Change in callings

So, the day before we left on our family vacation I got another new calling. I'd only been the Laurel advisor in our ward for about a month when the President, my friend Amanda, and her family, decided to move to Utah. I'll miss you Amanda. So, we all knew a change was in the works, lots of speculation was flying around.

So, I guessed right on the new YW President, it was my friend Elli. They released us all and moved people around in the presidency and replaced a few sisters. So, I am now the new 1st Counselor in YW. I guess that means I'm the counselor over the Mia Maids. We just got back a few days ago, and I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I haven't even looked through my new binders or anything and we have an activity tonight (stake planned though, so that's nice). Sorry Elli, I'm not starting out that great am I, although I did agree to have our meeting here tomorrow night, that should count for something, right.

We also have four sisters that I don't know very well on the new board, so that should be interesting and fun to get to know them. I'm sure I'll learn a lot and grow tremendously through this calling. I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed (I'm not sure if that is the right word) with some of the things that the Bishop said when he set me apart, but I'm working with some great girls and great ladies, so it will be fun.

Green Reunion

The weekend I came home from my parents house we had a family reunion with my mom's family. My grandma turned 92 this year and she has 10 kids, who all came. So, from those 10 kids I have lots of cousins, who have lots of kids. I think someone said there were close to 90 people there. It was good to see everyone. I don't make it to these reunions every time. They are every couple of years. My Kunz family reunion was the next weekend, but we missed that because we were getting ready for our family vacation (I haven't mentioned that yet, but I'll get around to it). Anyhoo, here are some pictures, hopefully I'll remember everyone's names and who they belong to.

These are 3 of my mom's brothers: Greg, Eric, and Thayne. I think Eric is holding my cousin Karin's baby.

 

This is my cousin Damon's daughter (I can't remember her name right now) and my cousin MaryKate's daughter Lilianna.

My cousin Melissa's twins Jenna and Chloe and another of MaryKate's daughter Sophia.

My brother's David and Kaleb getting a little chummy during the talent show Saturday night.

Kennedy with her cousins Josh and Kyle. They spent a lot of time hanging out Saturday.

Here are just some fun candids of my kids and my sisters kids with a few cousins mixed in. The picture of Carter with his tongue touching his nose was a contest. It's something that most of the Green family can do, must be some sort of genetic trait or something.

Yellowstone

I decided to be brave and take my kids through Yellowstone National Park while we were at my parents. So, Wednesday we took off at about 8 a.m. My mom came with me (Yeah!!) and we brought along my nephew Josh. Ryan was a little bummed because Dyllan couldn't come. He had to work with his dad that day.

It's almost a two hour drive to West Yellowstone, Montana and then we took about 8 hours to drive around the lower loop of the park and then another two hours home.

I had both my small pocket sized digital camera and Chris' nice Canon camera, so I gave Ryan and Kennedy both cameras and told them to go for it. As a result 202 pictures were taken of our drive through Yellowstone. Here they all are ... JK, I'll just post a few, but the kids had a great time taking pictures.

We saw everything we wanted to see except for a bear. My cousin Holly is a librarian in a library in Mammoth on the Northern loop, she told us that she has seen a lot of bears this summers, but us, not a one. Lots of bison, deer, elk and a few coyotes. Would have loved to have seen a bear though. Boo.

Here are some pictures of our long, fun day.

A quick look at the participants, excluding my mother and myself.

And now for some great scenery...

Just some random shots of hot pools and mud pots with a cool mountain and a bison mixed in. The thing about the hot pools and pots is that they definitely smell like sulfur.

More shots of hot pools and Ryan by the lake. The shot in the lower right corner is a geyser in the lake behind Ryan. I've seen it bubble before, just not while we were there.

Old Faithful. Need I say more. The kids posed in front of it when it started to settle down. The lodge is behind us and they had a nice cafeteria in it. You can get all sorts of different things to eat, which was nice with four kids and two adults.

Some close ups of some really deep, blue pools by the lake. And a few of a waterfall towards the end of our trip and a shot away from the waterfall. It's great to see how the trees have started coming back after the fire in 1988. I remember the smoke and ash coming to Teton Valley and going through the park in 1994  and 1997 with Chris and seeing the burnt trees. Definitely much greener now.

Pictures of the animals we saw. Coyotes (we saw two), bison (saw a lot), a lot of deer and elk and the boys (definitely animals). We also saw a moose near Island Park, but I couldn't slow down fast enough to take pictures of it.

Bar J fun

On Monday, the 7th my parents and I took the kids to a place called the Bar J. It's a place near Teton Village, Wyoming (where I worked in high school, the town, not the Bar J). They serve BBQ chuckwagon style like when they used to go on cattle drives. Then after dinner they have a show. Five wranglers get on stage and sing and tell jokes for about an hour and a half. Before dinner you can look around and go on a train ride (a very small train). It was fun, I had never been. The older kids have gone with my parents before, so it wasn't new to them.

This picture and the one below were from the train ride. They also had a moose in a pond that I didn't get a picture of and a grizzly going after a couple of traders. Definitely interesting.

 

My kids and my parents. The fun thing about being behind the camera is that no pictures are ever taken of you.

I tried to take some of the stage, but the lighting was really low and they turned out terrible. I didn't have Chris' fancy camera with me that night, so I couldn't take them.

