South Hills Hiking

First we did the mini-hike to Ross "Falls"

Then we found another hiking trail and followed it for about a mile up through the sage brush covered hills. This hike wasn't very exciting, but good for the kids because they learned patience, about switch backs, the requirements for being a leader, and what horse poop looks like.

 And then we found a very shallow stream to play in. Claire loved stomping across the bridge, until I let her get in the water. Then she wanted to dive in with the big kids and was mad at me for not letting her. When we were done we practically had to drag Ruth and Will away from he stream and rocks. It was a lovely afternoon made all the more lovely because we were blessed with cloud cover and a cool breeze.

I was also proud of Ruth because she saw a soda can someone had thrown under the bridge and she picked it up so we could throw it away. This summer has been the best so far, I love being outdoors with my family, there really is nothing like it.

Outdoor fun

Working on the alphabet with Will. As we sang the song they jumped on the letter. His new favorite letter is "P." My favorite part of this activity was that after we jumped the alphabet one time he said "What about this?" and drew a lower case "L" which he knows because of his name! So then next to all the upper case letters we wrote all the lower case letters. 

And here we are playing with ice on a really hot afternoon. Claire loved taking everyone else's ice and sucking on it. Ruth and Will enjoyed drawing pictures or letters and then watching them evaporate. We've been having lots of fun as a family recently too, mostly because Brad and I are trying to be more willing to go outside even if it's hot to play games or just push the kids on the tire swing. The other night we came up with a make-shift bean-bag toss. And it's not so bad in the backyard because of the trees.

Weekend Fun

 Saturday we went to Craters of the Moon and climbed a cone and into some caves and saw lots of dried lava. The kids once again were troopers on the hike. It's so fun to be able to go out and really do things.

In front of the temple after church

At Shoshone Falls after church. We brought the t-ball set and had fun chasing the ball down. Brad found some frogs in the stream. Will and Ruth loved throwing sticks into the stream. Claire napped happily in the car with the windows rolled down. I happily laid on the blanket, in the shade, and enjoyed everyone else's activities.

Summertime

popsicles, swimsuits, tire swing

vanilla shake mustache

painting outside

dragon eating bug and lake with river

cold lake water!

Fun Stuff

We've been having so much fun together recently. Sometimes motherhood feels like such a chore, but the past week we've just been having a blast. I think some of it has to do with the stages my kids are at, they are getting very responsible, they're good helpers and cleaners, they have chores, and Claire requires a lot less effort now that she feeds herself and walks around. Claire is so much more a part of things which makes everyone happy. The other part of our fun recently has been the activities we've been doing. 

I found these space books for .60 each at a used kids store which is perfect because we've been WAY into space stuff. 

Claire loves her monkey, she likes to hold it up in front of her face and yell at it!

We read a book recently called "Virginia Wolf" about a girl who's sister is wolfish for a day. The sister cheers her up by painting "Bloomsberry" on their bedroom walls...so we created our own Bloomsberry. The kids love going down to the basement and adding more creatures to it.

Homeschooling has become part of our lives. I find a lot of satisfaction out of teaching the kids and creating fun activities that help them learn and grow. Here we're doing a constellation activity with numbers and letters. As we were working Will started to sing the ABC song and asked me to add more letters to his letter constellation page. When we were done he learned two more letters! Other than exercise this is the best way I can feel fulfilled, productive, responsible, and happy.

 The kids also wanted a turn drawing their own constellations on the back side of the ones I did for them. I love that they are taking initiative and that I can structure learning around what their current interests are (outer space).

We've also spent a LOT of time at the local swimming pool and helped Will overcome a lot of his fears of water. He's gotten so brave and I'm really proud of him.

Visitors

Our first July visitor was the tooth fairy! 

And then Julian, Ashley and their 4 kids came to visit. We had so much fun playing in the backyard and seeing some of the local sites. We went to Hop-to-It, Shoshone Falls, Dierkes Lake, Perrine Bridge, and the Centennial Park waterfall. There was also lots of trampoline, pool and slip and slide time in the backyard. The highlight for me was date night, when we went to Elevation on the edge of the canyon and practically ordered everything on their menu! The pictures below are at the waterfall where we all got soaked. It was the perfect way to spend a hot Sunday afternoon.

And Claire is cute:

The Maiden Voyage of Sacagawea

We have wanted a canoe for 2 years, ever since we took our first canoe trip together up to Pillar Falls. Last week we finally bought our Guide 147, which we named Sacagawea. We once again traveled up the Snake River to Pillar Falls, but this time we portaged the canoe, our 3 kids and our ridiculous amount of stuff over the rocks so we could continue up the river. This is where we landed with a view down stream.

This is William taking a snack break on a strange pile of rocks on the island we landed on.

This is Brad, the Snake River and Shoshone Falls! We've only ever seen the Falls from above.

We got back in the boat, paddled against fierce wind to Pilar Falls, portaged the canoe and all the stuff (did I mention that Brad carried the boat by himself both times?), once again paddled against the wind, got stopped by the boat Sheriff for a random boat check (we passed) and got back to Centennial Park where we (mostly Brad) got the canoe back on the car. The weather was mostly warm, except for the crazy wind, and it was a perfect 5 hours. The kids were great, although Claire fussed a little and Will was worried about the tippiness of the boat. Overall we had a fabulous time and then enjoyed a late lunch at Golden Corral with all the other white trash!

