We got a Puppy!

Zac loves dogs, did you know?  He's been secretly visiting the pound for months looking for a dog to bring home.  He started taking me and the kids.  I hated the pound.  It was stinky, the dogs and cats looked sad and I just feel so overwhelmed with the kids, I didn't want another living thing to take care of.

Then one day I decided to go to a bridal shower on the wrong side of town.  Zac and the kids dropped me off and went to the pound and became attached to all the dogs.  The first one they wanted was a big white one that looked so mean!  I said absolutely not and everyone cried and bawled and thought I was the meanest ever.

Next was a litter of puppies that were part German Shepherd and the rest mystery.  They were all in love with Zac.  I again, heartlessly said no way and we all went home and everyone cried some more.  I was not giving in because I knew that the kids would not help take care of him.  Zac got serious and said he really wanted one of the puppies and I just love him too much so off we went.  

We brought back this little tiny black dog named T-dog and he quickly became a giant dog named Scout.  The kids have learned to help with feeding and walking him and cleaning up lots of poop.  Dad has been the hero and has been training him.  He is so smart and learning fast.

First Days of School

The first day of school is always exciting.  Teagan is in 6th grade, Eloise in 2nd, Addy started Kindergarten and poor Everly has a long way to go before she even starts preschool.  She still has Addy most of time this year, but I'm afraid next year (and for 3 more after that) we will have a very lonely youngest child.

We lived by Jamaica braids all summer long.  I would spend a couple hours braiding in the evening while we watched movies and then we'd leave them in for several weeks and not have to worry about fixing hair (yay!).  It is so perfect for swimming and camping and just simplifies summer so much.  The girls begged to leave them in for the first day of school and I let them, against my better judgement.  They were definitely getting old and frizzy.  

Teagan grew his hair long all summer and also begged to leave it long for the first day of school to see if people recognized him.  So they had their first day fun and came home and Teagan got a hair cut and we took out the girls' braids, hence the 2nd day of school picture.

Addy was not a fan of the poofy hair and definitely wasn't interested in having a picture taken when her hair wasn't "beautiful."

Ashtyn Davis, Landon Phelps, Teagan, Aspen Bunce

Teagan has the best friend group ever!  Such amazing kids who are all so kind to each other.  They also love to have fun and goof off.  Sometimes they hurt each other's feelings, inadvertently, and apologies must be made, but they always come back and are friends in the end.  I have a feeling that these friendships are going to last for a long time.

Wolverine Canyon Packer Reunion

This reunion will go down in history as perhaps the most fun reunion of all time.  The sleeping arrangements were amazing for some and awful for others so we won't be going back unfortunately, but we loved it while we were there.  There was a massive cabin with plenty of gathering space including a whole kids area complete with a pool table and closets full of toys.  There was also a movie theater room and a movie theater style popcorn popper.  We went through SOO much popcorn and it was the best.

On the outside there was a massive lake with paddle boats, a canoe, diving board and water slide, grassy areas for corn hole and 9 square, plenty of shade and a hot tub.  We used that hot tub and used it until the water looked disgusting.  These kids LOVED it!

Morris, Me, Everly

Everly, Alfred

Everly, Leo

Morris, Everly, and Alfred all matched the last day and it was too cute to even handle.  It wasn't even on purpose at first but we had to attempt about 4,000 pictures and unfortunately, Everly ruined every single one, the little turkey.  We just had to enjoy looking at them in real life and try to commit the cuteness overload into our memories.

Mom, Kate, Eloise

Grandma Packer made us all matching t-shirts for the reunion that were so fun!  It was a design of all of our names in the shape of a wolverine.  

We each took a meal and that was super delicious and nice to not have to stress about each meal.  We played Julie and Jeff's fun pool game for hours and hours and got pretty good at it.  We found a snake in the basement and a ton outside so that was a little sketchy.  I killed about 100 wasps in the sand area and felt like I killed enough to make a difference in the world.  

Zac enjoyed pool, 9 square, corn hole, frisbee golf and especially shooting skeet.  He wowed everyone with his impressive shot and enjoyed trying out all the different types of guns.

I loved kayaking and paddle boarding on the lake, corn hole, pool, visiting,  hiking to 40 horse cave and our late night game of throwing the ball to each other while calling out that person's new nickname.  I don't even know how this game got started, but there were just 2 or three of us.  By the end, everyone in the family was there tossing the ball and giving the most ridiculous names to each other.  Sometimes the most simple things are the most fun.

Teagan spent ALL day and into the night in the water every day.  He would wear out his cousins one by one and then convince the next one to come swimming with him.  That is the great thing about having tons of cousins your age when you have as much energy as Teagan, you never run out of playmates!

