Idaho Part 2

Saturday, July 19
Today was the day of the wedding and I was so excited. This was the second of three weddings that were in my family this summer. Some people thought I was going to be worn out by all the weddings but I wasn't. Weddings are always great but when its a family member it is even better. There was a little chaos with 5 kids and getting them organized but thanks to Cressa, Tiffany, Amber, and Mom it was all taken care off. We were all there and able to give our support to Amy and Lynn. After the sealing we headed over to the church building in Rigby for a Spain / Ives pot luck lunch. It was fun spending time with the family in a more relaxed setting. Also we celebrated Damion's (my cousin, Callie's boy) 2nd birthday. He was more excited about the cookies for desert though and my kids dived right in to reading his new books. At one point in time he had two cookies in each hand. He loves those cookies!

After lunch Amber wanted to take the kids over to Reed's Dairy but I knew my kids and decided that it was better to have my kids take a nap. I had been to Reed's Dairy before when James and I were first married and it's a great place. My kids get a little crazy when they are tired and I knew that if I was ever going to survive the reception that night that it would be better just to relax for a little bit. The kids and I headed back to the hotel and just watch cartoons. By the time everyone got back my kids had calmed down and were ready to go. All those that went to the dairy farm had a great time, got to try some really good ice cream, and got to pet a few farm animals.

The reception that night was simple but beautiful. One of my favorite parts was the video playing with pictures of both of them growing up. James and I did the same thing at our reception. Its something that I think personalizes a reception a little but that anybody can do and you don't need a lot of fancy equipment to make it look nice. Amy's color for her reception was a maroon red color and it is always a nice color. We took a lot of pictures and had a lot of fun. Joshua and Eliza made a few friends and ran around a lot. They were full of energy. I stayed until the end and headed back to Rexburg.

Sunday, July 20 and Monday, July 21: It's not easy to say goodbye and the kids and I were dragging our feet saying good bye to Auntie Micki. Joshua was so upset about leaving that he didn't even want to take a picture with her. He acts like a tough guy most of the time but when it comes to leaving family and friends he gets really emotional and very upset. He is a family guy for sure!

The trip home was almost the same as the trip up except we made a very special stop at the Temple Square in Salt Lake. Driving and parking in Salt Lake was crazy with all the construction but once on Temple Square the noise and chaos of the construction just seemed to disappear. We took a tour around Temple Square and then one of the Conference Center. Both were very beautiful and amazing. The kids were super great and we had no problems with them the whole time. There is so much to see between the two places that we could have spent days there but unfortunately we had to continue on home.

That night we stayed with Cousin Randy again. The kids enjoyed the trampoline and chickens and we got to sleep in the tent again. It rained a little so we got a little wet where rain got through the tent but it didn't bother us at all. The whole experience of the trip and the fun of sleeping in the tent was just so much fun. After we got home the kids wanted to sleep in a tent for the next couple of weeks. We had to set up their tunnel tube play area and they slept in there for a couple of days. The next day we continued home and got back around 11 or 12 at night. It was a long day but definitely worth it. I love family trips and can't wait for the next one. 3 weeks and counting...

IDAHO TRIP
PART 1

Wednesday, July 10, 2008:

James and I arrived back in California from our trip to Massachusetts on Tuesday night. My Mother, sister-in-law, Tiffany, Amber and her kids, and me and my kids were leaving the next morning at 5am to go to Idaho. My cousin, Amy, was getting married in the Idaho Falls Temple. I was so excited but I knew that this was going to be an interesting trip. 5 kids and 4 adults on a 14 hour trip. Luckily we were not driving the whole way in one day. The first day we stopped in Richfield, Utah (10 hr drive) at my mom's cousins. We arrived their at about 4 in the afternoon. The kids loved Cousin Randy's house. He had a trampoline, a porch swing, tons of toys, and chickens. I think if they could have the kids would have stayed there for the whole trip. Tiffany, Cressa (my cousin), Joshua, Eliza, and I all slept outside in a tent. (Don't worry Amber we got just as much sleep as you did.) The kids thought it was great. It was their first time sleeping in a tent and they had a lot of fun.

Thursday, July 17, 2008:

We were not up as early as the day before but we only had about about a four hour drive. (Plus some with a ton of stops. Remember there were 5 kids with us) By the time we got to Idaho Falls everyone else was already there and waiting. We had a good amount of the family there. My grandparents were there and both of my mom's sisters along with most of their families. We had a family pool and pizza party. We had not had that much of the family together in a long time and I have not spent much time with a lot of my cousins so it was fun catching up.

Everyone else was staying in Idaho Falls but I decided to take the chance and visit some of my college friends up in Rexburg so I decided to stay with an old roommate, Micki, my Hawaiian twin. When we got to her place a bunch of her roommates and some of my old friends were having a water fight and bbq. We joined right in. Joshua loved the balloon fight and could not get enough of it. The kids also had another first and for weeks after they were asking me for more. They got to try smorz! They were hooked. Even Aubrey was covered in white melted marshmallow.

