FINALLY! I have about 15 min. before kids get home from school! Man, where did my day go?

The weekend was so perfect, except I had to get up at 2:30 AM. We left at 4 AM to get to the airport. Flew into Salt lake city, and then drove up to Idaho Falls because flying into IF almost doubled the airfare. So, the poor kids sat all day. Anyway, we got there at 2:30 PM and we were all so happy. The next day I wanted to keep dad busy, so I told him I wanted to visit 2 of my favorite places growing up. We drove to the Falls where the LDS temple is and we fed the geese and ducks. There were hundreds of them! Mom said that they just keep multiplying because everyone feeds them. The kids had a blast, I even got dad to walk around with us for awhile. We then drove out to the Sand Dunes we have there. I was sooooo shocked that they are almost gone. Dad said that when the Teton Damn broke in the 70's, they took almost half for sand bagging. I barely remember that, but I do remember going to the river where we fed the ducks and sitting on my dad's shoulders and seeing the river just rise and rise. Anyway, the kids haven't seen dunes before so we played and played. Mom and dad sat in the car and just laughed. We barryed everyone, rolled, jumped and even slid down the dunes. It was a blast! That pretty much took up the day. Saturday Kevin took the 2 older kids and left early, as the disguise of going to barnes and nobles, and they went to the church to help set up. Mom set up the guise that she wanted to get my families picture taken since we were here, but her yard she didn't like, so she wanted pictures at the church. Then after that dad wanted to take us out to dinner. So my family left a few min. early and told them we would meet them there. We got there and as we turned into the parking lot there was a huge yellow banner that said "happy 80th birthday" with everyone standing behind it. We got out and said our hellos. OMG it was so cold, we didn't bring jackets or shoes, just flip flops. Anyway, all 7 kids, spouses, grandkids, their spouses and their kids made it except for 3 boys who were serving a 2 yr mission for our church! It was amazing, we counted 58 people! So anyway, when mom drove up with dad, she went slow so he could see everyone, he smiled and said, "oh look, theres a church activity for the kids going on" and then he saw everyone and was shocked. He started to cry and so did mom! It was perfect! We had a nice dinner, cake and a program. Then, my oldest brother, Steve, put together a compilation of DVDS with pictures of mom and dad growing up and then all of us. He has worked on this for over a year. He even got mom and dads voices in the background explaining all the pictures! It was so beautiful! He did it by Weddings, families, Redfish lake(our families favorite camping spot in the Sawtooth mountains), dads family, moms family and so much more. Steve said it took over 5 DVDs to get all it done. He's going to make copies for all the families for Christmas! My kids thought it was so much fun seeing me as a kid growing up.

I shortly got to visit with all my family. It's hard to see 6 brothers and sisters in just one days visit. 3 brother's lives right in IF but Joni and Steve live in Utah and Leslie lives in Seattle, so it's hard to all get together anymore.

All in all, it was so beautiful to see dad just get teary eyed over all his prosperity! Great weekend! Plus I only gained 1 lb!!!!!!!!!