Family Vacation to UTAH

Wednesday, July 16th 

Dan and I took the kids to the Salt Lake Temple today. We love it there!!! The Salt Lake temple has such a special meaning to us because of its rich history and it also happens to be the temple where Dan and I were married 10 years ago.

We spent about 7 hours there with the kids touring the conference center, the visitor centers, and temple square. We also watched the Joseph Smith movie as a family.

It was fun to watch the kids enjoy it. They each were given a disposable camera before the trip began and each of them kept posing and snapping pictures of everything they thought was cool. Most of their pictures were of the temple grounds and the beautiful fountains and statues.

This experience with the kids was priceless!! Many times throughout the day the kids made beautiful comments and remarks about what they were seeing and how it touched their hearts. I can tell that the time we spent together today on temple square has helped strengthen each family members testimony of the Savior and his gospel. We loved the time spent there!

After Temple Square we took the kids to dinner at the Mayan.

This is a fun themed restaurant with a big waterfall and pool inside the restaurant. Every 20 minutes divers come out to perform a little show for all of us. They are diving from 2-3 stories high and it is quite fun to watch.

Thursday, July 17th

The next day we started out at Thanksgiving Point near Lehi. They have a farm there for kids and families to enjoy horses, cows, goats, chickens, rabbits, and more. They have pony rides and a wagon ride which the kids enjoyed.

From here we went back up to Salt Lake to the Gateway Mall where they have a huge children's museum. That was a ton of fun and took hours and hours before we finally called it a day.

Next it was off to a park for a family picnic and some games. And then we retired for the day.

Friday July, 18th

Friday was the official beginning of the Ostler Reunion. F.U.N. was the theme of the reunion standing for Families United in Numbers. The entire Ostler extended family met at 7 peaks water park for a day of fun in the sun. I thought it might be a chore to handle our 18 month old (Hudson), but to my surprise he was a happy and cooperative kid all day. He enjoyed the slides, the water, the tubes, and all the fun.

This was a really cool park. If I lived in that area I would totally get a membership to the park and take the family often.

After the water park, we all changed into white shirts and denim pants. We met up with all the family at a park for pictures. Here was the “family picture fest”. Nearly 70 of us posing for pics. It went pretty well, all things considered.

One of the funnier moments of all the evening was when Grandma and Grandpa were posing in a picture with their 6 living children behind them. After a few serious picture were taken, Scott pulls out some sunglasses and puts them on Grandma. As if that wasn’t funny enough, she started dancing around and hamming it up. She was spunky and spontaneous and thanks to that moment some of us had a side ache after laughing so hard.

Saturday, July 19th

The next morning we started out at Aunt Nadine's graveside for a Family Home Evening of sorts. All extended family met there and gathered around the grave as we had a memorial service for Nadine and a message about the plan of salvation along with songs and testimonies.

It was a beautiful gathering and the spirit was felt strongly.

We separated from the graveside to get lunch and meet at the park for an afternoon of fun.

Upon meeting at Rock Canyon Park in Provo the party began.

It was blazing HOT!!! But we were determined to have fun regardless. The family had previously arranged for each family to chose a family color and make a t-shirt in that color for each member of our family. We chose yellow. Each person had a number corresponding to when they came into the family. That number was printed on their t-shirt. Example, Lee as the oldest in the family was #1. Dan was number #8, I came into the family at #44, and our kids had numbers as well. It was a site to see. All the families in matching colored T-shirts with numbers 1-73 on the backs of them. Hence the reunion theme... Family United in Numbers (F.U.N.)

We played games, ice blocked down a hill, BBQ food for dinner, and all sorts of laid back interaction.

Tons of fun.

By the time we got home that night we were exausted.

Sunday, July 20th

We spent Sunday with the Justensen family. They served missions with Dan. We had a tour of their beautiful new home, had dinner and let our kids play. It was great catching up with our old friends. Monday morning we hit the road and headed back home. Everyone in the family loved our trip to Utah.

We're Going for #6

Yes, it's true, I'm pregnant! 

That's right, you are looking at the very stick I peed on. Exciting huh? 

I was pregnant earlier this year but ended up miscarrying at 10-12 weeks. That was a sad moment for us and required a couple of months to heal physically before being able to try again. 

I am very happy and excited to be pregnant again but if I am being honest, I have quite a bit of worry and uneasiness that has left me unsettled. I am nervous that I will get my hopes up again and them feel the disappointment that we went through with the last pregnancy. I am looking forward to the appointments when I can hear the heartbeat and have the doctors re-assure me that I have a healthy growing baby inside of me. 

Dan is a great support and is always reassuring me that everything will be ok. I'm trying to think positive : ) We are really anxious to add a 6th child to the family. I have my first doctor's appointment on Tuesday, August 5th  so wish me good luck! 

JACKPOT! We finally have bunnies.

After having nothing but bad luck with our rabbit breeding we have finally found success! Yahoo! 5 NEW BABY BUNNIES!

We all know the story about how rabbits multiply like no other species on the planet. Well, I was beginning to wonder what was wrong with our rabbits because they were anything but "baby making machines". We have been working long and hard to get some bunnies out of these furry creatures but to no avail.

The first time we tried breading our rabbit, she had 4 bunnies that all died instantly, and then 2 days later the mom died. Way Sad :( 

We bought a new momma rabbit and tried getting her pregnant. She had 5 babies. 

All born dead :(

By this point the kids were getting sad. When we would breed the mom the kids would mark it on the calendar and count down the days until the bunnies would be born. Then no bunnies. Pretty disappointing for little kids. 