Friday, July 18, 2008:

Friday was the day my cousin decided to receive her endowments. Thanks to Tiffany and Cressa who watch all five kids I was able to attend the session. It's always great to see a family member go through the temple for the first time and I'm glad that I was able to be there for her. For some reason there is an unwritten tradition to go out to eat after a temple session and today was no different. The entire crowd headed over to Chuck a Rama and filled ourselves till we were full. I have never seen Aubrey eat so much food.

After lunch our little group decided to break off and take a walk around Idaho Falls, the temple, and into the visitors center. So far I think the kid's favorite place was the visitors center. Joshua found a little touch screen monitor for kids to watch movies on about the gospel. He watched all the movies at least 3 times. We had a hard time getting him out of there. Later that night after heading back up to Rexburg and putting the kids down for bed I got to spend some time talking with Micki. As roommates we were duplicates of each other. We were born on the same day of the same year at about the same hour, we had the same interest, were in the same clubs, and even had the same major. During most of our years together as roommates we were practically joined at the hip. It was lots of fun but sadly (due to distance) we don't get together much often anymore so it was nice to spend some time just talking and catching up. This has been a great trip!

Well this is longer than I thought so I'm going to break this trip up into parts.
Stay tuned for part 2. Oh and thanks Amber for the pictures I borrowed off your blog.

Congratulations Amy and Lynn!

Massachusetts Part 2

Day 3 , 4, 5

Saturday:
Today was the big day for Rachael and Neal. Their sealing was not until 2PM so the whole family (Mansius & Sheppard) plus a few friends went out to eat at a haunted hotel and restaurant. James and I got to sit near Grandma & Grandpa Sheppard, who are so much fun. The meal was great and it was fun getting to know Rachael's family. After lunch we headed over to the Boston Temple. It was so gorgeous! It was originally designed to be bigger but the church across the highway got upset because they didn't want it to be bigger than theirs. In the end they made the temple smaller but it is in a higher spot so it looks a lot better. And definitely much prettier. Though I think I'm partial.

We had set up for the reception the day before so we had a little bit of time between the wedding and the reception while others were putting on the finishing touches. I got the chance to just sit down and talk with Rachael, my new sister. It was nice to be able to get to know her. We have a lot in common and I can't wait to continue to get to know her. It's nice to have someone else crazy enough to marry into this crazy family. No, I'm really just kidding. This is a great family!! It's nice to see the family growing and to see more and more of my brothers and sisters getting married. The reception was beautiful. We had a ton of food which was really good. James and I were in charge of decorating the car and we had so much fun. We had little to work with so we had to get very creative. Unfortunately, we were not very sneaky and when we were discovered missing they knew what we were up too. Lots of fun! And yes they are Disney fans just like we are. James and I had a cake that had Micky and Minnie on them as well.

Sunday:
By this point almost everyone had headed home so it was just Mom, Dad, James and I left. With some time left over after church we decided to head over the the Lizzie Borden House. The Lizzie Bordon house is the location of the hatchet murders in 1892 which were never solved. The house is supposed to be haunted but not that day. It was an old house and it was interesting to see the style of homes that were built back in that day. No halls! There were times were you had to go through one room to get to another room. Here is Mom Mansius and I sitting in the spot where the father was murdered. Spooky!

Since New Bedford used to be a big whaling community we headed down to the museum and walked around the area, saw a movie on whaling, and looked at some of the old historic buildings in the area. It is really a beautiful area and lots of history.

Monday:
This was an amazing day! We headed over to Rhode Island to see some of the Newport Mansions. These homes were huge! I think my whole house could have fit in one, maybe two, of the bedrooms of some of these homes. Most of these homes were built during the late 1800s and were only summer homes to the families that owned them. We saw 3 out of 11 homes left in Newport, The Breakers, owned by the Vanderbilts, The Elmes, and Marble House, also owned by another one of the Vanderbilts. My favorite of the three was the Breakers. It was not only beautiful but it was a simpler than the rest of them. A lot of the other were so packed with decorations, like gold leafed walls, that I didn't like them. The Breakers home seemed a little bit more family oriented. Another one of my favorite parts of The Breakers was the kids play house. It was almost the size of a regular house. James is standing in front of in the picture to the right.

Sorry about the novel but it was a very packed weekend. We did a lot in a small amount of time. Mom and Dad Mansius were moving a week later so this was probably our last chance to get to Massachusetts for a while. We wanted to see as much of it as possible. We had a wonderful week with the family and are so excited for Rachael and Neal.

Time for a haircut!

I have been putting this off for too long now. I really like my hair long but it needs a nice cut so that it is not so boring. In the past every time I get my hair cut its been the same old hair cut at about shoulder length and I'm bored with it. I just can't seem to think of anything else that would look good. It does not help that I have fine hair. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I should get it cut and possible still leave it long? Is there any hope for long fine hair to look good?

