Ty's Amazing Race

  Tyler wanted to do an Amazing Race party for his birthday this year.  Since turning 12 is a big, amazing thing - an Amazing Race party was definitely in order.  We invited Jen, Allyson, and Megan's families to come and be our racers.  Tyler opted out of racing, because he wanted to be involved in all of the planning, and be the Phil Koegan of the night - starting the race, helping with tasks, being the check-in guy when they were done.  I found the real-deal clue and envelope templates online so our race was pretty legit.  Pull tab envelopes and everything.

   We divided them into 3 teams - and that's when the fun began.  Here are our teams (feel free to point out the hilariousness of them):  Team 1:  Lance, Toby, Paul, Caleb, Jaxon, and Mia (yes that's right - the 3 dads were strapped with the 3 littlest kids - all in big 5-point car seats); Team 2:  Jen, Megan, Emily, Hannah, Bailey, Paisley, and Logan (2 moms with all the middle aged kids - 5-10 years old); Team 3: Allyson, Kamryn, Halli, Ben, Sam, Josh, and Zack (1 mom with all the older kids 10 years old and older).  We thought giving more adults, and harder kids, and fewer adults and easier kids would balance out.  Didn't turn out that way - but that's what we thought.    :)

Our awesome dads and babies team

Logan ended up getting bumped from this team because all of the car seats wouldn't fit in one van! 



Hilarious!

   We met in our church parking lot, divided into teams, moved carseats and boosters, and told each team to volunteer a runner.  In Tyler's very Phil-ish manner Tyler started the race (read:  "The world is waiting for you.  Travel Safe.  Go!"), the runners ran the length of the parking lot to get their first clue.  They raced back to their cars, ripped open the clue, and were off on their Amazing Race.

On your mark . . .  get set . . .

GO!!

   We decided to have the teams do the same tasks, but in a different order to eliminate bottlenecks at the tasks. 

  The 7 tasks the teams had to do throughout the night:

•  Milk a cow - fill a jar to a certain line.  This was definitely the hit of the tasks of the night.  For some (Lance!) this proved to be very hard!  Our favorite line of the night was when Lance asked our dairy farmer friend what the cow's name was - hoping if he sweet talked the cow she'd give more milk, and the answer was "Cow 275".

Lance sweeting talking Cow 275 for some milk!

Toby seeing if he had any better luck

 



Maybe Caleb has the magic touch...

 

Measuring Time

Jaxon and Lance

 

Josh's turn

 

Sam's turn

 

Bailey's turn

• Using an observation hive - a glass case with 10,000 bees inside they had to identify the queen bee.
• Go to a park where Tyler had 50 Dixie cups on a picnic table.  In each cup was a food or liquid (cereal, m&m's, chocolate chips, pretzels, cheese crackers, almonds, goldfish crackers, grape juice, etc.).  Taking turns they had to eat/drink the entire contents of the cup to see if it had an Amazing Race flag at the bottom of the cup.  Al's team did this in about 3 tries, Toby's team ate 30+cups before they found one.  It was hilarious!

Those dads and babies - eating LOTS of cups!



Jen's team - everyone on their team had to take 2 turns

• Go to the church parking lot and put together a 100 piece puzzle, and take a picture with their phone as proof.

Toby and Paul - not happy with the Snow White puzzle selection

• Go to a different park where they had a choice - everyone on their team over the age of 10 had to eat a slice of a jalapeno pepper OR they had to shake 2 bottles of cream until it turned to butter - put it on a roll and eat it.  The dads made up some serious time on this one since they all downed the jalapeno in one second and they were on their way.  No babies even got out of the car!  The other 2 teams both opted for the butter and that slowed them down a little.
• Go the snow shack and count all the flavors - there's 48!  Give the right number to the owner, and then she gave everyone on the team a small snow cone.   Every snow cone had to be eaten - help from other eaters was allowed before the owner would give the next clue.  From what I hear the owner was quite the stickler about every snow cone being completely eaten.  Love it!  Oddly enough, all 3 teams ended up at the snow shack at once - one team almost done, one team just arriving, but they all got to see each other at the shack.  That was just good luck!

 

Allyson's team about to eat a lot of snow cones!