Blessing Lily

On Saturday, July 5th we headed down to Logan to bless my brother Kaleb's daughter Lily. Whenever we get together as a family, things get kind of wild. After Sacrament Meeting, we headed to the club house at his town house to have lunch and hang out. We added the last few cousins, Case and Tallin to the mix and the fun began.

Carter holding Lily with Kaleb sitting right there helping out.

Kennedy, who was the only girl cousin, holding Lily.

Ryan holding Lily after her blessing.

My parents Mike and Marcia with all of their grandkids. From the left: Josh, Ryan, Dyllan, Kennedy, Tallin, Lily (held by my mom), Case, Brandon and Carter.

Grandpa Mike posing with the kids. Kennedy leaned out of the pictures, but her hand made it in.

My kids with their Great-grandma Davida.

My dad and Brandon doing their belly dance. Sorry dad, I couldn't resist.

My dad and Carter hanging out. Right before I took this picture Carter was actually smiling.

The grass fight that ensued after lunch. Uncle Tim was like a big kid and got right in on the action. The little kids had a great time.

Boating at the lake

My sister Jenny and her husband Tim have a boat. We spent the night before the 4th of July at Palisades Reservoir. The kids had a great time tubing and then we roasted hot dogs around a fire and ate chips and made s'mores. We all had a great time, especially the kids.

It's fun because Jenny's kids are around my kids ages. Dyllan is about 18 months older that Ryan, Josh is about 6 months older than Kennedy and Brandon is about 5 months older that Carter.

Just a picture of the boat with my mom and sister after we found a place on shore to hang out.

My sister Jenny on the way across the lake. She's going to love this.

The six kids. Kennedy and Josh are the farthest out. Brandon is between Ryan and Dyllan. And Carter is to the right.

Carter and Brand seeing how far they dared to go out into the lake.

Tim, Josh and Kennedy around the fire.

My mom taking pictures of everyone at the lake.

On the road again, I can't wait to get on the road again

If I had music on my blog, it'd definitely be playing Willie Nelson right now. The kids and I just got back from 11 nights on the road. All but one were spent in Cedron at my parents house, but that doesn't mean that we weren't on the road for a good part of the time we were gone. It was a lot of fun though, the kids only came home with me because they missed their dad so much. Carter started bawling when we were leaving because he wanted to stay longer.

I'm going to separate things into different posts, there are alot of pictures, and I'm going to post a bunch because my parents like to look at them, which reminds me, Mom, send me the pictures of that lake in Yellowstone that I didn't get because my batteries died in my cameras. Thanks.

My parents raise hay and grain on about 100 acres of land. Growing up we also raised potatoes, had sheep and dairy cows. I have a lot of good memories of that time, even though I felt like I worked really hard. It's good to take my kids back there and they get to experience a bit of what I did. They moved pipe (which I don't have any pictures of) and other things.

Here is the grainery where they store the grain from the harvest before it gets picked up by semi's.

Carter and his cousin Brandon on the swather with my dad while cutting hay. I think this is the first summer that Carter has been around to cut hay and bale it with my dad. He had a great time, they got to be pretty great buddies while we were there.

Aspens in my mom's front yard. I could only wish for a yard this big where we live. Lots of room for the kids to play. My brother David, his wife Rachel and Carter were hitting golf balls into the pasture in front of the house before we left. Lots of fun.

We were able to go on 4-wheeler rides every day that we were there. The kids could ride it to my Grandma Ruby's every day to see her. Just get on and drive through the field and there they were. No highways to drive on. We also used them to go to the garden. My parents and my sister Jenny plant a garden behind my Grandma's house. It's huge. A lot bigger than I would ever plant here. They have potatoes, raspberries, strawberries, onions, lettuce, peas, beans, squash, zucchini and carrots. I spent some time weeding and picking strawberries. Definitely sweeter fruit than you can get at Costco.

I took a slip-n-slide with us. Carter and Brandon spent a lot of time playing on it before the older kids destroyed it. They would play in the water for awhile and then swing to get dry.

And Ryan, Kennedy and I mowed the yard for my mom. Definitely took a little bit more time than mowing my yard at home. Good exercise, right??

Happy birthday Sis

Yes, that is really what we call her. Every since Kennedy was a baby, she's always been Sissy or Sis at our house. Every once in awhile I call her Ken, but mostly it's Sis. Actually, all our kids have names we call them, but that could be a whole new post, so I'll keep it short. When Chris and I talk about the kids with each other, this is how we refer to them: Ryan has always been "The Boy"; Kennedy has always been "The Girl"; and Carter has always been "The Kid". I'm not sure what we would do if we had anymore kids.

On to the birthday. She had a friends party the night before they got out of school. Megan and Kelsey came to hang out. We had pizza, watched a movie and made vinyl signs for the girls to take home. They also had a great time with the cake and were very crazy as you can see by the pictures.

So, here they are looking all innocent. It's an act. Really, it is.

I made this "beautiful" cake for the girls to eat. And check out below what they did !!

 

They all had fun, but only Megan came away unscathed from the cake incident.

On her actually birthday on July 1st we had a family party for her. Her grandparents that live here, Pete and Polly came by and then we took her to her favorite Mexican place for dinner, then Chris took the kids miniature golfing at Boondocks while I packed for our trip. I think we ended up having cake and ice cream at about 10:30 that night.