Economic Crisis - Whose Fault is it anyway?

Courtesy of my watchdog husband...

3 Musketeers or Larry, Curly & Moe?

We had a great weekend in Boise with Ben's family--some of whom we hadn't seen in over a year.

Three cousins who, unfortunately, only get to see each other MAYBE twice a year. Henry, Ammon & Colton...only 8 months apart
More of the Petzinger cousin clan: Ethan, Hannah, Maya, Bryce, Henry, Ammon & Colton
Daddy, Anna & her fingers
A nice evening by the fire pit. Thanks John for playing host.
Joseph & Angie, Mom & Joe, John
Me & Ben and David & Shelagh
We missed you Raquel (at work)--and James & Saori - wish you lived closer

"What is this kid doing to me?" Lincoln & Anna met for the first time and Lincoln wanted to kiss all over her.
He also discovered steak! Definitely a Petzinger boy. He would cry whenever mom would try and take it back.

Maya & Anna - See you all again at Christmas. Thanks for a fun weekend.

"Mom, I CAN LEARN!"

The simple things that we moms get so excited over...
Mom, I can spell CAT. C-A-T. What does C-O-T-N-R spell? Nothing. Yes it does! Ok, it spells COTNR.
Mom, do you know what L is in espanol? (He is in a dual immersion Kindergarten - 2 1/2 days/week in Spanish and 2 1/2 days in English)
Amadillo. Amadillo. Amadillo. That's Yellow in espanol, Mom.

I AM ABSOLUTELY LOVING THIS SCHOOL THING. Colton is so excited everyday to tell me the new things he's learning. And the best part of all is he is so excited to teach his little brother.
And his little brother is so excited to be taught.
Colton had some shape and color flashcards out, so he decided to start teaching Bryson. I was cleaning house just listening to the interchange that went like this...

Colt: "Bryson, what is this color?"

Bryce: "Umm..."

C: "Grrrrrr"

B: "Green!"

C: "You are right"

B: "I did it!"

And after they got through all the cards, Bryson ran to me in the other room and said,

"Mom! I can learn!" Then ran back to his brother and said,

"Thanks for teaching me, Colton."

This is what motherhood is ALL about. I sure love these boys...and I'm glad they love one another.

Happy Birthday to one HOT GRANDMA!

It was my mother-in-law's birthday on Monday...and Ben wanted to post a birthday wish for her, but he has been CRAZY BUSY, so I am going to do it...a few days late. Ben was able to be in Boise Monday with Bryce and surprise her for her birthday.
Happy Birthday Mom. I've always loved this picture from Christmas a couple years ago. Now you all know where Anna gets her eyes. :)

Colton wants me to tell Grandma that he loves that she brings him and Bryson presents when they come and visit. Aren't grandparents the best for that. How come they don't appreciate things from mom and dad?

Great Grandma McEntire

My grandpa married Ruth when I was about 13 years old or so...so to us and my kids she has always been grandma and is my only living grandparent. We don't get to see her often, so the boys and I went by last week to show off Anna and see how she's doing. I've always admired my grandma--it doesn't matter what time of day, what day of the week, or whether she even knows you are coming-- she always looks great. Makeup on, hair done...amazing! I hope I'm like that in my 80's.

The only one ready for this picture was Anna...I had to post it, though, for Bryson's face. Gotta love the boy.

Monster Truckin'

Thought the boys might like some red neck monster truckin'...

I'm covering Anna's ears as the boys are looking on in disbelief
Bryce asks "Mom, why are those big trucks smashing the cars like that?"
I have no idea, son.
They were definitely engaged the entire time. I don't know if we'll do it again anytime soon, but at least they got the experience.

Funny cars were even funner, though. Enjoy the video of this Hyundai. Yes, Hyundai at a monster truck rally. This was the best part.

Truly Inspirational

The story of two inspiring women who are making a difference in my life...

The first is Mollie Jackson of Park City, Utah. She went to high school with a friend of mine and another friend pointed me to her blog. She lost her first and only child, a beautiful 2 year old daughter, Lucy, to a choking accident during sacrament meeting this summer. She continued to maintain her family blog by posting about her trial, her faith, her healing and the unimaginable pain of losing her child. I am grateful she is willing to share this online with the world--even to those of us who don't know her--because she reminds me every day to be grateful for my children, she inspires me to be a better mom, she encourages me to increase the depth of my spirituality and my faith. You can read her beautiful posts at http://jacksonparkcity.blogspot.com/ .

