You've Got a Friend in me

This was the theme for this year Family Camp.


The kids wanted to do it all, and do it all they did!! The only things we didn't do were story time and parent workshop. We did get some away time Saturday night when the kids watched Toy Story 3 with the counselors and the parents got their own bonfire with smores.

The very 1st thing we did was take a hike. Rebecca and I stayed behind, so we missed the adventure but we got to hear about it. On the hike they had to cross the VERY muddy creek 6 times. On one of the crossings Ammon stepped into the mud and his shoes got stuck. He took his shoes off and then his socks got stuck in the mud. He came back extremely muddy. After half hour he asked if we'd get him his extra shoes because his muddy ones were bothering him.


Ice Cream and Cherry cobbler.


Tie dying-their shirts are on the bottom row.
from left to right
Ammon, Rebecca, Corrine and Simeon


Simeon & dad on their trail ride. You had to be 9 to go on the trail ride


Ammon on Buzz


Corrine on Buzz


Rebecca on Buzz


Our horse lover Corrine dreaming of riding Buzz all afternoon!


Ammon shooting his 1st gun ever. He was more then excited to go to this rotation!!


Ammon sewing his army tank pillowcase from ConKerr Cancer.


The kids with their pillowcases. They each got to pick out their material and help sew them. I even got a Winnie the Pooh pillowcase.
Simeon sports, Corrine guitars, Rebecca zoo animals and Ammon army tanks.


Ammon all harnessed in and ready to climb the rockwall. All 3 kids made it to the top of the small wall.


Simeon on the high wall. Corrine wanted to climb it, but one of the workers told us they had to be 9 to climb it. She climbed all the way to the top last summer (when she was 7) and wanted to show us. Later we learned that we were told the wrong age and any age can climb the high rock wall, but you have to be 10, to go on the zipline.


Playing parachute so we could get a puzzle piece to find out where One Eyed Pete had hid the ice cream sandwiches.

This is the same came that the kids go to in the summer. It's fun to experience the fun activities that they do at camp. The Children's Cancer Connection does an awesome job making camp fun!

Omaha Children's Museum

Last time we went to the museum, Rebecca was just a few weeks old and the 3 older kids LOVED the ball room. This time we spent 5 minutes in there before the said it was too crowed and they couldn't find anything to play with.
Corrine and Ammon and I found a giant peg screen (for lack of the real name of this toy). It was so much fun. You pushed the red pegs in on one side and they came out the other side. We made face impressions, hand impressions, then whole body impressions.



We went to find Rebecca and the kids had more fun the in younger area, then the older kid areas. The old time firetruck is a favorite to climb on.


Rebecca got her hands wet then saw a little boy using a dryer to dry his hands. Rebecca went and tried it out, and was instantly hooked!! She would go get her hands wet, then walk over to the drier to dry them. The air blew out so hard that it would blow her skin all funny.

Winter Quarters Temple

We've been to Omaha a few times, but have never made it up to the Temple before. We put the address into our GPS and it said it was only 2 miles from the Children's Museum. It took us to where the address said, but we were nowhere near the Temple. We knew we were on the right road, just miles away. The end of the road we were on was small, very old and ended up dead ending. We found another road going to same way and hopped on it. Again it was a small, very old road and not the best, so we found another bigger street to go on. We knew we were in the area by the house #'s so we turned up a street. We ended up going up one of the steepest streets ever. When we got to the top we turned right and within a few feet we were on a dirt road. This was NOT how we thought we'd get to the Temple. We took a left onto another dirt road hoping to get there, and within a block on this road, the Temple stood on the hill.
We went in the visitors center where a very nice sister missionary greeted us. She had a watch a 15 minute video about the pioneers, then proceeded to get the kids dressed in pioneer clothes and hats. Then she went into a 45 minute tour of the visitors center.







It was very interesting and had lots of hands on things for the kids, but Rebecca had had enough after 25 minutes, I tried to keep her occupied, but it wasn't to be, so we escaped outside for the last ten minutes.
Outside we found "Popcorn Trees". We smelt the blossoms, picked them up in our hands and blew them and sand Popcorn popping under the trees. This was more Rebecca style!



We took some quick pictures at the visitors center and Temple before heading back to the Museum (which was closed when we got there earlier.)

