The park and back yard

With so many people around we spent some time at the park and alot of time outside at Rachel's house. I'm so glad Alan and I were able to go on this trip. It had been 5 years since my sisters and I have all been together. I can't believe my niece is eight and was baptised. I can't believe that my nephew Kaleb is going to be 10 in December and Rachel and Scott will have been married for 11 years in December. This is the first time every one except Scott and my mom has seen Samantha and this is the first time my brother-in-law Tim, Leah's husband, has seen either Luke or Samantha. The last time I saw him I was newly married. When we were waiting at the baptism he told me it was so weird seeing me be a mom, double time, he remembers me as a bratty teenager. Its amazing how time flies and now here I am married for 5 years with 2 kids. I hope we wont have to wait another 5 years before we get together again. Enjoy all the pictures.

Leah the oldest, Meri just above me in age, Rachel the second oldest

I know, we don't really look anything alike

Leah and Samantha
Tim with Samantha and Luke

Luke and Hannah

Cara and Samantha

A baptism

Hannah was baptised on Saturday. It was a wonderful baptism and we are so proud of her.

Jeep Ride

On Friday Scott took Luke, Alan and Keagan on an of roading trip in his big jeep. At some point Luke walked out into the big field of mud and lost his shoes and Alan had to go in after them. They had a great time, thanks Scott for taking them out.
Also that day the rest of us went and had lunch at Kaleb and Hannah's school. We all had McDonald's which we believe started the sick fest. Every one got sick that weekend, except our little family, I know what you're thinking and no I don't think we were the carriers there was too much time from when Alan got sick and was feeling better too when we got to Wyoming, we are almost positive it was McDonald's.

Wyoming here we come

On Wednesday we met my sister Meri and her daughter Cara at my mom's house, she caravaned with us to Wyoming Thursday night. Thursday during the day Alan and I went up to Rexburg to see some of our old friends and then that night we drove the 4 1/2 hours to Green river, Wyoming where my sister Rachel and her family live.
We had great weather on our trip and we spent alot of time out side at Rachel and Scott's house. They have a great yard, both their front and back yard are fenced in with a gate that you can leave open to go from one to the other or close to separate them. With lots of kids and dogs running around this was perfect.

Luke and Cara

Meri and Cara

Luke found this light saber at their house and wouldn't put it down the whole time we were there.

My mom Nancy and Samantha
Cara and Kael

My nephew Kael

The first leg of our trip

The Tuesday before we left for our trip Luke got the flu, I know great timing huh, but he was better by Thursday, so I thought okay everything will be fine, but of course it wasn't. I woke up Friday morning, the day we flew out, with the flu.

On Friday our plane flew out at 4 in the afternoon, so I drove Alan to work that morning and went back to the house to finish packing the car and shutting down the house, the whole time taking the mind over matter approach to me being sick and saying all day, I'm not sick, I'm not sick, yeah that didn't quit work. I picked up Alan at work and we met our friend Mark Smith, who was driving us to the airport, at the Wilson's house where we left our van. The kids did great on the plane, but I had a horrible time.

Alan's uncle Brian and his family picked us up at the airport and we stayed the night at their beautiful house in Ogden, UT, well it's actually in Syracuse. We had a good time especially Luke because they have 2 kids Emily 8 and Tyler 3. It was nice seeing them again. Saturday Alan's other uncle Dale picked us up and drove us to Blackfoot, ID where he and Alan's grandparents live. We also got to see Alan's cousins Shay and Lisa this part of the trip, they stayed at Alan's grandparents house too. They were great with both the kids and were a big help entertaining Luke. Thanks girls.

It seems like when ever we visit Alan's grandma and grandpa Jensen they always have a big list of chores for Alan to do and this visit wasn't any different, but Alan didn't get to alot of them because as I started to feel better on sunday Alan, his grandparents and Uncle Dale all got sick that night on Alan's birthday of all days. Alan felt bad for not getting alot of the chores done so on monday night he painted the ceiling in their office.

The next morning Alan was feeling alot better, which was a good thing because we had to take grandpa up to Idaho falls to get a new pacemaker put in. So Alan spent all day in Idaho falls at the hospital while me and the kids were up in Rexburg helping Shay and Lisa run some errands. I went back to the hospital to take us all to Lunch while grandpa was in surgery. All went well and we got back to the house at about 5:30. We enjoyed our last night there and then on wednesday we went up to Rigby to stay the night at my moms house.

I mention earlier that it had been Alan's birthday while we were in Blackfoot. He turned 29 on sunday August 30th. Can you believe that Alan is 29, one year closer to 30 HaHaHa. Here are some pictures from his b-day.

Lisa and Shay

We've come home

We're finally back from our two week long vacation, well I shouldn't say finally because we did have a good time, but 2 weeks would probably be an okay amount of time if we had stayed in one place for the whole time or maybe 2 places, but do to certain situations we moved around quiet a bit this trip and traveling with kids isn't the easiest thing to do and Sunday was a long traveling day filled with some interesting experiences.

We left my moms house in Rigby, ID Sunday at 10 a.m. and drove to Salt lake city airport, thanks again mom, to catch our flight back home that didn't leave till 4:36 p.m. We flew out of salt lake to save some money, but unless we are just going to visit my sister in Wyoming, staying in Utah or we get a rental car, this is the last time I will ever do this, sorry Alan. Luke was a brat the entire time we drove to the airport, yes I just called my child a brat, which made me very nervous because a bratty kid, yes I just did it again, in a small confined space that we can't leave for a very long time, aka a plane just doesn't go so well. Thank goodness we had some time before we had to board the plane and Luke was able to run around for a while.

I was so happy to fined out that both planes we flew on were three seats on each side, so we could all sit together, which made nursing alot easier. The kids did great for the first flight except that it got a little too bumpy for Sammy at the end and she threw up a little bit. Our second flight was more eventful.

To start off the plane was a little late getting in, so we were late boarding. As we were boarding the plane I noticed a man in hand cuffs boarding our plane and a US marshal or boarder patrol or who ever has the right to bring prisoners over state lines I don't know, that's right we had a criminal on the plane, Alan then pointed out to me well at least we have some members of the armed forces on board, so if things get out of line we'll be okay. Just as we were leaving the gate the flight attendance notice a panel in the ceiling was missing, so they had to call some one to come fix it and we had to wait for that to get fixed. As we were taking off I heard a very strange noise and Alan informed me it was just the landing gear folding back up, I asked him are you sure he said yes. Sammy fell a sleep right away and Luke followed soon after but half way through the flight we got our drinks and needed to put a tray down I couldn't use mine because Sammy was in the way, Alan couldn't use his so we were going to use Luke's, big mistake, we had to move him slightly to get it down which woke him up and he began to scream for about 20 min we were now the parents with the scream kid that we all know and hate when we fly. He finally fell back asleep and all was well for the rest of the flight. Every one was really nice and told us it was no problem and that are kids did actually pretty good compared to what it could of been. We got in late and then our luggage took for ever to be unloaded. We finally got home at midnight and went to bed.
Since this was a long trip I will be blogging about it for a while and maybe some updates on the kids and present life mixed in. Pictures and more stories coming up in the next few days.

A Mission call

Alan's brother Mike received his mission call this past Friday and he will be going to... drum roll please... Indianapolis, Indiana, he will be reporting to the MTC on Oct. 28. We are so proud of him and excited for him. Good luck Mike we know you will be a great missionary.