See Ya!

Well, our first trip of the summer has finally arrived. At sunrise tomorrow, the kids and I will be heading off to California. That means I have a busy day ahead of me of washing, packing, last minute errands and convincing myself that I CAN live without seeing Aaron for seven days. That last one will be the toughest. It will be a while before I blog again so I just thought I would say goodbye. See you in a week!

Fun Family Day

Today we had such a fun afternoon. We went out and bought a baseball bat, then went to the park and practiced our batting skills. With five of us in our family it worked out that we had a pitcher, a batter, a catcher and two outfielders. Perfect. This really was an exciting event because we often try to get Aaron to do things like this with us but he always refuses. After spending the whole week in the sun doing physical labor, the last thing he wants to do on the weekend is stand in the sun being physical. Not only did he give in this time but he had FUN! I couldn't believe the huge smile he had on his face the whole time we were playing. Every one of us did surprisingly well, even Lauren who had never picked up a bat before. One of the best things about the afternoon was the feeling of unity. All five of us were really into the game and everyone was working together as a team. As a result, we all had a great time and can't wait to do it again!

Value Your Quirkiness!

Lately, I have been thinking about quirks. You know, those odd little behaviors we all have that make you distinctly YOU. For some reason I have been becoming conscious of my own little quirks. Not in a self-depreciating way, more as a matter of Hmmm, that's interesting, I wonder why I do that? I'm thinking that we should embrace our quirks and value them because they give us our uniqueness, even if most of them are pretty silly. Here are some of the quirks I have been noticing about myself:

1) My pinkie fingers tend to stick out/up when I do things with my hands such as type, brush my teeth, drink from a cup/can/bottle/ whatever. Think of a stuffy, proper, English woman taking tea with her pinkie extended away from her tea cup. That would be me.

2) I talk to animals. I was having a full blown conversation with my guinea pigs recently as I was folding my laundry (their cage is in the laundry room). I didn't think anything of it until Aaron walked in and gave me a look that let me know I was being a bit strange. I told him that fifteen years of being married to a man of few words has taught me to go ahead and have my one way conversations. Even if it is with my four legged friends.

3)When I do my hair and makeup in the morning I stand on one leg. My other leg bends at the knee and rests on the bathroom counter. I have been doing this since Junior High. I have no idea why.

4) I am a rebel. I know everyone who knows me just burst out laughing because they know I am not one to break the rules. I am more of a subtle, non-traditional rebel and when I am rebelling I am the only one who knows I'm doing it. For example, sometimes when I clean my kitchen after dinner, I will purposely not do it perfectly. I might leave a little something stuck in the sink or not scrub the stove top 'till it shines. I assure you I do this not out of laziness but out of pure rebellion. One would expect me to clean the kitchen perfectly, therefore, I do not do it. Even if it is one, almost unnoticeable little spot.

One thing I have never been good at is laughing at myself. Examining my quirks is helping me get over that.

A "Fowl" Incident

An odd thing happened to me this morning. As I was puttering around the house I kept hearing this strange noise through my open windows. It was a combination of a screeching, flapping, banging sound. I ignored it for a while, then finally went out into the backyard to investigate. There on my fence was a bird. No, not sitting there singing gaily as birds are supposed to, but dangling upside down with one leg caught between two fence boards. He was wildly flapping his wings, trying to escape but his leg was wedged in there pretty tight. I went and got a broom with a long handle thinking I could put the broom under the bird and slide him up through the crack until his leg was free. No such luck. That leg wouldn't budge and the poor bird shrieked in pain every time I tried. His leg was bloody and obviously broken. I frantically wondered how I was going to rescue this bird, then decided to call Aaron and have him take care of it. Nope , he wasn't in the area, I'd have to do it myself. He told me to go out and pull the boards apart so he could escape. The thing is, this wasn't a little tiny sparrow, it was quite a large bird. A large bird with a long sharp beak and talons that I was sure would attack me as soon as it was free. I really did not want to do this. I went inside and donned my protective armor. Aaron's big, long, thick coat. Gardening gloves. Glasses so my eyes wouldn't get pecked out. Out I went to take care of the problem. Standing there a couple feet away, I was still scared of that bird. I decide to climb over the wood fence (there is no gate on the back fence line) and pull the boards apart from that side so I would not have an angry flapping bird in my face while I did the deed. So over I went, I pulled the boards apart and the bird dropped down into the yard. It was impossible to climb back into my yard from that side of the fence so I had to walk around my block to get back home. Luckily I remembered to take off the parka and gardening gloves and throw them over the fence before someone saw me. One the way back to my house I wondered what I would do if the bird was laying in the grass with a broken leg. Who fixes wild birds with broken legs??? I was quite relieved when I discovered that the bird had managed to fly away. Thank goodness, because the thought getting ahold of that bird and taking it to a vet was just more than I could take.

Show Biz Kids...Kinda

This weekend was a weekend of performances. On Friday we attended Austin's school musical, "Rock the Jukebox". The sixth grade classes performed songs and dances representing each decade since the fifties. The program was a lot of fun to watch because the kids looked like they were having such a great time performing. Even Austin, who looks like he wants beat someone up during primary presentations, looked like he was having fun.
Saturday evening at church we had the Primary talent show. Austin has been taking guitar lessons for about two and a half years now and he rocks! He performed the Green Day song "Good Riddance" and the crowd went wild when he finished. Afterward he had lots of people come up and tell him how impressed they were and that they wanted to get together and "jam" with him.
Amanda also performed in the talent show. She did one of her clogging dances all by herself. I was so proud of her because she gets so nervous to perform but she got up there and did great. She was so brave and she also smiled the whole time which is something I always nag her about. I didn't even have to make silly faces to get her to do it! I was a proud mama this weekend.

