Vacation Photos!

Okay, it has been awhile, but we have been on the run so this will TOTALLY make up for not posting before! Shane had a convention in Anaheim, so we left a little early, visited family in San Diego and then tagged along to Anaheim. Of course we weren't going to stay still with lots of our favorite places nearby!

As we are members of the San Diego Zoological Society, we visited all our favorite animals and several of our traditional photo spots.

This is a LIFESIZE replica of a beloved Rhino at the Wild Animal Park. His ears were big enough for the kids to put their heads in them.

Everyone in a people-sized bird nest. With these close quarters, no wonder little baby birds are always complaining.

We also got to see how we measure up to a Gorilla. This is Tacey . . . .

and Dallin . . .

and McCade! They also had a spot where the kids could cool off under magical misting palm trees!

This is Mac and Dallin!We also like the baby animal nursery. This is a baby Monitor Lizard. He posed just for our picture! The next day Andrea, who works at the Sealion and Otter Show at Sea World got us a great deal into the park. We got to see her show and the easily distracted otters; they were NAUGHTY that day! It was good fun! We visited the tide pools. . .

sat in the 'Soak Zone'. . . (Shane and Mac were the only ones brave enough to sit in the danger area of the soak zone. Tradition held as Mac hid under Shane and emerged from the experience totally dry with Shane soaked to the skin.)

fed Bat Rays. . . (SOME of us were braver than others; SOME of us thought we got bit by the very nice rubbery/slimey creatures.)
and developed BEAUTIFUL sunburns! Then on to Anaheim and Disney! We are frequent Disney visitors, so we decided to try new things this time; heck! we had 3 days to spend!
Tom Sawyer Island has become inhabited by Cannibals; we got caught in the bone cage awaiting our fate!
We saw our new friend Wall-E at California Adventure. And then, later, we enjoyed really rich, really yummy special, magical Disneyland cupcakes!
Tacey likes the Chocolate ones! (SHOCKER!)

Dallin likes the chocolate ones! (SHOCKER!)

As is his habit, Mac had to different and chose mint truffles shaped like Mickey.

We had to run away from a large rolling boulder! But we survived!

As far as survivng the vacation . . .

we barely made it!

Lots of good wishes!

Danielle!

More Pictures and Stuff

Tacey's T-Ball Team

Tacey's Junior Softball Team

the 'Teton Toyota Taters'

Tacey!Tacey's Softball Team

McCade!

McCade's Baseball Team

'Cox's Mighty Honey Bees'

Here are pictures of the others teams the kids participated with. Life has slowed down a bit since we got done with all the baseball madness. I sent the copies of my thesis off to the publisher last week, and we are getting ready for a quick trip to California (San Diego/Disneyland) in the very near future.

Dallin and McCade went to Cub Scout Day camp; this year they went the loop that featured ARCHERY! Nope, no injuries, so all was well. This is the result of day camp.

We also got a new niece/cousin right before the 4th of July. If anyone ever tells you that you learn NOTHING from television, let them know that Troy, Shane's brother, was able to successfully deliver his new daughter inthe front seat of his pick up truck on the side of the freeway because of TV. We are happy to report that the Mom, Heather, the Dad, Troy and Richard (Shane's Dad who ended up being the chauffeur!) and most importantly the baby are all doing very well!

Welcome Sierra Jade!

Post again soon!

Danielle

HAPPY 4TH of JULY!!!!!!!!!

We spent the day in the mountains. We would normally hike, but as two of us are broken. . . THAT didn't happen. Actually, it happened a little - Dallin and I hung out together in the bed of the truck. We did ride 4 wheelers, and the kids shot the boy's BB Guns. Come to think about it, we all shot them; we made victims of empty water bottles. We once again escaped with no BB Gun injuries - although once Mac almost took out the dog. The dog continued his obscession; chasing cows. He had a run-in with a mean mama cow. We were afraid she would kick him (which would mean the end of the dog), but she just rolled him with her nose. As cows are particularily 'snotty' animals, he was COMPLETELY covered in cow snot. (eewwww!) I think he enjoyed it, it helped the mud stick to him better. Talk about a dirt ball! I know the dog is already brown, but he was a completely different shade of brown within two minutes of getting out of his kennel to run around. I guess Koda had several near death experiences today! We had a hot dog roast, and ate them happily with potato salad, cheetos, beef jerky and s'mores. We called it a good day since there were no new injuries and no ticks when we got home.

(Random side note; one of my finals was more of a party than a final and we had a pot luck while we discussed and debated our final papers. I took my indoor s'mores maker, and that is a VERY good thing. This man, - who was much older than me - had NEVER had a s'more! WRONG that is just WRONG!)

oh -and I did hand in (via email) my edited and reformatted thesis on wednesday. (for all of you who were waiting to see how long I would procrastinate)

We also chose not to battle the crowds for the big fireworks and set them off at home instead. Enjoy the pictures and video!

Tacey lighting a Fountain Firework

McCade lighting a Fountain Firework

Dallin lighting a Fountain Firework

The not broken people hiking.

Dallin hangin' in the bed of the truck

Dallin!

Mac!
Tacey!

Danielle!

The End of Baseball & Softball

Okay, so I just had to put this video on here. This is Mac standing on the pitcher's mound doing the robot and other various dance steps while the team is warming up. Ah, the creativity! Imagine being so self-confident you can do this is public? (Oh, wait, I do!) I guess this is some form of warm up unique to him. I thought it was incredibly funny; maybe someday it will be good blackmail.

I would have him wear his hat the right way, but it just makes his ears stick out funny.

I have pictures from all of Tacey's teams and Mac's team as well, but I haven't had a chance to scan them in yet. I will get to that as soon as I have the thesis thing DONE. I had my defense on the 27th, which went really well. But, the committee wants some clarification changes before they will sign it off. They said it was so that other areas of academia, namely music, couldn't discount my work. They all thought it was great, or so they said. ANYWAY, that means that this post in an attempt to procrastinate! I am disciplined enough to not let myself get so far off track as to let myself spend time scanning the pictures - yet. (I did spend an hour making cookies though; maybe I'll call that brain food.)

On the upside, I start physical therapy tomorrow! I also have been ordered to try something new every couple of days with the boot off of my foot. So, I decided the best thing to do was take a walk around the block. This walk took me 30 minutes. I am the tortoise! Poor Shane and Koda, they are very frustrated with my lack of speed, but they walk all nice and slow with me. I also did yoga on Monday. I can stand on my right foot and do all sorts of poses FOREVER. I can stand on my left for for a couple of seconds if I hold onto a wall. However, it was nice to work my whole body again, I was careful and adjusted accordingly.

This is a cool picture. Shane was in the mountains about 15 minutes from our house this week on some family business and this Moose decided that he was 'King of the Road'. Shane drove slowly behind him for quite a distance; the Moose was not phased at all.

I think that is it!

Have a wonderful fourth of July!

Danielle