To My Best Friend - Happy Birthday!

Today is Doug's birthday.

I sometimes find it hard to write about Doug, even though my whole life now is influenced by him in some way. The person I am, our children and who they are - have been because of him.
Our life is a shared one, in every aspect. He is not "just" my partner or "just" my husband, he is my very best friend and has been for nearly 30 years.

I know in today's society, some feel that your "spouse is your spouse" and "your best friend" is someone other than your spouse. Maybe that's why so many marriages are in trouble. When you are struggling, happy, sad, - you should be able to talk to your spouse about it, which is why Doug is my best friend. He encourages me, uplifts me, listens to me, comforts me - he does it all - as my husband and as my best friend.

Doug and I talk on the phone at least four or five times a day. It may be about little things going on at his work or home, or just to see how I'm doing. I know when he is stressed about work - or when he's not - who he had lunch with if he didn't make it home, just about all the little things going on in his life. I know what he thinks about the world today - politics, sports, - you name it, we talk about it. We can talk about anything and everything. That's what best friends do.

Many times when I answer the phone, just hearing his voice will give my heart that little jump of excitement, even after all these years! When he walks in the door after work, just seeing him makes my day that much brighter.

I know what Doug has sacrificed and given up for me and our children. I have seen him grow and accomplish so much in our years together, both professionally and personally. I know he still will accomplish so much more. He is strong, loyal, and honest with all those me meets and works with. He is no different at home with our family. He is what he portrays himself to be - there is nothing fake or false about him.

Doug is a great father. All of our kids love and respect him, honor him, and look up to him. They all talk to him about their lives, what is going on with them, and ask him for help and advise. He is so patient, loving, kind, long-suffering (which I'm not) with them. Our kids love spending time with their Dad.

When I was a little girl - and even a teenager - I never dreamed I could have a husband as wonderful as Doug. I never dreamed I could love and adore someone as much as I do him.

I didn't have any idea we could be so happy together, that our family would be so happy.

Happy Birthday sweetheart. I love you. You deserve the best day ever. I am so looking forward to celebrating many, many more birthdays with you.

Yellowstone

I'm back to vacation blogging!

This time:

Yellowstone!

This is the second time we've been to Yellowstone.

The first time was about 7 years ago - and we absolutely loved it.

When Jeremy and Jo moved to Rexburg, one of the first things we thought of was "Yea, when we visit them we can go to Yellowstone again!" They live about 1 1/2 hours away.

We made a day trip out of it. All of us - again - in our Sequioa. It's a tight squeeze, but sure is great for family unity.

This first picture is at Mesa Falls. We stopped there before going into Yellowstone.

It was very picturesque.

One thing about traveling in Yellowstone - you can always tell when there is a wildlife sighting.

There are a lot of cars parked to the side of the road.

We saw this bald eagle right soon after entering the park.

(For some better pictures go to Jo's photography blog. The link is to the side.)

As you walk around parts of Yellowstone, they have these paths to go on. You can not get off of them! Here's the crew ahead of me. Carson was really enjoying himself on Dad's shoulders. We are at the "paint pots" - which smell like rotten eggs!

Very interesting though!

Here's the kids looking at some buffalo. They didn't get much closer!

The week before we were there, someone did get too close to one and was gored.

Well, I guess this picture was so cute of Dani I had to get it twice.

Jeremy and Jo - we wore them out.

Here's the buffalo and the baby that the kids were looking at in the earlier picture.

Just as we turned off a side road - this buffalo walked right in front of us. This car came just afterwards and it looked as if the buffalo was challenging it. The women in the car looked a little scared at first!

Just some of the scenery at Yellowstone.

As we were on a narrow two lane road - all of a sudden, traffic started slowing down - and then came to a halt. Cars were stopped every which way and there was absolutely no way we could get through. Then someone said "There's a grizzly bear off the side the road." Jason grabbed our camera and off he went. Doug told him as long as he could out run the other people, he should be okay. What was really crazy was the people with little kids - toddlers even, were getting out and going up close. Jeremy, Jo, Kristi and Dani all went to take a look too - only not as close as Jason! Doug and I stayed in the car with the two little kids. All of a sudden, we saw people take off running. The bear had gone into a little valley - then popped up right in front of everyone. That started them running! The bear then went across the road, between all the cars, and up another hill. Some not too smart people started following him.

It wasn't too big of a bear, but hey - he could still do some major damage to someone.

Just before dark, we saw this buck.

We never did see a moose - either time we've been to Yellowstone, which was a disappointment.
Oh well, maybe next time. Jeremy and Jo will be up there for a few more years, so hopefully we'll get to go again.

Many of the places we stopped at -I forgot my camera, like at "Old Faithful". As we got out of the car, someone mentioned that it would be going off at any time, so in the rush - no camera.