Aubrey Update

On Friday, Aubrey had another check up with the endocrinologist. He said that she is still small for her age but she has been gaining weight at a healthy rate. She has finally found her own growth curve. Between the weight gain and good test results the doctor was no longer concerned about her. We will continue to have a few more check ups with both endocrinologist and pediatrician but mostly just to check on weight and height

At 15 months she now weighs 15 lbs and 6 oz and is 27 inches tall.

BOSTON
Part 1

James and I headed to Boston to help celebrate the sealing and wedding of Neal and Rachael. While we were there we got to spend some time with the family and see the sites of Massachusetts.

Day 1 Thursday: After taking an all night red eye flight we arrived in Boston early Thursday morning. Right off the bat we got our first experience of Boston. We had to take the train/subway to met Mark, Lois, Neal and Rachael by ourselves. Luckily we figured it out, met everyone and headed back to the city of Boston to met up with the rest of the family. (Rachael's parents, grandparents, and brother from England). All eleven of us spent the day touring the historical sites of Boston. We rode a swan boat in the Commons, saw Paul Revere's house, a few old cemeteries, The Old North Church famous for the "One if by land, Two if by sea," and toured the USS Constitution (oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world). The best part of the whole day was just getting to know Rachael and her family. It was also interesting because we were touring American Revolutionary War Historical sites with a British family. All day we joked back and forth about Americans being traitors and "The British are coming!" Rachael's family are great people and very humorous.

Day 2 Friday: More History and more family time. Today we started out going to Plimoth Plantation. Here we got to see how the plantation and a nearby Wampanoag homesite were run in the year 1627. There were people there role playing what every day life was like during that time. You could even ask questions and they expressed 17th century viewpoints. After Plimoth we took a glance at the Plymoth pebble (Plymoth rock). For some reason I thought it was much bigger more like an unmovable rock formation but I was very wrong. The people of the town call it the Plymoth pebble instead of Plymoth Rock. Of course it did not help that people used to take chunks of it and it is now only half its size. Even then it was a lot smaller than I pictured. Right next the the Plymoth Pebble was the Mayflower II. The Mayflower II is a re-creation of the original. I was amazed to see how small of a space that so many people lived in for so long. My favorite part of the day was when I got to put my feet in the Atlantic ocean for the first time.

Day 3, 4, 5 coming soon!

CONGRATULATIONS NEAL AND RACHAEL!

My First Talk in Primary!
I Mean JOSHUA'S First Talk in Primary!

Because I know we are all children of God I will share the gospel with others. Everyone on earth is a child of God and he wants all of his children to return to live with him again. In order for them to live with Heavenly Father they must first hear the gospel. I need to help by sharing the gospel with others. The first thing i can do is to be an example by following the Lord's commandments. Then i can invite my friends to church and pass out copies of the Book of Mormon. It is important for me and you to share the gospel so that others have the chance to live with our Heavenly Father again.

(When he got his talk last week he was so excited! As soon as he saw me he had to show me and then wanted to go find Daddy. I was not expecting him to be so excited. During the day of his talk I could not get him to speak but once I told him he could go sit down, if he wanted to, he decided he really wanted to give his talk. He did great! I was a proud Mommy!)

Birthday Celebration at the Relief Society Camp Out!

Thanks to my Mom and my sister, Amber I was able to attend the Stake Relief Society Camp Out. It was so much fun! It gave me a chance to get to know a few more of the ladies in the Panama ward and spend some time with some of the ladies from the Silver Creek ward. Apparently we were the wild bunch because we were the last to go to bed. For most of the night we played a game call Sum. I think I hold the record for being the sum the most amount of turns. I guess I'm not very good at the game. Just before we headed to our cabin we stopped by the campfire to see if anyone was there. There was a camp fire but nobody around. We stood around it long enough to prove to everyone at home that we actually went camping, put out the fire, and then headed to bed. When I walked into the mesh hall the next morning I was greeted by a beautiful birthday bouquet of balloons and twigs on our table. Definitely camper style! I was also given a card from everyone in our little group. Somehow the night before they had passed this card around. I had no idea when or how they were able to pull that off. During breakfast I was given a cake which was consisted of two ding dongs. One had 2 candles and the other had six. 26! Other camper style touch. After breakfast we continued our game of scum up until we had to separate for mini classes. We spent the rest of the morning learning how to organize our lives so that we can have more time to relax, spend time with our families, and serve others. It was a great camp out. I loved the chance to get to know some of the ladies of the ward. We need to have another scum night! Lots of fun!

NEW POOL!

A couple of weeks ago the temp here got up to 107 degrees so my parents bought the kids a kiddy pool and spent the day playing in the pool. My kids are water bugs and they would be in that pool every day all day if I let them. They love it and its a nice way to keep cool on these hot summer days.