WBS Summer Party

This is a little out of order, sorry. The Friday before we went to Jackson, our family went to Scott's annual work summer swim party. The kids look forward to this every year. It is at Scott's boss' back yard, and he gets someone to cater a dinner and lets the kids swim.

They give away great door prizes. This year we won a Kindle Fire.

And the highlight of the party (for the kids) is when Ron lets the kids dive for dollars. He throws in handfuls of silver dollars and the kids have to dive to retrieve them. Our kids came away with $60 in coins.

Scott has been with this company for 9 years now, and I still count my blessings almost daily that we've been blessed with this great job. We have become so spoiled with all the "perks" his company offers. We truly have a great life, and I am so grateful for it.

Jackson Hole

After our three trips back-to-back, we had a week of staying home.  It was nice.  The kids took their second week of swimming lessons (their first week was the week of Memorial Day, as soon as they got out of school).  The three older kids were in one class, and Nate and Aaron were in a separate class.  They all did great.

And then it was back to traveling....

Scott and I got to go to Jackson Hole for his annual Sales Training Meeting.  We flew up in the company plane Monday morning (June 25th).

We stayed at the Spring Creek Resort. We had an amazing view out the door of our room.

Our first day there, we all had breakfast together. There were 8 of us from the Boise office, 2 from the Idaho Falls office, and 5 from the Orlando office--so our total group size for all the activities was just 15 people. The rest of the day, Scott was in meetings. I took a little hike, then came back and met Scott for his lunch break. I wasn't able to get into my room till 2:30, but when I did finally get in it, I took a nap till Scott was done with meetings at 6. Then the whole group went to dinner at the Bar J Chuckwagon. It was really fun. We had the type of dinner you'd have if you'd been on a cattle drive, then were entertained by 4 ranch hands that were scary good at singing and playing instruments.

The next day (Tuesday), Scott only had meetings till noon. I spent the morning reading out on our balcony and enjoying the fresh mountain air. After Scott finished up his morning meeting, we headed out for a scenic float trip (three of the Florida ladies came with us).

The trip was about 3 hours, and I took a ton of pictures. I mean, how can you not just be in love with this scenery?

We saw quite a few Bald Eagles, and even got to see a nest with a little eagle in it.

We got to see evidence of Beavers at work along the river.

The Snake River is constantly changing it's path, so there would be trees along the edge leaning into the river, almost ready to fall in.

And we saw lots of trees that had already been claimed by the river (like this one, which our guide said must have fallen in just that morning, because it hadn't been there the day before).

After our float trip, we went back to our room and rested for a few hours (the rest of the group had gone fly fishing, and didn't get back till later). Then we all met up for dinner together at a restaurant in town.

The next morning Scott and I enjoyed a 90 minute couples massage in this teepee. It was fabulous.

Then we checked out of our room and went to lunch with Matt and Angie (from the Idaho Falls office). Then we made a quick stop in town for these delightful treats that I'd seen advertised in a magazine (we got them to go and took them home with us).

Then it was off to board the plane and fly home.

The kids were very happy to get us home. We'd got a gift bag from Scott's boss while we were there, and we passed off the goodies inside as souvenirs for the kids from us (taffy, caramel popcorn, etc.)

Father's Day

We came home from our vacation on Saturday. As soon as we got home, Scott took the suburban in for new tires (the reason the one went flat, was because it was bald). All four tires needed replaced. I'd had great plans of getting my husband an I-Pad for Father's Day, but when we had to spend a thousand dollars on new tires, that plan got cancelled. Instead, I loaded up the kids and took them to Walmart to buy smaller presents (new roasting sticks for hot dogs, candy, and some really cheap tennis shoes). My parents needed to go home later that day, so we had a Father's Day celebration with my dad a day early. The kids made him a t-shirt with their hand prints.

I cooked a big meal--halibut, rice, broccoli, and cream cheese brownies. Scott had woken up that morning not feeling great, and Savannah felt pretty lousy, too. He spent the day watching golf while I unpacked everything from vacation and then cooked the meal. Then, right as I served my big Father's Day dinner that I had worked hard to prepare, Scott and Savannah walked out the door to go to the doctor. They came back with a diagnosis of Strep. I know I should have been a little bit sympathetic, but I was really frustrated that my Father's Day celebration with my Dad (that I only get once every 10 year or so) was ruined with Scott being sick.  He in turn was frustrated with my lack of sympathy, and we spent the rest of the day not speaking to each other.

Remember how great my Mother's Day was?  Well, Scott's Father's Day was about equally as great.  Except he got presents.

Finally, after not speaking all day, I made Scott go outside on the back patio and "talk" it out, and then we were fine. And then he came in and ate some of my cream cheese brownies I'd made the day before and then we were really fine. I feel badly he had such a lousy day, but at least he got presents.

I love this last picture of the boys.  Their expressions pretty much sum up how Scott and I felt that day.