Breakfast of Champions
You thought it was Wheaties. Nope. It’s Kix.
Surrounded by friends wherever she goes.
Some light reading
She loves hats.
She’s wearing a lei AND a boa.
This girl gets the greatest bedhead I’ve ever seen.
Happy Father’s day, Rock!
Yes. It was yummy!
For science this week we ordered caterpillars that we get to watch turn into butterflies! It has been a fascinating experience thus far so when Penny invited us to go to the Butterfly house at the zoo, we jumped at the chance!
The zoo is beautiful! It had this fun giraffe slide right as we came in. Liberty wanted to go down it so many times I thought we’d never get to the rest of the zoo! On the slide is Reagan, Lincoln, Levi and Cade.
Lincoln is 6 months older than Liberty, but they’re pretty much the same size and so cute together! (When they are not yelling at each other) Neither one of them has had to deal with a peer of the same age very much and it has been funny to watch them duke it out. She didn’t really want him on ‘her’ lion in this picture. Thus, no smile.
Prairie dogs! 
Look close-all four kids were in this one bubble looking at this pompous Prairie Dog.
I just missed this one nose to nose with Reagan. It was hilarious!
Butterflies!
Liberty was the first one to have a butterfly land on her. She was ok with it at first, but then got worried and shook him off.
Next was Reagan. He had lots of butterflies land on him, actually.
Here’s Levi, moping and sitting as still as his little four year old self could sit. He has wanted to have a butterfly land on him ever since I told the primary story about butterflies and reverence in church a month ago. He tries very hard whenever we are outside to get one to land on him. So this was his big chance and he was frustrated it was taking so long.
Penny and Derek were next. 
Derek won with TWO at once!
Still waiting…and watching….
Hey, when ya got it, flaunt it.
This one landed on my sunglasses.
Cade got a yellow one! His favorite color.
Levi attempts to coax one onto his hand… 
Success!!! 
This was an answer to prayer, let me tell ya! Thank goodness for tender mercies.
Reagan and I got our first taste of farming life last week when we helped Aunt Janie and Uncle Calvin bale their hay. I’m so excited about all the hard, worthwhile work by boys will be able to do at their farm!
The bales hadn’t had time to dry out and so they were pretty heavy. Reagan couldn’t actually lift one. He was very frustrated about that. But hopefully next time (they do this three times a year!) they’ll be able to dry out more and we can lift them. Ok, I’ll admit it, I couldn’t really lift them either. Here I am, “baling hay”. 
My job title was “Truck Driver Extraordinaire” as Uncle Calvin put it.
Believe it or not, this was taken the same day as the above beautiful blue sky pictures. It was threatening to rain when we first started, but the rain held off and turned to sun. That’s Derek in the background. Truth be told, he did most of the work that day. He also broke out in hives because he’s allergic to hay!
Reagan found a little surprise in one of the bales. A snake!!!
Afterward he got to see the 20 some animals that Byams have. 5 horses, 2 cats, 2 dogs, a bunch of chickens and I’m not even sure what else! Reagan collected the eggs from the chicken coop. 
Looking forward to more fun at the Byam farm!
I went outside to take the garbage out tonight and I discovered this amazing phenomenon in the sky!!! Sunset? What’s a sunset??!!! 
I’m gonna like it here.
We left GJ and headed for Boise on May 28th. We stopped in Provo for lunch with Mason (Rock’s brother), had dinner with the Weiss’s (good friends from Duvall) and had a night cap with Mike and Monica (Rock’s sister and brother in-law). Mike and Monica got to watch the “cooped up in the car all day, we are homeless and know it, please give us some structure” children jump all over the hotel beds and hang from the ceilings like hooligans. I’m sure they went home that night and thought, “Wow. Maybe we’ll just get dogs instead.”
Here are some pics with our good friends the Weiss’ who always make time to see us and welcome us into their home. The kids go berserk and have a grand time every time. David and Launna are the kind of friends who we can pick right up with even after years apart. We’re so lucky to know them! 
The next day we got up bright and early and drove the rest of the way to Boise. I got this picture that morning before we left the hotel. 
Just before we headed into Boise I took this picture: 
It really exemplifies the transition we were about to make. Boise itself doesn’t look like this. It is much more green and the mountains/hills are much closer. But the expanse of blue sky is so much bigger than we’ve ever lived with for most of our married life! Rock is thrilled not to have all those trees in his way. I’m not so thrilled to have all those trees not in my way.
We arrived at our new house on Zeus Way to find our truck just delivered and we were able to start on it that night. 
The kids found this in the back yard: 
Surprise!!! Thanks to Derek and Penny for setting it up for us! It was a huge hit and the kids have been on it every day since! Here’s a finny video of Libby and Lincoln enjoying the ride for the first time.
