Still blogging?

For Labor Day, Mike and I took a fabulous backpacking trip in the Sawtooth Mountains. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Hopefully we can make it an annual thing! 

 We went out in the fall leaves a few weeks ago to take some family pictures. I think I am getting worse at it but the kids were patient with me and we finally got some halfway decent ones to hang up on our wall.

We did some rock climbing in town yesterday, we had a blast and the kids are getting really good!

The kids have been getting ready for Halloween this week, they carved about 10 pumpkins! I forgot to take pictures of all my pumpkins in my beautiful garden. I have given away about 16, the kids carved multiple ones and I cooked and froze a bunch. It was a great year for pumpkins! 

Fair Days of August

I can't believe Ian turned 11. The time has flown by! He wanted red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for his birthday. Yum! 

The kids begged me to let them enter the fair this year, I didn't want to because they moved our lovely little local fair from right down the street clear to Downey! Sheesh, talk about politics. But I said we would go for it. They were so glad we did, I couldn't believe all the ribbons they won.

 I didn't do too bad myself, these are two of Grandma Green's quilt tops that I hand quilted. The fair ladies couldn't believe everything was hand pieced!

 Eliza did fantastic, even had her pumpkin win grand prize. But she was fevered the last day and did not want a picture with all her ribbons.

 Ian graduated from cub scouts, I sure will miss him as one of my Webelos! He is sure excited for boy scouts.

The kids spent four hours one Saturday outside selling lemonade. I admire their persistence. And I love that it entertained Finn for so long!  He is sure going to miss them now that school has started.

JUNE has flown by!

We seemed to spend much of June running around the Idaho and Utah! I am only going to share the highlights.. first of all being Mike's fantastic race in Challis Idaho! I was so happy to have Meredith, Royal, Missy and her girls come camp with us! It was so much fun.

 Girls at the campsite enjoying their breakfast!

 Mike running strong at mile 36ish..

Beautiful Bayhorse Lake! It was a great place to eat lunch and wait for Mike to hit this aide station. 

Right after the race, literally less than 24 hours after returning home we packed up the car again and headed to Abby's family cabin in the wilds of Utah. 

The kids all had a fabulous time with their cousins. Playing in the pond, hiking, riding horses and just goofing off. Shortly after returning from Utah we set off for St Anthony Idaho for the Kammerman reunion. We were skeptical at first because of the location, but we had an awesome trip. 

 The house we stayed at (The Three Peaks Lodge) was huge and so much fun! We took the canoes out the first day through the ponds and canals.

 My parents rented out the local bowling alley which was a lot of fun. Finn was quickly bored with the bowling and spent most of the time pretending to play the arcade games.

 The back yard has tennis courts, playground, and baseball diamond among other things and we had a family game of kickball.

 We hiked up Menan butte and saw an amazing view of the plains and rivers.

We spent the most time at the St Anthony Sand Bar, a little man made beach on the river. The kids loved the diving board and the irrigation tube slides. There was a sandy beach  and room to paddle our raft around. 

Camping in Yellowstone

 Walking around our Campsite at Bridge Bay

 A lovely evening at Yellowstone Lake

 Fun at the campsite in the bear boxes!

 At the top of Elephant Back, looking over Yellowstone Lake.

 Inside Yellowstone Lake lodge

 More fun at the Lake

 Hiking around Tower Falls

 Mammoth Hot Springs with an elk in the background

This was a great trip despite the rain, more rain, and Eliza forgetting her clothes. It was beautiful and we saw new areas and lots of baby buffalo! 

Another Post??

I know! Crazy huh, two posts in two days! In case you didn't notice... you can scroll down to see yesterday's brag post about Ian! I just had to share pictures from Eliza's Girl Scout art show. She worked so hard on her paintings and it was so cute to watch her explain each painting, the style and how she felt to all the people looking at her paintings.

 Here she is with two of her paintings behind her...

 Eliza was really disappointed that no extended family members could see her paintings so she invited her 2nd grade teacher, and one of her close friends. I got a little teary-eyed when they all showed up, I was so grateful for their love and support of my daughter.

That's my little Girl Scout!

School year wrap up

Has anybody else felt overwhelmed with all the school assemblies, programs, field trips, essays, presentations that have been happening with this school year! Sheesh I am almost glad for summer vacation. It has been an exciting spring time for Ian.

 He earned his Arrow of light award in Scouts. He build rockets at school. He scored a goal in soccer last week! Last week we had the 100 mile club graduation and Eliza was recognized for running over 50 miles and Ian earned a medal for running over 100 miles and he won the spirit award for Personal Motivation. He was thrilled about his new water bottle. 

 And today Ian was awarded the "Hope of America" Kiwanis award and a medal for his AR reading points. We are proud of him and his hard work this school year.

Eliza has been working just as hard and has a Girl Scout Art show tomorrow that I will post pictures of afterwards! 

I had to include a picture of my Mother's Day present, grape trellis's and grapevines! I am so excited to become a grape grower. I hope they survive my kids and the Idaho weather. 

We also added about 25 feet to the line of raspberries, Yum we can't wait for them to fill in!

Finn is full of fun but is not quite ready to be a full volunteer firefighter yet. This photo was taken 4 seconds before he burst into tears. But he did love riding around Paradise with his Uncle Bob in the fire truck! 

April showers

April always seems to take me by surprise! March goes slowly and ends in Spring Break and then BOOM! Eliza & Finnegan's birthday appear. We had an awesome Spring Break trip to Jackson Hole Wyoming. My first real trip that wasn't just passing through. The kids loved the seeing the wild animals, the snow and especially staying at the Painted Buffalo!

Eliza and Finn had great birthdays. No friend parties, thank goodness. Just family fun.

 Eliza loves loves loves her new drum and needs Uncle Richard to teach her a few beats. She is growing up so fast and is so excited to be 8 years old.

 By request, Eliza had a ice cream cake this year. I think I am going to have to teach myself how to make these things because they are delicious.

 Finn turned 3 years old today! What a sweetie. He really is so much fun. We will miss having a 2 year old around the house, he is so unpredictable. He talks non-stop and never rests.