Joy School Anyone?

I'm thinking about starting a Joy School for Gabriela this fall and need some more moms and kids who would like to join us. Check it out at http://www.valuesparenting.com/joyschool/ Let me know if you are interested a.s.a.p. and we can get going with this. I think it could be a great experience!

I haven't vanished.

I've been wanting to blog for a while now, but just haven't had the time. I've been attending education week this week and it has been AMAZING for the most part. Monday started out with a bang as a friend and I went to here Linda and Richard Eyre speak for about four hours. If I had idols or role models right now in my life, they are it. They make me want to have a large family full of fun family traditions, and they make me believe that that's possible. I had to go hear them speak after reading a book Linda and her daughter Shawni wrote entitled, A Mother's Book of Secrets. If you haven't read, you must, and you will love it. I was even able to meet Shawni at the book store and tell her how much I appreciated the things she wrote in her book. I couldn't have been more star struck than if I had met Michelle Obama or Oprah. Lucky for me, she was very nice, and very approachable. I wanted to ask her if I could be an honorary member of her family and attend there reunions with them. I know it sounds looney, but I've been looking for a role model for a while now. Someone who has the same vision as I do, but is a step ahead of me. It's like seeing the life I want 5, 10, 20 years from now and they give me the secrets on how to achieve that. It's thrilling to me. Ok. enough about that.

I've also been learning how to organize my house, I'm excited to get going on that too. I'm only able to go to Education week for an hour here and there, when someone's able to watch my kids, but at least I'm getting something. Thanks to those who have helped me out. I've needed this boost for a while. All in all, things are going good in our household.

Just Soaking Up MY Life.

I was in love with my day today. Why? Because I spent the whole day with all of my family. Not my extended ones, nope, just me, my girls, and my husband. All day. And I soaked it up...every...last...drop. The girls and I caught bugs and I turned out to be quite good at it. We caught a grasshopper who we named "Hopper" after the nasty mean one from Bugs Life. We caught a bright blue dragonfly and a brown one. Gabriela even caught one on her own. She told me she was so brave and did it all by herself. Way to go my child. Julianne caught leaves and sticks to put in the jars. I even tried catching a little bat. We discovered one hiding in our large patio umbrella. He got away before I could muster the guts to go after him. Miguel was too chicken, but lucky for me, he came back tonight so maybe I'll try tomorrow. It was great. I had no agenda for the day. Nowhere to go. I watched a couple of movies, made dinner, cleaned the basement, and was as content as could be, because I had my most favorite people around me. I wish everyday could be this good.

Yellowstone...What an Adventure!

Our fun neighbors invited us to go to Yellowstone for a camping trip over the weekend. My initial concern was camping in bear country. I was really worried about it until all the other stuff I was having to worry about while there. Lucky for us we survived. It wasn't so much about out surviving the bears, but our own kids.

This was our camp. We went with three other families, although we lost one to the cold after the first night. It was absolutely freezing and raining.

Our first night we went out and explored Fishing Bridge where we were able to spot some otters playing in the river.

We had to stay dressed like this most of the time. We slept in hats and gloves and by the end Miguel taught us how to heat ourselves the old school way. He heated rocks on the fire and then put them in our sleeping bags to keep our toes warm. I froze so much the first night that the other two nights I zipped myself into Sophia's sleeping bag. She kept me toasty. Plus the second day, rain got into our tent and soaked all of my bedding. Lucky me!

The kids just loved the bison. When we got out to go see them, Gabriela was freaking out and said she wanted to watch from the road.

We stopped at Artist's Point to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. Sophia started being a pill and wouldn't budge so Miguel grabbed her arm to pull her along and the next thing we know...SNAP...she dislocated her elbow. She wouldn't stop screaming and wouldn't move her arm. He tried placing back, but with no luck. I had to hold her and carry her for the rest of the day while we tried to find medical help, but with no luck. Finally at the end of the day, he gave it one last attempt and, wahla, it worked. She was good as new.

On our drive to Mammoth Hot Springs was did we see to our surprise.

A Grizzly Bear.

And what could be better than that?

A momma black bear and her two cubs.

And then further down, we saw another mom and cubs right next to the road. We got so lucky. I've never seen that many bears on any of my previous trips.

Because of Sophia's arm I had to carry her in a pack on my back while we explored the hot springs.

We spotted this elk on the drive back.

We went to see Old Faithful. Julianne kept teetering around the platform and while under Miguel's watch, falls off the platform onto her back infront of the hundreds of people around us watching the geyser spew. So embarrassing.

We took the kids on a 3 mile hike to see Morning Glory Pool. They needed to do a hike to complete the Junior Ranger program. It took forever and I thought Gabriela was going to loose it towards the end, but we were really proud of her making it all the way. At some points, Miguel was carrying two kids. Poor guy. A genuine pack mule. At least he was still smiling.

Here's our group. They were so fun to do this trip with. We love having such good friends.

Morning Glory Pool

The kiddos earning there Junior Ranger patches.

The beautiful Teton Mtn. Range on our drive back home.

Julianne had a tough time on the trip. She is cutting several teeth and had horrible diareaha, was throwing up, and doesn't like the car. She would get so excited to see the animals though, and would just point and yell.

We stopped in Jackson Hole

And as a tender mercy of the Lord, we saw a moose in the stream by the road on our way out of Jackson. It was the only animal we really wanted to see but hadn't in the parks.

After so many hours in the car, we ended the trip with some ice cream and a movie.

Silly Sophia

Sophia is definately our class clown. Her personality is so cute and she's so free spirited. She has no fear and is a lot of fun to have around (you know when she's not throwing two year old temper tantrums). Lucky for me I'm her friend right now. She tells me all the time in this small high pitched, quick little voice, "Mami, you my friend!" and quickly states that me and Gabriela are not friends, which leads to some emotional melt downs on her part. Here are some of Sophia's antics lately. I've had to have my camera ready to go with her, because you just never know what she might do next. This is her at dance class last week. She was a dwarf from Snow White. We went to Barnes n Noble last week for storytime and they made magic wands, so all week Sophia has been saying, "Bippity Bobbity Boo, I turn you into a frog (or a chicken)!" Hillarious.

While I was washing dishes she bumps into me with this box on her head and then the next thing I know she's squeezed herself inside it.
Then last night she comes and finds looking like this. This kid is so funny.

Her silliness usually leads to more silliness, so Gabriela comes in with underwear on her head.

And I had to throw this last one in, because I got a good laugh on Sunday after church. Julianne totally konked out after she ate her lunch after church. She was so exhausted, poor thing.