Mom and Dad on a mini adventure, Ezri's First Day of Kindergarten

At Paul and Lou's. The water was so high, Mom and Dad were stuck under the bridge momentarily, and had to go against the current to get back out.

Ezri started kindergarten today. She was very excited, and didn't seem nervous at all. She picked a cute outfit to wear, brushed her teeth and hair, painted her nails, and even let me put a clip in her hair. Ezri's friend, McCall is in her class, and showed up right on time to line up after Ezri.
Yesterday, she asked me, "Is today the last day of summer?" I told her yes, and she said,"Yeay!" I hope back-to-school will always be this much fun . . .

Okay, I am so excited!!! It is booked for July 22, 23 and 24th, 2012. Tha t is Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night. Those days qualified for the lower rate, and I figured Trent and Kylie could still mke the rodeo on the weekend and hopefully Buffy's family will do Henry's the weekend after that too. I hope it works for Val and Jared. There is a huge Utah tax and a cleaning fee (worth it if we don't have to clean!!) So it works out to be $100 a night for each family. I can give it as a Christmas gift (got the idea from Kylie's mom) or you can all pay me in July! I am so proud of myself for getting it done.

Madsen Family Reunion 2012

What do you all think about this for a Madsen Family Reunion next year?? We LOVE Bear Lake and it would be pretty close for all those who live around here. This cabin would be big enough and it is located in the same area where we just stayed and has access to the same outdoor swimming pool/tennis courts. That was SO fun to be able to do the beach and lake stuff and switch it up with the swimming pool.

http://www.vrbo.com/341811

On this site it says the price range per night - we would most likely go in July or Aug. which is the busiest months and the highest prices - but if everyone could come and we divided up the costs it would probably be less than we paid for our 2 bedroom condo.

This is my vote for the family reunion next year.

Here are a couple other VRBO I found but they don't have a pool but offer awesome indoor play rooms and other things.
Go to vrbo.com and search for
#112538
#216672

Bear Lake

We booked this 4 days excursion to Bear Lake about 8 months ago! We went with one of our friends families and had such a great time we will do it again next year. :) 4 days was the perfect amount of time to really feel like you are away and on vacation but not too long. Here are a bunch of pictures from the trip.
Cort and Zack playing in the condoMy sister Jenni's family came over and spent the day with us on Friday at the beach. Our friends that went with us don't have any kids Kade's age and he LOVED having his cousins Braden and Luke there to play in the water with him. We rented a jet ski for 2 hours and all took a turn riding it - it was a lot of fun.

Zack finding a little shade

The condo we stayed had a nice outdoor pool that we played in every other day, the boys LOVED that.

Rich helping Cort float on his back

Another day at the beach - here is their hot tub.

even though rich tried to hide out in the shade as much as possible - he still got sun burned.

We hiked through Minnetonka caves on Saturday morning. My sisters family hiked through the caves earlier this year and warned us to get there early because they tours get backed up pretty quickly - we got there right when they opened and made it in the first group. When we got out of the caves we heard the tours were backed up for 2 hours. They are very popular! We LOVED it - so cool. Cort was squealing and laughing all through the caves.

My brother is getting married on Saturday so all the festivities start tomorrow with an open house in Driggs. We all LOVE the girl he is marrying and are so happy for them - they are the cutest couple.

End of an era...

Other than for a brief period about 5 years ago we have always been a one car family. Last year soccer just about killed us off. Mom and Lydia would get dropped off at her game in the morning and Dad would run the other 3 kids to all there games (since he coached them all), then back at the end of the day to pick up Mom and Lydia. It was grueling. Soccer starts back up again in 1 week. This time Dad is only coaching the girls. Therefore, in order to prevent a divorce, we (meaning Dad) finally decided to break down and buy a second car. Everyone else was ready for another car years ago. Kudos to Mom for enduring this long.

2007 Hyundai Elantra, 50000 miles. I think we got a pretty good deal. As long as it lasts I'll feel good about it. I really considered another Toyota (it's been really good to us), but Edmund's rated this car above the Corolla, and JD Power gave it the same reliability ranking. It's under factory warranty for another 10,000 miles. It cost less than a Corolla, and came with a lot more features (which we'll never use): XM radio, power sun roof, and (most important to Brooke) cup holders. Rides pretty nice, quiet for a little economy car, and should get ~35 mpg on the highway.

Speaking of Brooke, here is her ward camp-out outfit (the event is in 2 weeks).


Daniel in sun glasses.

Andrew, eating (does that all the time), and wanting something (does that almost as much).

School starts next week. Mom is ecstatic.

While Trent's away we will play

I convinced my little sister that zoo's are for adults. Trent doesn't love the zoo and I love it and always have. Lady loves animals so I figured it would be a good thing for us to do since we don't have to be home to cook dinner. It was a hit! She loved it! I'm so glad, this means many more zoo visits in my future. Next time you see her ask her what a camel says, it's so cute.



I think I have a picture in front of this almost every year of my life :)