Who Says Dogs Can't Waltz?

The picture says it all. Alys is always trying to teach our dog Sage a new move or two.

Fun at Roaring Springs

So, a day or two after Ethan got his cast off, what do we do? Head to the water park! We went with my sister, sister-in-law and their kids. I think they all had a great time! My brother Thad and his family, Trina, Creed, Azlyn and Crew were preparing to move to Nebraska we wanted to do something fun together. It was great and these will be some good memories for the kids. Unfortunately I don't have pictures of my sisters kids because they are teenagers and funny thing is they didn't hang out at the kiddie pool! Ethan and Creed were brave and went on a few of the big kids rides but I think we scared the daylights out of Ethan on the first slide! He's not real comfortable with his swimming yet and I think that scared him. I'm sure he'll be begging me to go in a year or so though! Here are some shots of the fun they had in the water.

Raspberries, raspberries, raspberries! Oh yum!

I was so excited to find out that we had some raspberry bushes were growing on our property. I love raspberries and couldn't help but take a picture when I got my first batch. There were so yummy! We got oodles of them this year too. The sad thing is Alys and I are pretty much the only ones in our family that eat them. The others don't like the seeds. So I made some raspberry jam anyway, froze some for smoothies and shared with my family. It was so exciting though to have some home grown food! We look forward to having a garden next year.

Watch this Trick!

Okay, it was a little too early for Halloween. It turns out this was not the best trick in the world! We were over visiting family and the kids were jumping on the trampoline with their cousins. Ethan decided he was going to jump off the trampoline or something. He went off backwards and after having a nice hard landing on hi bottom, he also landed hard on his elbow. Now for our family, these accidents always happen after hours or on the weekend! We thought he was going to be okay and maybe sprained a wrist or something from jamming it into the ground. But, we were at the doctor's office, then the lab, then the orthopedic office the next day. Ethan had cracked the bones in his elbow. Fortunately all we needed was a cast. Ironically, we had taken Benjamin in for a cast a year earlier almost to the day. He had a black cast too! Boys, boys, boys!

The Fun Days of Summer

Well, June and July brought lots of fun. The kids just had a great time playing outside. It's so fun to see them be able to enjoy the outdoors a bit more AND I don't have to worry about any busy streets! They can play in the front, back, wherever. It takes some getting used to, but we're enjoying it.

One of the fun things we did was to enjoy the hometown 4th of July parade. The kids thought it was great. For my big city friends this will give you a sense of where we live. We have local 'hot rods', otherwise known as race cars, and tractors in our parade. :) We even had "Herbie" going through the streets of Middleton. The best part was at the end. You will see (almost see) a firefighter at the top of the ladder on the truck. As the firetrucks go throughout the parade they randomly turn on their fire hose and spray the spectators. This picture is basically at the end of the parade and it became a fun water war between the firefighters driving through the parade and the one on the ladder. Even the person on the ladder was not dry when all was said and

done. It was fun to see a small town having a great time and what's a little water when it's a hot summer day! That evening we had a fun celebration with family and lit off some fireworks out in our field. Last year we had more than sparklers and this year had to be just as good, thanks to my family members. Let's just say we're glad our neighbors still like us after only being here a few months!

Life's a Zoo

Jeepers! The whole moving thing, getting school finished with the kids and keeping up with family has literally been a zoo this summer. I don't remember the last time I was this busy during the summer. Life has been good and as you can see, I'm still not able to keep up with my blog yet. I hope to get back to that real soon and move on with my photography as well. So, here are some random pics from some summer fun. To be continued...

This is Alys and her best friend Emery. They went to school together and enjoyed playing together too. Emery just moved to California though and Alys is going to miss her a lot.

This is Ethan, Creed and Alys. Creed is their cousin and is Ethan's age. They've been able to play together a lot more since moving to Idaho and now to Middleton, but they are going to miss him and his brother and sister as they have just moved to Nebraska. I love this picture 'cuz it shows the fun that they always had. Benjamin is in the previous picture because he was sitting at the other table. He loves to play with the older kids!

Home Sweet Home!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 was a big day for our family. That was the day that Woody and I signed our life away for our new home. We now reside in Middleton, Idaho and hope to reside here for a really, really long time. We are out in the country on 5 acres where people still drive around in covered wagons. Just kidding! The country is what I grew up in so for me it's familiar but I do miss some of the city conveniences. For Woody and the kids it's a little different because the city is really all they know other than visiting grandparents or other relatives. So far we love it though. It's so quiet, we have space to breathe in and even our dog, Sage, thinks it's great. Mind you, it is a lot of work but it makes for good family time. We have some great neighbors too. Right next to us our neighbors have a horse arena where they do steer roping quite often. It's fun to watch and the kids think it is great. Ethan just got his first cowboy hat and Alys is already asking to put it on her list. As for Benjamin, dirt and water are right up his alley! I told Woody we traded the soft sounds of the symphony for brawling cowboys. Gotta love it! We'll keep you posted and try to get some more pictures.