Titanic at Idaho Falls

So yesterday we went to Idaho Falls just to get away and we have really wanted to see the Titanic exhibit in the museum. It was really neat. Spencer's favorite was a porthole that they had recovered from the bottom of the sea. It was cracked, so you could see how thick the glass was. I personally liked the perfume that they recovered that still gives off fumes. I could not believe how the ocean preserved but on the other hand destroyed so many things.

At the beginning you were given a boarding pass with the name of a passenger. Three of the four of ours died. What is really interesting is that the one who lived ran into a guy the day before the Titanic sailed who told here she would be a part of a great tragedy but she would survive. Isn't that crazy? Gives me the chills!

The kids favorite part was a 5ft tall ice berg, it was set at 32 degrees and the actual temp of the water the night the Titanic sank was 28. So we could see just how cold it was, they let you touch it and now you know why so many perished from hypothermia. It was so sad! We really enjoyed the exhibit. No cameras allowed so here are the kiddos outside!

Catching Up with Ya'll

Well we have been SOOO busy around here. Last weekend we had a soccer game and then Spencer and the kids ran up to Rexburg for the kids friend's birthday party. I had to work and have worked 6 of the last 9 days. I am draggin pretty bad and my eyes are so blood shot I could possibly pass as drunk. They burn and itch and I guess, well Spencer diagnosis is "allergies", Allergies?? I have NEVER had allergies! Anyway we took a generic Zyrtec and today has been better so I guess it took 24 years but I now have allergies, WAHOO...NOT!

As we posted Spencer got his application in and we were really excited but Spencer has a hunch he isn't going to get in. The director of this thing REALLY likes you to do it graduate, not undergrad. DANG IT. Spencer says they still want an interview but we will probably have to make some tough choices here in the next few weeks.

LUKAS, my dear Lukas. Well I am NOT going to say it because I don't want to jinx myself but Lukas is potty tr_____. Yep the solution seems to have been spending a weekend with his three other cousins the same age as him and they all USE the potty. (Plus pink and baby diapers helped ALOT!) So I think it became the "thing" to do, conforming to this peer pressure is absolutely mother approved. We are so proud of him (but just in case I am premature in my thinking, keep your fingers crossed for more good days, thanks!)

MaKynzee is our little book worm. Still continuing to grab any and every book and "read" it out loud. She is such a special little sweet heart and I can't imagine any thing as cute as her little voice in the background reading me books.

Anyway so some pictures from the absolutely AMAZING Circus Birthday Party that Mo and Alicia Hemming put on for their son Tanner. It looks like it was fun and Spencer said they really out did themselves and had an amazing turn out! Great job guys!

I guess there was a ballon popping station. From the pictures Uncle Arik really had to help these two. But I love Kira's smile, they were havin' fun!

Alicia face painting my babies! They look so cute. And thank you for making Spencer promise to clean it off for church Sunday! I love that my friends watch my back when I am not there. Good friends, really good friends.

The BIRTHDAY BOY, Happy Birthday Tanner!

I love his smile! The smile says it all.

Tanner opening our present, it was a Lightning McQueen launcher thing (we let Lukas pick it out). Hope he is enjoying it! I am so sad that I missed this shin-dig but it was FUN-tastic for the rest of the fam. Thanks Mo and Alicia!

Easter Weekend Excitement

WARNING: This is a LONG blog but I mushed everything together from the weekend so PLEASE enjoy and read it ALL or just look at this pictures...

So I was SO SUPER excited to see my family. They came to get Garrett from college and hung around for some fun. We started off the weekend with a soccer practice, then ran to Soda to stay the night and have Arik's fabulous dutch oven. Then we woke up came back to Pocatello had a soccer game, ran to SLC for my Dad's 50th birthday party, played games. Went to bed, the Easter bunny came, woke up explored the Easter baskets, went to church, played games, took family pictures, had a Easter ham dinner (thanks Grandma!), played games, did an Easter egg hunt, played games...and went back home. WHEW!! It was a whirl wind of a weekend but a BLAST. We had so much fun and got to see family we haven't seen and friends, Ian and Mandy Walser: we haven't seen for 4-5 YEARS! It was GREAT!

So Dad's Birthday Party was a joint one with his brother, John. Dad is turning 50 and John is turning 40 so we had all the family celebrate! This is my dad with his sisters Debra and Julie and brother John. It was great to see everyone and we missed those that wanted to come but couldn't!

I was in charge of decorations. It was fun. I had black, silver and white balloons everywhere and I thought that tombstones were VERY appropriate for the occasion. I did my Dad's first so that is why the "D" is so... "special" but I knew he would love me no matter what it looked like. Right, Dad!

Dad with our (Christina's and I's) high school friends Ian and Mandy Walser! It was so nice to see them and there cutie pie. I wish we had more time but it was SO nice of them to come down, they are at BYU right now.

EASTER

Lukas and his Easter basket...he liked the Jorgensen's baskets better (what can you do?).

MaKynzee and her basket..she was REALLY into the chocolate (her Grandma Bagshaw would be proud!)

The kids after church in their new Easter church clothes. Thanks Grandma and Papa Bowen!

We took family pictures of our little Easter crew, we missed Melanie and her kids they had to fly home earlier that morning! Dang work, it always gets in the way of being with family!

THEN there was an EGG HUNT

Christina and Arik helping the kids. It was SO much fun to see all of them huntin'.

This is how all the eggs were hidden, plain view (it's best for 2-3.5 year olds). LOL

MaKynzee loading up her basket with help from Grandma Bowen!

Lukas had a blast, he kept saying "Look mommy more. I'll get em you just stay there." Yes, Mr. Independent. It was such fun and we really enjoyed seeing the sun even if it was freezing and there was lots of wind. The kiddos didn't care.

