Snow in July

Kelsie turned 12 on july 5th!!! She has always had to compete wuth the 4th of July, which was fun when you are 5 because you think all these people came to your fireworks! That does not fly anymore and every year her birthday is really hard to fit in with all of the celebrations. Because 12 is a big birthday we knew we needed to do something FUN! So we thought of a few random ideas, Lava, downata, salt lake, the alpine slides.....none sounded like the right activity. So we went to bed on the 4th and decided to make the fianl decision in the morning. Kelly came up with the most amazing idea, he saved the day and made Kelsies birthday wonderful

Teton Village! in july? you can ride the gondola all day for one price. They offer hiking up there, fine dinning, a deli, and camp fire. We spent the first part of the afternoon hiking around and playing in the snow, ate dinner, and later in the evening after a quick trip into Jackson we had smores at 10,000 ft! You can buy a smores plate for about 6 buck and it is worth every dime. It was so fun and all the kids enjoyed it. A day we will never forget. I recomend everyone do this at least once the views were fab!

To Bone and Back

Every year we put together a team for the To Bone and Back Relay. Over the years we have kept mostly the same people on our team, so we have grown as a team and it is soooo fun. Every year we have about 2-3 spots to fill so it varies year to year but we always have a revolving people. this year was no different we lost a few and gained a few. By the end of the day you are tired sweaty and gross, FUN TIMES! We finished with a time of 5 hours 41 mins. everyone ran hard in 90 degree heat. It is fun to see people you know on team and every year you get to know different team better and start small rivalries. We always want to beat this particular team but they have about 10 mins on us....maybe next year! Kelly's cousin Jake and Katie formed a team and it was fun to see them up there having a good time and to see many of them do this with little amount of training, you guys were awesome!

Kolton this year had his own team, they did a 4 man team and did awesome. they were 3rd team over all and got third place in the high school division. They finished with a 5 hour 5 min time GO BEES!

leave it to the pros!

Some of our cute little williams girls are born with the "williams curse" better known as the uni-brow. I happen to have one of these girls that has been plagued with one. Over the last six months Kelsie has been bugging me about getting her eyebrows waxed. Every time we have gone up to the hair salon we forget to fix her eyebrow situation. About two weeks ago we were in Sally Beauty Supply and we decided to buy a waxing kit. I am sure you all can see where this is going.............After we fixed the center we decided to fix the sides and OPPS! So after a few
laughs and a few tears we decided to leave it to the pros!

Kolton

it seems like weekly we are now having the "milestones" in our lives that make us feel old probably because we are now getting old! Kolton turned 16 last Sunday, and like every birthday my children have I cry. Sixteen seems like such a fun time of your life but such a hard time. It has been fun to see him the last couple of weeks with his friends training for to bone and back. We forced him to get a job, he thought he was going to just hang with grandpa on the farm this summer! And so we told him you have a car and you are expensive, you need money for dates, soooooo! And I am happy to tell you HE HAS A JOB!

He shares a birthday with my mom and a cousin who has one a few days before so my family got together and went to heise for the day it was such a good time! I love having my siblings living close to us now. You have to appreciate sisters because you know they will make fun and laugh with you about things, (my swimsuit!) but it is so fun and it makes me laugh.

Kelly ordained him a priest yesterday and had our families over for lunch and visiting it is was so nice to have everyone over. Now we just start preparing him for the next two years of his life. He is such a good kid and such a great example for all his cousins. He had great uncles that have

always been a great example for him

Car Shopping

I know how much everyone enjoys car shopping, in fact I bet everyone would put it top of the list right? We are doing two different kinds right now and WOW what an experience. Last year we bought a 83 ford ranger from my brother in law so Kolton our new driver would have something to drive. It has been the best truck and we have really enjoyed it. However we need something that he can drive the girls around in and pick up Kenz and all her friends from school. Over the last year we find him taking one of the other three vehicles to drive them around so we need to upgrade. We have also been trying to decide between trading in our sport trac or the Yukon. And the Yukon FINALLY won out. It is the auto that sits in the garage most but when we use it we put on the miles.



