Island Park Memories

This year our summer trip took a new turn. Grandma found an excellent "cabin" using the term lightly as the house was huge.....slept 25. Idaho was a great place to vacation. It was a closer drive from home and allowed us to visite Yellowstone for the first time. We loved all the new experiences. Grandpa found some excellent places for the kids to hike - although they were much longer than first expected. The lake was calm and with it being right out our back door we just hopped in the boat whenever there was glass. Loved the biking trails, Yellowstone, Mesa Falls, seeing moose, great yard for kids to play in, could have done without the mosquitos though. And of course, lots of fun and games with the family. It was a great trip. Thanks grandma and grandpa. We had a blast.




Chantelle doing a 360



Wild tubing with the cousins


Blake was on demand for his YUMMY Dutch oven desserts

Channy and Nat

Blake tried Fraser's Wake kite...ite was AWESOME

The Mesa Falls were so pretty and Huge.






This is Castle Geyser. This baby erupts every 10hrs so we were lucky enough to be there. It went for 20min and shot higher than Old Faithful

Roosevelt trip

It has been our tradition to go to Roosevelt lake with some close friends and start the summmer off right. This year, there were 5 families, 3 boats, 2 moterhomes, 1 trailer, and the Jayco. We always look forward to great water times, night games, super food, and lots of laughs. We sure weren't disappointed.
Mudd island is a must stop. I stayed in the boat with Cooper...didn't want mud in all of his white fur. They did mud angels, mud muscles, and mud flops

Devon and Brooke Hardy

The "aquadam" was new this year. It was great to slide on and prevented the boats from getting scratched.

Melissa boarding

Channy wanted to try everything. Slolom skiing, kneeboarding, tubing, and wakeboarding.

The kids loved to tube. Good thing Blake and Chad like to pull them, because there was plenty of choppy water to help make crazy rides. Brooke, Paige, McKenna and Syd would jump from one tube to the next.

This picture was too cute. It is Aiden and Cooper. They were watching a skier out the back of the boat. Both have great hair!

Blake had some awesome turns when we were able to find calm water. It was kind of a windy 3 days.

I had probably my shortest ski every. Since my hip has been injured, I have to take it easy. So I only did about 10 cuts and dropped. Felt kind of wimpy, but my hip didn't hurt afterwards and that was great news!

Bills mud angel

Kate was brave and tried to get up on one ski after her 4th baby. She decided that dropping one would be better...good for you

Aly and Melissa kicking back.


For some reason, I didn't get a picture of our hand picked campsite. It was awesome. Sonja and Kate planned and organized our great food....we never starve. All the kids and teens got along. A very memorable time. Since I was our boat all the time, I didnt' get a group shot of the shore people. I've got to find one!

Past Happenings at a Glance

I have been without my own computer since the virus attacked in April. Since then, we have had to share with Blake on his work computer....so kind of difficult. We are up and running again with a great new, and very fast, computer. So, I'm excited to share a few of our fun moments.

Chantelle just before we left for her Gr. 4 piano exam. Melissa did her level 11, and Brooke did her level 8 piano exam also. WAY TO GO GIRLS!


We celebrated Brooke's 8th grade promotion. She is very excited to go to high school...I, however, am floored that she is old enough to go. It kind of makes me sad that my kids are getting so big!

This just cracked me up. We are leaving from a Baptism....obviously Dev. thuroughly enjoyed it. What a nice sister!

OUR BABY IS 16. It was a perfect day to try out some new skills on my camera. The temple and overcast day really helped make a perfect backdrop for our pictures.

Devon enjoyed himself just as much as Melissa. He would find wierd new places and say, "hey mom, take a picture of me here".

Going in With a BANG

I was told recently that 40 is the new 30. I hope this is true because we are now face to face with that age. After getting a great idea from my friend Amie, I started putting together what I thought would be a fun and memorable 40th birthday party for Blake. He knew that we were having the party, but what he didn't know was that I had asked each couple to come dressed in something that represented an event in his lifetime or a year. Our friends didn't let us down....they were hysterical! We had so much fun talking about growing up in the 80's. I also had each couple read about an event in Blake's life so that they could all get to know "Blake through the years". What a great night, but I don't think that I got my bangs high enough or my eyeshadow blue enough!

Blake was on an overnight scouting trip...riding 26mi the first day and 44mi on Sat. This gave the girls and I a chance to set the house up with him gone. I looked through many photo albums, had a good laugh, and was able to find quite a bit of memorabilia. (good thing he is a bit of a sentimental pack rat). Melissa helped me put some pictures together on 12x12 cardstock so we could view Blake growing up. The yearbooks were a laugh, actually, some of the comments were pretty bad. My girls kept asking me, "mom, what does this mean"? What was wrong with those Wisewood Students!




Lets have a look back in Blake's life!

Blake has always loved building and lego. She even had lego earings...very cute!

Beautiful 80's chicks

Michelle covered Blake's injuries....my cousin's were in ski gear

Motorola has been a great employer

Scott was depicting Blake's life as a DJ

Blake did landscaping in highschool...he still loves to work in the yard

Melissa and Maurine found some of my old 80's dresses

This was Blake's love for Mazatlan, and his mission with the spanish people...NICE!