Our vacation... Sorry this is a long post.

Hi. So I know its been a while, but things have been crazy around here. So heres an update of whats been going on. The weekend of the 6th we went camping with some of the Young Women in our ward. I'm the 1st counselor in the presidency, and we are trying to do some pre-certification. We were supposed to leave Friday afternoon, and it was raining. I tried to convince the 2nd counselor that we really didn't want to go, since between the members of the presidency we would have 6 kids with us (our husbands were coming as priesthood chaperones) and she is pregnant. But we went anyway. It continued to rain lightly until about 2 hours after we got there. Then the sun came out. It was pretty cold the whole time we were there, but we had fun for the most part. Thank goodness we had lots of blankets and layers. But Claire decided that would be the day to cut her first tooth, and she was pretty grumpy and wanted to be held the whole time. I was very grateful I had my trusty new sling (Thanks Kimber!! I love it and so does she!!) to carry her around in. So we survived camping experience #1 for the summer.

We made it home safely--although with VERY dirty vehicles--on Saturday afternoon. We unloaded our stuff into the basement, but didn't put the gear away because the next Thursday afternoon we re-loaded everything and headed west. Our first stop was Lake Walcott in Rupert, Idaho for the Phippen Family Reunion. We camped right near the lake for 2 nights. It was so fun to just sit and relax and visit and let the kids play. My sister Cindy wrote a really fun song about what a cool family we are. We had some yummy food!! It was great. Camping trip #2 survived.

Saturday afternoon we went visit the Albion Normal School, a teachers school were my grandma (mom's mom) got her education. The school closed down during WWII, but one of the buildings is now a museum. We found my grandma's picture in the yearbook and her name in the commencement program. That was really neat. Caleb really enjoyed walking thru and reading signs and things at the museum. He reads really well and will read anything you put in front of him. I think he would have enjoyed staying there for a little longer, but we needed to move on.

Next we went to the "Mormon Cemetary" there in Albion and visited the graves of my great-grandfather (dad's grandpa) and some of the Phippen family graves. I was surprised that Caleb was reading the names and things on the headstones. And my dad was astounded.

We left the cemetary and headed to my parents' in Pocatello, where we stayed until Thursday morning. It was really great to visit them. We played Mexican Train (thats a dominoes game, for those who don't know), as we usually do when we visit them. I totally trashed everyone.... we played about 10 rounds, and I think I won 7 of them. Chad just got tired of playing because I was winning by so much. I just couldn't lose. What can I say....

While we were there we bought a new vehicle. We've been looking around for a Suburban for a decent price, and my brother-in-law's dad had one that he was looking to sell. So we traded him our while Dodge mini-van and now own a 2001 Suburban. You may be wondering why we would want to get a gas guzzler when gas is so expensive right now (yesterday it went up 14cents.... ouch). But our van, while it was running fine, just wasn't spacious enough for us. So we took the giant leap. But I love my new vehicle!

Thursday morning we went up to Karianne's. We went to a little zoo in Idaho Falls, which was fun for the kids. My favorite animal was a cotton top tamarin... its this little tiny black monkey with a white puff on its head. It was so cute. Caleb liked the penguins, and Natalie liked the birds and the monkeys. Claire was impartial. We stayed the night at Karianne's and Friday morning we drove up to Billings, Montana. Chad's sister Yana went thru the temple on Friday night and got married on Saturday morning. Chad was able to be there Friday night, which was neat for him. Then we both went to the sealing on Saturday a.m. I really wanted to go Friday night, too, but Claire won't take a bottle, so I can't leave her for more than 2 1/2 hours. The stinker. But its always neat to be in the temple with family. After that we got back in the car and went straight to the church for the reception. Also a fun time. Yana made a beautiful bride, and she and her new husband Damon are happy.

Finally at 9:00 on Saturday night we got home. And its so good to be home. We had a really great time seeing everyone and visiting. We wish we weren't so far away and could visit more often. So there you have a very long summary of our trip. I may post some pictures later.