Again - next visit!

Sunday Review

I decided to take a break from vacation blogging (which there is still more of to do) and blog about my Sunday. It's long I know. Sorry!

Sunday is suppose to be a day of rest - isn't it? I think it's just a day of rest from the regular, every other day of the week. You know, such as jobs, physical activity (sports, swimming, shopping, etc).

Instead we focus on family and God-or suppose to anyway.

Sunday mornings are hectic around here. Always have been, or at least it seems that way.

When the kids were all little - it seemed like Doug always had a church calling which he had to be there very early in the morning for meetings. Which meant I had to get the kids all ready for church. And it seemed as if our meetings always started at 8 or 9. It isn't easy getting 3, 4, 6 or 7 kids up and dressed and to church early in the morning, even with 2 parents to help!

It doesn't get any easier with teenagers either. First off - when they are younger teenagers (13-15 years old) they just plain don't want to get out of bed. Teenagers LOVE their bed.

Second - when they hit 16 and can now stay out later, they keep parents up later, which not only means the teenager hates getting out of bed - the parents have to drag themselves out of bed too and try and wake up the kids to get ready for church - and try again and again to wake the teenager up!

And even now - with teenagers down to toddlers, and older kids gone - Doug STILL has early morning meetings, I am still getting the kids ready and we have 9 am church!

So, here we are looking at yesterday- Sunday.

Doug did not have an early meeting - YEA. However, we still weren't the most prepared around here. Saturday, which is suppose to be the day to get ready for Sunday - wasn't.

We are re-doing bedrooms and playing musical bedrooms with it. (blogging about it to come later) Needless to say - we were working on them up to 11:30 pm. Then we had to put stuff away. Then shower to get paint off. Our teenager was even home at 11:30. We didn't get to bed until after 1:30, which I can't blame on the teenager this time.

My alarm seemed to go off way too early. I hit the snooze button way too many times. I am always able to wake up easy - not this morning. I turned and looked at my clock: 7:50.

I'm still in bed, Doug's still in bed, all but 1 of my kids are still in bed. Oops!

It was crazy. We did get to church on time - barely. Which is a good thing, especially since

Kristi had a talk! Which by the way, she did an amazing job. It was about education.

There is nothing my 14 year old likes more than learning and is very excited to be going back to school. No kidding. If you know Kristi, you know I am right.

But that's not all that happened.

I was sustained as the new Ward Activities Chairman. Yep, that's right - a new calling. (and staying in Girls Activity Days until someone gets called. I'll miss my girls!)

And along with this new calling I am now a member of the Stake Public Relations committee.

I can handle this right? After all- I was Relief Society President for 3 years, this should be much easier. I sure hope so.

In the next 4 months I have 3 - count them - 3 major activities.

Setember - the ward campout.

October - Fall carnival

December - Christmas party.

And nothing - nothing (other than the dates) have had anything done for them.

At the end of May - the former ward activities chairman had a surprise move to Utah.

She had only just been called too.

In June, I had a strong feeling I would be the next one called. (Which is really weird since I had absolutely no clue, no feeling, nada, before being called to Relief Socitey President.)

However, nothing happened. July - nothing, but then I was gone for almost half of July.

I came back from vacation, didn't hear anything and figured they had called someone.

Last week I went to a baby shower. As I talked to some of the women in the ward and was asking about what had gone on for the 3 weeks I missed, I found out - no activities chairman yet.

Saturday night - my neighbor - and counselor in the bishopric - came by to talk to me.

Yep, he asked if I would fulfill that calling.

So - to the Fairfield Ward members - I hope this turns out okay - because I have absolutely no clue what I'm doing. I didn't get my instruction booklet (aka - binder which usually comes with big callings). I did however, get a key ring - with more keys than I ever had as RS president - and have to figure out what they are all to.

Now, not only does Doug have early morning meetings - so do I, once a month.

Sure hope my kids are able to get themselves out of bed and ready for church.

Mikel did it for me before when I had the early meetings. She has since moved out.

Kristi and Jason - plan on setting your alarms early on the 4th Sunday every month.

You will be not only getting yourselves up and ready, but Dani and Carson too.

Oh - one more thing to remember about this Sunday.

We had a great time with friends at a surprise birthday dessert/treat night for Karen Jensen.

Happy Birthday Karen.

And thanks Misty for being such a great hostess.

If any of you out there have some fun ideas from activities in your ward - please let me know.

I can use all the help I can get.

Thank heavens for committees!

On the Way to the Bar J

Our driver for the evening ride.

Actually - he was the driver for pretty much the entire vacation!

For those of you who have never seen potatoes growing...

Here's a field of potatoe plants - right by Jeremy's house.

Each potatoe plant has 6 - 8 potatoes. The longer you leave them underground, the bigger they get. See - I did learn something from his vacation!

