Oh brothers!

I think these two are related!

Ethan (December 2007)

 Jackson (August 2013)

First day of school 2013-14

Ethan's first day of 2nd grade was last week! He was nervous all Monday, the day before school started, but felt much better after going to the open house and having a father's blessing.

He is riding the bus this year! I couldn't tell if he was nervous or excited when he got on the bus. he turned around to wave and smile to me, Emma, and Jackson. I hope that was a good sign.

The classic

 All three of 'em on the way to the bus stop

 Emma's first day of her last year of preschool was today! She has been so excited to go. She has been praying at night that she'll be able to go soon.

Her class has t-shirts they will wear on field trips and other days of school. Today was the first day to wear the class shirt.

The classic

 There is stuff on the back too.

 I think Jackson was excited to have Mom all to himself for a few hours!

Here's to a GREAT school year!

Family Staycation 2013

After moving we NEEDED a vacation. We planned on making a trip to Minnesota to visit Mike's family, eat, relax, laugh, eat, maybe go to the Mall of America for Legos and Nickelodeon Universe, eat, have more fun than we should, and eat some more. Unfortunately, that didn't work...mostly cause we didn't have the house in Pleasant Grove rented yet :(. I was so sad, I cried! But since Mike had three days off work, plus a weekend, we had a staycation!

We started our staycation at the Living Planet Aquarium...Mike had free penguin encounter certificates. We were excited! Too bad Jackson freaked out when we went in the room to be with the penguins so I took him out and we missed the whole thing. There was, however, a closed caption screen we watched it on. One penguin almost bit Emma's foot! Luckily she was wearing closed toe shoes. I got many pictures, but not on my camera....

Day 2 Mike and I took Ethan and Emma to Lagoon! Jackson got to stay with Grandma and nap :) This was my first trip to Lagoon since I was 16 and everyone else's first time EVER! When Mike and I were dating, he took me to Valley Fair and it was so so so so fun! I didn't know if he'd like Lagoon as much, he loved it! The rollercoasters were AWESOME!

We started off the day at the merry-go round! (Emma's choice!)

 

 We're crazy in love!

 I was surprised that Ethan was not too tall to go on most of the "kiddie" rides. He almost kissed his knees he's so tall, but he's still 2 inches below the height limit!

 Mike wanted to go on the white...brown...rollercoaster so I took the kids on the merry-go round again.

 Ethan found the dragon that he really wanted to ride. I think he looks GREAT on it!

 The ride The Spider had this big spider over the entrance to it. Creepy! I don't think Emma liked it either!

 Ethan REALLY wanted to play some games and Mike agreed to PLINKO! And unless you are terrible, you win!

Ethan and Emma won medium sized snakes

 They got lollypops too!

 HUGE lollypops!

 Me and my kiddos!

 I can't do the tilt a whirl, I get too sick afterwards, so Mike took the kids on the tea cups. Emma was so sad because she wanted to pink cup and the mean girls in front of her heard so they ran and got to it first.

 The kids drove trucks around a track. Mike told Ethan if he (Ethan) ran into him (Mike) that he'd pay him $100! There was no way that they could run into each other.

 Mike smack talked Ethan

 But had a great time with Emma

Day 3...again no pictures. We went to 7 peaks to swim and have fun in the sun...hence no camera! :)

The last day, we planned to rest, it had been three days of fun fun fun. We went to a movie in the afternoon, but before that, we had a thunder and rain storm. We wanted to sit on the porch to watch it, but as soon as we opened the door, the rain came pouring in. The wind was blowing it right to our front door. We did eventually make it out there and I took a few pictures.

Ethan had fun!

 My kids really do love eachother

 I tried so hard to get pictures of Emma dancing in the rain! This one is decent!

 And when Jackson sees the camera pointed to his face, he CHEESERS!

After the rain storm, we went to catch a showing of Despicable Me 2! The power was out at the first theatre we went to so we booked it to another theater and made it. The movie is so so so so funny! I am definitely going to buy he bluray. After the movie, Mike and Ethan went to the block party our neighborhood had. (It was bed time and they were exhausted so I stayed home and put Emma and Jackson to bed!)

We had fun! We spent time together, we were lazy, one day we were still in our jammies at noon!

Fun times!

Minnesota, we will see you in December! 



OP and Annie F Callister Family Reunion 2013

We've had A LOT going on lately, but I'm gonna start with the most recent.

This last weekend was my family reunion, my Great Grandpa and Grandma Callister and all their posterity in Blackfoot, ID.

It was fun!

By the time we got there, it was RAPIDS TIME! My mom used to talk about going down the rapids all the time and this was my kids' and Mike's first time going. (I stayed with Jackson this time so next time I'll go!)

Emma went with Mike and she loved it!

 However, when they got to where the rope was thrown out to them to come off the canal, they tipped and down they went! It was a scary 2 seconds until we saw Emma come up out of the water but Mike was still under. He had gotten under her and pushed her up. The look of terror on both their faces is something I don't think I'll forget. But, as she was coming out of the water and onto the shore, she said, "That was AWESOME!" and she went down again!

Ethan came down with Kristen and LOVED it too!

 See...all smiles!

 There she goes again! This time she stayed on Mike's lap. The second time, they went down on a different tube, one that wouldn't tip as easily!

 All smiles again!

 A picture of the rapids!

 Back at camp, there were water games. This one looked like fun! Put shaving cream on someone and have a kid spray them with a water gun to get all the shaving cream off. First to get all the shaving cream off, wins!

 The slip and slide looked fun too! Mike took a slide down it.

 Jackson just wanted Dad, wet and all!

 Jackson decided to take a go at the squirt gun...

 ...but soon found out that they hose was a better option!

 He wanted to take a slide down the slip and slide too, clothes and all!

 Dinner was yummy, but Jackson decided to just eat the cookie, frosting first, and got all messy.

 Ethan got a BIG plate of dessert. I think he ate more dessert than he did dinner!

 Then there was the big sling shot full of candy!

Ethan got salt water taffy...can you tell?

 Someone found a frog and it was passed along from kid to kid to kid to kid. Mike says someone really didn't want the frog to get loose and it got squished! (It wasn't one of my kids!)

 Day 2 started off with a 1K and a 5K! Everyone got a certificate of completion...Mike included! The winners got medals! Mike came in first in his age group and second overall!

 WooHoo! (Ethan photo bombed!)

 My kids are cute and we had so much fun!

 After 2 days of fun (3 for Ethan...he got to go early and spend a day at Bear World) it was time to head home!

 Jackson didn't sleep well or enough in the hotel and he crashed just after getting on I15 and didn't wake up until Layton!