The second is Stephanie Neilsen. Some of you have maybe already heard about her--the story has been on KSL and the Today show. I first read about Stephanie in People magazine. It was a story of the blogger of the Nei Nei Dialogues...a blog done by a stay-at-home mom of 4. She and her husband were in a plane crash in August and they are both still in critical condition with burns over 80% and 40% of their bodies, respectively. The article said that her blog readers had raised over $100,000 for their recovery. The story had stuck out in my mind and I wanted to go check it out, but didn't. Then another friend did a post about it, so I went and started to read. It turns out that Stephanie is an LDS mom with 4 kids under 6 who are now being cared for by two sisters in Provo. The sister, author of http://blog.cjanerun.com/ posts updates on their condition and has begun to re post her sister's blog posts (link below). I started to read her posts last night and now understand why she had so many readers from all over the world. Her posts celebrate the beauties and joys and trials of motherhood in the most positive way...and again has inspired me to be better, to seek out those memory making moments with my children. It was just what I needed last night. And obviously, her current situation makes me so grateful for my life. Again...a trial beyond imagination. It is truly amazing how the Internet community has rallied around this mormon mom they don't even know; and I wish the very best for Stephanie & Christian in their recovery.

Ketchum Main Street in Flames

Early Monday morning, two historic downtown buildings, Whiskey Jaques and Dirty Little Roddy's went up in flames. Ben's Project Engineer, Evan Lawler, is a firefighter and spent 10 hours on this fire Monday. Here is a link to a great video done by a friend of his on the fire. http://blip.tv/file/1263918. It is really sad to lose old Ketchum landmarks like these.

Lake Powell Year 3 - A Year of Firsts!

You can't get a better vacation than Lake Powell - as long as you love to play on water like this...

This is the 3rd year for my family, and one of the 1st firsts is that we didn't get a group picture this year. So sad. But we were missing Nate & Becky, Ian, and Jake & Heather had to leave early. It seemed so empty. We missed you all.
So, there were so many great pictures and so many great accomplishments from EVERYONE who came...I have to highlight it all

First and what I think is the greatest, is my husband's success this year. I grew up on the water. I've water skied since I was a kid and wake boarded since I was a teenager, but Ben had never done anything, except for one of our first dates when I convinced him to try to water ski. BAD IDEA...a story for another day...

Wake surfing. "I'm not going to get up on that thing!" The famous line. He was up on his 2nd try and got pretty good.
Isn't he handsome. This is a picture before I gave him a big goose egg on his head with the ski rope. Whoops!
And Wakeboarding. He tried the very last evening of the last day last year - in the dark...so what do you expect. He got right up this year. Way to go!
And I succeeded in figuring out the surfing thing without the rope. Such a great sport, but it would require a new boat for us. :)

Colton...what a trooper this year. I was so proud of him.
Thanks to Uncle Dave, Colton also wake surfed. Twice! Way to go, Colt. Doesn't he look like a natural. He also FINALLY agreed to get on the banana and tube. He went from going SO SLOW the banana was going to sink to actually standing up with no hands! Impressive.
We even got little Bryce on the banana, but only for a bit. As soon as dad sped the boat up a bit, he was done. He's so dang cute, though...he says he'll do it when he's 4. Ok. We'll hold you to it, son.

His FAVORITE thing was to drive Uncle Dave's boat. Dave rarely would touch the wheel...he'd let Bryce take full control, well almost. Bryce was feeling pretty important.
Bryce's short lived banana ride.
There is never "nothing" to do at Lake Powell. The beach provides a constant playground for the kids. Even Anna here with Lilly...her best friend already.

Anna LOVES her cousin Lilly and her fingers
We had some resident frogs on the beach that were pretty easy to catch and a little harder to let go...
Even Lilly got out there on that surfboard.

And Brooke...all on her own! Way to go Brooke. You can wakeboard, too, you just have to tell yourself you can do it. :) We love you.
Some of my favorite pictures of my sweet little Anna. She loved Lake Powell--especially the motion of the boats.

A little break from the action for some FUNNY FACES

Ice cream...need I say more.
Hmm...not sure?
Huh?
Some Lake Powell exploring included taking our boat through this slot...

And finding this...
My parents. They are the best. They make this possible every year - and don't let their kids show them up.

No longer does my mom go through a Lake Powell trip skiing right behind the boat and not even getting her hair wet...she is wake surfing!
So is Dad. (not as much of a surprise--he's pretty dang good at water sports)

And wakeboarding
And mom wakeboarding
And getting her hair wet...Way to go mom! You rock!
A Big THANKS goes to Dave & Mandi for making all these "FIRSTS" possible. Without their teaching expertise, their great boat, and their patience none of these pictures would be on here!

Ok...so she looks like a killer chick, doesn't she. Dave, you are pretty dang lucky to have found a girl who can clear the wake on a wakeboard.
Dave doesn't look so bad himself!
And I need to mention that they are both pro wake surfers, too.

Jake & Heather - because of Heather's new teaching job (3rd grade), they had to leave early, but we loved having them while they were there...especially the new star of Lake Powell, Daisy. Daisy LOVES the water and was so much fun to have around.

Jake rocks on his snowboard made for water...
Heather wake surfing
Curt & Shae - What a hot couple!
Especially when Shae's top falls apart and we have to zip tie it back together. We did cut off the excess, I promise.

Curt is a great wakeboarder. He nearly landed a 360. Tons of fun to watch!
And Shae said she couldn't wake surf, either. Whatever. Look at that slack in the rope!
Hope you all enjoyed the pictures! It was definitely a trip to remember. And so our summer comes to a close. :( Until next year. Thanks to my family for a great time!