Corn Palace

On our way to Mount Rushmore we got to stop in Mitchell, South Dakota and see the Corn Palace. Every year they create a new design on the palace by using colored corn cobs to make designs and pictures on the walls. It is scheduled to be completed this August and the design this year is called "American Hero's."

This is an example of how they create the Corn Palace.

This is showing how they create the Corn Palace with the template and the corn cobs.




Hannah in front of the Corn Palace.

Hannah, Daddy & Jacob in front of the Corn Palace.

This is as close as Hannah would get to sitting by Zeke.

Daddy, Jacob & Hannah sitting by Zeke.

Mommy and Hannah with Zack.

Hannah playing in the car before we head off again.

Mount Rushmore

We got to see Mount Rushmore on June 7th on our way back home from Minnesota. It was really fun to see. What a great ending to a fun trip!

Taking a family picture at Mount Rushmore.

Hannah taking a picture of Daddy at Mount Rushmore.

Jacob's view of Mount Rushmore. He slept through the entire thing!

Hannah's binoculars that she got at Mount Rushmore. She still hasn't figured out that she needs to turn them around!

Cami and Mount Rushmore.

Brent and Mount Rushmore.

Hannah and Brent in front of Mount Rushmore.

Princess Class... Sort Of

Well, we went to Princess class at 11 o'clock last week and there was a very small class and little boys there. I was a little confused and asked the teacher. She looked at me like I was retarded and said "Princess class was at 10. Now is the Planes, Trains, and Automobiles class." I felt quite sheepish. Duh! Hannah was SO excited to go too! They were nice enough to let us join in the next class and we had a GREAT time! We made a fire engine, they read a story about emergency vehicles, they made steering wheels and played "Red light, Green light," and they got to make tracks through paint with toy cars and trucks. It was a really fun class. Hannah seemed to have more fun in this class than she did last week in the princess class!

Playing "Red Light, Green Light." Hannah's winning!

Making car tracks through the paint.

Hannah having lots of fun being messy.

Putting the cars through the car wash to clean off the paint.

Budding Photographer

Hannah loves to get her little hands on the camera to take pictures. She hasn't yet figured out that she needs to turn the camera around so we get lots of pictures of her eyes. This is her most recent batch of pictures that we discovered on the camera.

Happy Anniversary

Happy 5th Anniversary my dear, sweet man! We've enjoyed a wonderful five years and many adventures. I love you for so many reasons. Thank you for being my sweetie and for loving me through all of the break-downs and tears. Thank you for being an amazing husband and father. I love you with all of my heart.

Bath Time

Princess Class

Our recreation department here in Bozeman is wonderful and has lots of fun and interesting classes for the kids to participate in. Hannah is doing soccer, swimming and Princess classes. Here are some pictures from Princess class.

Hannah at the end of her first Princess Class. This week they made crowns, wands and flowers. We can't wait to see what they get to do next week!

Hannah with her flower that she made.

Hannah making flowers in Princess Class.

This is how Jacob enjoyed Princess Class. He did a great job just sitting and watching.

Romeo, Romeo, Wherefore Art Thou Romeo?

My daughter has an admirer. We have a new neighbor boy, Bryan, who has (to put it lightly) a lack of supervision from his grandparents. The entire complex is fed up with him and they've only lived here for a few weeks. Well, Bryan has taken a liking to Hannah. I think he waits for our door to open and he's right there talking to us and trying to do what we're doing. The other day we were going to run errands and he practically jumped in the car trying to come with us. On the 4th of July we had Bryan in the middle of our fireworks trying to help and yelling at us to stop when he didn't like one of them. Whenever he sees me or Brent, Bryan is out the door asking for Hannah. Well, this morning, I woke up to find Hannah standing on a chair and talking to Bryan through the office window. Can you say "Hello Romeo?" Hannah has started to ask for Bryan as well, but the kid drives me nuts so I keep telling her no. So, this is what it has come to... venting my frustrations on the blog while trying to figure out how to fight off Hannah's first of many boys.

Powell Reunion: Aquarium May 27th

We went to the Denver Aquarium and loved seeing all of the varieties of fish. Jacob spent his time in the stoller and thoroughly enjoyed looking at the fish through the huge underwater tunnels and the big tanks that we passed by. Hannah enjoyed playing with her cousins and got especially excited when she found "Nemo."

