Home Means Nevada

If you are of the opinion that Nevada doesn't have much to offer in the area of beauty, you probably aren't alone and I might have been in agreement with you prior to this past week that we spent traveling the state! This was Justin's first official vacation since obtaininghis job at UPS, and since times are tough everywhere we decided to try and keep our costs low but our fun level high. So we opted for a family "camping" trip.

We started our adventure in Sunnyside, a very small town about 2 hours outside Las Vegas. My Aunt Sherri and Uncle Tom have a house out there, so we hung out with them for a few days. Lincoln loved everything about Sunnyside!!

Here is with the snake that Sherri and Tom caught for him on their property before we arrived.

And here he is fishing at the lake. He did really good for a 3 year old stuck on a boat out in the middle of a lake.

Look at the fish Daddy caught!

Lincoln loved the "motorcycles"!! Once he had his first ride, it was hard to pry him off. He was nothing but smiles the entire time. He loved the hills, and would scream "Yee Haw"and always wanted to go faster and faster.

After leaving Sunnyside we headed further north towards Wheeler Peak, the highest peak in Nevada. It is part of the Great Basin National Park, home of Lehman Caves, which I had never been to before. And it was pretty cool!! On our way there we stopped in Ely and rode the Ghost train.

Here is Lincoln enjoying his first steam engine train ride. We were pretty happy to be inside the passenger car, as the open car got pretty sooty.

Here is Lincoln and his Daddy at our campground at the top of Mt. Wheeler. Our campsite made us feel like we were the only ones there.

What a big helper!

He's got a little bit longer to go before he fit's in his Daddy's gloves! :)

Lehman Caves was pretty dark, at least from Lincoln's perspective! And he was very interested in touching everything the Rangers told us not to touch!

After leaving Great Basin National Park we made our way up to Elko and got our first glimpse at the Ruby Mountains. We stayed in a hotel in Elko the first night before heading up to Lamoille Canyon. (And I feel sorry for those that live in Elko, we didn't have many dinner options while in town) After a quick dip in the pool and a hot shower we were ready for another round of camping. And what a beautiful place it was!

Our campsite was in a campground called Fletcher Canyon, and it was right next to a swiftly running stream. The sound of running water was so soothing at night! And look at the view! :)

As we traveled back home, we headed down a new road to check out some other parts of our state. We saw some little towns, including Eureka, Pioche, Panaca, and a few others that you will miss if you blink. But just outside Panaca we found a hidden gem. The Cathedral Gorge State Park. This place is pretty cool. Lincoln loved walking up into the crevices. And once we were inside it really did remind me of the tall cathedral walls I saw while in Europe, but made of mud instead of stone.

Overall, we had a great trip. And it reminded me that I really do like camping, but I am still not a huge fan of bugs. And I despise bug spray and love hot showers and flushing toilets!

Success!

Have you ever feared taking your one of two or maybe even three kids to a portrait studio to take pictures, hoping that they can all smile long enough to get one good picture. Well, then you my be able to understand a little bit of what we went through yesterday when we took my Mom's 10 grandchildren to get pictures taken! Try getting 10 children ranging from 10 to 6 months to all look at the camera at the same time and be happy and smiling when they do. It is not a task to take lightly, but luckily our photographer was up to the challenge and I think we got some great pictures! (By the way my Mom made the girls dresses and the boy's ties! Isn't she amazing!)

Happy Birthday America!

I have always loved the 4th of July. i don't know if it's the Historian in me or what, but I love this Holiday. I might even say it is my favorite, although there are many others I also enjoy. But between the smiles and excitement that the fireworks bring to my little man, and the food the generally goes along with a hot summer day, I just love the feeling this day brings. We are so truly blessed!

4th of July Parade...a day Early!

Since the 4th of July falls on a Sunday this year many of the celebrations are occurring a day early. Which is nice for those of us who might not want to go full party mode on Sunday. We started the day at the Summerlin Parade, and it was pretty fun. We have never been before, although Rachel has been multiple times, this is the first time we opted to wake up early enough to join the festivities! We arrived early enough to get some great seats at near the start of the parade, which is nice because you have to wait less time for the parade to actually get to you and all the performers are still fresh. Not to mention that the end gets to you sooner as well, which means you get to leave before the heat is too overwhelming!