Waterpark & Omaha Zoo

We needed this trip. Each of us needed to get away from life for a few days and play, and play we did!!
We stayed at a Holiday in with an attached waterpark. Coco Keys resort. We LOVED this waterpark!! We've stayed at a lot of waterpark hotels over the years, but I think this has been our favorite so far. It had so many different areas with something in each that someone loved. Ammon and Rebecca spent alot of time in the kiddie pool. It was zero depth entry and only went to 1 1/2 feet, which was perfect for Rebecca to walk and crawl in and for Ammon to swim with his goggles. The play area was big enough for Simeon to enjoy, but small enough that Rebecca could also play in it without feeling overwhelmed. They had 3 good sized slides that Corrine & Ammon went down dozens of times that were big enough to be big slides, but not too big to scare them. Then there were the big slides. It took some convincing to get Corrine to go down them. The 2nd night we were there she went down with dad. She ended up going down both the tube slides 4 times each! They also had a 4 foot pool with 4 basketball hoops and climbing net (monkey bar style) over the water. Simeon spent a lot of time there. Ammon liked that areas of that pool were only 3 feet deep so he could swim and if he got nervous he could stand right up. And the lazy river was long and didn't shoot water at you-just how we like them!
I didn't take a single picture here. I decided I wanted to enjoy the waterpark with the kids, not just be stuck behind the camera and then worry about the camera getting wet or stolen. So no pictures-but know it was a blast!!

We hit up the Omaha zoo on Thursday. It's one of our favorite zoos. We like that it has both outdoor and indoor exhibits. It is a hilly zoo though, so we got lots of exercise today!



We headed to the bears to see the enrichment time. The water got turned on and the bears got much livelier. It was fun to see the bears walk right up the glass and look at you.


Ammon got a very close look at a gorilla!


The main gorilla exhibit was empty today because they were replacing a piece of glass. You could see where a gorilla hand had hit the glass-HARD-and cracked it.

One of our favorite parts of the zoo is the Lied Jungle. It's HUGE. You walk around the top of it through different area to see monkeys, birds, bats. There are vines the kids can hang on and sit on and a rope bridge to cross. Then you look down to see hippos and other animals. Then you can go down to the "floor" of the jungle and explore down there. The main trees that hold up the dome are massive and you really get the feel of walking through a jungle. The kids always love to go through the viney roots of a certain tree that's made just for kids. They also like to go through the hidden staircase to go up to the waterfall.





We also like to go through the desert dome and the kingdom of the night. While we were in the swamp part Rebecca came up to me and said "Scary-up please" She didn't like walking by the alligators and other animals in the dark.



The walk through shark tank tunnel was another favorite of the older 3 kids, but NOT by dad who escaped to avoid getting sick! There were a half dozen or so sharks in the tank, but the one with all the crazy sharp teeth everywhere was the most favorite to watch. The kids were counting how many sharks swam over them.

I love how into the shark tank the kids are in this picture and you can see it on their faces and how not a single one is looking at me.

The shark with all the teeth.

Suits and Future Missionaries

The boys got new suits a few weeks back and we hadn't gotten any pictures of them wearing them yet. I think they look so handsome in their suits.


I feel like we need to start preparing them now in what they wear when they go to church. That way when they start to pass the sacrament and go on missions wearing a suit, white shirt and tie is natural. They both have future Missionary tags for their suits, but didn't have them on today.

Simeon has been reading the Gospel Principles book lately so he's ready for his mission in 9 years. What sweet boys we have!


When Johann was the ward clerk, he'd get up and count how many people were at church every Sunday. He wore a suit, and soon Ammon (he was 4 at the time) was asking for a suit. On Sunday when Joahnn got up to count, Ammon would grab his notebook and pencil and follow him counting the people and making tally marks in his notebook just like dad. It was such a sweet thing. Since then Ammon will only wear his suit to church.

One day Ammon came out of class dragging his suit jacket. I told him that missionaries treat their suits very nicely, and if they need to take their jacket off, they either lay in nicely next to them or hang it nicely on the back of their chair. That has changed how he treats his suit jacket-most of the time.

Grandma Riddle

The last few weeks as we knew our time with Great Grandma Riddle was drawing to a close we spent alot of time remembering all the fun times we'd spent with her.

March 1st, 2011

Johann and I had many opportunities to get to know her since we lived with her 3 different times over the years. We lived with her for 6 months when Johann came out for his internship. Then when he graduated from BYU we moved back in with her for almost a year. Simeon lived with her for the first 6 months of his life. Then when we were in between houses we moved back in with her for a few weeks.

I remember when Simeon was born, my grandma Jenson had come out and the 2 of them were so excited for Simeon to arrive. They told me how they sat in rocking chairs out front waiting, then when the waiting at home got too hard, they headed up to hospital. I remember them being outside the labor and delivery room hoping that Simeon had arrived.

When we sold our house on Western Rd and were moving into our current house we had a time frame of about 3 weeks where we were homeless. Grandma so graciously opened her house up to us. She cleaned out the 3rd bedroom so the kids could sleep in there, and her basement became our storage room. We even set up our swing set in her backyard. The kids LOVED her backyard and had such a great time exploring it. The waterfall and pond and all the animals that came by for a snack were their favorites!And looking out her back porch with binoculars at the birds was also such a highlight of grandma's house.