I thought maybe 3rd times a charm. So I bred the bunny without telling the kids.  I didn't want them to have to deal with more dead bunnies. I took extra special care of the mom all month. Checking on her a couple times a day, keeping her cool and moving her into the garage the week before she had them. 

Well, the extra TLC worked because last night she gave birth to 8 baby bunnies. 

3 were born dead. They were very small and not all the way developed. 

BUT 5 BUNNIES ARE ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!

We have 3 solid brown bunnies

and 2 broken/spotted bunnies.

These are Alaina's favorites. She has already named them.

Angel and Pinkerton :)

Happy Birthday to ME!!

That's right, I turned 31 today. I had a great day, full of Dan and the kids spoiling me. The kids made breakfast for me this morning along with a million handmade cards and a few gifts. They showered me with love, and I enjoyed it. 

My parents came over with their truck bed loaded to the brim with plants, bushes, rocks, hanging flower baskets, and a tree. As a birthday gift they landscaped a little spot in front of my house. It has been vacant, bare, and blah for the last 2 years due to, time, money and simply just not knowing what to do with it. They spent about 4 hours digging, hauling, planting, and beautifying my front flower bed. It turned out great! Thanks Mom and Dad.  

Dan took me out for a date tonight. (Which is Tuesday) I love middle of the week date nights!! We went with a couple of friends to PF Chang's for dinner and then a movie. 

My girlfriends from the Ridgeview Ward are taking me to lunch on Thursday. 

Should be lots of fun : )

Thanks to everyone for making my birthday special. I loved all the calls, cards, gifts, and visits!  

No TV! Please go outside and use your imagination...

So I turned off the TV and told the kids it was time to stop frying their brain 

and to go outside and use their imagination. 

When I went out to check on them later, they were having a blast! 

This is what they looked like. 

It's amazing what you can do with a few hats, a hockey stick, a tutu, 

a library book, a broom, a dog, a ball, and a toy telescope.

Outdoor Movie Theater

The kids have been super helpful today. I really appreciate how hard all the kids worked to get our Saturday chores done. We had a ton of them! (Mowing the lawn, pulling weeds, washing windows, fixing sprinklers, taking care of animals, cleaning out the garage, and all of our normal indoor chores) The best part was that they did them without complaining! 

So, we decided to do something fun for them, at the end of the day, in return! 

While the kids were taking showers and getting ready for bed tonight, Dan and I went out in the backyard to set up a little surprise for them. It was about 9:00pm so the kids were assuming that once they had their p.j.'s on it would be time for scriptures and then off to bed. Instead we walked them out to the backyard to show them where they would be sleeping for the night. 

They saw sleeping bags and popcorn set out on the trampoline, and Dan rigged up the movie projector to play on a sheet that we had pined to the side of our house. They were way excited to have their very own outdoor movie theater and loved being able to sleep out under the stars. Tons of fun!!

Happy 4th of July!

First off, let me put my patriotic plug in here. I am glad to be an American. This land of the free is taken for granted way to often and I thought I would take just a quick second to express my love and appreciation to God, active soldiers, veterans of all military forces, as well as our founding fathers. I am grateful we can live, work, worship, and enjoy life, in this free and prosperous country of ours. GOD BLESS AMERICA!!

Our family had a great 4th of July!

We took the kids out to Fish Hook, which is a little spot on the snake river about 30 minutes out of town. We met up with about 12 other families for some boating, swimming and picnicking. This is a great place for kids because they have a shallow roped off swimming area. A group would go out boating while the rest of the people on shore enjoyed splashing around in the water. The kids loved throwing mud at each other, jumping off the docks, and floating around on inner tubes. 

After our day at the river we packed up and headed back into town. 

On our way home we made a quick stop in Burbank to grab some fun family fireworks (and a few illegal ones to insure the night really would be fun).

After loading up on explosives, it was off to Grandpa Ostler's (who live next to Grandpa Rose so both families meet in the culdesac) for the traditional "eat more junk than you should, and see what we can blow up" Fourth of July festivities. 

I joke here, sort of. While we usually do eat more food than should be consumed in a month, we don't actually try to "blow things up". Really the goal is to see if we can make it all night without sending anyone, of any age, to the hospital with any worse than a 1st degree burn. We have had pretty good luck with this goal over the years which has made for some good memories each Fourth of July with close family on both sides of the culdesac. 

The second goal we have with each of these firework escapades, is that we try not to set the vacant lot next to the house on fire. We succeed at this most of the time. But this year, Dan's brother tested his luck by allowing about a 2 foot diameter patch of weeds start to blaze. 

NOTE TO DAVID - Hold the roman candle up and away from the dry brush next time. The "down and directly pointing at it pose didn't work, dude!!  

Here's Hailey demonstrating the correct way to hold a roman candle.

Thanks to Dans size 13 and some great foot work, no fire trucks were needed. 

However, Speaking of fire trucks...

After getting home for the evening and putting kids to bed, I went to the couch with a book. Dan grabbed one too and we settled back for a while. At 11:30pm Dan looked out the window and with a bolt came flying out of his seat shouting about a house on fire across the street. 

He grabbed his shoes and went screaming down the street while I called 911. 

With flames jumping higher than the roof tops we thought the worst for these neighbors, it looked like the whole front of their house and roof were a blaze, but as we rounded the corner we discovered the flames were actually at the street and not coming from the house. 

It took the firemen about 15mins to put out the fire.

Turns out a kid was shooting fireworks in the street and one shot under the bushes. Sucks to be that kid. FIREWORKS ILLEGAL IN KENNEWICK, and destruction of property! YIKES. 

At least the house wasn't affected. Can you imagine if it would have been.  

And that's a wrap on our exciting, fun filled 4th of July.