Eloise didn't spend much time in the lake unless it was in the boats.  She loved the hot tubs and loved running around with Lily and Adeline.  Those girls disappeared into the play area for hours at a time and had so much fun!

Adeline loved the water, especially the hot tub!  She spent most of the weekend swimming around in the water and playing with whoever else was there.  She played with Ty a lot and joined in on any fun she could find.

Everly was Everly.  She loved special attention from mom and dad and being held and wasn't as excited about new places, new people and a new bed.  She didn't really sleep at all the first night and we considered going home and sleeping there.  Zac ended up taking her to the workout room so that she would wake everybody up at 5 in the morning.  It was awful.  We were exhausted.  By the second and third nights we perfected the sleeping arrangements and were able to enjoy ourselves much more fully.  

It was a great trip and we loved it!

THE Green Chair Prank War

It all started when Zac and I were out on a date and the Davis family was having a garage sale.  They were selling their old green recliner chair and it had gotten to the end of the day and they decided to give it to Teagan.  They even helped deliver it to his bedrToom.  The first we heard of it was a picture Teagan sent while we were out, "look at my new chair!"  

The next day we decided to give it back...but in a creative way.  Grandpa Durtschi brought over his forklift and we went ahead and set it up on their roof.

The Heath's put a chair on our porch too so we put it back on their roof for good measure.

When the Davis' got home Zac climbed up and helped Burke heave it off the roof and together they took it over to the Ivins and put it on their trailer.  

It's next home was chained up to a post on our front porch.  Zac had to saw the chain off eventually and while the Davis' were gone he put it back in their basement.  They didn't even notice it for a couple weeks.  It is still there and incredibly intact after being thrown off a roof and a camper and sitting through wind, sun and rain.  Fun times!

Daniels Family Reunion

Bear Lake is a highlight every single summer that we all look forward to so much!  This year we packed the car so tight and we were bursting at the seams.  We stopped and had so much fun swimming at Lava Hot Springs on the way down and had a blast.

The house we stayed at was so fun!  There was a swing set and big slide and a horse shoe pit in the backyard with the most glorious view of the lake!  The kids loved spending time back there.

By the end of the weekend I had all the little girls in French braids so I had to take a picture of the cuteness overload.  I sure love these cute little chicas!

I love being in the water so much and had a fun adventure with the four littlest Daniels kids.  We all piled into my dad's canoe and just floated around using tiny sand shovels as our paddles.  It was a ton of fun.  We also brought 9 square and set it up in the water.  It was a huge hit.  We didn't have enough people in our group so we recruited some people that were camped out next to us to play and it was so fun.  The Heaths happened to be there the same day and they came and played too.  It was so much fun!

After a full day at the beach Grandpa rented a boat and we went out on the lake.  I can't find all the pictures unfortunately, but there are videos so we will have to wait for those to come out on our annual home video.   I know that Teagan and Taylin went together and Taylin looked like she was going to die of fright and Teagan laughed the whole time when he wasn't trying to give us messages from Taylin like "slow down" and "stop,"  On the boat we all laughed and thought it was hilarious.

Sheena and I went and Adam gave us a run for our money whipping us around the corners.  We went for a long time and almost fell off multiple times, but we stayed strong and had to finally quit when our arms died.  It was so much fun!

I know we tried to get the girls on there, but I honestly can't remember if we succeeded.  We will have to check the video footage to be sure!

Grandma and Grandpa brought their side by side and Zac and Jesse had a great time on their wild ride.  Teagan begged to drive it 24/7 and loved giving people rides.

We also had fun playing pickle ball and tennis and swimming at the pools.  It's always a fun time with the Daniels family!

On the way home we made a fateful decision that taught our family a lesson we will never forget.  We decided to skip church (we always go on our way home) and go on a hike up to Bloomington Lake instead.  It was supposed to be super beautiful.  The rest of the family was following us and one by one they decided to turn around because the road was getting really narrow and super rocky and uneven.  Kurt and Shelly had a trailer and Adam was in his new car.  We decided to keep going on our own and suddenly our car was over heating.

It was a tiny mountain road so Zac did his best to pull over to make room for other vehicles to pass by.  He opened the hood and we stared blankly at the engine.  Zac luckily knows more than I do about cars.  He decided it was the radiator so we hiked down to the creek below the road.  The kids thought it was super fun and enjoyed adventuring in the woods while Zac got some water to pour in the engine.  He did it several times and we just waited for the van to cool off.  So many people stopped and offered help, there was no cell service, so it was nice that we weren't alone up there.

After a while Zac put in a little more water and Teagan noticed a little leaky spot clear in the back of the engine in a totally different place than where Zac was adding water.  Zac didn't think much of it at the time, but it was very important later.