We had a most fabulous weekend. Thanks to Christina and Aunt Lisa for putting the party together. Thanks to Mom and Dad Bowen for spoiling us so good. Thanks to Mandy and Ian for coming and visiting. Just THANKS to my Father in Heaven for all my wonderful blessings...each and every one of YOU!

SPENCER DID IT! APPLICATION IS IN!

I am so totally excited! Spencer finally sent in his application for the program we came here for. It only took 2 years but it is DONE! Now starts the waiting game. I like to wait compared to hounding someone, LOL. I am so proud he has really picked up his game and doing really well in school now. I hope we can keep up the momentum! Please let him know how proud you are of him!

Potty Training NIGHTMARE!!

So we have been trying to Potty Train FOREVER! Lukas just has the personality that he doesn't care. We have tried everything...naked, going to "Big boy" underwear, let him pick out the underwear, keep him in his wet clothes, make him clean up the mess, make him sit on the toilet all day, give him treats. Right Treats HAHA... we have tried cars, movies, candy, cookies and sticker chart and I could go on an on. We have been bombarded with ..."Why isn't he potty trained?" and "He is almost 4 ya know?" Yeah I know he came out of ME! Anyway sorry I have spent too many tears on this. So I decided there are two things that Lukas hates 1."Baby" Diapers (MaKynzee's diapers) and 2. Pink or Girl clothes. So I reached my limit last night and here is what I came up with after he had his like 6th accident plus pooping in his underwear that DAY, just one day.



Yes, that is Lukas in Girl PJ's (yes they are too small but at this point I didn't care) and underneath that a good old fashion diaper! He was REALLY mad to say the least so I am hopeful :)

Sorry son if you are scared for life, you have NO IDEA what this is doing to your mother!!!!

Now I know there are those of you who love me and would LOVE to give me good advice and I would LOVE to hear it just no stories where "We did this and he never had another accident!" Be real and trust me I am at my end with this! Sorry for the horrible tone coming across but I believe I am a good (I sure hope anyway) mom and I am doing my best and I am sick of crying over this and having so many people belittle me over it. There I have vented and you can all forgive me now...PLEASE.

Check out the other blog I posted below!

The Last Few Days

As you can see our game on Saturday was in the snow. The kids did good considering, I think. Lukas did great the 1st half and the second half he just played in the snow, much to his mother's dismay. But he got his goal and he was done. The Yellow team just stood around and cried but NOT our Little Monsters!

Lukas with his soccer star kick...going to the goal! I love that you can see the grin on his face.

TA-DA! Luke's 1st goal!!! I was so excited because he didn't use his hands or anything. He got the ball and kicked it all the way down and in. GOOOOOOOOOOOAL!

So to entertain the kids during conference Sunday morning Daddy helped them build stuff with their Lego's. I was actually really impressed with this robot and plane.

The "Robot"

Then Spencer got REALLY creative and made the anatomically correct! I made them smaller as not to offend the eyes!

The Plane

Lukas showing off his plane. He was SO excited!

So as you can see nothing dull here at the Bagshaws!

Pictures of Adventures 2

Here we are at the Hovenweep ruins. Lukas has quite the cheesy face there!

This was my favorite ruin. They actually built into a boulder!

My favorite picture from Hoovenweep. Spencer took some good pictures and the storm clouds behind actually gave us some SNOW!






MaKynzee being way cute on the trail to the bridges.

MaKynzee and mommy climbing up the ladder. Going down to these bridges was CRAZY! You went down ladders, stairs and the whole time you were on the edge of a canyon. Great place for two toddlers, eh?






We finally made it to the bridge!! It was such an AWWW moment when you saw how big it was and think of how it was formed.

True to Bowen character we couldn't go home without someone getting hurt. I opened the Visitors Center door and banged Lukas in the head it wouldn't have done anything but he had his sunglasses on. I am sure he probably needed stitches or at least glue but we were 3 hours away from any town and who knows how long from a hospital. His whole face was bloody before I even knew where the cut was! He freaks, I mean FREAKS at the site of blood; nothing like his mother! He was pretty excited about his Diego band-aid though so it was "all better."

Adventures Part 2: Hovenweep, Natl Bridges and Canyonlands

Day 3: Hovenweep

Now Hovenweep is really on the boarder of Utah and Colorado and so I am sure we kept going back and forth but the National Park is on and Indian Reservation so there were no signs. Except the ones that told us we were not welcome and this was not a "cross country road." The Ruins were AMAZING, we felt so close to the Book of Mormon stories and it all came alive for us. Lukas called the ruins "Castles" and was very intrigued by them. MaKynzee only had one goal in mind and that was to catch up to the dog that was in front of us. It was pretty cute and nice cause it made her walk fast and keep up.

NIGHT of TERROR in the LOU
So I got really sick and ended up in the pit toilet for like 4 hours...in, out, in out! It was awful! SO I just had those really bad tummy cramps and then the runs. I woke everybody up running back and forth to the bathroom. I thought I was going to die! I almost took my pillow and just slept in there...it was that BAD! So that is why the Bagshaw adventures ended a little early, we only got to see part of Canyonlands.

Day 4: Canyonlands and Newspaper Rock

The Newspaper Rock was a big hit for us. It was so amazing to see all those drawing and I am really into petroglyph so I was totally stoked. Canyonlands were beautiful! We didn't get to the northern part but we did see the Needles part. The "Needles" or these really tall rock formations were our favorite. Spencer loved the off road trail with all the scenery. He loves off roading but hates that I limit his adventures with my car sickness. Oh well! I must admit I enjoyed the road to. The things we got to see were just AHHHH.


Sorry I couldn't get the pictures to load. I'll try tomorrow.