The kids had a good time showing off their homemade 4th of July T-shirts (they made Eagles using different parts of their hands), collecting candy, eating donuts, craning their necks to see what was coming next, and hanging out with friends and family. Overall, they had a great time!

After the parade most of us ended up back at Nana's house where the kids and most of the adults cooled off in the pool. After which we headed over to a friends house for some more merriment, a few fireworks, and fun. By the time the day was over Lincoln was exhausted and we all slept very well!

Adventure at the Shark Reef

Brian and Ann and the kids came down last week just in time for Lincoln's birthday. So it has been fun to let all the cousins spend some time together. Today we took the kids on an adventure to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. They all had a great time, and the fun started before we even got to the exhibit. They have an interactive "wall" as you are nearing the entrance that reacts to your movements, as if you were disturbing the water. Come to think of it we probably could have called it a day there and then! :)

But then we wouldn't have been able to see their excitement at the different exhibits inside. Or this fun picture of all of them wearing their 10 year anniversary hats! They were all so excited it was hard to wait their turn in the line. But the wait was worth it when they got to see a Komodo Dragon up close and personal, as well as an octopus on the move. And most of them were brave enough to touch the Manta Ray's.

I think the reason Lincoln liked to touch them was that he loved the fact that he got to wash his hands after! Everything was automatic so he thought he was so cool getting the soap himself and pulling off his own paper towel.

The kids also enjoyed the Jelly Fish and the shark room. My mom even treated all the kids to a small item from the gift shop, so they thought they were pretty cool stuff.

A "Super" Party for a super kid

For those of you who are unaware, Lincoln is pretty much obsessed with everything Mario. He loves to play the games on the Wii (Super Mario Brothers and Mario Kart), he would wear a Mario shirt every day if he owned that many, and he can spot Mario from very far away. So when I started thinking about his birthday, I knew it needed to be revolved around his love for Mario. Sadly, there isn't a lot out there right now in terms of Mario, and even a search online doesn't bring up much. (Enough to get the creative juices flowing and allow for some purchases of items, but no all in one stop for ideas and supplies)

The first thing we had to do was put together an invitation, so I used some images I found online and some Photoshop magic to put a little something together.

There has to be party games of course, but since its 100+ degrees outside, we didn't want to spend the whole time out there unless it was in the pool. And the inside of the house is a little small for the large number of family and friends t

hat would be joining us. So we kept them to a minimal, but I still think the kids had fun. Here are the games we played-

Yoshi Egg Hunt- I found some plastic Easter Eggs in April that reminded me of the Yoshi eggs on the game, so we filled them up with candy and coins and hid them in the yard. We limited the kids to how many they could find to keep it fair, and then also gave a prize to the person who hadthe most coins inside the eggs they found.

Goomba Stomp: We bought brown balloons and added plastic coins inside of them in different amounts prior to blowing them up. Once they were inflated, I added a printed out image of the Goomba to the balloon. For the game, we had all the kids stand in a circle and then dumped them all out into the center . They had a great time trying to break ope

n the balloons by stomping on them. Once again the person who collected the most coins received a small prize.

Chain Chomper Pinata: With a little pain and some paper we turned a soccer ball pinata into a chain chomper,

chain and all. Justin did an awesome job putting this guy together and the kids had a great time trying to break him open!

We also put together some pretty fun party favors if I do say so myself. I wanted to make boxes that looked like the question mark boxes on the game, but found some awesome yellow colored chinese food cartons at Party City that I think turned out great. Not exactly square, but so much less work!

I then found some inexpensive water bottles that I personalized with a variety of Mario Brothers characters.

As well as some funny straws that I did the same thing with. But I think the hit of the party was the life size Mario that my Mother made for us. It turned out great!!

I didn't make the cake myself, with just coming back form camp and preparing to leave again for my tech conference, I took the easy way out and ordered the cake instead. I did create the image that we used to print and place on the cake, but I let some one else do the baking. I feel a little guilty about that, but I don't think he will hold it against me in the long run.