Liberty loves to be on this thing with her brothers. She runs around it like a little pro. We have had one casualty already and I’ll give you one guess as to who it was. Yep. 
He got a nice shiner around his eye after knocking into Cade.
Apparently we picked a bad day to move into our ward. The night before, the elders had moved a family OUT of the ward, the following night was the Father and Sons campout and half the ward was preparing for Trek. So we had one elder, Rock and me for most of the unloading and half the time I was dealing with kids or trying to order dinner. Just when they were about to collapse, my Aunt Janie called to see how we were doing. She and Uncle Calvin and their girls came to the rescue with their dolly and made a huge difference on the last half of the truck.
After everyone left Rock and I collapsed in a heap surrounded by boxes. We’d made it. Most of our stuff was scratched up, dented or dinged, but very few things were actually broken. We’d made it, our stuff had made it and it was time for bed!!!
Now after one week in our house we are mostly unpacked and feeling at home. The kids are LOVING their new back yard. 
Liberty especially loves the freedom of being able to go out whenever she wants. There is so much space in my kitchen I don’t know what to do with it all! We are six minutes from Costco, seven from Walmart and four from church. Rock loves the view from our house and has told me on several occasions that I did a good job picking our house. So far we all love Boise!
Here’s the last installment from the GJ trip!
Fun at Grandma’s House We had lots of fun just hanging around Grandma’s house while in CO. The boys discovered two of these Collared lizards under a rock behind the house and spent the whole week trying to see them again. 
Grandma read Winnie the Pooh to the kids and they laughed themselves silly. 
Mr. Potato Lib
Reading together in Grandma’s chair
Talking to Daddy on Face Time. 
The wonders of modern technology.
We found a fantastic hands on Science and Math center that the kids loved. (Thanks to Kerri for the tip!!) We just barely scratched the surface of this place! 
Reagan worked on this Tower of Hanoi puzzle for a long time, but he finally figured it out. His first response, which was typical, was to get mad and say, “This is dumb. This is impossible.” But he stuck with it and I was proud of him because it was tough. You had to move all the rings from the first peg to the third peg without moving more than one at a time and without putting a bigger ring on top of a smaller ring. 
Liberty thought this guy was fascinating. So fascinating that she actually touched it….which is more than her mother would do. 
On another day we went on a walk around Grandma’s street….
to see this view: (click on it and you can use your mouse to scroll around the picture)
The Mountains around Grand Junction are amazing. This is Grand Mesa and the Book Cliffs. WOW!
John, Paul, George and Ringo Reagan, Cade, Levi and Liberty
On our last night in GJ we had a barbeque at Great Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We roasted smores, met the new chickens and played in the grass. It was a grand ending to our time in Grand Junction. We sure loved getting to spend so much time with Grandpa John and Grandma Dot. We love you both and look forward to visiting again now that we are closer!
And a special thanks to Neil and Nancy for all their help in our move. Thanks for putting up with us for a whole week!!! They never believe me when I say this, but I LOVE my in-laws and am so grateful for them and the good relationship that we have. We had a great time in GJ! We love you both!
Here is some more from our trip to CO. We are in Boise now, but I am taking a break from unpacking to get caught up on my blog!
Monday morning, May 28th, (a day early) we woke up to find Dad and Grandpa pulling up to the house after driving non-stop across the country. It took them 32 hours! We were glad to see them. And they were glad to be done! 
While Rock and Grandpa slept that morning, Uncle Dave and Aunt Jeannie took us on a hike to show us some of the rugged beauty of Colorado. 
I don’t know if it was the hat or Jeannie’s calm peaceful demeanor, but Liberty bonded with her right away and would not leave her side the rest of the hike.
We saw all kinds of cool rocks. Cade named the one to the left behind Reagan the “Ice cream cone rock”.
Levi did a little assisted rock climbing to get to this really cool little cubby hole. Then everyone had to climb up too. 
Reagan overcame his fear of heights for a little bit and did some rock climbing as well.
Between Dave, Jeannie, and Grandma, Liberty got a free ride for most of the hike. Thank you, guys!
The next day we drove up to and around the Colorado National Monument. It was breathtaking! (Disclaimer: my computer is not cooperating with me today, so these pictures don’t quite do the red rock justice. Sorry!)
I put this one up so Alli can have a new scary goal. You can get to that rock/stool at the bottom left from where we were. And it’s a big drop into nothin beyond that!
Livin on the edge. The guardrail stops just beyond Cade’s head-take that Aunt Alli. 
Independence Monument 
Independence Monument-skinny angle.
I loved the Monument. The kids got bored after a while, though they loved Independence Monument. The idea of that big rock standing all by itself was very intriguing. I’m so glad we can see it whenever we go visit G & G!
Short n Sweet 