Family Trip To Coeur D'Alene

Last weekend we took a family trip to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho to support Conner who was competing in the State Boys Gymnastics Meet.

We left Friday morning about 11:00 a.m., our time. Bryon was the only one from our family that had been to Coeur D'Alene and it had been a while since he had been. I had heard how beautiful it was and was so excited to see new sights. We have a built in DVD player in the van. I was nervous about the kids watching too many movies on the way up and back. They were excellent! I think they only watched one movie on the way up. Sam and Conner did play with their DS's. We didn't even have to stop once for a bathroom brake so that was a bonus! We went up through Dillon, Butte, Missoula and on to Coeur D'Alene. We stopped in Butte, Montana for lunch. We decided we wanted to breakaway from the chains and decided to try to find a local restaurant to have lunch. We found a pasta place on our GPS that sounded good but got there only to find they weren't open. Then we decided to have lunch at Paul Bunyan's. It is a little (and by little I mean our whole family filled the restaurant) sandwich shop. We enjoyed our lunch and then got back in the car to drive the rest of the way. Those that know me, know I don't do a lot of driving but I did offer to drive. I drove from Butte until we stopped for gas in Missoula. We stopped in Missoula, Montana to fill the car up. We ran into another family filling up with gas that is from the same gym we were.

Upon arriving in Coeur D'Alene, we checked into our hotel. We stayed at Days Inn. Several families from the gym were staying at Days Inn. We enjoy staying at the same hotel as most of the team. Days Inn wasn't located on the lake. Actually, I think it is about as far from the lake as you can get in Coeur D'Alene. The desk clerk suggested a place called Tomato Street for dinner. We loved it! It was such a relaxed atmosphere. There was butcher paper on the table. The waitress came by and scribbled her name (writing upside down). The kids thought that was so cool! They could draw while we waited for our dinner. They also provided the each of a packet of pasta and Play-Dough. They could make pasta necklaces or mold creations out of Play-Dough while we waited for our order.

Conner had to be at the meet the next morning by 8:00. Once we got back to our hotel, we basically went to bed. The next morning we hurried to get ready so we could be at the gym by 8:00 a.m. It was just starting to snow as we left the hotel. The gym was located in Hayden, about four miles from our hotel. We ended up in a full blown blizzard by the time we got to the gym. The post below tells all about Conner's meet. After the meet, we drove back to Coeur D'Alene and had lunch at Chili's.

Before we left Rexburg, I had found a grand way to save money. At restaurants.com, I noticed that you could get gift cads for discounted prices. I typed in Coeur D'Alene, several restaurants appeared to choose from. Some of the restaurants had an 18% gratuity added to your final bill which made the gift cards not that great of a deal. However, I found one restaurant that didn't add gratuity. The only stipulation they had was for a $25 gift card you had to spend $35. I was so excited! I ordered this gift card online. It was a $25 for $10. When I was checking out online, I noticed a promo-code that if you entered you could get an additional 70% off. I was stoked! I was going to feed my family a $35 meal for only $13 out of pocket.

After lunch, we decided to drive by the selected restaurant and scope it out for later that night. We typed the address into our GPS. We followed to the GPS to our selected destination. My stomach about sunk when I saw a picture that resembeled the picture online. There was one huge difference: the real place was all boarded up! About the time I am realizing this, Bryon says, "Is that the restaurant all boarded up?" We got a good laugh out of my smokin' good deal!

There is a place in Hayden called Triple Play. They have a ton of different things to do. We decided to go there after lunch and check it out. We ended up going swimming. They have a huge indoor waterpark. There are three waterslides, a kiddie pool and a giant wave pool. We had so much fun! There were two other families from the gym that ended up there the same time we were. Conner thought he was so cool haning out with his friends. I think I cramped his style by making him check in with me. We literally spent all afternoon at the pool.

For dinner, Sam and Conner wanted to go back to Tomato Street. While Bryon and I loved it, we wanted to try something different. One of the lifeguards recommended a pizza place called Mackenzie River. The kids ordered off the kids menu and Bryon and I ordered a pizza to share. It was sooo yummy! It hit the spot.