Girls Camp

Wow! I can't believe it's over! Thankfully, the week went great. The weather was nice overall, a little chilly the first night (okay it was downright cold) and a bit of wind on Tuesday (okay it blew a few tents over), but we all come out of it fine. We all stayed dry and that is the best blessing of all, because in my mind camping in the rain is the worst.

It was a pretty nonstop week, from the Stake Activity to the Hikes and the Certification Relay, we kept the girls going. Which I think is a great way to have peaceful nights! :)

I was in charge of creating the after camp video, which turned ou

t good I think. It is about 20 minutes long though so I am not going to post it here, but I think it showcased the week pretty well if I do say so myself!

It was our first really big event as the new Young Women's Stake Presidency. We had a great time getting to know the girls and each other.

Making Memories on Memorial Day

What better way to celebrate Memorial day than to spend time with family enjoying one of America's favorite past times- swimming. Sadly we have had a few blustery days prior to the holiday so the water was a little chilly. Ok, it wasn't just chilly it was down right freezing! But we swam even though our skin was turning red from the cold not the heat!

And the kids swam for a surprisingly long time considering it was so cold. And I still managed to get a pretty decent sunburn which is no surprise. But it looks like Lincoln might take after his Daddy, I think the little man is going to have a pretty good tan line by the time this summer is over!

Baseball Fanatic

My little man has been obsessed with baseball lately. He loves to throw the balls, hit the balls, find the balls, etc. Pretty much he loves the ball part of baseball. So we took him to the 51's baseball game. He had a great time, although a 9 inning baseball was a little long for a 2 year old. Thankfully, the stadium realizes that kids need a place to run off a little steam so there is a grassy knoll that they open for families. Lincoln and I spent quite a bit of time there! :) But he had a blast acting like a big kid, running around trying to join into the different games the older kids were playing.

We were lucky enough to have awesome seats- (thanks Grandma and Grandpa Worthen) so we were close to the action. And had a perfect view of the fireworks that they set off after the game was over. Overall, it was a great time. But if we do it again, we might pass on the first few innings of the game! :)

You have a what for me??

You know how sometimes you figure that having two callings is pretty safe. You figure there isn't much else they could ask you to do. Heck, you don't really feel like you are living up to your potential in the callings you have. And then as you are already rushing to a meeting that starts in 5 minutes you miss a text from a member of the Stake Presidency, asking if they can meet with your and your husband right after said meeting. And since you don't respond he tracks you down at said meeting to see what can be worked out. You think nothing of it really until you truly read the text and see that they want to extend a calling to you. at first you think they must mean your husband is getting a new calling, but then you read it again and realize it is you they want to extend a calling to. But you still don't really think much about it because you already have a stake calling as an Assistant Stake Camp director. You try to call your husband to see if he can run down, but there is no answer. And the meeting has already started so you need to focus on that, and by the time he responds it has already been decided that the counselor in the stake presidency will just come to your house instead. So you drive like a mad woman to drop off a computer you had to coax back to life to your father and then still arrive before your preisthood leaders. So spend a good 15 minutes wondering what in the world is going on, only to have an epiphany as soon as you see who arrives with the counselor. And when they ask you to be the secretary in the new Stake Young Women's Presidency you are speechless but not completely surprised. And after some one sided conversation in your head as you move through all the reasons why you are not cut out to accept this calling, you accept it anyway. And then you are not allowed to tell anyone until Stake Conference that the call has been extended, so they are all about as shocked as you were when your name is called in Conference. Well, if you have ever had this happen then you know how I feel right now! Totally and completely overwhelmed and underqualified for such a position. And the crazy thing is I wasn't released from either of my other two callings :) So if I thought I was busy before, I guess I haven't seen anything yet!!

Love is in the Air

We traveled to Denver this weekend to celebrate the marriage of my cousin Chantelle. We are so excited for her and this new step in her life. We were a little afraid that none of the cousins on my Dad's side would ever decide to tie the knot!

Justin, Lincoln, and I flew into Denver on Thursday and my Mom joined us on Friday. The Temple Sealing was on Saturday with a reception after. It was a great time. We filled some of the hours by taking Lincoln to the park, hanging out at GiGi's playing with blocks, and seeing family.

