The Belnaps are back!

So, I tried to log in to my blog a month ago with no success. It has been over 2 years since I have blogged (according to Garron) and I forgot my password! Now that is just sad! Well, I'm going to attempt the nearly impossible and find the time to post every once in a while, so here we go. To give a short update, Garron graduated from Dental School, and we now live in Farmington NM where Garron works (as a dentist!) at KidsKare. I never expected our family to end up in a smaller town in New Mexico, that up until 2 years ago I had never heard of, but we are loving it.

We are buying the home we live in now, we have made good friends, and all of the boys are happy to be here. Best of all is that we now can drive to AZ in 6.5 hours instead of trying to haul a young family of 6 through the airport! Also on a happy note, we are just 45 minutes from Durango, CO! I still get to have a piece of the Colorado with me that I miss so much. So, to sum up 2 years of absence, these pics are of our last trip to AZ for Thanksgiving where we have the tradition of going to My Grandpa Kempton's ranch near Tuscon, the day after Thanksgiving and picking the apples off of the trees that grew only after his passing. A special gift to our family that we treasure every year! After picking the apples we go to the river, and then back for a campfire dinner and some smores. We top it all off with games at the nearby hotel where we invade their lobby and make all sorts of racket. To all my girls out there, you know thats true! I would like to brag for a moment to say that I was first place winner at our second game of Ticket to Ride America, coming in ahead of Mark and Brenda and my Dad! Thank you very much! More to come in the Belnap news later! I think I put exclamation marks at the end of almost all of my sentences - that's embarrassing!

Torture or family pictures?

We did our family pictures of the year and had
as good a time taking a family picture of six as
is humanly possible! We went to Golden Gate
State park, and we traded the boys cupcakes
and toys for nice smiles!

I just have to point out that above there's a G+A
carved in the tree on the very right. We noticed it
after we got home. How very special is that!

At the end of the day we asked the boys if they had
a fun time and they said no, because mostly we took
pictures, and Jerdan said he never wanted to do that
day again! Aparently we torture the kids.

Our favorite things about Elich's 09

We went to Elich Gardens with the kids, and it was a big hit!

They loved every minute of it. Here are a few of our favorite

things. Everybody loved the merri go round, and it was the

only ride that we could all go on at once!

Layton's favorite ride was the airplane ride.

Jerdan was so cute on the rollercoaster. It was surprisingly

fast and it had a good drop on it, and he absolutely loved it.

The coaster goes around three times and inbetween each time

the worker askes the kids to put their thumbs up if they want

to go again, and thumbs down to get off. Layton was

thumbs down after the first round, and Jerdan was thumbs up!

He loved the thrill of it.
Paxton loved Bob the builder. They pointed at each

other for a while when the other boys were on a bigger ride.

He said "Ooooooohhh" over and over.

Porter's favorite ride was the bus that went up and

around in a circle. That smile makes all the fuss of

dragging 4 kids around the amusement park all worth it!

Porters other favorite ride was the boat ride. He kept

getting in trouble for putting his hand in the water.

Our all time family favorite thing from Elich was the hat

with the light on it that we got suckered into buying at the

end of the day. Layton was beside himself with desperation

to have it and he said "but if we get the hat with the light

on it we won't need to use the bathroom light when we

go to bed!". We made the boys promise to share it (which

they actually did) and Layton loved it so much that he fell

asleep wearing the hat with the light still on!

Porter loves everything his brothers love!

Road trip to Estes

Truly, who dosn't love a good stick for banging out in

the wilderness. I swear Layton gets a kick out of

everything he does, and Jerdan enjoys his amusement.

I loved having my parents here for a visit, and the

kids did too. One of my favorate parts was having a

birthday celebration with my dad and taking him

shopping for jeans. He seriously hates shopping but

the trip was a success, and also very amusing to try

and entertain him while he tried on all of the jeans

that Garron picked out for him.

Jerdan searched for squirrels the whole hike we took.

I was so grateful that we finally found one!

One of my favorite memories of Estes Park was the

buggy bike ride we took around the lake. The kids

loved it, and we had some good laughs!

Of course Grandma got all of the boys a stuffed animal

at Noah's Ark. Jerdan and Layton are so attatched to the

squirrels that she got them.

The tramway gift shop had some lovely apparel!

Please notice the surprise party decorations that my

mom and Layton created. One of a kind for sure!

After an awesome tramway ride to the top of a

mountain we all got to feed the chipmunks, which

we pretended were squirrels for Jerdan's sake. I've

never seen him so thrilled.

On 6-8-09 Layton graduated from joyschool!

He has loved every minute of school, and he

was so cute at graduation, and did all the hand

motions to the songs they sang. He is so looking

foreward to Kindergarden.

Masquerade Ball

So I've been busy lately, but I have a lot of fun news

I was invited to a masquerade ball in honor of

Julie's 30th birthday(she has the golden sash in the

middle of the pic). We all dressed up and crashed

her house and dressed her up in a great ballgown.

We all went to Outback Steakhouse in our outfits

and got lots of weird looks. The resteraunt manager

loved our outfits so much that he gave us appetizers

and desert on the house. We also had an older

gentleman pay for all of our drinks. His wife came

up to our table afterwards, completely drunk and

told us to make our drink orders good! We had so

much fun. After dinner we all met at Ashley's house

and everyone got an award and walked down the

runway. I got best overall ensemble. I was so proud,

and I gave a very moving speach! I highly recomend

this kind of thing to anyone!

Mother's Day pics