We turned the van around and started heading back down the mountain.  The temperature started rising again and we realized that the van didn't overheat because it was tired, something was broken.  Zac tried to just cruise down the mountain and we barely made it and pulled into a parking lot in the fine town of Bloomington.  It was Sunday in a tiny town at least 30 minutes from anything.  They didn't even have a gas station.  We were hours from home and the kids were getting tired and cranky. We felt pretty lost and frustrated.

It was time to pray for help.  Zac said the prayer.  He said sorry for skipping church and asked for forgiveness.  He asked to guide us and help us fix the van so that we could make it home.  We all piled out of the van.  The parking lot was luckily attached to a park that we were so blessed to have.  There was running water, shade and picnic tables.  We had plenty of food from the weekend and the kids played in the water spigot with their buckets.  If we had to be stranded, we had found an ideal place to do it.

Zac opened the hood and started exploring the leak Teagan had noticed.  He realized a hose had broken and needed tools so I set off to make some new friends.  I stood at the corner and looked at 3 different houses trying to decide where to knock.  One house had a tall plant barrier around the whole perimeter that didn't look very inviting from our view, but the spirit told me that that was the house.  I knocked on the door and asked the lady for some tools.  I told her our situation and she seemed like she didn't know anything about cars and handed me a little kitchen tool box.

Zac worked and removed the broken part.  When he returned the tools she asked more questions and said, "well, my husband will be home from meetings soon, he is a mechanic, maybe he could take a look."  Praises!!  We couldn't believe it.

He arrived and hesitantly came over, but when he discovered that we were from Idaho, not Utah (haha), and Zac had already isolated the problem and just needed the name of the part to ask the parts store, he was so helpful.  They called over to Montpelier and they happened to have the exact part we needed in stock.  Our new friend drove Zac all the way there, Zac bought the part, they had it installed in a matter of 20 minutes and just like that we were back on the road headed home.

We felt so blessed.  We learned such an important lesson as a family and even though we all wondered why all the other people traveling and not going to church on Sunday weren't having car issues, we knew that we were supposed to be at church.  It was amazing to see all of the blessings after we repented.  A mechanic across the street?  We were broken down at a park?  They had our random part in stock?  It really was a miracle.  Now we will remember our adventures and blessings every time we pass Bloomington on our way to Bear Lake, and you can bet that we will stop and go church on our way home from now on!

Lava Hot Springs Camping

We went camping with the Lewis and Kauffman cousins and had such a blast!  We settled on Lava Hot Springs which was a nice middle meeting place for all of us for a weekend.

Getting to our various camping spots is always an adventure, not a fun one in my opinion.  We can handle no AC and being cramped just fine, but it stresses me out to no end wondering if our truck will make it up the next hill.  By the time we got off the freeway and headed East towards Lava, Zac was flooring the truck and we were barely hitting 45 mph going up the hills.  We need a new truck, but we are going to try to make it one more summer with this truck so we can get our student loan taken care of first.  Fervent prayers are said before we leave and after we arrive to each destination.

We spent one day at Lava Hot Springs water park and all the kids loved it so much.  Everly caught a quick nap with dad and loved the water.  Adeline enjoyed the waterslide and splash pool.  Eloise went off the diving boards over and over again.  Teagan covered every square inch of the whole place multiple times, but he spent most of his time trying to convince people to jump off the platforms with him.  He got Uncle Jeff to go off the middle platform with him.              

At the campsite we had a fantastic little corner and set up 9- square and chatted and ate and played.  The best part was the river going right past our campground.  The kids would ride the kayaks down the river to the end of the campground (over 3 mini waterfalls!) and then carry them back up to our spot.  It was so fun and a little scary.  Shoes were lost, boats were tipped and hysterical laughter was bountiful.  

We will definitely be going back every year, it was an awesome adventure for all of us!

The Year of Vision

I have been working so hard on vision therapy all year.  I started in August of 2018 and I'm still going strong.  The more I learn, the more I am aware of my kids and their vision.  Just to be sure I took all four kids in to see eye doctors.  All three girls checked out great and seem to have excellent 20/20 vision for now.  

Teagan wasn't quite as lucky.  His vision was 20/20, but he was seeing some double.  He had mentioned a few times that the words on the pages of his books would move around and switch places when he was reading.  He would blink and shake his head and it would make the words move back in place.  

We got him in at my eye Doctor, Dr. Dan, and he got some glasses and did 16 weeks of vision therapy.  He became a pro at crossing his eyes and he said it made it way easer to read books and music.  Now his poor spelling makes sense, he was seeing the word as a whole, but the individual letters would move around.  Now the words stay put, but we just have to reteach him those basic spelling skills.  Way to go Bud! 

Hopefully, 2020 will be the year that I join the kids and finally see 2020 (well technically I'm going for way better than just 2020!).