Rachel turns 30 and other Random Octoberness

October 8th, I turned 30!! I feel fine about it, not depressed, not jazzed up, just plain ol' good. My life is very blessed. I always felt like people would stop looking at me like the nutso girl with kids she was clearly way too young to have, when I turned 30. Every once in a while, I'm told I'm too young to have four kids, but for the most part those comments have stopped (must be the ever increasing forehead lines). For my birthday, my cute little family joined me at a fall festival complete with games and hayride...

A few weeks later, I got together a group of girlfriends and we set off for Twin Falls, Idaho where we hoteled, ate junk and giggled a lot. The next day we attended a session at the Twin Falls Temple and had lunch at a great little local restaurant overseeing the canyon. We plan to make this an annual thing...the husbands don't know that yet :)

Now for the random Octoberness...

Buster and Luke become friends after which Buster betrays us and is
never to be seen again :( (pets have bad luck here)


Princess, fairy tale and 80's day at Seasons Dance Studio...

Luke discovers the joy of hiding in the mesh basket

To complete the randomness we went to the Rocky Mountain HS football game-Go Grizzlies!

Grandpa Hardie visits, Halloween festivities

My dad loves me so much (well maybe more the grandkids) that he took a trip out here to see us by himself! He hates being away from my mom, so I felt very privileged. We had a great time and the kids were so excited to have him here for Halloween. He helped carve pumpkins, went to their class parties at school and went trick or treating with them. Near the end of his trip, just the two of us went hiking up Table Rock Mountain in Boise, very much our thing (very much NOT our spouse's thing)...


Working on Brooklyn's pumpkin, well Emily's working

Taylee went nuts with stickers and poker things

Justin working on Trey's pumpkin while Trey smiles at me

Monster Mommy and her boy (yes sometimes I have fun too)

Roxy wanted in on it too

Done!

No, she's not in a headlock, she just randomly snuggled up to Grandpa

At Brooklyn's class party

At Treygan's class party

My butterfly, Harry Potter, witch and skeleton

Little Mr. Skeleton's first Halloween (7 months old)

Treygan paid for his own Harry Potter costume

Pretty Pink Butterfly Brooklyn

The cutest croc wearing witch I ever did see

We made it!

Just me and my daddy

First day of school and hot air balloon show

Another school year! Trey starting third grade, Brookyn starting first, Taylee starting preschool...



No tears here, this girl was made for preschool!

All done with your first day!

8 years old

6years old

Trey says, "See ya!"

Brookie bites her nails with tears in her eyes

Thank goodness for older neighbor girls to help!

Some hours later, we wait patiently at the bus stop.

Taylee had a great day with just mom and Luke, but she's

ready for some playmates!



Boise's hot air balloon festival:

With the Parry kids being very sill

I let Trey and Brook take the pictures, they didn't turn out too bad

Taylee's look-alike, the youngest Parry

My girlies

Very cool! Have I mentioned that the Boise area is an awesome place to live?

A little more summer fun 2011

A little more of our summer fun included our TEN YEAR anniversary! Wow, ten years?! Really?! Justin and I met at Ricks (yes it was Ricks then) in February of 2001 at a dance (where else would I be). He danced with Stephanie first, he says he really wanted to dance with me, but whatever. We found out he served his mission in Detroit and the next thing I knew, we danced together the rest of the night, Stephanie told me later she thought we'd hit it off...you were right Stephers! That night, we parted ways with no plans to see each other again, but since I wasn't about to let such an amazing guy go, I looked him up in the Ricks student directory a couple days later and I called him. One devotional service and one official date later, we were a couple. We were engaged by May thanks to my aggressive persuasion. No, I wasn't subtle, I told him I knew I wanted to marry him and he needed to figure out if the feelings were reciprocated. Justin proposed a few weeks later at the falls in Idaho Falls, after a dinner and bowling date, can you imagine how nervous he probably felt those few hours? Not to mention that when he called my dad that morning to ask permission, my dad said NO! That's another story, though. Dad changed his mind (thanks mom) and we were married in the Detroit Temple August 24, 2001. I feel blessed to be married to Justin, we have a great marriage and I know we'll do just fine for all of eternity!

Just past the sappy pictures are just some more fun summer pics:


Outside of Asiago's in Boise

Decor in our room at the Anniversary Inn

Our cute carriage bed

Trip to Utah and more of Tay's birthday:

me and Steph and all of our kids

mamas and babies

Taylee, Grayson, Eden, Brooklyn, Treygan

The babes, Everett and Luke

My kiddos in front of the Christus statue

At the top of the conference center

Conference center grounds

Visiting with Grandma Beck

5 month old Luke lounging poolside at the hotel

Their favorite part of the trip, of course

Just a random one of the boys, Treygan thinks this is hilarious

Taylee painting her own nails with the nail polish from Grandma Hardie

Cute Taylee toes

Isn't it great being four!