Kelsey and Dane: Summer FUN!

Alrighty so the last month or so has been quit eventful! we have had so much fun and i have been to sick to update our adventures so here we go.......

4th of JULY

we had a Great holiday weekend filled with camping with friends and ending it with Boise fireworks down at the park with the big Nelson clan!

we went camping, like legit camping! we had our tent that we got for our wedding that barley fit our air mattress in which by the way had a slow leak in it, but no worries because we only paid $5 for it at a yard sale! so needless to say i slept great cuz Dane went to the bottom and kept my side filled up! :)

Here is our group, friends for life

Here are the boys

and then the girls

we played all afternoon down at McCall beach and later cooled down with some yummy

ice cream alley

the boys of course had to bring up monopoly credit card style...their games get pretty intense

it was such a fun trip! we really enjoyed the Botkins and kiddos and the Doss's and Jack and Lula so much FUN! thanks for the great memories!

the next weekend... CAMPING with the Nelson Family

So this was quit the ADVENTURE!!

we decided to head up to northern Idaho, we have never really been up there and my mom really wanted to ride our bikes along the Hiawatha trail and go to silverwood park since they didn't get a chance to go to Lagoon this year. so we were going to leave morning ish on Wednesday and didn't end up leaving til 4 in the afternoon, also previous to this my parents 10 passenger van broke down the week before so we didn't know how to fit everyone in another vehicle. so my all the kids rode in my parents truck pulling the camping trailor and Dane and i drove with 3 other kids to pull the trailer with everyones bikes in it!! which our car did fabulous! so we didn't get to our campsite til about 3:30 AM and since the RV park was dark and quiet and everyone was sleeping we ended up staying at a near by gas station parking lot...and Dane and i slept in the car..which wasn't too bad! so great start off!! well Thursday we didn't have a whole lot of energy and ended up laying around and playing in the creek next to our site...and of course my mother had to take Austins place and start the water fight! Olivia was NOT very happy about this event becuase she had a broken ankle (but we didn't know at this time it was broken we just thought she was milking the sprain for all it was worth) poor girl. well Hyrum got all comfy on his little chair in the water and some how (probably Spencer had something to do with this) his chair slipped from under him and he got all wet. it was the funniest thing i've ever seen! He was so upset, to make the picture better he was wearing swim shorts that probably could of fit little porter and he is 2 1/2 hahaha :)

Friday we take our time getting up and getting ready. it takes awhile getting 12 people ready to go on a long bike ride. so by 2 in the afternoon we head out to the Hiawatha trail. Which is a old railroad trail that used to be the only and first train that went to Chicago, they since have torn up all the tracks and left the gravel to ride on, the cool thing is there are lots of mile long tunnels that you need head lights for. the lady at the beginning said that if we make it to this certain tunnel that we would only be going 14 miles round trip, so that we didn't have to pay the extra $80 to ride a bus back to the top and she said "it's only like a 2% incline so you'll be fine" YEAH RIGHT!! so we went to the half point taking lots of little breaks and enjoying the scenery. Dane and i took up a tandem bike which was lots of fun on the way down, but as we got the the half way point and started going back it was defiantly NOT only a 2% incline!! when we finally got back with ache legs we clocked the miles on the way back and one way was 11.2 miles! our 14 mile ride turned into a 22 mile ride with my mom pulling a trailor of 2 kids and food, dad pulling hyrum on his bike with a rope on the way back and Dane and i trying to ride a tandem bike up hill! haha it was a memory i will never forget

here of course are the boys showing off their muscles from the bike trip!

Saturday we went to Silverwood park and it was fun, we split up and did what we all wanted to do! we have pizza for dinner at a magic show, porter fell asleep (at the time he is obsessed with the movie cars) and at the end of the night they had a real live size animated mator at one of the booths that talked, it was the funniest thing to try and wake him up from a deep sleep to a talking mator which we were sure glad we did because that's all he can talk about, and we rode the train until the park closed!!

Sunday we started our LONG drive home, and got to stop and see a lady that my dad taught on his mission that now lived in Coeurd'lane. i have lots more pictures to post later but it was a trip that i will never forget and it sure was an adventure, but how can it not be an adventure with 10 kids!! miss you Aussie we love you!

the next weekend..... we got to be counselors at Boise Youth Spectacular

BYS as we call it was a experience i will never forget! i always loved going to BYS and EFY's growing up and the last 3 years i have had the joy to be a counselor. This year will probably be our last year doing it and we couldn't have ended it better. It was the best year i have ever been to, the speaker were amazing and our kids were so great!

we had Michael McClain come and he gave the most wonderful talk ever the power and the spirit was so strong you just hope that all of the kids are feeling whats going on. there was GREAT speakers from couple different seminary teachers, John Bytheway, the talent show, concert by Eclipse, fun activities in the park on a HOT day :), and there was lots more but it was a great experience and having siblings and lots of people that feel like my siblings i just hope they had a great experience and enjoyed and took advantage of the wonderful opportunity.

here are the pretty girls

the boys

and the group being funny :)

thanks to all our kids in our group for making this year so special!

then we had.... DANERS BIRTHDAY!!!

which if you know Dane he loves his birthday and it truns into a 2-3 week event! which is always fun and filled with family and friends that love him! so since i haven't been feeling very great it was alot of energy to put things together, so on his birthday day i tried to make him a football cake, but when i went to take it out of the pan it cumbled so he got bsu colored cupcakes that didn't really turn out either oh well... i blame it on the sickness :)

Dane hates Katchup like HATES it, so spencer thought it was funny to wrap

up a big bottle for his birthday! but my parents got him a cool ice cream maker that takes no effort!!

funny story i forgot candels and my mom for got to bring some

so dane got to blow out matches

the Holdaways took us to the lake on their nice boat! Dane has been asking to go all summer and we surprised him and just showed up to take him! he was so excited!