three!

Whenever the number two was used in reference for anything, Lizzy would always say it was because she was two.  Now that she is three she is not sure what to do with the number two.  She asked me when she would be two again.  She was a little sad when I said she would never be two again.  But then she was excited that someday she would be four like Henry.

Eliza loves spending time with her brothers. 

They are her best friends.

She loves doing big kid things with them like using the bungie cords in the back of the truck.

When Charlie is at school, Lizzy often pretends that Henry is her husband.  And Henry loves it.  He opens doors for, and takes her on dates, and treats her as if she was his beautiful wife.

ELizaBelle loves her books and is constantly looking at them.  If she is quiet, I know it is because she is reading her books.

Elizabeth is learning to dress and undress herself, sometimes its tricky.

If Annette doesn't put away Lizzy's church dress quickly, Lizzy will get it and put her arms through the sleeves and wear it around the house like a princess.

Elizabeth loves princesses and is loving watching all of the Disney princess movies. 

We asked Elizabeth if she wanted to be a cheerleader and she said, "No, I want to be a BYU football player."  That is her dream.  She loves sports! 

She also loves makeup and goes through Annette's while she is doing her makeup.

Elizabeth loves getting her hair done like a princess.

Eliza has quite the personality and loves life.  We love having Lizzy in our family!  She brings a great smile and a kind heart to our family.  We love her so much!

Winter Time

Winter was very fun.  The kids loved shoveling the snow with their little snow shovels.  Henry played in the snow like it was dirt.

Life is hard in the winter with glasses.  Anytime Lizzy needed to push her glasses up she got snow all over her face.

The kids enjoyed breaking the icicles  off of Grandma Sandra's house with her.

Henry liked rubbing his face into Grandma Sandra's duster.

We made snowballs.

And built a snow totem pole.

Made snow angels.

Went sledding down Grandpa Larry's big slide

Charlie got the "Builder" award at school.

The kids enjoyed heart stickers at Valentines.

And we talked about how life is created and fed.

Charlie was obsessed with BYU and dinosaurs.

Charles made a huge pasteurizer to be shipped to Indonesia.

And taught the kids all about it.

Henry thought he was pretty cool on the fork lift.

It is one of the kids favorite things about Daddy's work.

I started back into making delicious homemade bread.

Lizzy's hair grew longer.

The kids were enthralled by their cute little cousin.

Annette made a delicious strawberry pie that is like none other.  And that was our winter.

(I put a few new movies on our YouTube account)