• Everyone had the same last task - they had to go to our friend's property who have a tree nursery.  They had to find clues hidden in the trees.  The final clue said "Drive your self to the finish line!" - which was our house.

   The teams raced through all of the tasks and ended up at our house.  The winners - after stepping on our Amazing Race mat, and welcomed by Tyler - were Al and the teenagers. 

The WINNERS!

 

15 minutes later after the winning team came Jen and Megan with the middle-aged kids.  They were in such a hurry to get to the mat that Jen didn't even take time to shut Megan's car door!  Al's team had hidden inside and just as Tyler was telling them that they weren't the first to arrive, Al's team jumped out screaming that they had beaten them.  Jen and Megan were shocked - it was priceless!

 Who's got time to shut the door?  Not Jen!

Winners rubbing it in.

  Thirty minutes (!) later the dads came racing in - sure they had won too.  It was hilarious.  Our friends with the tree nursery had told the dads that they were first team they'd seen that night - not true at all, and gave lots of false confidence!

 The last team to arrive - Phil would have had to eliminate our favorite dads and babies.

   We had dessert while all the teams relived the race.  My favorite part of the night was everyone recapping their version of the tasks.  It was a great night - with great racers and a bring-it-on attitude.  Ty's Amazing Race party was one for the books.

4th of July - Eastern Idaho Style: part 6

*I never imagined this trip would be such a long post!  It's turning out to be

longer  than Derek's Ironman post -and no post should ever be that long!*

 

   Thursday was the actual 4th of July.  Every year we go to Idaho Fall for the 4th we are treated to Angey's traditional red, white, and blue breakfast.  She's the best to host this breakfast year after year.  She treats us to blueberry pancakes with strawberry syrup and whipped cream (for the red, white and blue), eggs and sausage. 
  Then we were off to the parade - Idaho Falls loves itself a long, hot 4th of July parade.     Every year we have a BBQ at Sandy's, and get ice cream at Reed's Dairy.  It's become quite a tradition for our family.  The 4th was a super fun day.

At the parade

 

Now that's an ice cream cone!

   Friday we headed home - after a fun, super-packed trip.  We drove a million miles, and hiked/biked our kids legs off!  We had a great time.  Thank you Sandy, John, and Angey for hosting us for days and days!

 

4th of July - Eastern Idaho Style: Part 5

    Wednesday was my favorite day of our trip - we had the best day.  Our family and Angey's family  went to Jackson Hole and rented bikes (for our kids that we couldn't borrow bikes from in Idaho Falls from family) and headed into Grand Teton National Park.  They have the best bike path - hands down best.  It's paved, wide, flat and has the Teton mountains as a backdrop - see what I mean about the best?  You can actually ride 20 miles - all the way from Jackson Hole to the Visitor Center at Jenny Lake.  We're not quite that accomplished as cyclists so we drove into the park, and then parked 4 miles from Jenny Lake to begin our bike ride.  Off we went, happy as clams on our bikes, tag-along bike (Bay), or trailer (Logan).  We rode 4 beautiful miles along the Tetons.

 

 



 

 

 

 

  Once we got to Jenny Lake we parked the bikes and got on a boat ferry that takes you across Jenny Lake.  So fun!

  Once we got to the other side of Jenny Lake we started the Hidden Falls hike.  We hiked .5 miles to a gorgeous waterfall. Tyler and I kept going another half-mile to Inspiration Point.  This had a great view of Jenny Lake.  Then Tyler and I hiked down to meet the others at the boat dock.  For the first time ever, Tyler out-hiked me.

 

 

  We ferried back across Jenny Lake and headed back on the bikes.  We sent an express party to ride fast, get the cars, and come pick up the slower riders.  We were happy to see them come rescue us!  We stopped for dinner in Jackson Hole and then headed back to Idaho Falls.  Again, happy and exhausted kids.  Fabulous day!