When we got back to the hotel, we noticed one of Conner's coaches and a few families were gathered down in the room where the continental breakfast is served. Bryon and Conner went down to get popcorn and see what was going on. The kids and I soon decided to go down and join everyone else. We had so much fun haning out with the other families. There was a hot game of cards going on. Being a card shark, I jumped at the chance to join in. Bryon and the kids ended up going back to the room about 11:00. I ended up playing cards until about 1:00 a.m.!

Sunday morning we got up and got ready to go. There is a continental breakfast offered at the hotel. About the time we were down trying to grab a bite to eat before hitting he road, so were several other families.


I told Bryon I didn't drive all the way to Coeur D'Alene not to spend some time at the lake. Before leaving on our trip, we were told about a darling children's book called "Mudgy and Millie". It is about a moose and a mouse that play hide-and-seek through Couer D'Alene. A scuplor then scuplted five life size statues of Mudgy and Millie and they can be found around Couer D'Alene. Sunday morning we read the book with our kids. We then went downtown to find the moose and mouse statues. Our children really got into it and we had to find all FIVE statues.


Our little treasure hunt took us right down by the river. It was beautiful there. As you can tell by the picture, it was cold. After our little treasure hunt, we headed for home.

Bryon wasn't feeling well. He thinks he got a little too much water sliding the day before. He drove to Missoula where we stopped for lunch. We ate at Mackenzie River again. I had a salad this time. I didn't enjoy it as much as I did the pizza the night before. I then drove from Missoula. We had decided earlier, to take the scenic route home. We had decided instead of driving through Montana again, we would turn off at Missoula and go home through Salmon. This was a very pretty drive. I hadn't been to Salmon before. I am not sure it added very many additional miles but I feel like it took longer because of the speed limit. On the way home, the kids drank more pop and so consequently we had many more potty stops on the way home. At Leadore, we hit a complete white-out where I couldn't even see the side of the road. It was there, I decided I was done driving and Bryon and switched off again.

It was a great weekend. I was so thankful for the chance we had to get away as a family.

Boys State Gymnastics Meet

Last summer Conner was asked by his gymnastics coaches if he would like to compete for gymnastics. He would be a Level 4. This would mean that he would travel throughout the state competing in gymnastics. It was a one year commitment. The gymnastics season starts in January. His first meet was here in Rexburg. In February, we traveled to Boise to watch him compete at Gem State. Last weekend was the culmination of the whole season.

I felt like we and Conner had done all that was possible to get ready for the state competition. Conner put in some extra time in the gym working on getting ready. We paid for three private lessons, in order to help him better prepare. Conner has six elements he competes on: the high bar, the rings, the parallel bars, the floor, the mushroom and pommel horse, and the vault. He is pretty strong on all of the events except the pommel horse/mushroom. This is really two different apparatus but it is scored as one. Conner does really well on the pommel horse but struggles with the mushroom. The mushroom literally is just that: a round apparatus that is about two feet high.
The goal of Level 4 is to spin around the top of the mushroom three and a half turns without touching down. This is a very difficult task to master. The reason for learning this skill is so that they can prepare to do actual turns on the pommel horse. Most of the Level 4 boys will do one turn touch down, one turn touch down, one turn touch down and then a half a turn. There is a full point deduction every time they touch down. When Conner was doing his private lessons, I talked to the coach about spending most of the time working on fine tuning his other routines and just leaving the mushroom alone. The coach explained it that most of these boys skill wise are all about the same. They will usually only win an event by the smallest margin. The place where they can really pick up points is on the mushroom doing their three and a half turns. He really worked Conner on the mushroom. We even brought the mushroom home one night for Conner to practice on. Conner even took the mushroom to school one day to practice on during recesses. It wasn't very often that Conner could do more than one turn without touching down. When he did, it wasn't pretty. He would really struggle after his first turn to not touch down. We left for Coeur D'Alene knowing we had done all we could do.

