This week

This week we started school. We decided to jump in with the letter F. Our school day consists of about 15 minutes of circle time where we sing primary songs, say a prayer, hear a bible story that's based around our letter of the week, practice an article of faith and learn a new primary song. We do that after we get up, eat, and do some tidying. Then in the afternoon, while Claire naps, we do an activity based around our letter of the week and bible story:

This day was letter "F" for fiery furnace! We talked about Shadrack, Meshack, and Abindago, and then our activity was putting plates in our own "fiery furnace" (the oven) and then melting crayons on them. Will practiced his "F" writing, Ruth drew a picture of the 3 guys and the angel.

One day this week Ruth read a book about mud pies...and then it just happened to rain.

This day "F" was for "flood." Using chalk, Ruth wrote the word flood and Will practiced writing "F's" and then we took the hose and "flooded" the chalk away. Also very fun.

We've also spent tons of time at the park since it hasn't been too hot. Claire has become an original monkey and has had a blast climbing all over the park and trying to keep up with the big'uns. Ruth has also mastered the monkey bars, which has been a really fun process to watch. And Will is becoming more brave, and being more willing to try things that make him nervous.

And I have been starting Halloween costumes. Ruth is going to be a mermaid and Will was going to be a robot, but this King's robe turned out so well, he may end up being a king instead. I just wanted to throw together something fun for Will to dress up in since we were going to the fabric store for mermaid stuff. You can't tell, but it has a really big gold button as a clasp and shiny, gold braid down the sides. He loves it, and wanted to sleep in it tonight.

Yellowstone/Teton Vacation

We left Friday night and stayed at the Red Lion in Pocatello to break up our drive. Saturday morning we ate a big breakfast at the hotel and drove through the Ashton marathon to go see Lower and Upper Mesa Falls, they were so beautiful.

Then we drove for a couple more hours into Yellowstone. We got there at lunch time so the first picnic area we saw, we stopped and fired up some hot dogs. Then we saw a few small geysers, Gibbons Falls and Old Faithful, which was Ruth and Will's favorite thing.

We found our campsite after that, cooked up some dinner and played in the tent for the rest of the night. The next morning we got up early and went on an amazing hike through the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and part of which included the Uncle Tom's extremely difficult trail. I was uncertain about taking the kids down this trail, but it was so fun and well worth the view here at the end.

After our long morning hike we got in the car and drove to Lamar Valley where we saw lots of bison, this guy was not more than 10 feet from the car. It was nice to relax for a while and let Claire get a nap.

Then we ate some lunch at the Mammoth Hot Springs area and traveled the Norris Geyser Basin. We all really enjoyed this mile and a half walk because each of the geysers were so different, we especially liked the bubbling blue mud hole and the green dragon's cave. The day was winding up so we went back to our site, organized things, ate some dinner and then walked down to the lake.

Monday Brad and I got up and made breakfast and cleaned up while the kids slept in. We packed up the tent and said goodbye to Yellowstone. We drove down to the Teton National Forest and stopped at Jenny Lake. Here we did the 2 mile round trip hike up to Inspiration point

 The Teton's are very beautiful

 On the way back down from that hike we stopped to see Hidden Falls.

After all the hiking and walking we did over these past few days we went into the general store and bought some slushies. We got back in the car and headed down to Jackson Hole where Brad took each of the kids up the ski lift and down the alpine slide. They loved it.

Then we killed some time at a great playground in Jackson until it was time for the Chuckwagon dinner.

During our entire trip, especially as we hiked around, Ruth asked everybody she saw where they were from. She is so friendly and loved conversating with people from all over the world.

Yellowstone, Grand Tetons National Parks. August 2013 | My new trip on Roadtrippers.com!

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!