On our trip we once again saw lots of wild-life. We saw birds that made their homes out of mud on the side of the canyon, White Pelicans, a Blue Heron, a lizard, tiny brightly-colored-banded birds that darted around the boat, and several dead fish. I LOVE IDAHO!

Camping Trip and Other Updates

 We went to the 1000 Springs Resort to do some more car camping. We were right on the Snake River and the kids had a blast eating dinner and breakfast out on the dock. The weather was beautiful so we didn't put up the rain fly so when I woke up to hear coyotes/foxes/wolves howling I got to look up at the beautiful stars. We could also hear the waterfalls on the other side of the river. It was great. Saturday we went on a hike over really rocky terrain. We found the bones of a duck and several other dead animals. We also saw two Osprey circling around their nest only about 30 feet above us! Ruth and Will did a great job not complaining on our hike and loved exploring and throwing rocks into the water. It was a hot day but we had a nice breeze on our walk back to the car. Claire also did great on the hike...she fell asleep! Also, I invested in spray sunscreen and will never go back to normal sunscreen.

In other news, Claire turned one! Here's a picture of her birthday ice cream sundae.

And Ruth is the queen of the flower people

Camping Trip

We went on a super fun camping trip a couple weeks ago. It was our first as a family and we all had tons of fun. We went to City of Rocks and had a great camping spot right by a practice climbing rock. The kids, well all of us, had so much fun climbing these enormous rocks. I'm excited to get more experience so I can help with all the work. Brad made the fire, pitched the tent and cooked all the food. It was a little difficult to deal with Claire too, she wanted to crawl in the sand and touch the fire. The weather was pretty great though, it was chilly and sprinkled a little but the morning was glorious. The worst part was all the crazy wind at night, I seriously thought the tent was going to fly away with all of us in it! But the kids were so tired from all the climbing that they slept through the night no problem. We're all excited for our next outing.

Molar Pregnancy

Sunday June 2nd Brad and I went to the ER so I could get my molar pregnancy removed. Heavy bleeding started the night before and our scheduled D&C was moved up due to the risk of hemorrhage. We found out a few weeks ago that this pregnancy was molar, which means it was basically a cancer and not a baby, we never saw a heartbeat. I still have to go get my blood drawn every couple weeks now to make sure that the cancer continues to go away and not come back; if it does then I will have to get chemo. Also because of the blood tests we are not allowed to get pregnant for about a year. This was all very difficult emotionally and made for a really rough couple weeks. I'm feeling better now, we've been really well taken care of by my mom and our ward. I'm now really looking forward to losing another 20 pounds and having a fun summer with the kids.

Magic Milk

Today Ruth said, "When I'm angry and I drink my milk all gone, I'm not angry any more!" I need to get some of this magic milk. I've been so overwhelmed recently, tired, and cranky...my poor kids. I just feel like I give everything I have in me to take care of everybody else, take care of the house and the laundry and the dishes and the plants. But the house is still never clean, my kids faces are still always dirty, the kitchen floor is still covered in dirt and sand, and the darn bushes we planted in the front are dying!!! It's just never enough. And to top it all off we're having another baby in December ... surprise! This happy but very unplanned pregnancy feels like it was the last straw on the camels back. This old camel is a mess.

Alas, I can't change the present. And there are a few things that have helped me to make it through emotionally difficult days.

ZUMBA: I love zumba, it feels so good to move and listen to fun music with a group of ladies who are encouraging and positive. I've seriously nearly cried in my classes lately because I've needed the positive uplift so dearly.

CLAIRE: I have cherished cuddling my little almost 1 year old. She is so sweet, and I have loved sitting in our recliner and holding her as she falls asleep. It has helped me to relax and take a break.

THE BACKYARD: The warm weather has made it so Ruth and Will have spent hours in the backyard everyday. It has been so nice to send them out with their water bottles and be able to take an hour nap while they play in the sandbox or jump or swing.

I know I am truly blessed: Brad has such a good job, my kids are happy and growing and learning, and the only pregnancy symptoms I've had are being more tired than normal and super hungry. Well, now that I've vented a bit I feel much better, but I really should go find some of that Magic Milk!

Amalgamation

This is another A letter activity we did. I wrote big and little A's on the non sticky side of clear contact paper (little a's had to be written backwards, which was easy because they just look like capital D's). Then I cut out colored A's and a's so they could match them to the corresponding A's on the contact paper. They loved this activity and Will did surprisingly well putting the A's the right direction and matching them to the correct case. HOORAY. It's so rewarding to teach my kids and have them get it!

 Will loves Claire so much. He comes up to me quite frequently and says, "Mom, I love Claire sooo much." And I reassure him that she loves him too. He's just so rough with her!

She is getting into everything these days, here she's "helping" with the dishes. She's become such a busy-body recently that I've been telling her "no-no," so she has started saying "no-no" to everything too.

And this dude! He turned 3! I can't believe my little guy is already three. That also means we've lived in this house for three years. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. We had a fun day playing in the 90 degree weather.

I made him pizza for dinner, we opened presents, smacked open a pinata and ate brownies (idea courtesy Kristen).

This week Brad is once again out of town. Here we are romping around at Shoshone Falls park.