Lillie's Turns 8

Lillie had a great birthday this year. We were in Idaho again so she was able to spend her birthday with all of her cousins. Because we were having a big get together for her baptism we kept her birthday small.

Scritpures from Grandma and Grandpa Erickson

Bay Blades. The first real boyish toys my girls have been crazy about.

Lillie was so excited to turn 8. She was excited for her baptism, but she was also very excited to turn 8 so that she could get her ears peirced. On her birthday we went down to Idaho Falls and got her ears peirced. She was all smiles.




After doing a little shopping we headed to Olive Garden for a birthday dinner. A perfect day!







Kim will kill me for this picture, but it was her birthday as well so I had to post a picture of her with her birthday treat (a cup of whip cream covered in chocolate syrup with a candle sticking out of it).

To see Lillie's 7th Birthday post click here.

Idaho Trip 2011

Oh how I love Idaho. It is so nice to take a break from the North Carolina heat and enjoy some family time in Idaho. Like always we packed as much as we could in to our three week stay. I think everyone was very ready for us to go home this year. Usually we split our time between Whit's family and mine, but Grandma and Grandpa Gifford were on a mission at Heber Valley Girls Camp so we stayed at my mom's house the whole time. I think mom was pretty ready to get her house back. We are so grateful that everyone was willing to put life on hold for the three weeks. We really had an awesome time. Here are the highlights:

The Craze a new kid place in Rexburg. Great Grandma and Grandpa Erickson took some of the great grands here. They had so much fun.

Laser tag. Addie could barely hold up the gun.
Black light Miniature Golf

Playing at the park. Sam and Penny were fighting over a camera case. They kept taking it away from each other. Sam finally got smart and crawled away from Penny and she looked on longingly because she couldn't crawl over to him. Pretty cute.

This stage coach has been at this park since I was a little girl.

Crafting for Carter's bug birthday.

My favorite thing about the whole trip was Lewis and Clark Caverns, which weren't even discovered by Lewis and Clark. I hadn't been there since I was a kid. I remember that beaver slide being much bigger. It was really fun to take my kids through. Addie had a tough time at first. I really thought we were going to be stuck at the beaver slide, but I was able to convince her to keep going and she did great after that. All the girls thought it was pretty cool.

Notice my sweet front pack. We picked it up at a thrift shop in a small town in Montana on our way up to the caverns. I think it may have been meant for a doll, but it worked.

Addie sucks her fingers more when she is nervous.

I love this picture because it shows Lillie's amazement of the stalactites and stalagmites.

Notice Ryan has on my sweet new Ergo that I bought for the trip while I am wearing the doll carrier. You're welcome Ryan. I think it would have been a lot funnier to see Ryan carrying Brinley in the doll carrier.

Rigby Lake-Looks like Jaynie got caught!!

I love this picture!!

Tauphas Park Zoo

Feeding the ducks at the Nature Pond

There was so much more I just wasn't very good with the Camera this year. We went Huckleberry picking and to the new pool in Rexburg with water slides and a lazy river. We also were able to spend an evening up at Heber Valley with Elder and Sister Gifford. It was fun to see where they had been living all summer. What a beautiful place.

Since I am keeping up with the blog while catching up with the blog I am going to do a new post and an old post until I am caught up so if you are interested in our Idaho trip from 2010 you can find it here.

Jaynie and Lillie you are Triathletes

On July 16th 2011 Jaynie and Lillie participated in the Kids for Kids Triathelon here in Winston Salem. Jaynie has been asking to do a triathelon since she was 4 and she heard th Marsh boys talking about it at Thanksgiving dinner one year. I have always wanted to put them in one, but it just never worked out until now. This year the neighborhood that we swim at was hosting a triathelon so it was the perfect time for the girls to do it. We decided to do it about 2 weeks before the race so we didn't spend a lot of time "training" but the girls were able to do and they both did really well. The swim was 100 yards, followed by a 4 mile hilly bike ride, and finally a .6 mile run. Lillie actually took 5th in her age division and if we would have practiced our transition times she could have won the whole thing. Her first transition was a little slow, in fact it was the exact difference in time between her and the winner. She was neck and neck in every split with the girl who won. Quite impressive. Jaynie was just so excited to be there she could have cared less what her time was. She had a smile on her face through the whole thing. I was so proud of both of them.

Lillie is famous. She made the newspaper.

Lillie in the swim


First transition.


Taking off on the bike

Starting the run.

Finishing the run.

Jaynie Swiming. She actually shared a lane with her best friend Jane.

First transition. It was hard to be standing right there and not be able to help them. Jaynie did great with her transitions.

The bike ride was tough, but Jaynie had a smile on her face the whole time.

Jaynie taking off on her run.

Lillie, Jane and Jaynie you are triathletes.

Getting massages after the race. I think this was probably the girls favorite part.

4th of July with Grandma and Grandpa

My mom and dad came to visit us at the end of July. We had a great time. I was so excited to have them here for the 4th of July, although I think my brothers and sisters were a little upset that mom and dad weren't home with them. It was fun to share a North Carolina 4th with them. We spent a lot of time at the pool.

Yes the girls convinced grandma and me to go off the diving board. Like mother like daughter. The synchronized jump was not planned.

Nice dive Lillie

Whit and his famous flips.

Go Addie!!!

Mom and Dad had this cool underwater camera and I think the pictures turned out really awesome.

It was fun to have Mom and Dad here for our neighborhood 4th of July party. We have such an awesome neighborhood. We are so blessed to live here. I know it makes mom and dad feel better about us being so far away when they can meet the people we interact with everyday and know that they are such great people.

On the 3rd we went up to Asheville to watch their firework show. Asheville was fun and crazy. We saw all types of people. We spent the night in Hendersonville and then got up the next morning and went to the little town of Brevard. When I was looking for fun things to do on the 4th I googled the best 4th of July celebrations in North Carolina and Brevard was at the top of the list so we decided to check it out. A small mountain town celebration sounded like something that would be right up my dad's alley. I was right it was perfect. What a fun day we had. The town of Brevard is so cute and they had tons of arts and crafts and live music. There were so many fun little shops go into. We even got to see a melodrama put on by the local theater.

What's a 4th celebration without face painting.

Brevard is in Transylvania county which is known as the land of the waterfalls. There are over 100 waterfalls in the county so of course we had to go check out a few.

This waterfall is called sliding rock because you slide down it. They charge admission and everything. We were not prepared to go swimming, but the girls were dying to do it so Whit and Grandpa were good sports and went down in their clothes. The water was freezing, but the girls loved it. Even Addie wanted to go again.

A little more time fishing. The girls just can't get enough fishing with their dad. They had to show grandpa that they could catch a fish. Luckily they each did. Fishing at a stocked pond makes that a little easier.

The Browns told us of a little place in Union Grove, NC that has live bluegrass music every Saturday morning. Dad loves bluegrass so we had to go. We ate a really greasy, not so great breakfast and listened to some good old country bluegrass music. It was pretty cool.

Mom and Dad were here during blueberry picking season so of course we had to get some fresh blueberries. Having the extra adults was great because we got triple the blueberries. Yeah!!!