Conner's competition was set for Saturday, March 19 at 8:00 a.m. The gym they competed at was a newer gym. However, their equipment wasn't new and was actually pretty rickety and wobbly.

Before I go into his individual scoring, let me just say that the total possible on any apparatus is 16.0.

Conner's first rotation was the rings. He scored at 14.4. This was a pretty good score for him. His second rotation was the floor. The floor tends to be one of his strongest. I don't know what happened, but Conner started off in the middle of his routine and his coach had to call him back to start over. He then tipped over on what is called a "candlestick". It is a very easy element. He ended up with a score of 13.2. The next rotation was the mushroom and pommel horse. I wanted to hold my breath.


He did the most beautiful mushroom routine that he has done all season! He went around beautifully twice without stopping. Then he went on and did his one and a half times around. It was beautiful! He pulled off the second highest score on the team and his personal high on this apparatus with a score of 12.1. Their next rotation was the high bar. Conner did a beautiful but ended up sitting down on the landing. His score on the high bar was 13.7. It was then time to vault. He scored a 15.2 on the vault! I would have to look but I also think that is a season high for him. The final rotation was the parallel bars. He did a nice job on those and scored a 13.8.

Conner ended up placing third in the state overall. His team also took first place in the team division.


We are so proud of you, Conner!

Here I am again! No I didn't fall of the face of the earth, although I often think it feels like that or a merry-go-round that is going full speed and I am hanging on for dear life not to fall off. I didn't do either one. I just haven't visited the blogging world much this past year. Last year I decided who wants to read about my boring life anyway??? Plus I thought I would be a little more personal if I just tried to more faithfully write in a journal. Well I failed miserably at both! So here I am back to blogging.

I am not even going to try to catch you up to speed about our last year's events. I am just going to start new. I have just a few things on my mind that I have been thinking about lately that I really have wanted to get down.

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday. We were so blessed to have my parents come and spend Christmas with our little family. My parents haven't been with us on Christmas morning when the kids opened their presents or see what Santa brought. Ever since they told the kids they would come up this year, if there wasn't too much snow, my kids have been ecstatic! I have never seen kids pray harder for no snow than my kids did for about that month and a half. Also my kids were almost more excited that grandpa and grandma were coming up than they were about Santa coming. We had a wonderful Christmas and a fun weekend spending time with my parents.

I remember when I was younger thinking that my parents were so smart and knew all the answers. Okay, it definately wasn't my teenage years. We all know during those years we doubt everything our parents say and think that everyone else has to be smarter than our own parents. I am finding now that I am a parent myself, I definately don't have all the answers. I am truly amazed at how much I learn from my children. Lately the quote that keeps going through my mind is "and a little child shall lead the way." I have learned so much from my children through the years. The other night as I thought about the past years events and some of the things I learned I realized I learned a great deal of them from my children. Here are some of the things I have learned.

The power of prayer and having faith that our Heavenly Father hears and answers prayers. Conner has taught me this lesson over and over again this past year. Conner doesn't just believe this, he KNOWS it. Sam (our oldest) has a dog that can be very hyper. It is Sam's daily job to feed his dog twice a day. This summer, Conner started asking Sam if he could go out and feed the dog. Sam was more than happy to let Conner go out and do this job. One particular morning I was in the kitchen while Conner was out feeding the dog. We have a set of french doors that go to the backyard. The curtains on these doors were open and I happened to walk by the door about the time I saw Conner kneeling on the step with his arms folded, head bowed and lips moving a million miles a minute. This was one of those tender moments that I think will be forever etched on my heart as a mother. When he came in, I questioned him what he was doing. He told me he prays everytime that he goes out there to feed Molly, he prays that she won't kill him. I had to chuckle. But it has hit me hard about his knowledge of the power of prayer. He asked to do this job ever day knowing that the dog might jump on him and hurt him and yet he KNEW that if he prayed our Heavenly Father would protect him and keep him safe. Another experience was this fall upon realizing that everyone had left for school and work and realizing he was home alone, Conner said a prayer and then hopped on his bike and rode the five miles to school. (This is one story that I will blog in more detail later.) He KNEW that if he prayed to his Heavenly Father, he would be guided and our Heavenly Father would help him get to school safetly.