Our Family Vacation

Finally! It took long enough! In the next few posts there are the pictures from our family vacation. Sadly there are more to come. We have some on disposable cameras that are waiting to be developed. We had a perfect family vacation. This was our first REAL vacation and we had enormous amounts of fun and we will have stories to tell forever. We are so proud of our amazing kids for putting up with all of the driving. They did really well. Thank you U.S. government for sending us a stimulus check so that we could go on our summer vacation!

To give a brief synopsis of what we did (please... only read this if you're REALLY interested in our fascinating lives):

Thursday May 22nd: Drive 13 hours to Colorado Springs through rain and hail all day long while dodging tornadoes.

Friday May 23rd: Family Pictures, playing, catching up with college friends, Dana & Amber, who now live in Colorado Springs.

Saturday May 24th: Flaming Gorge train ride and Sky Sox baseball game

Sunday May 25th: Went to church, took naps, went for a walk, watched old slides of family pictures

Monday May 26th: Breakfast at the Broadmore, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, watched more slides and videos

Tuesday May 27th: Denver Aquarium and spending time with Grandpa and Grandma

Wednesday May 28th: Air Force Graduation (Brent and Dad went and missed out on another air show due to fog, but they got to hear President Bush speak... ya... I think that ALMOST makes up for it!) Hannah, Mom & I got our own personal flyover. It was AWESOME!

Thursday May 29th: Drive to Kearney, Nebraska while dodging more tornadoes. We found out on the evening news that Kearney had been hit by a tornado earlier that day. We spent the day doing jumping jacks at rest stops and swimming in the pool.

Friday May 30th: We swam one more time in the pool before continuing on with the drive. Stopped in Winter Quarters, Nebraska to meet Brent's Aunt and Uncle. Arrived at Lisa and Bryan's later that evening.

Saturday May 31st: Spent the day touring Iowa city with Bryan. We went to a farm, Herbert Hoover museum, and the Amana Colonies.

Sunday June 1st: We went to church and drove to Nauvoo, Illinois to visit with our friends, the Wright's, from Georgia.

Monday June 2nd: Went to Carthage, Illinois and saw the Carthage Jail and had a picnic. The kids took naps while Brent and I wandered around the city. We then went to the evening show "Sunset" and got rained out.

Tuesday June 3rd: We saw the sites of Nauvoo and got to go on a double date that evening with our fun friends, Thad & Kim. We went to the BYU-International Folk Dance show. It was FABULOUS!

Wednesday June 4th: We went through a session at the Nauvoo temple and then spent the rest of the day driving to Mankato, Minnesota.

Thursday June 5th: We played Wii most of the day and went to the mall for a couple of hours to ride the carousel.

Friday June 6th: Played the Wii.... all day.... really.

Saturday June 7th: Drove to Wall, South Dakota. On the way we stopped in Mitchell, SD to see the Corn Palace.

Sunday June 8th: Drove home by way of Mount Rushmore, which was fabulous. After a 10 hour drive and LOTS of movies we finally home and were ready for our own beds.

Visiting Nauvoo, Illinois June 1-4

After visiting with Lisa and Bryan in Iowa City, Iowa for a few days we got to go to Nauvoo, Illinois and meet some college friends who are now living in Georgia. We met halfway and had a great time seeing the sights, meeting the new little ones and catching up. We stayed up all hours of the night talking, we played games, we went to the temple, we went on a date, and we laughed so hard we cried. What a great time we had catching up. Thanks Thad & Kim for a great visit. There are more pictures coming. They are currently on our disposable cameras that we bought because we forgot to bring our charger on our three week trip!

Visiting Mankato June 4-7

We had a great time visiting with our friends Jon & Tara Harper in Mankato, Minnesota. They moved there last August, survived the winter, and decided that they will stay for a while. It was great to catch up with them and see their new town. Jacob also decided to roll over for the first time while we were there. I ws out running when Tara got him to do it. I missed the first time, but Jacob has rolled over for me many times since then.

Powell Reunion Family Pictures May 23

We took family pictures on May 23rd. It was wonderful to have everyone at the reunion and we even got to have Chris' girlfriend, Shalom, join in on some of the photos.

Powell Reunion Zoo May 26

On Monday, May 26th, we were treated by Mom and Dad to a wonderful breakfast at the Broadmore Hotel. It was delicious! We then went to the Cheyene Mountain Zoo where we got to see lots of fun animals, feed giraffes and ride another train. We ate dinner at Rumbi's and then headed back to the house for a much needed rest after such a fun-filled day.