The Longest Vacation

After our trip to Montana, Ammon left to go back to school in Baltimore and we stayed for the next 2 1/2 weeks with Ammon's parents in Utah. We wanted to see my brother before he went into the MTC for his mission to Chile at the end of August. AND we decided to hitch a ride with my parents all the way to the east coast, since they were driving all the way from California to their new home in West Virginia. A long drive. Especially with two kids.

They look so sweet and innocent don't they. Sit next to them in the car for a few hours and you'll change your mind.

While we were in Utah, we went swimming a few times at the Draper pool and Ryley went off the diving board 6 times all by herself. She's like a little fish and can swim all the way to the side without help. She loves goggles.

We must've nearly drove those Poseys mad with all our messes!

Hanging out with the cousins! It was nice to be around so much family for a change.

silly uncle Jon.

The Posey's home ward party (before ammon left). Jensen meets cotton candy. Happy Boy.

Ryley likes face paint.

Oquirrh Temple Open House

It was neat for Ryley to get to go inside the temple. She always wants to go when mommy and daddy go- and this time she could.

Splash park with cousin Kinley

$5 Tuesday at Thanksgiving Point. It was a little crowded and after a 2 hour wait, the kids got to ride a pony. Those smiles made it all worth it!

Bear Lake! Thanks Marde and Ross for letting us stay with you!

My grandma and grandpa Jensen came too! And even my cousin Nessy and John!

Ryley and Jensen really got attached to Corbin and Dexter, it was hard to say goodbye.

Saying a quick hello-goodbye to Jared! See you in 2 years!

Bean Museum in provo. One of Jared's friends hooked us up and we got to see and touch all kinds of creatures...

...even a taratula!

Hiking to Stuart Falls up provo canyon.

Ryley went swimming, of course.

Jensen's favorite part was the cookies.

The journey home took us into Colorado where we stopped to see my brother Jake at the Air Force Academy. We got a tour and even ate cadet food in the enormous mess hall.

Like father like son.

Jensen sure loved all the airplanes. I wouldn't be surprised if he follows in uncle Jake's footsteps. I always said he looked most like Jake.

Then we stopped in Nauvoo, Illinois to see the church history sites and attend the spectacular new temple there!

We took a horse-n-buggy ride around the town for a tour. Jensen was fascinated with the horses, and after studying them for awhile, he reported to me "no hands." Apparently he had just discovered that horses don't have hands. Very observant.

Then, after a quick dip in the Mississippi River, at Ryley's insistence, we went to Carthage.

This is the window where Joseph Smith was martyred. It was quite the somber experience.

It was a great vacation! We were sure happy to get out of the car by the time we got to Baltimore though, and glad to see Ammon again of course!

Montana 2009

Ammon's family has a tradition of going up to Montana almost every summer, where his grandparents live. We've gone with them several years and it's always fun. We did lots of waterskiing and hiking. The lakes and mountains there are beautiful!!


Jensen, helping Daddy drive the boat.


Ryley ate some weird berry on the hike and grew an instant mustache.


Jensen got bit by a spider at night time and woke up looking like Quasimoto (however you spell that).



Ryley went wakeboarding with Daddy. I think by next year she'll probably be able to do it herself.

Ammon, putting up a wall of water.

Ammon's dad is in his fifties (correction... sixties) and can out-ski us all!

The beloved Nautique boat.

The kids loved the rocky beach- throwing rocks is the best fun! And look at that sea of glass... it's like skiing on butter. And yes, Juliana did some skiing herself, but no one got any pictures cause I'm the one with the camera, of course.

We celebrated Jensen's 2nd birthday in Montana. He's still figuring out how to make 2 fingers stick up.

He liked the horses. The first thing he pointed out was the horse's big buggars.

Ryley's little cousin Kinley came up for part of the time and they had so much fun playing together in the cold water.

Ryley stinker-face and Kinley.

The whole big happy family! That's Ammon's mom's parents there in the middle. And yes, I'm expecting, that's not just my big gut sticking out there... mostly my gut, but not all. I think we're due in Feburary, though I haven't had time to see a doctor yet.

Jess, Adam, and Olivia visit

My sister Jessica, her husband Adam, and Olivia came all the way from California to visit us for a couple of weeks and we really packed in the fun! The pictures are in no particular order and are not all inclusive. We had some great game nights where we played Blokus and Settlers of Catan (Jessica's favorite) that I thought were some of the funnest times we had! It's just so lonely out here sometimes that it was nice to have someone to play games and go have fun with!


Of course we had to go to a Baltimore Orioles game! It was a fireworks night too! and we won!





Lots of swimming at the pool! Olivia taught Ryley how to swim and now she can go across and back without help!! Amazing what peer pressure can do.


This is an east-coast game called "Duckpin" bowling. It's almost the same, but you have a smaller ball and smaller pins. better for this kids i think. Olivia actually almost won, but Jess ended up pulling ahead in the end.

We met Grandpa Paul, Coleen, and Aly at the D.C. Zoo where they spoiled the kids with panda bears and cute T-shirts! Pandas really are as cute as a stuffed animal.

We saw the Joseph Smith movie at the D.C. Temple. I think it was my 6th time seeing it and I still cry every time. It's such a great reminder.

Our longest day was treking around downtown D.C. looking at the monuments and museums with 3 whiney kids. We did see the Whitehouse, the Washington monument and the museum of Natural History. That was enough for one day.

We love the farms around here. The countryside is so beautiful. Jessica spotted a half dozen houses that she wanted. Jensen's favorite part was the blueberries! Be glad you didn't see his diapers the next day.

I Looooove Blueberries! Even the green ones! We made blueberry pancakes, waffles, milkshakes, and even blueberry syrup...mmmm

We also got cherries at the same farm! What luck! Have you ever tried Cherry Jam? It's delicious, we made some. We also bottled 6 quarts because we had so many!

Olivia didn't bother putting them in the bucket, she just ate them.

We also took them to our favorite ice cream place called Tropicool! It has really good "gelati" and I found a new favorite flavor-- it's rootbeer flavored shaved ice with the vanilla soft-served. MMmmm.

We celebrated father's day,

and Olivia's birthday at the same time, with the same carrot-cake batter. We're so efficient.

At Ocean City we rode some of the carnival rides.

Even me and Jess got to ride the zipper! My childhood favorite! and the boardwalk fries were amazing.

Catching crabs at the beach! More like, torturing crabs at the beach.

Don't we all wish we could have bleach blonde hair and tan as easily as Ryley.

Little Mermaids

I like Camping!!

We camped at a place called Assateague Island right by Ocean city. We got rained out the first night so we had to eat our hotdogs in the tent.

There are wild horses on the island, and we found out that they're almost as bad as the bears at yosemite. This one pryed the lid off our food tupperwear somehow! They're kind of fun though. At least they don't eat people.

Grandma Jensen visit

This is all still catch-up work. My mom came out to have a job interview in June and came to see us for a couple of days. She graduated from nursing school in December but no one is hiring new nurses in California, so she came over to the east coast (the better coast) looking for work. She landed her dream job in a level 3 NICU in West Virginia and so they're moving out here this fall! They'll still be 3 hours away, but that's a lot better than clear across the country! I'm incredibly excited. We had a great couple of days while she was out here. We went to "the bouncy gym" to jump around, swimming at our apartment pool (thank goodness for that pool during the hot summers out here!) and we went strawberry picking at our favorite farm. She's such a pretty grandma! Everyone in my ward thought she was my sister.