Another principle Conner has taught me is the power of faith. I think the above experiences also display a lot of faith on Conner's behalf. This Sunday we moved our church time from 9 to 12:30. This Sunday, being the first one of the month, was also Fast Sunday. Now for some reason fasting is one of those principles that I really struggle with. I believe in the power of fasting and prayer but fasting is just very hard for me. We don't even ask our kids to fast until they turn eight. We then try to work them up gradually skipping a little more and a little more so that by 11 or 12 they will be able to fast the complete 24 hours. Well, Sunday morning the kids are in the kitchen and we are telling Sam it is Fast Sunday. When we ask Conner what he wants for breakfast, he said he was fasting. I was shocked. I tried to explain to him it wasn't necessary until he turns eight. Nope he was convinced. Well about 11:30, I cut and apple for Logan and Natalie to hold them over until after church. I then went to reach for another apple to cut for Conner. Honestly, I had kind of forgotten about Conner fasting and also I had thought that by now he would realize he is hungry and decide to throw in the towel. Not so! Conner proudly reminds me that he can't have an apple because he is fasting. Wow! We head out the door for church. This year we have Sacrament Meeting last. The first time I saw Conner in church was as he came into the bench for Sacrament Meeting. He throws himself on my lap and announces how starving he is! Not two minutes later, Natalie is sitting there eating some Smarties from Primary and offers Conner one of her Smarties. Conner turns to her and said he wasn't taking her candy because he is fasting. I sat there in awe! The faith of a child. It is truly amazing!

Then there's Logan. When he talks of Jesus it gives me chills. I know that because of his life experiences, he knows Jesus in a way that I could only hope to come to know my Savior. It makes me want to get to know my Savior better.

I could go on and on of the things my children have taught me. These are just a few that have weighed on my mind lately. "And a little child shall lead them."

Around Christmas time this year, it seems to be that I have seen the word "Believe" a lot more than usual. I have really thought about that word. I have a favorite blog that I love to read. She is an adoptive mother, just like me. She wrote something about this word that touched me deeply. I would just like to share it. She said:

"believe.
it's my new word.

believe that there's a plan.
believe that Heavenly Father loves you.
believe that He only gives the good gift.
believe that there is light.
believe that you can make it.
believe that you are a survivor.

believe.

believe in the sealing covenant.
believe that it is more powerful than time.
believe that it is more powerful than DNA.
believe that it is more powerful than death.

believe."

It was beautifully written. I couldn't have said it better. It touched on so many things I had been thinking about. This little post made me dig deeper. What do I believe in? I believe in all she beautifully stated. I also believe. I believe in my Savior Jesus Christ. I believe that He atoned for my sins. I believe He loves me. I believe He carries us through our trials.

I believe in the Church of Jesus Christ. I believe we are led by a prophet of God. I believe in temple covenants. I believe in eternal families. I believe in The Book of Mormon.

I am a Believer!

New Puppies

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Spring Break

Well Sam wanted to go somewhere "warmer" for Spring Break. It doesn't take much to be warmer than Rexburg, Idaho! I told him while we couldn't afford a trip to the Bahamas or anything, we definitely could go to Burley for the weekend.

On Friday night we hired a sitter for Conner, Logan and Natalie. We took Sam and went with my parents out to Oakley to see "Oliver." It was very well done.

Saturday morning the kids dyed Easter Eggs. Later that day we went to Storybook Park. It is one of the kids favorite places to visit while we were in Burley.