4th of July- Eastern Idaho style: part 4

  Tuesday our family headed to Yellowstone.  We love going to Yellowstone, and go almost every year.  Idaho Falls is close enough that we can leave early in the morning - do the park all day - and get back to Idaho Falls by late evening. 
   We left early and headed into West Yellowstone.  Derek and I packed a cooler for lunch, and had decided that we would stop at KFC in West Yellowstone - and get some chicken to put in our cooler for lunch.  Their reader board confirmed our thinking, by reading, "Take a bucket into the park".  And that's what we did.  But while we were in line to pay to get into the park, I decided that I'd get out of the car, and put the chicken in the cooler.  So I hop out, open the back of our van, and that's when all of the cars in line start moving forward.  So Derek moves forward.  With me, holding a bucket of chicken (!) just walking behind our car.  So there's a dozen cars ahead of us, then me - walking, holding a bucket of chicken, and then a dozen cars behind us.  It took several stops of the car before I could open the car, open the cooler, put the chicken in, shut the cooler, shut the van door, and get back in the car.  Derek and the kids thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen.  Derek wanted everyone to think that I was just walking into the park, by myself, with the only thing I'd need that day - a bucket of fried chicken!  It got lots of laughs all week.
   In Yellowstone we did our favorites, plus some new things.  We did Old Faithful of course, but watched it from Observation Point - a first for me (a .5 mile hike that has a great view looking down on Old Faithful. 

Yes, Derek hiked all around Old Faithful like this!

 We did Uncle Tom's trail - over 300 steps down until you are at the base of the big waterfall in the Grand Canyon.  It's awesome to be down there - getting cooled off by all the mist.  Walking back up 300+ steps was hard, but with some breaks, our family made it.  I was so proud of the kids - no whining, and no carrying.  People around us were telling our kids how awesome they were to have made it down and back up. 

 

 

Artist Point  - this is the waterfall that Uncle Tom's trail takes you 3/4 of the way down.

 

     We saw mud pots, geysers, and lots of bison - and bison babies - a definite crowd pleaser.  A favorite was to keep track of how many US and Canadian (in honor of my Canada-living parents) license plates we could see.  Yellowstone is certainly a great place for that game.  We got 44 states (curse you Hawaii, North Dakota, Alabama, West Virginia, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire!) and 4 Canadian provinces - Manitoba - our favorite!, Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, plus Yukon (which apparently is a territory, not a province - who knows why, or what the difference is). 
   We had  a huge, long, really fun day - and 4 happy, exhausted kids on the way home.

 

 

 

 

4th of July - Eastern Idaho Style: Part 3

    Monday we headed to Bear World.  This is a big park where you drive through a huge area where they have tons of wildlife.  You see deer, elk, moose, mountain goats, and bears (their billboard brags they have 45 bears - so you definitely get your bear fix).  They also have a few midway-type rides that the kids can go on ... and on, and on, and on.  It's crazy how many times your kids can do a train ride that goes in a circle.  But the kids loved them. 

   The  most fun thing we did there was go on a curator tour.  We got on a big truck, where we up really high, and then drove through the park.  We were able to throw bread at the bears - who are quite familiar with this routine!

 

 

 



 cute cousins

Bailey & Logan


cutest sisters




Begging for food





Lots of adorable cubs
 

 

Fun at the petting zoo

  



 

 

  After Bear World we cooled off by going to Rigby Lake.  The kids had a blast swimming.  We ended the night with our traditional fireworks show, with our not-quite legal fireworks.  It's funny because Idaho Falls is so close to an Indian Reservation, that there are a lot of not-quite legal fireworks going off for a solid week.  

 

4th of July - Eastern Idaho Style: Part 2

 The next day of our trip Tyler turned 12 - how can that be??  I have a 12 year old - that's just crazy. 
 We drove from Driggs to Idaho Falls to celebrate his birthday.  His birthday was on a Sunday and we were super excited that he'd be ordained a deacon on his birthday.  Then we realized that we had plans to be on vacation for the 4th of July.  So then we were stumped about what to do.   So we told Tyler we could stay home, and go to his grandparents on Monday, so he could be ordained a deacon on his birthday in our ward, or we could have him ordained the next week and keep our trip as planned.  He decided that he'd rather not cut the trip short, and he'd just get ordained the next week.  Then our bishop suggested that we just ordain him, on his birthday, at his grandparent's house.  Genius!!  Why didn't we think of that?  That was such a great idea.  It was fun to do it there, with Derek's family who wouldn't have been able to be there if we had done it at home.  It was also great to do it in a home, and make a bigger deal of it.  We did miss my family, which would have been there if we had done it at home.