The trip was a little more interesting than I would like when I realized late Friday night that I had forgotten to grab my temple recommend out of my temple bag. Luckily, I happen to have an awesome member of the stake presidency that was able to call the temple and get me a pass :)

Our garden

We planted a garden this spring, here is the first fruits of our labor!

First Time in a Tent

At the same time I was having my party, Justin was at the Father's and Sons with Lincoln. The ward did it pretty simple by taking everyone up to Warm Springs. I talked Justin into taking an actual tent for him and Lincoln, thinking that would spur them to stay a little longer the next day- since I knew it was going to be a late night for me.-too bad they still got home by 8:30 in the morning :( But Lincoln did seem to enjoy his night in the tent, (even if daddy didn't) and the opportunity he had to go swimming! So for him it was the perfect outing!!

These are a few of my favorite things...

Okay, so if you have ever read my sister-in-law Ann's blog you know she celebrates her birthday by hosting a party that revolves around her favorite things. It has always intrigued me and I thought what better reason to steal her idea than my own birthday! :)

Here's the invitation I sent to a few of my favorite people
I really wanted to revolve the party around my favorite things, so for the food I made some of my favorite salads including BLT salad, Mexican chicken salad, Tri-color Pasta Salad, Vanilla Pudding Salad, & Grape Salad. I also had some of my favorite beverages including water and rootbeer. For entertainment we played a few games, including Sound of Music Trivia, Mad Libs, and Minute to Win it Games.
Since I didn't want the night to be just all about me, I asked everyone to bring one of their favorite things to share. I had everyone wrap them in brown paper bags when they arrived, so all the gifts were identical. Then we had a game to try and guess who might have brought the item in question. It was great to see what people brought, and so many of them were things I could have chosen as well. I guess that's why we are friends!! :)
Throughout the night I shared 33 of my favorite things with everyone, and here they are in no particular order! Liquid Laundry detergent, Sees Candy, DVR, Zabas, Travel, Iron-on Patches, Demotivators (seen at http://despair.com), Cream of Soups by Campbells, New Recipes, Deep Covered Baker/Crockpot/Rice Cooker, Crocs, Spell Check, Sam's Club/Costco, Digital Clocks, Camelback backpack, new socks, turkey, Matryshka Dolls, amazon.com, fruit leather, mint cookie ice cream by Ben & Jerry's, Shutterfly, Post-it Notes, Wendy's, Santa Maria Seasoning, baby wipes, mint m&m's, books, A&W Rootbeer, Potato Pearls, Musicals, Smiths Case Lot sales, everything Apple!
I also handed out prizes to those who won the games that of course was something off my favorite things list and everyone got to take home a "brown paper package wrapped up with string" as a thank you for coming to my party! I think it was a huge success and I am glad Ann let me in on a few of her secrets! I just hope everyone had as much fun as I did!

Brian Head Birthday Weekend

Don't you just love getting away from it all! I definitely do, but never seem to get enough time to do it. So when Justin suggested getting away for a weekend away from home to celebrate my birthday, I was all for it. Luckily, we have a generous friend who allowed us to use his family's cabin up in Brian Head. (Thank you Robert & Janet)
We thought it might be a little chilly, but we never expected that it would snow on us. We drove in on Thursday and had barely entered the house, when it started to snow. And other then a few short moments of reprieve it snowed on us the rest of the weekend! We had a great view, but most of the time you would not have known it, since the clouds and snow were so thick at times.
Lincoln had a grand time playing in the snow, although at times it took longer to get him suited up then the time he actually stayed outside playing! :) Justin's Mom and sisters came with us as well. So we enjoyed playing games, hanging out, watching movies, and of course eating!
The trip down the mountain was a little rough on Sunday, especially considering we don't have 4-wheel drive, but we made it down in one piece. And although Lincoln was suffering with what we later found out to be Strep throat, it was overall a great weekend. And as with all good things, they have to come to an end. Hopefully, we can do it again soon!

