Foster Family Vacation 2013

Quite a few years ago Tony and I had decided to try and do a family vacation every other summer.  We've managed to pull off 3 in the last 10 years.  Our first was to South Carolina when Carson was about 20 months old.  The second was to the Oregon Coast when Alaina was about 10 months old.  This year we went to Utah.  

Day 1:  Lagoon

We stayed with Tony's brother Davin and his family.  We arrived at Lagoon right at opening.  We split up and spent the morning riding amusement rides.  The afternoon was spent at Lagoon-A-Beach with a nap for Charlie.  Then Davin and his family joined us for the evening.  The kids loved going on the rides with their cousins.  The highlight of the night was Rattlesnake Rapids.  Between the 4 adults the kids went down the ride a total of 7 times.  They were soaked from top to bottom! Carson is tall enough to ride all the rides and believe me that he did, and loved them.   Alaina got her face painted (which for the amount of time it lasted was not worth the $10, but Alaina used her own money, what could I say?)  Charlie even loved the rides.  By the end of the night he would put his hands up during the rides and then come to me afterwards and say, "That fun!"  with a big grin on his face.  Each of the kids got to play a game and win a prize.  The boys each got a snake and Alaina got a mouse.  By the end of the night we were all exhausted, but had had lots of fun.  Sorry no pictures.  It's a pain to carry a camera and ride the rides.  You'll have to take my word for the fact the kids had a blast.  

Day 2:  Temple Square 

We took the kids down to temple square to see the cool stuff there.  The afternoon included lots of walking but we saw some neat things.  

 Entrance to temple square

 In the visitor's center there was a really cool model of the Salt Lake Temple.  It shows you everything inside the temple.  It was really neat to see everything. I never knew there was a big chapel type place in the top levels of the temple.  

 Outside the tabernacle

 Inside

 Salt Lake Temple

 The family

The kids

We also saw the Beehive house and the new mall by temple square.  The mall was pretty cool.  A lot of it's outside with a creek running through it.  Most of the stores were a bit too ritzy for us, but it was cool to see anyway. 

Project Another Dress

Yet another polo dress for Alaina.  This is a shirt of Tony's from long ago.  It was always a favorite and we kept it around in hopes that maybe someday he'd be able to wear it again.   It wasn't long enough so I added some lace to the bottom and some ribbon to tie it in with the top.  I also added a cute little pocket and ribbon up top also.  The afternoon I finished it Alaina begged to wear it the rest of the day.  The next morning she said, "Mom can I wear that dress you made again today, it's not that dirty."  I've run out of polo's, but I've got a few button up shirts and a BSU jersey that I'm planning on making into dresses for Alaina.  It's a good this this girl loves dresses!        

Elton Family Pictures

Each year we take family pictures in all our camping glory!  

 Tyler, Hannah, and William Melling 

 Ryan, Rebecca, Lilyan, Raelyn, Ammon, and Nathan Sharp  

 Dad and Mom 

 Brain, Collette (with #4 in the oven), Aaron, BreAnna, and Emary Elton  

 Tony, Angie, Carson, Alaina, and Charlie Foster

 Tim, Callie, Brady, Mason, and Kinsey Elton 

The whole gang.

Elton Reunion 2013

This year we had our reunion at Bear Lake again.  We spaced having a camera at the lake on Friday.  But let me assure you we had lots of fun and came away with minor sunburns.  On Saturday we did a bit of sightseeing at the Paris Tabernacle and the Oregon Trail Museum in Montpelier.  Both were really cool.  The rest of our time was spent visiting, eating and more eating.  There were a few kids that were covered in dirt...I mean every inch!  I managed to get stung by a bee that still itches, but the exhaustion, dirt, and discomfort was worth spending time with the family.  

Paris Tabernacle 

The whole family except for Ben who was unable to make it and Brian & Collette who stayed back at camp because Collette came down with something.

Cute Foster kids

At the Museum in Montpelier Tony came across a plaque that had the name of his great uncle on it who had died in WWII.  We even came away with a newspaper article about Arvil J Foster.  It was pretty cool.   

Swim Lessons

This summer the kids completed their 3rd summer of swim lessons here in Rexburg.  As usual they loved it.  I would love to one day have them be able to do swimming more than just a few weeks each summer.  

Alaina completed the preschool level lessons and will be able to be in the normal lessons next year!  

Carson did great again this year.  A bit more practice in the deep water and he'll be cruising!  

Huckleberry Heaven

For FHE tonight we went and picked Huckleberries.  Tony's boss told us of a good place to go.  Tony and I hadn't picked huckleberries since we were kids so we couldn't quite remember what they looked like.  But then we found them. After the first half an hour the picking was like how I remembered it as skid.  If you got 3 berries off a bush you were doing good.  But then we found the mother load!  I had never seen so many berry on a bush before!  And they were big too!  Charlie especially enjoyed himself.  Promptly eating every berry that was put into his bucket.  Announcing, "Found One!" Each time he picked from a bush and every so often taking an entire handful of berries from my bucket and putting them all in his mouth!  Carson, Alaina, and I began making up songs about picking huckleberries.  Our favorite was to the "air mattress" tune.  ( to include non Elton family members.  It's a song my mom sang while pumping up the air mattress.). By the end we managed to only have a couple mosquito bites, very purple hands, and yummy berries.  We sure had fun!                  

                                

Alaina, Carson, Tony, and Charlie showing their dirty hands and our loot.

                                

  Me and Charlie

                            

 6 1/2 cups of berries.  We're having huckleberry pancakes for breakfast.  Yes, you can be jealous!

Charlie Turns 2

Yesterday was Charlie's 2nd Birthday.  After Church we had a BBQ and a yummy cake that I spent all day Saturday on and the result was a train cake and a very messy kitchen.  The BBQ was yummy although I was a bit nervous we'd be cooking inside because of the afternoon thunderstorm that came through.  But the sky cleared up and all was well.  As of late Charlie has only been interested in trains, cars, and more trains.  Thus our Train themed birthday came to be.  

 Charlie's cake  looked good and tasted good too...which is the most important part.  

 Getting ready.  Unfortunately I didn't think about taking pictures of all the presents after they were opened.  But he got his own train set (which can hook up to Carson's), Thomas the Train books, a new swimsuit from G & G Foster, and a toy gun and sword that light up and make sounds from G & G Elton.  Charlie was pretty excited about all of them.  

Here is Charlie playing with his train set.  I kept trying to get him to look at me for a picture, but he kept just saying "Nope, Choo Choo Train."

Disclaimer...I stripped Charlies cloths off because he was covered in soda and chocolate cake,  and that tattoo on his arm is a temporary one.  So, no I do not normally let my children run around half naked and tattoo their beautiful skin.