Weekend trip

Can it be Spring yet? We are REALLY ready for Spring to be here so we can go outside and play! We are so over winter! To break up the winter blahs, we got to make an over night trip to Billings as a family last weekend. The beginning of March, we finished reading the Book of Mormon as a family and decided we would do something fun to celebrate. The boys really wanted to go and eat at Red Lobster, so we decided it would be fun to get away for the weekend so we wouldn't have to hurry. We left Lovell around 2 and made a stop at Wal-Mart in Laurel on our way into Billings. We stopped at a couple other stores before we met up with a guy that Christian buys chemical from for the Co-op and his wife and had they took us out to Red Lobster. The boys loved it and ate it all up and then had dessert on top of that! After dinner, we ran to two more stores and then headed to the hotel so the kids could swim. They swam for a bit and then we called it a night. We shopped a bit in the morning and then had lunch at Michael and Emily's and the kids got to play with their cousins that they miss tons! We made a couple more stops after lunch and then headed home. It was fun to get away for the weekend and do something a little different!

Landon by the lobster tank. A girl from the restaurant took one out of the tank so the boys could touch it. They thought that was pretty cool!

The boys and I made a jelly bean the other day to put on our table. There was lots of jelly bean eating while we worked!

2014 Winter Challenge

Ok, this is one of the craziest things I have seen/heard of in a long time, but it was harmless fun! There has been a "challenge" going around amoungst the people of Lovell (and now beyond)on facebook where someone is challenged to take a dip in some frozen water, record it, and then post it on facebook for everyone to see. If they do it, they then get to challenge other people to do it. Carson received a challenge from his good friend Jared Mangus last Thursday night. So, Friday after school was done, we loaded up the car and headed out to find a spot to complete the 2014 Winter Challenge. We were going to just have him do it in the pond behind our house, but that would have required cutting away a bunch of ice in order for him to get in it and that was just too much work. First, we tried to find a spot in the golf course canal but the spot we found was kind of swift and we didn't want to have Carson go down stream. We drove along some country roads to see if there was any water in any of the canals, but no such luck! Christian decided we would go out to his dad's farm and find one of the ponds. We found a spot where there was enough water (and where the cows had been watering, so that tells you how not clean it was) to cover the body. Carson did it like a champ and so did Travis...who begged his brother to challenge him so he could do it. In fact, he was in his swim suit for half the day he was so excited to do it! After they were done, we ran home and each of them took a warm shower so they could warm up and wouldn't be stinky for their wrestling tournament later that evening!

Carson challenged his friend Braxton Felkins, Travis and Uncle Jared

Oh man that's cold!

Wiping his face clean from who knows what!?

Travis challenging his friends from preschool Rocco and Sam and Uncle Jared!

Travis taking the plunge! I don't think he was prepared for it to be so cold because he sounded surprised it was so cold when he was in there.

Yikes!

Pup Wrestling 2014

For the last two weeks, we spent our evenings watching the boys participate in a pup wrestling camp. The camp is usually for k-6 graders, but we were able to get Travis in this year even though he wasn't technically old enough. They had lots of fun learning new moves and being able to wrestle in the wrestling room with all the cool high schoolers and uncle Jared (who was a coach for the high school team this year). After two weeks of practicing, they had a tournament last Friday night. They each got to wrestle around 6 times and had some wins and some losses. I'm glad they had a good time and hope they continue to like it!

Carson really improved from last year. He did a good job of trying to do the things he had been taught and was way more aggressive this year than last year. It's a good thing because he always ends up wrestling kids that are older and more experienced than him because he's bigger than most 2nd graders. 

Carson working on one of his opponents.

Getting some pointers from Uncle Jared.

Ready to wrestle.

Winner!

For it being Travis' first year, he did really well. He was really more interested in what was going on in the crowd than what he was doing on the mat, most of the time, but never quit moving while he was doing it! It was quite funny to watch him.

Wrestling away.

Travis had to wrestle one of his good friends Rocco a couple of times in the tournament. They were the littlest guys there!

Travis watching something in the crowd.

The kids all lined up after they were done wrestling.

Travis with the medal they got for participating.

Uncle Jared was one of the coaches for the camp. They thought it was pretty cool to have him there helping them!

What we've been up to.

We've kind of had the winter blah's lately and haven't been up to much, but here are some things that have gone on:

The boys had a half day last Thursday and all of Friday off for State Basketball, so we took the day and wen to Powell and went to the Aquatic center and to lunch with Grandma Foulger. Saturday, my sister, Megan, flew in for a couple of days while her hubby was away. It was fun to get to spend some time with her, even if it wasn't for very long.

 We got a TON of snow the last part of February and it turned quite cold. There were some days that when we woke up it was -30 at 7 am...no fun! It has since warmed up, melting almost all of our snow. Travis and Landon took advantage of an almost 50 degree day the other day and went outside and played in the little bit of snow there was and lots of mud! The mud is still continuing to dry up and we are excited about the 50 degree weather we are supposed to continue to have the rest of the week.

Landon playing in the one little patch of snow we still have.

Travis cleaned off the little cars he found under the deck in some melted snow in one of the toy totes.

 Carson and Travis (he actually isn't old enough, but they let him do it anyways) have been participating in a pup wrestling camp for the last two weeks. They have LOVED it and are so excited to be in the tournament this Friday.

Travis practicing a single let take down.

Stretching.

Carson practicing away.

Landon has had a good time watching and running around while his brothers practice. However, he was not so excited about having his picture taken.

Travis finally learned how to ride a bike with no training wheels. We still need to work on starting by  himself, but he's got the rest under control! Maybe after all our huge puddles and mud are dried up, it will be a little easier.