Bountiful Baskets

So the Idaho LeFevre's have been participating in a program called Bountiful Baskets for awhile now. Basically, you go in with a bunch of other people to buy produce direct from the farmers. The kicker is you never really know exactly what is going to be in your "basket", just that it is going to be a combination of fruits and veggies. We have all been a little jealous of the opportunity they have had to have access to farm fresh stuff, but no longer! We now have the same opportunity right here in Vegas! So I got online and ordered two baskets- one for us and one for Carole and the girls! We picked them up yesterday morning at 7:00 am at a park in the Northwest part of town. And it was just as awesome as we had expected-


We got lettuce, swiss chard, mushrooms, broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, pineapple, bananas, apples, blackberries, and some type of melon- all for $18! I have already used the mushrooms, potatoes, and carrots with a roast as well as the lettuce and tomatoes in a salad for Dinner this evening. Lincoln has been enjoying the bananas, and we tried the blackberries. I am excited to keep finding ways to use the items, but am going to have to look up something to do with swiss chard. I was really excited when I first saw it, as I thought it was rhubarb and had a brief thought of making a strawberry rhubarb pie. But now I am not so sure what to do with it- so if anyone has ideas!

We are going to try it again next weekend- if a basket is offered and see what we get! To check it out here in Vegas go to http://www.bountifulbaskets.org/ . You have a very small window of time to place your order and you also have to pick it up within a 20 minute period, but since it is all volunteers doing the work you can not expect them to wait around all day!

A Little Early for Swimming but....

Lincoln had to try it out anyway! Justin has been working on the pool the past few days so the cover has been off and the pool itself was just getting refilled. Lincoln wanted to play in the pool, so Justin figured the minute he put his feet in, he would decide maybe he didn't really want to do that. But the plan back fired, Lincoln didn't seem to think it was cold at all. He ran back and forth along the step and jumped and played seemingly unaware that it was freezing! I think we could be in trouble if he thinks it is time to swim already!

A Fair Day!

We took Lincoln out to the county fair this morning. We headed out to Logandale at about 8:30 this morning and it took us just over an hour to get to the fair grounds. We had a really close parking space and there really was no traffic on our way in-unlike the traffic we passed on our way out! The fair didn't open until 10 so we had a few minutes to get ourselves situated and buy the tickets.
We both thought it seemed a little smaller than last year, but we both agreed it was probably due to the economy. That didn't stop us from having fun though! Lincoln had a chance to see some animals- chickens, ducks, pigs, goats, sheep, lizards, snakes, and a cow! As always he was fascinated by them all! There was a whole building of pigs and he made sure to go up and down every aisle. But he wasn't too sure about those that were actually awake. so he kept his petting attempts to those that were asleep. :)
He thought the roosters were loud and funny at the same time. Some of them were so huge! Almost majestic looking! He was a little annoyed that all the animals were in cages and not on the ground for him to chase! But he still managed to upset the cow. Lincoln would stomp his foot and the cow would almost charge the fence- almost like a bull would! It was crazy. Lincoln of course thought it was hilarious!
He also had a chance to ride a pony, or onies as he called them. The pony he got to ride was brown and white, and his name was dandy. He had so much fun riding that pony around in a little circle. It was especially nice because they fastened the kids on the pony with a seat belt, so I wasn't worried about him falling off.
They even had a free area where the kids got to see and touch live Stingrays. Lincoln thought that was pretty interesting. He would point them out as they swam past and did not hesitate in attempting to touch them. These were small babies compared to the ones Justin and I had a chance to swim with on our Cruise, but they were easy to see and the water was shallow so Lincoln had an easy time reaching them. He probably could have stayed there all morning.
There weren't as many shows this year, but we did watch a pretty interesting dog show. The guy is a national frisbee champion along with his dogs! It started to get a little windy right before the show, but they were still able to put on a pretty decent show. A little too much talking, but nice nonetheless. He has some very interesting dogs, one called a Catahoula Leopard Dog, that climbs trees and stalks like a cat. It was so interesting.
We managed to bypass the carnival games again, which is probably one of the bigger money pits for parents in the fair. Luckily, he is still young enough to not really know that he is missing anything. He was more then okay with the ice cream cone he got to eat! :)
We headed home shortly after the dog show, and I think the secret to the fair is to make sure you get there early. There was a huge traffic slowdown coming into town when we were leaving. And I have no idea where they were sending them to park, but it definitely was not close. So if you are thinking of going, go early!