PRICELESS

 Is there anything better than the temple of the Lord?  I contend that the covenants we make in the temple are eternal and rewarding in and of themselves... but sharing the temple and the promises with those we love is even more wonderful!  We were able to share our love of the temple with our extended family as Sheila and Kapp took out their own endowments on Thursday.  They both waited for Scott and I to be in Idaho so we could attend this sacred occasion.  It was wonderful!  My entire family (except my mom) were in attendance.  (My mother was worthy to be there and was definitely there in spirit, although her health did not permit her to be there in person.)  The tears of joy were in abundance as I hugged my niece and nephew.  I'm proud of them.  I love them.  I'm grateful that families are forever because of the temple.

Kapp - Me - Sheila - Scott

My Nephew and My Colorado Daughter

Chance, Zane, Kapp, Sheila, Tara, and Ender

Gary, Emily, GJ, Sheila, Ken, Mariah, and Shanae

My Daughters

Katia - Sheila - Kiara

"I love to see the temple!"

DeGOOYER DAY 2022

DeGooyer Day is one of my all time favorite holidays!  I love celebrating being a DeGooyer.  And this year, since our entire family (except Scott and I) live in Idaho, we decided to make DeGooyer Day a two day experience in Boise.  We had a total blast with our daughters, sons and grandson!

Once we got the kids from Rexburg, we drove to Boise and began our holiday with a 4-wheeler excursion with my brother's family.  It was super fun, dirty and exciting!  Unfortunately Skittles wouldn't have been able to "handle" 4-wheeling, so he spent the day with Aunt GJ and Aunt Shanae and Berry.  They had fun swimming too.

This was our 4-wheeling Crew!

Thanks, Ben and Kristi!  This was a total blast!

Lollipop and Kade

Skylar and Katia

Jolly Rancher, Kiara, Me, Cucumber and Ben

Kristi and Sage

Scott and Cody

Jolly Rancher and Kiara

Cucumber and Me!

Cucumber and I nicknamed our ride The Mouse.

Reinacting Shanae and Sheila's epic crash last year.

The roles of Shanae and Sheila were played by Sage and Jolly Rancher.

SOOOOOO MUCH FUN!

Look how dirty!

Skittles was learning to kick his feet with Aunt Nae Nae

Aren't they the cutest grandsons ever?!

We are so blessed!

Aunt GJ loves our grandsons!

Aunt GJ spoiled him rotten....

He made chalk art with her.

Then the next day, we all went white water rafting.  It was tons of fun!  And beautiful!  We are so glad our newest son was our guide.  His family were all DeGooyers for the day to help us celebrate!  (Thanks, Browns!)  I would have taken more photos of the rafting, but I didn't want my phone to "drown" and become obsolete.

Our DeGooyer family continues to grow!

We are grateful the Browns married in to our crazy crew!

And of course, we added our Colorado daughter, Sheila!

I love this lady!

Alicia Brown and Me

Eating lunch.

Skittles loves his Cheetos.

Love this guy!

He was "in his element."

He loves the water.

I think he wants to join the Browns in their rafting hobby.

Was DeGooyer Day a success?  YES!  I love my family!  I'm soooo grateful for this silly, wonderful tradition of ours!  I'm already looking forward to next year!

ROAD TRIP WITH MY BESTIE!

This past week was DeGooyer Day.  Since all of our children live in Idaho, we traveled to them to celebrate.  Since Scott and I are officially empty nesters, we decided to stretch our two day drive to three and sight see on the way.  We drove through South Dakota and got to see so many fun things.  We also made a quick stop to see our Bettenhausens.  (Which I accidentally forgot to photograph.)  And another highlight was reading books together.  Check it out:

First we stopped at Sioux Falls.

There were some amazing statues.

My favorite was this one because it reminds me of one of my

favorite children's books: The Remarkable Farkle McBride.

Lovin' the flowers!  And this cute man!

Sioux Falls was beautiful!

The combination of rocks with grass surrounding the falls,

was incredible!

I loved this statue called "For Which We Stand."

On the road we saw some amazing metal art.

We stopped.  A solitary man displays his metal statues in a

huge field in the middle of nowhere.

We strolled through the art.

Some of it was fun.

Some of it was scarry.

And some of it was whimsicle.

It was unique, fun and worth the stop.

(Yes, the wind was insane.)

Loved the vultures.

This one had it out for Scott.

The dragons were incredible - and pretty big.

How random?!

This and the Trojan horse were the first things we saw from the road.

I'm standing in front of the statue to show perspective.

Scott found these red "creatures" fascinating.

I LOVE flowers!  And metal flowers never die.

They wouldn't fit in my kitchen though.

Using this hammer would be impossible.

The Trojan Horse

My favorite dragon.

Loved the whimsy of this art.

Then we went to the Corn Palace.

EVERYTHING was about corn!

These murals were HUGE... 

and completely made with corn and corn husks and wheat.

Each year the World's Only Corn Palace is redecorated.

The corn is cut in half length ways and nailed in place.

It costs about $130,000 each time.

We loved the domes.

And the murals were outside as well as inside.

I love this guy!

Also... this is INCREDIBLE.

Dignity is located at a rest stop.

She's beautiful in person.

Even the back is stunning.

Scott LOVES buffaloes.  He always has.

So we take pictures of them whenever we see them.

We also stopped to see the Bridal Falls.

We spent the night in Billings, MO.

So... of course, we had to stop to see the Billings Temple.

It's beautiful!

All temples are truly gorgeous!

Billings, MO

I LOVED the mountains right next to the temple.

This book was terrific.

I'd definitely recommend it.

We read it and we read:

Another great book that I read outoud.

All of us CAN do hard things!

I love road trips with my husband!  Can't wait to go on another one with him!  Next... DeGooyer Day!