These next two shots are of the Grand Tetons.

There was some beautiful country between Jeremy's house and Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
It is about an hour and a half drive.

I wish I had a better camera to do justice to the beauty of this country.

I guess all of you will just have to make a trip up to see it for yourself!

More Vacation at The Bar J

Doug wanted to take the family somewhere a little different, but fun while staying at Jeremy and Jo's. Jeremy asked around and many people recommend going to the "Bar J Chuckwagon Supper and Western Music Show." It was just a few minutes out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

I called a week early to make reservations. You let them know how many people and when you arrive you were assigned a table. The earlier you arrived - the closer you were seated to the stage. Gate opened at 5:30, we got there at 6:00 - and were on the second to last table! This place would hold nearly 600 people and they all got there early! Since dinner wasn't served until 7:00, so we just hung around outside and in, seeing what there was.

Here are some pictures of before the dinner and show.

I really like this picture of Doug. He doesn't let me take too many of just him!
The Alldredge girls (I should have gotten Emma in this shot too!)

This was was actually during dinner.

Hey - maybe I ought to plant flowers in my wagon that I have in my front yard. It's almost like this one - mine just doesn't have the metal across the top.

Outside the main building.

The next few shots are of the decor inside.
Doug enjoyed checking it all out. And no - I will not let him decorate my house like this.

Like I said - there were almost 600 people there for the show.

They have the show from Memorial Day to Labor Day - 7 nights a week.

It is pretty much sold out every night.
They were very organized. Everyone had their food in 20 minutes.

I must say - the food was not all that great, especially knowing what we paid.

After we got done eating, the owner of the place came on stage and started talking.

He went on about the 'ol trail drives and why we were served the food we had for dinner.

He went on and on and on.................

At this point - Jeremy was getting a little bit nervous. He said he was thinking

"oh man, I had Dad bring us here and spend all that money".

Then..........the owner introduced

"The Bar J Wranglers"

Soon into the program we knew why so many people came back.

They not only sang - they were very funny.

I don't know when we all laughed so hard.

The show definately made it all worth it.

Here are three of the members of the group.

Another one.

And one more.

This fiddle player was very good. He had been the US national fiddler champ for 2 years.

When the show was all done - Jason said,

"We have to buy some of their CD's."

S0 we did. 2 of them.

One of them just singing, the other is a live recording of a show a few years ago.

It is extemely funny too. We listened to it on the way back to Jeremy's house.

And was laughing the entire time.

They do a different routine every year.

Would we recommend the show - YES!

Would we go back again - YES, despite the food.

Emma's Early Birthday

Saturday - the 25th - we celebrated Emma's birthday a month early. Well, at this party she didn't have any presents to unwrap. Mainly because both sets of grandparents - who happened to be in Idaho at the same time - gave EmmaLee her presents before going out to eat.

She only got a little bit spoiled!

We went to eat at a place called "Sundae's Eats & Treats" in Idaho Falls.

Let me tell you - the food we had was really good. And the french fries - I'll just say this, the potatoes came fresh from a farm, freshly cut and fried. Need I say more - other than we got a ton of them? Most of us ordered hamburgers (which Doug and I shared one- good thing since they were so big and came with sooo many fries, but Kristi ordered the chicken strips. Each strip was a wide as her hand - that's a big chicken! It was all so good!

Carson decided that the more straws the better!
Here's the ice cream that Doug and I ordered. It was delicious. All the desserts were huge.
Jeremy and Jo's ice cream.
Dani and Kristi's banana split - the kid size one.
At first we just put some ice cream on a plate for Carson. He threw a fit.
I had to go ask for a bowl. After that - he was a very happy boy.

Jason got his own ice cream. After eating his huge hamburger and some french fries, he had a hard time finishing his ice cream.

Emma really enjoyed her ice cream. She even tried eating it with her hand.

By the way - we had so many french fries left, we took an entire box back to Jeremy's with us - along with quite a few containers of homemade fry sauce. Kristi also had a chicken "strip" left.

You definately get your money's worth here.

If you look at Jo's photography blog you saw more pictures of our lunch out.

If you haven't looked at it - check it out

joalldredgephotography.blogspot.com

Rexburg Temple

Here are some pictures at the Rexburg Temple. Notice they are all of the same view. Sorry.

We were all tired when we went by so the kids got out for what was going to be a quick picture.

However - everytime I went to take a group shot of the kids - they all thought they had to have an individual picture taken too. Carson even got into it too. "My turn" he would say.

I did get out of getting one of him by himself this time. Watch for future postings - he'll have his own shot in some of those.

This is the Idaho Falls Temple. We didn't get out of the car here - just drove by.

I still have so much to post about on our trip - and the rest of the summer.

Hope you all aren't too bored yet.