When Ammon was 10 months old at Easter we went to her house. She gave them these towels that were in different shapes, and when you put them into water they expanded. I remember Ammon not understand what the water was for, and crawling over to it and drinking it out of the bowl!

Just a few years ago she again helped with our kids. Corrine had a dance class at the University of Iowa. The boys were so bored at the class. Grandma offered to watch them. So once a week for a few months I'd drop Simeon (4 yrs old) and Ammon (toddler) off at Grandma's house where they'd have snacks, play with grandma and watch tv while Corrine and I went to dance class. It was a special time for the boys to spend that time with their great grandma.

And her hedgehog that made noise when you squeezed it! Oh I am thinking of so many wonderful memories of her as I write this. I hope the kids remember how special and kind she was to them. She truly loved her great grandkids and loved being with them.

The last 2 weeks we have spent some very special quiet time with her. Corrine truly touched my heart when she came to visit her the day before she passed away. Corrine, knowing that grandma couldn't respond to her, brought along a favorite book and sat and read it to grandma, and talked to her. She gave her kisses and told her she loved her. She was as sweet as could be.


Rebecca LOVED to go visit "grandma riddle". Each time we'd go to visit she'd bring something new to show her. Curious George came one day in a dress and princess crown. Rebecca loved putting the crown on grandma's head and calling her "princess grandma". She also brought lots of books that we'd read to grandma. Rebecca also loved to give grandma kisses. Even when grandma wasn't able to talk anymore, when Rebecca would give her a kiss she would pucker her lips and we'd put Rebecca's cheek down by her lips so she could give Rebecca a kiss. When grandma stopped puckering her lips to kiss Rebecca back we knew she was looking more in heaven then earth and our time with her was very short.

Each time we visited we spent some time talking with the other residents. Rebecca would show them her books or toys she had brought. She even got hugs from some of the residents. I know Rebecca really liked to go visit grandma and she knew when we were going and would get so excited. Right by the sidewalk to walk in there was area full of rocks. When we'd walk in Rebecca would always walk right past the rocks, but when we walked out we'd stop and play with the rocks for a few minutes. She was so excited to go see grandma that she didn't have time to stop and play on the way in!




One time when we were visiting the kids were taking random pictures. I'm glad they did it now because they took pictures of the things around her room that I wouldn't have taken a picture of.






I'm going to go through pictures and add some of the kids with her through the years. I'd love to get a baby picture of each of them with her and playing in her backyard. I'm grateful that we took pictures with her so often. We visited her every holiday and many times in between. We always seemed to go during lunch when we went on a Sunday!

I know her memory will live on with our kids. The kids gave her a Willowtree angel for Christmas a few years back. That angel now sits above our piano. A reminder of the sweet loving great grandma who is now watching over us.

Easter

This morning we woke up to a blue sky, which was such a treat after having so many cloudy gray days. Since we have church @ 9am, we told the kids we would do baskets and an egg hunt after church.
A few weeks ago I bought something and the kids saw it. I told them it was for something else. They kept asking for it so I told them it was for their Easter baskets. So from then on they knew mom was the Easter bunny and that dad did the egg hiding. I'm wondering how long it will take them (Corrine, Ammon & Rebecca) to figure out that the tooth fairy, Leprechaun and Santa aren't real either. For now we'll let the magic last as long as it can.
On our way home from church we stopped at Scott Park to take some pictures of the kids. None of them had on any new Easter clothes, but I wanted some pictures of them today.







When we got home from church Rebecca wanted to keep her pretty dress on and she was playing in the front room when she walked around the couch and saw a basket sitting there. She looked at it, then hesitated for a brief minute then picked it up. When we told her it was hers she was super excited. She saw lots of monkey things in her basket.
The big kids found their baskets hiding in the basement, then it was time for the eggs. Johann hid the big kids in the basement. He made them pretty hard, but thankfully he remembered everywhere he hid them. Rebecca had her own egg hunt in the front room that the big kids hid for her. She's been practicing finding and carrying around a basket of eggs this week, so she was ready to go today. Once she figured out these eggs had candy in them, you couldn't get her to let go of her basket for anything!!





This evening we went to Grandma and Grandma Smith's for dinner and an egg hunt. The kids needed to find 13 eggs, but only one of each color or design. The kids decided to find 13 eggs each, then when we came inside make sure everyone had one of each color or design. And really the ones with the money in them were the only ones that they really needed to have only one each.


Uncle Justin took the candy out of one of the eggs, and but a locus shell in it. Corrine got that egg and it was the very 1st one she opened. She opened the egg, saw the shell, and picked it up with quite the look on her face. She ended up laughing about it and found it quite funny.