Because we are doing the two extreme type of shopping it has been very funny. When we are looking at older cars the salesmen have the funniest things to say.....First you have to go find one it is obvious you are not spending much money when you are looking in the CHEAP lot. Then they will tell you how reliable this piece of garbage car is, and the check engine light is no big deal, the shaking in the back goes away, and when you drive down the road the pulling to the right side is the first they have ever heard. So the search is still on to find the great kid car.



Now the Yukon....Kelly is such a "researcher" shall we say. Car salesmen have pinned him as the typical "engineer" site worker. He goes in with his spread sheet and all the facts. We have are considering 3 different types of vehicles so it make the process so much more painful. We stopped at Phil Meador and looked at an 07 sequoia, I finally had enough of the salesman who was helping us and trying to get us to take it off his lot TODAY......and I finally had to explain to the nice gentleman that he was just a spot on his graph and we would not be taking the car home today. And if he fit Kellys criteria we would be calling him , miles vs price. So the search is on. I love salesmen what fun they are! so I tell then my specs for a new vehicle; leather, heated seats, and DVD. We looked at a sequoia with cloth and the salesman tells me really you don't need the leather you can just buy seat covers, and another says well this has the leather you can just buy one of those covers that plugs in with the seat and it will be heated. And cover the leather I am paying extra for? What a fun experience! and then when we FINALLY find the vehicle Kelly will be on the phone with the dealership for a week negotiating price. I just hope this ends SOON!

Proud mom moment

I am lucky to have had the opportunity to raise my younger siblings. And over the last couple of years I have been lucky to watch them grow and go through life changes experiences. I have been a large part of their weddings, babies, and life in general. It means so much to me that I still get "mom" calls from them and I sometimes treat them like my children. Which they probably don't like. I love that when my sister Robbie got married she called me as she is stuck in Las Vegas traffic and they are late for the ceremony. I know at that moment she just needed to hear everything was going to be just fine and all the pieces would fall in place even though all the family was waiting for the bride and groom. Last mothers day I spent with Clifford as he blessed his new baby that was such a great experience for all of us. Heather practically lived with us when she was a teenager, my kids think of her a the big sister and still treat her as such. Over the last five years we have started this tradition that we take "trips" together. Last year was Yellowstone and even though they made fun of me for emailing them and agenda and great facts about Yellowstone I know they love it! If my "birth children" turn out anything like my siblings I have done a good job.

Yesterday my little sister Robbie graduated from ISU with a business degree, I am SOOO proud of her. We sat through 2 hours of ISU graduation and took some great video footage. I yelled loud when they called her name the entire Holt Area heard me! Congrats Robbie....What a great example.

and now to my great children....Brag moment! Kelsie is now training to run the mile in the 6th grade track meet. As her class was practicing she ran a 7:20 mile beating all the BOYS! GO KELSIE! Kolton at his track meet this week took 4 secs off his mile 5:31! and did a 12:10 2 mile! GO KOLTON! McKenzie at conference this weekend ran a 3:07 half mile cutting off 7 secs of her time! GO KENZ B! I love that my children have taken up running and enjoy it, what FUN!

BUSY....BUSY!

Usually by the time May gets here I am thankful school is almost out. This year is the same! We are SOOOOO busy from April to June I look forward to cutting things out of our lives. I have spent all of my extra time driving kids to activities. Between track, dance, competitions, piano, school projects, training for a marathon and all other small things we are at the end of our fuse. We have been to Utah twice for dance, all over the state of Idaho for track. We actually had one weekend Dance was in Idaho Falls and Koltons track meet was on a Saturday so we bounced back and forth between Hillcrest HS and Idaho Falls HS, and we had a small window during that day to get in a long run. I am not sure exactly how Kelly has found time to study for his finals because I wouldn't have had time to study.

If we can keep up for one more month Summer will be here and life will slow down! I feel displaced from everyone and have not been able to keep up with what is going on with people. I have really missed being able to read people blogs, I hope you are all doing well out there.

I have some sad news to pass on, and some of you will laugh over this! 2 chickens died!! When we went to Utah last weekend 2 of them did not survive. Kenz and Kelsie admitted later they put them in the garden and ate fertilizer!!! OOPS! well we knew it was short lived, so we have one lonely chicken we will see how long it can last in the Williams barnyard!