Love This Face...

Let the Fun Begin!

Summer is on it's way and we are excitedly looking forward to all the fun it will bring! The kids will be getting out of school in two weeks and then it's time to play. The first thing on our agenda is a trip to California. Unfortunately, Aaron can't get away from work right now so the kids and I will be making this trip without him. I am soooo dreading the 15 hour drive but being with family and old friends again will make it worth it. It's probably going to be a hectic trip with so many people to see in so little time but we'll do our best. The kids are super excited to see their cousins, aunts, uncles and Grandma again. I think they are equally excited to eat an In-N-Out burger and have chips and salsa at La Casita. I have to admit, I feel the same way.

We have the Cherry Festival to look forward to the week following our Cali trip. The Cherry Festival is like a small scale Fair held in our city park. There are rides and games, contests, performances, and lots of yummy, unhealthy, fattening foods. The entire town seems to come and just hang out for about 3 or 4 days. Of course, the girls will also be clogging there so that will make it more fun.

After Cherry Festival we will have lots of sun filled days swimming at the reservoir and floating the river. I'm sure we will do quite a bit of camping. Living here just makes me want to be more of an outdoor person. That is a first for me.

At the end of July I am headed to San Antonio Texas to play with my high school buddies for 4 days. I know I've mentioned this before, so you can probably tell I'm pretty excited about this. The thing I am most looking forward to on this trip is the laughter. When Rachel, Mandy, Jodi, Thorey and I get together the laughter just doesn't stop.

It's going to be a great summer. I can't wait to get started!

Sunset

This weekend when we went camping I was able to photograph a beautiful sunset. I took this picture first. I like golden glow just behind the trees lining the river and the reflection of the light in the water.
About fifteen or twenty minutes later I took this photo. I have no idea how the sky suddenly changed that dramatically, that quickly, but it did. I was glad I just happened to be standing there with my camera (while my family gathered rocks, see below) and was able to capture the moment.

Camping Out

One thing we enjoy doing as a family is going camping. A man Aaron did some work for owns 80 acres along the river here in our town and he offered to let us camp on it anytime we want. We finally took him up on his offer and spent one night there this weekend. For Aaron, the main objective in going camping is to build and enjoy a great campfire. He can sit for hours on end just staring at the flames. Since we weren't camping this time at an official campground we had to build our own fire ring. First we had to scout out and gather rocks to build the ring. Everyone participated (even the dog) in this activity. Everyone except me. SOMEONE has to take the pictures! Then Aaron went to work building his river rock fire ring. I can just see the boy scout in him busting loose at times like these. I loved the fire pit he created. I told him it was a masterpiece. He looked at me like I'm crazy.
When all the work of setting up camp was done and the night grew dark, it was time to settle in around the fire. We sat there roasting hot dogs and enjoying each other's company until late into the night. For us, this is what camping is all about.

Pals at the Park

Yesterday I took Lauren and her pal Kalyssa to the park to play (yes, I went back again already). Lauren and Kalyssa met and became friends in preschool last year. When they ran into each other at kindergarten orientation and discovered they would be in the same kindergarten class Kalyssa declared, "Well Lauren, at least we have each other!" Kalyssa is a fun, chatty, energetic and hilarious little girl. She also seems to bring those same qualities out in Lauren who tends to be more reserved.
The girls enjoyed feeding their happy meal fries to the squirrels, playing on the playground, and coming up with imaginative make-believe games.

They almost made me wish I were six again.

Moooo!

Today I was driving down our town's main street when suddenly all cars just came to a stop. Traffic jams in our town are unheard of. I sat there for a moment trying to see around the car in front of me. What could possibly be the hold up, I wondered. I soon found out as a frightened little black calf came trotting down the street past my car! Next came a frantic cowboy with a lasso, chasing after him. I blinked a couple times and wondered if I had really just seen what I thought I did. It was definitely a "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto" moment!

Two Little Dancers

Before we moved to Idaho we had never really heard of clogging. Well, I'm sure I had probably heard of it but wasn't at all familiar with it. Then we attended the Cherry Festival here in our new town and discovered that in our area clogging is the CRAZE. If you're like I was and don't know much about clogging, it can be described as "power tap". It is so much fun to watch! After watching the Gem Cloggers perform for 4 straight days at the Cherry Festival, our girls were hooked. For the next two months their feet tippety-tapped to their own tunes until they started taking lessons that started up in the Fall. They have loved being involved in clogging and were able to perform a few different times this year. Last week was their Spring Recital, which is a big to-do around here. The community really supports this activity and the auditorium was packed. The girls each got to perform a few different numbers and they both did great. Their next performance will be at the Cherry Festival and they are so excited to get to dance at the place they first fell in love with it.

Little Wonders...

It often surprises adults which things in life kids find fascinating. When was the last time you took a moment to examine a blade of grass and ponder it's existence? One fun thing about having kids is that they notice all those little things we have long taken for granted. They lend us a fresh set of eyes to view the world through and suddenly we remember the wonder we felt as children as we made life's little discoveries. Remember when you traveled at night and thought the moon was following you? Lauren recently observed this phenomenon and it shocked me that this was something I hadn't noticed since I was a little girl and discovered it myself. I'm grateful to my children for waking up these eyes of mine and helping them see the little wonders in life I have come to overlook.

Sisters