Another Big Week!

Leslie, Whitney and Banner came for a visit this past week and we packed the week as full as we could while they were here. We had a wonderful spa day on Monday where we each took turns massaging feet and painting toenails.

Though Leah's feet desperately needed a pedicure, she did not get one. 

Gross!

I know you all must think we're crazy but we had ANOTHER tea party, this time there was chocolate mousse! I made it a lot smoother this time, I think it's because I used an electric mixer instead of my own arm and a wire whisk.

It was a beautiful day and our table scape was as well.

Lily slept through the tea party, AGAIN! The tea parties need to be later in the day I guess.

Leah didn't sleep, she really enjoyed her Lime Freeze made by Banner, we hear she has perfected the recipe with Aunt Lizzy.

We also went to the sand dunes, Egin Lake to be exact and I really think this is a place I need to go to more often. It's beautiful and the lake isn't freezing and it's also only about 3 feet deep through out the entire lake. Perfect for little girls to go swimming in, or just planing Frisbee with dad.

 That dot out there is Whitney and Banner out for a spin on the four wheeler. 

Whitney mentioned in her blog that there were human sized washboards, she's right and they are really fun to go over at top speed. :)

We set up a little table with lunch and a fire in a spot we thought would be perfect but there were millions of little ants everywhere so we had to move our little picnic closer to the water. Here is Banner, Leah and Whitney glad to be out of the ants.

It was so relaxing that Banner and the little girls decided to take a little nap.

Banner's nap didn't last long because Leslie had the idea of going to the biggest sand dune and making a survivor challenge out of running to the top. Whitney volunteered to stay with the sleeping beauties so the rest of us rode on the four wheeler to climb the dune.

It was a lot steeper than we anticipated but after quite a few breaks we finally made it to the top!

Banner stayed down at the bottom so that she could leave her mark in the sand, good idea Banner!

The sand was really addicting, we just kept wanting to run our fingers, hands, legs well our entire bodies, through the sand! It was so soft, softer than any beach I've been to. 

Of course we had to do some action shots, it's just one of mine and Leslie's favorite things to do. We just can't help it.

I have Andrew in the palm of my hand. ;)

Andrew decided he would run down the dune and bring banner up, the view from on top was beautiful! I am falling in love with the sand dunes, soo fun!

He brought Banner up and then went straight down on the four wheeler, I had done that with Leslie and Whitney and we like to compare it to a roller coaster, because it's about that steep and I was going about that fast. 

This is down the hill on the other side, Les rolled down and then kind of slid a ways, when she got down to the bottom she noticed that some one had been rolling eggs down and there were still a few intact.  

I ran down too, I would run and then jump out as far as I could. So fun to just run and jump and know you won't get hurt on the landing. 

It was so fun that we decided to make the big climb again just so that we could jump down a second time. We took the eggs with and rolled them down, more entertaining than we expected!

While Andrew was on his ride he grabbed Leah and brought her back to have some fun. She did a good job of running and jumping herself. We are definitely going back.

This is a picture I took while I was on the front of the four wheeler looking back, while going over the human sized washboards. Good look Leah!

On Thursday my mom had the idea to go up to Cave Falls, have a picnic and go for a hike up the trail near there.  

Everyone looking "real thrilled" to be out in nature. 

We had our picnic and then headed on the trail, Leah and Les ran ahead and continued the tradition of making arrows on the trail, just to make sure we knew which way to go. This was our favorite, "arrow". 

Not long after this arrow did we realize that there were huckleberries EVERYWHERE!!! For those who have never gone huckleberry picking, this was a BIG DEAL and from then on our hike turned into a berry picking fest. Not knowing that we were going to find them we had only brought a water bottle full of water and that's what we had to use to store our precious berries, oh and Leslie's hood on her jacket. 

While we picked we noticed some wildlife trying to climb trees, I thought it was Sasquatch.

Then I we got a closer look, it was just Banner. Whew! 

We had to stop berry picking because we couldn't carry any more and if we ate any more we were going to be sick so we made plans to return the next day to pick more, and that we did!

Friday was our anniversary, 6 years! Way to go us! So for the occasion we joined the Young Single Adults on their annual activity to the Bar J. :) My parents are the stake YSA leaders and Banner, Whit and Leslie wanted to go too. We didn't mind because we love the Bar J and have gone there before for our anniversary. Oh and we took the little girls too. So much for being alone on our anniversary, but like I said, we didn't mind. 

The next morning we woke up bright and early to go to our Ward breakfast and service project. Then we had to say goodbye to our visitors, but not for long because they are coming back up in a few weeks to welcome home ZACHARY!!! Yahoo!