My parents have been called to serve in a Single's Branch in Burley. So Bryon and I took Conner, Logan & Natalie to church in the good old Burley 3rd Ward (the ward I grew up in). Sam stayed behind to go to church with Grandpa & Grandma. It worked out well. Their church starts one hour later than Third Wards. So once we were gone, Sam got to play the Easter Bunny and hid the Easter eggs and put out the Easter baskets. He had a great time. When we all got home from church, we did the Easter Egg Hunt, had dinner and then went for a drive over to Shoshone Falls. The falls are beautiful this time of year. I personally hadn't been there for quite some time. It brought back a lot of memories for me. Growing up, we would go over every Saturday before Easter. We would have a picnic and roll eggs down this gigantic hill. They have walking paths around there too. I was still having problems with my leg but Bryon took the older boys on some short hikes. Because it was Sam's birthday the following day, once we got back to Burley, we had cake and ice cream and Sam got to open his presents from his Grandpa & Grandma Roskelley.

With it being Spring Break and Bryon and the kids didn't have school on Monday, we spent Sunday night in Burley. Then Monday morning, we got up and left for Burley shortly after my parents left for work. What a great time we had in Burley on Spring Break!

General Young Women's Broadcast

I was determined not to let my bum leg slow me down! Two days after my fall, I went with the Young Women and other Young Women leaders from our ward to Salt Lake City to see the Young Women's Broadcast. What an awesome day!

A man in our ward owns a bus company and donated a bus and driver for us to take to Salt Lake so we could all ride together. On the ride down, we about froze to death until we reached Pocatello. I guess on a bus there are valves that need to be open in order to generate the heat. Well, it took us to Idaho Falls to realize that the valve wasn't open. So we stopped once for him to open the valve. By Shelly, it was still not getting any warmer inside the bus so another stop and another phone call was made to figure out there was more than one valve that needed to be opened. It took to about Pocatello for the bus to heat up.

Our bus driver dropped us off at Temple Square. We then proceeded to walk to The Beehive House. That walk was up a gradual incline. I had a hard time trying to keep up! I was beginning to wonder just what I was getting myself into and maybe staying home would have been a good idea!! Too late for second thoughts. We had too many young women to take in one group and so we broke up into two groups. It had been several years since I have taken the time to tour The Beehive House. I think the house is beautiful.

After The Beehive House, we walked to The Joseph Smith Memorial Building. There we ate our sack lunches in a large cafeteria in the basement. After lunch, we went upstairs and watched the Joseph Smith Movie. It was awesome. I have seen the movie before but could watch it again and again. It really brings a great appreciation for Joseph Smith. It also makes me love Emma for the sacrifices that she made.

After the movie, we walked back to Temple Square. We didn't have time for a tour but we went up and saw the big statue of Christ that is in one of the Visitor Centers.

We then caught the bus and went to Hire's for dinner. It was a fun place. They are famous for their root beer but also serve homemade french fries. It was delicious!

After dinner, we went to The Conference Center for the broadcast. The doors opened quite a while before the broadcast. We got there shortly after the doors opened. We spent the time before the broadcast taking pictures and just visiting.

It was so amazing that when President Monson walked into the room, you could have heard a pin drop. What an amazing experience! All the talks were fabulous!

On the bus ride home, we spent the first part, talking about what parts for the fireside touched us. It was awesome to hear the young women talk about what touched them. Fast Sunday the following day was one of the most powerful testimony meetings I have attended in a while. Testimony was full of young women talking about how this trip had changed them. What a sweet Spirit filled our Sacrament Meeting that day.

Later Sunday night while attending a Bishop's Youth Discussion, the bishop thanked me for the sacrifice I made to go. It was not a sacrifice for me at all to go with these Young Women and Leaders that I love. To me it was a wonderful experience and one that helped strengthen my testimony.

The Fall

I hope you will excuse me. I haven't blogged in FOREVER! I misplaced the cord to my camera that I download pictures with it. I found the cord this morning. Since blogging is kind of like my journaling of major events in our household, I hope you won't mind as I backtrack and write about a few of those major events in our household over the past month.

I don't know if you have ever had a moment where you are trying to process something in your brain and you start reacting before your brain totally finishes processing. I had one of those moments today.