 

Look at the handsome guy!

 

John, Tate, Lance, and Derek - loved having them stand in the circle

John, Sandy, and Tyler

 

Proud parents

  Super proud of Tyler.  In preparation of receiving the priesthood, Tyler read the entire Book of Mormon.  He started in December, and finished on his birthday.  I know I certainly hadn't read it by the time I'd turned 12.  After his blessing, he bore the sweetest testimony to his family.  It was an awesome experience. 
  We wrapped up the day with brownie sundaes for everyone.  A great end to a great day.

4th Of July - Eastern Idaho Style: Part 1

   For the 4th of July we headed to Eastern Idaho to spend the week with Derek's parents.    It was a week of going and going - and we had the best time.
   We went on the Friday before and went to Driggs.  This is a tiny town at the base of the Teton Mountains - it's beautiful there.  We went to Driggs because Derek's sister, Angey, had told us about this great 4th of July celebration they have there the Saturday before the 4th every year.  She had raved so much about it we decided we had to check it out.  Derek's aunt has connections that got us a condo in Driggs for the weekend - this was awesome to be able to be in Driggs for the whole weekend.  There was a bunch of us there - our family, Angey's family, Megan's family, and Derek's aunts.  It was a houseful, and we had a blast.  John and Sandy couldn't come because John had just had hernia surgery and was still recovering.
  Saturday morning we went for a hike in that ended with kids barefoot playing in a pool at the base of a waterfall.  Throw in the Tetons and that's hard to beat. 

  After hiking, we all went to a restaurant for lunch - I always feel so bad when they see a group as big as ours walk in!  And then we were off to the celebration.
   This is a free event - open to the public, put on by Jon Huntsman at his private golf course.  It was pretty great.   Lots of bounce houses and face painting for the kids - they had a great time.  At 7:00 the entertainment was supposed to start on this giant grandstand, but instead of entertainment we got a microburst storm - wind and rain hit us, and hit us hard.  The moms took the kids to the cars to wait it out, while Derek, Tate, Ty, and Zack stayed to hold down the fort (aka our blankets and chairs).  The storm passed and it turned into a beautiful evening again.  We headed back to our seats and the concert began.  Now I didn't know it, but the Beach Boys were there - as in the Beach Boys!  Well, 2 of the original members were still in it - but good enough!  Growing up we had a Beach Boys record - I don't think I would have called it 'cool', but I would have called it 'the coolest record we had', so we listened to it a lot.  Like a gazillion times.  I knew almost every word to every song.  The kids danced and danced to every song - for an hour straight.  Listening to the Beach Boys, while your kids dance their guts out, on a beautiful golf course, in beautiful Driggs - pretty awesome.
   After the concert the fireworks show started.  The fireworks went off from behind the grandstand, but every so often they would have fireworks go off that lined the fairway - so were surrounded by awesome, giant fireworks.  And then to top it off, they had Lee Greenwood - as in I'm Proud to be an American, sing during the fireworks show!  I thought they'd stop the fireworks so Lee would get everyone's attention, but he just sang while fireworks were blasting off.  It was awesome. 
   Sitting in the parking lot for an hour just to get out was not awesome. Tyler was in Megan's car, and when it turned midnight, still stuck in traffic, it was his birthday.  They sang to him - which is hilarious, thoughtful and fun - I loved it.

We need Webster

The other day Logan asked me what the word 'pathetic' meant.  I told him it meant sad, I left out that there was a slight 'loser-ish' connotation to it.  Then the same day Tyler was upset about something and crying about it, and Logan announced loudly, "Mom, Tyler's pathetic!"  Now Tyler was sad and mad.  I told Logan told that Tyler wasn't pathetic, and Logan kept correcting me, "No mom ... he's pathetic!"  Mr. Webster, feel free to stop by.

Distracted Maybe?

Piece by piece all of this jewlery was confisicated by me, from Bailey, while she practiced the piano this morning.  In a head-to-head compitition for Bay's attention, jewlery won hands down over piano.