Boating at Lake Lowell (July)

We talked Justin and Jayce into riding the tube with Marena. Mike told them he would go slow and that they wouldn't fall in the water. Well...the tube tipped over. When it was upside down, Jayce was hanging on for dear life. He was literally hanging because there was no way he was letting go of the handles. Marena told him to let go and she'd catch him. Later Jayce told Marena that she saved him! Needless to say they were never eager to ride the tube again. They were both content to just eat Cheetos and watch! And then Jayce would snooze.

Baseball (June)

Jaxson played coach-pitch baseball with a few of his Waltman cousins. He really liked playing catcher mostly because he got to wear all the gear. Uncle Todd was his coach!

Germany Trip (June)

In June I was able to accompany Mike to Germany on a business trip. We got to visit his Mom who is serving a mission in Frankfurt. We spent a week and a half with her. She took us on great tours of so many interesting places. We had a great time with her and appreciate everything she did for us. Marena stayed home with the kids and did a fantastic job of taking care of them.

At Braunfels Castle

Niederwalddenkmal Monument in Rudesheim

After taking two elevators and nearly 1000 stairsteps, we made it to Marburg Castle

Some of the Castles of the Rhine Valley

More castles along the Rhine River including Falkenstein & Marksburg

My favorite castle we visited was Heidelberg Castle

More pictures from Heidelberg Castle

A Roman Fort in Saalburg

One of Mom Tanner's favorite places is Bad Homburg. It is a town near the town she lives in which is Frederichsdorf.

Sunday Morning Pictures

For some odd reason we were all ready for church on Sunday...30 minutes early. So, we decided to take some pictures of the kids. The boys are wearing their new suits they got for Easter. They think they look very "hot" in them. Jadan is too big for his suit but we haven't gone to get him a bigger one yet. Marena and Mallary are sporting their spring styles.

Before

I started trying to lose weight on January 12th and I have been at it ever since then. The first week, I lost 8 lbs. The second week, I had lost 15 lbs. The next few pounds were a bit more difficult to lose but as of April 20th, I've lost 35 lbs.!!!

I'm pretty disgusted at this before picture but I decided to share it anyway. I feel so much better...in more ways than one. I'm still trying to lose 10 lbs. more to reach my target weight. It's very hard now to stay motivated when I'm so ecstatic with where I'm at now but I will keep on going to get to my target weight.

By the way...Mike has lost nearly 50 lbs.!!!!! When he returns from India I will take a picture of him for the blog. He is skinny, skinny!

After

I haven't been this size for many moons! I'm so grateful that I had the determination to lose the weight. Now if I can just lose these last few pounds!

Grandma Waltman's Birthday!

Grandma Waltman celebrated her birthday on March 26th! It was during our spring break so there were lots of kids around to wish her a happy birthday!

Carolee made a cake for her and all the kids came to sing happy birthday to her.

She didn't notice that we had swapped the birthday candles...she's not really THAT old!

SPRING BREAK PICS

When we were asking the kids what they wanted to do for spring break and where, they said they wanted to stay at a hotel with a pool. Okay, Marena and Jadan wanted to go to DisneyWorld but the others were content with the pool part. We actually could've stayed here in the valley but we wanted to go visit our friends, Jake and Kenna Smith. When we lived in Montana, we became friends. When we moved to Idaho, they moved to Utah. They were so nice to let us crash at their house one night and go to church with them. We had lots of fun visiting with them. The kids had fun swimming!

Flat Grandma!

Grandma Tanner sent the kids a flat version of herself so she could be with them wherever they went.

The picture of her at In N Out Burger didn't turn out but she was there!

It was a great idea...the kids are having fun with it!

Kite Flying!

We were trying to decide what activities to have at Mallary's party. The weather was VERY windy so we decided to buy kites and attempt to have her and her friends fly them. I thought the kites were going to fall apart the instant they were in the air. They were only $1 each but they held up great! Jadan's job was to untangle...needless to say, he was VERY busy! It was a lot of fun.

Field Trip!

In March, the Cousins' Preschool took a field trip to the Star Fire Station. Captain Chris Head showed them a DVD on fire safety and then showed them everything from the helmets to the cab of the firetruck to the "jaws of life". It was fun but Emily was scared when the fireman came out with all his fire clothes on. He did sound like Darth Vader...especially when we asked him to say, "Luke, I am your father."