I had been in Idaho Falls at an appointment. I had Logan with me. I didn't get away like I had expected and so my good friend, Linda Gibbs, picked Conner and Natalie up from school and was watching them at her house. I went and picked them up as I was coming into town. I knew Linda had to be to work and so we were in a bit of a hurry. When I got there, I unbuckled Logan and he came in with me. Conner was all ready to go but Natalie didn't have shoes on. So upon leaving Linda's house, I start trying to figure out if I should carry Natalie down the steps and to the van or if I should just let her walk down the steps and then I would carry her to the van. My brain had decided that the steps were clean and dry and she could walk down the steps and then I would carry her to the van. However, I immediately leaned forward and went to carry her. That split second of indecisiveness was enough to through me completely off balanace. I fell forward. We must have also fallen sideways because we ended to the side of the stairs in a bed of lava rock. Me right on top of Natalie. Linda had been behind us and rushed to pull Natalie out from under me. Anyone who knows me, knows I don't like people to know I am hurt and I usually jump up screaming that I am okay. Not this time. I laid in the bed of lava rock screaming out in pain. Once Linda had gotten Natalie out of the rock, I notice that she is bleeding profusely. So Linda takes Natalie in the house to get her cleaned up. Thanks so much Linda. Those of you who know me know I don't deal well with blood or puke! Conner and Logan are standing there looking at me, scared. Natalie had left a lot of blood behind. Her pink coat and princess backpack were now more red than they were pink and there was quite a bit of blood on the sidewalk. I was still laying there in the bed of lava rocks trying to figure how I was ever going to get out of there. I tell Logan and Conner to carry Natalie's things to the van and I will be there in a minute. It took everything I had in me to get up and hobble to the van. Linda finished cleaning up Natalie and brought her to the van. I start heading home. I tried to reach Bryon at the school. He wasn't available so I left a message on his voicemail. You see I had had trouble sleeping lately and would be wide awake at 3 or 4 in the morning. This particular morning I had been up since 4. My appointment in Idaho Falls had also been very emotional for me. Anyone who knows me also knows that I love a little power nap in the afternoon. So I told Bryon that I had had a little mishap and was going to go home and have a power nap. I had a month's worth of groceries in the backseat. I told him I would carry in the refrigerated and freezer stuff but would need his help unloading everything else upon him getting home. But do not call me, I would just see him when he got home in a couple of hours. Well my mind quickly changed upon getting home. It took me a good 20 minutes to hobble from the van into the house and Natalie's nose had began to bleed again. Bryon came home and loaded Natalie up in the van to take her to Community Care. He asked me if I was going to go with them to have the doctor look at my foot. I do not like to go to doctors and try to avoid them at all costs. I told Bryon, "I am badly hurt NOT dead!"

Natalie ended up with two little stitches on the side of her nose. I am still paying for my little mishap. The very next day, my foot was still not doing any better. I have had a broken foot before and felt like I hadn't broken anything. However, this happened on a Thursday and on Saturday of that same week we were going to be taking our Young Women to Salt Lake to attend the General Young Women's Broadcast. I was going even if I had to go on a stretcher. I knew we were going to be walking all over Temple Sqaure in Salt Lake City. When all the kids were at school on Friday morning, I took myself to Community Care. They x-rayed my foot. Sure enough it wasn't broken but just very badly sprained. The doctor told me he was going to give me an air cast. I told him I was glad because on Saturday we were going to Temple Square and I would be doing a lot of walking and was hoping to get some support for my ankle. Upon hearing how much walking I would be doing, he opted to give me a walking boot. I wore the walking boot that day, Saturday to Salt Lake, and Sunday. By Monday I figured my ankle was feeling pretty good and I wouldn't wear the boot for all the little puttering around the house stuff I do. (The doctor at Community Care never told me how long I had to wear it). However, if I do any sort of exercising or walk any sort of long distance, that sucker swells up the size of a watermelon! On Monday I went to the doctor for a list of about 10 things I was hoping to talk to him about. While I was visiting him, I mentioned in passing about my fall. He looks at my ankle (which was NOT one of the 10 things I went to talk to him about). He found out I had a walking boot and had worn it only for a short amount of time. He told me I am to go back to the walking boot for a good week if not two!