Summer time at Grandma Hope's

The thing I love the most about being a teacher is the opportunity to have some extended (vacation) time in the summer. It gives us a chance to rejuvenate and come back to school refreshed and ready for a new challenge. We sent Carson to Grandma's house at the beginning of July so that he could do swim team (it will be it's own post soon). And then Natalie and I followed a couple weeks later.

We only get to see my mom 3-4 times a year, but I'm glad that the kids have still developed a relationship, and they are always so happy to see her.

While we were there, we took the kids to the local bounce house, and it was Natalie's first time really going on any of the blow up slides, and this picture captured the sheer terror......priceless!
Carson had some left over poppers from the 4th of July, and had a grand time popping them all over Grandma's parking lot!
We went to the drive-in movie. Growing up in Twin Falls, I didn't know they were such a rarity! There are 2 in Twin, and there used to be one in Pocatello until a year or so ago. I read an article that said there were only a handful left in the United States, and I've been to 3 of them..... I strapped Natalie in the car seat in hopes of her not wandering off in a dark parking lot during the movie, but once I sat in the car, she was having none of that!

Carson was also giving Natalie some instruction on how to "properly" use the kick board in the water.
My brother and his wife recently had their baby, and it was fun for the kids to get to go see their new cousin.
We were driving down the road one day, and ran across these big horn sheep, I thought it was so random!

We skyped dadd-0 on the computer a couple of different nights.

And we got to see the beautiful falls on the snake river.
Natalie was incredibly jealous of all the time Carson got to spend in the water, and jumped at every chance she had to go swimming too.
I have a little feminine tyrant when it comes to sleeping! She is a home body in that department. She absolutely refused to go to sleep on her own at my mom's. She would cry and pitch a fit until anywhere from 1am-3:30am on the latest night, in utter refusal to sleep. How thankful I am that as we have come home she has resumed her regular sleeping pattern!
My cousin Kyle got married while we were down there, and it was fun to be able to go to his wedding. I was a little sad, because they were getting married in the temple, and we had made arrangements for my other cousins to watch my kids, but we had a mis-communication and so I wasn't able to go in, but it was fun to visit and go to the luncheon with them afterward.
My brother also blessed his baby while we were there, I was happy that we were able to be there. She is just so precious, and we're so happy to add another baby girl into the mix!
We really had a great trip! It was longer than usual, but I was glad to have the opportunity to hang out and spend some extra time with my mom. I had originally planned to come home on Tuesday, but Natalie had thrown up in the night on Sunday night, I decided we would wait a couple days, since she is prone to being sick in the car anyway. So we headed home on Thursday, and apparently I waited just long enough for Carson to catch her little bug.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

IT

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

WAS

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

AWESOME...............NOT

All I can say, is that at least Carson will puke in a bowl!

We were all happy to be home, especially our lonely dadd-o!