Fun at the Dam

All has been quiet on the home front this past week, which means, not much to blog about. Today however, we did manage to make it out of the house and spent the afternoon at Black Canyon Reservoir with friends. The reservoir is a dammed up portion of the Payette River which forms a small lake and has a nice little swimming beach. The Dam, as everyone calls it, is only ten minutes from our home so it's a convenient place to spend an afternoon enjoying the great outdoors. Between four of us moms we had fifteen kids and boy did they have a great time together! Three and a half hours slipped by before we knew it. I'd love to show you pictures but my camera just didn't make it out of the case. Maybe next time!

Celebrating the Solstice

Last night my spontaneously fun, creative friend Nikki (AKA Idahospud) called and invited us over for an impromptu Summer Solstice party. I hadn't realized it was the Solstice but apparently Nikki is up on these things and wanted to celebrate the longest day of the year. I'm glad she did because we had so much fun! Nikki lives in a beautiful farmhouse in the country and her house is always a fun place to be. Last night was especially so. Nikki had gone out and bought beautiful fresh flowers which the kids made into wreaths then wore on their heads and around their wrists. She had a roaring bonfire going that us grown ups sat around making s'mores while our kids played hide and go seek and capture the flag in her dark fields. Before we knew it, it was midnight and we decided we'd better head home. Our kids, still going full speed with their friends complained about having to go home so "early". Thank you Nikki, for such a great evening!

Pretty Girls

Today I was in the mood to play photographer so I took the girls out for a shoot by the river. I was pretty happy with some of the shots I got. Click on the link below to take a look at a Kodak album I set up (be sure to click on PLAY for the slideshow).

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?UAUTOLOGIN_ID=973771946108&mode=fromsite&collid=973771946108.212121000208.1182393740842&conn_speed=1

Boing!!!

Yesterday I mentioned the Power Jump contraption that the kids went on at the Cherry Festival, so today I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of it. Here is Austin being strapped into the harness.
And here is Austin bouncing who knows how high up into the air. He did countless back flips which I thought would make him queasy but didn't. I really wished that my brother the daredevil/acrobat had been there to see it. He would have been proud.

Cherry Festival Fun!

This past week was our town's annual Cherry Festival. We went for two out of the four days and had a blast. The first day we went, Amanda had her clogging performance and did great. She was all smiles. Unfortunately, Lauren missed her own performance the day before because we were late coming back from our trip. After Amanda performed, the kids rode some of the carnival rides and Austin and Manda did the Power Jump. For those of you who aren't familiar with this, they strap you into a harness with two bungee-like cords attached to it and then they bounce you up about twenty five feet into the air. Kind of the reverse of bungee jumping. Saturday we headed back over at about noon and checked out the old cars. Austin liked this one in particular. The people who owned the car that Manda liked let her actually sit inside and honk the horn. Nice people.
Next we headed over to the petting zoo where I finally got to pet a baby cow. My family laughs at me because I'm always exclaiming about the cute little calves frolicking in the pastures around here. They are even cuter up close.
Face painting at the Cherry festival is a must. Both girls had beautiful flowers painted onto their cheeks. I guess Austin is too old for that now... sniff, sniff.
He did however, participate in the cherry pie eating contest. He gave it a good try but before long he knew that if he actually tried to win, that cherry pie would come spewing back out. He also competed in the cherry pit spitting contest. Unfortunately, his pit didn't fly quite far enough. I was really proud of him for participating in these events. He used to be a little too shy to do these things but I guess he's getting over it. The rest of the day we watched the belly dancers (eeww), the cloggers (woohoo), the parade (such a display of hometown pride) and two local bands. We ate Indiana tacos, corn dogs, Philly cheese steak sandwiches, pizza and funnel cakes without thinking about our waistlines and Austin topped the night off by riding the mechanical bull (yeehaw!) Before we knew it, it was eleven pm and time for the Cherry Festival to come to an end. That "almost" smile on Aaron's face is proof that a day at the Cherry Festival is a good day indeed.

Pics from California

Here are a few pictures of friends and family we saw on our trip. Julie turned fourteen!
Lauren enjoys some attention.
Sammy and Caden have grown so much!
Rachel, Kasey, Leah,Mandy, Robin (we missed you Jodi and Thorey) I love ya Mandy!

Our Trip; The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Our little jaunt to California turned out to be quite a trip. Not exactly the trip I had imagined, but quite a trip nonetheless. The drive down was great. We shaved about 2 hours off of our drive time and the kids didn't even fight all the way there. That alone is a miracle in and of itself. It was kind of a weird feeling to go back to the place that had been home for most of our lives and feel like a visitor. Things had changed, like new shopping centers had been built on Main St. and older buildings had been renovated. Other things I had forgotten about, like just how much dirt there is in the desert and how it is very common for people to have nothing growing in their yards. We had so much fun spending time with our family and I was reminded of how much I really love them all. We were able to get most of the family together under one roof several times during our trip and it was great to just hang out, eat, and chat. A couple of Austin's uncles play guitar and Austin had a ball getting to jam with them. The first night we were there Austin and Ryan stayed up 'till midnight playing guitars together. Austin was in heaven. It was especially fun for the kids to be able to spend time with their cousins. There is a special feeling among the cousins, like they just know they belong to each other in a special way. It was exciting to see how they had each grown physically and in personality. Seeing old friends was lots of fun also. We finally got to see their precious babies who had been born while we were gone. I am fortunate to have many old friends that go way back and it was great to be with them again. We finally got to have the In-N-Out burgers we have been pineing for...not only once but three times! We also visited La Casita and Los Robertos multiple times. We definitely got our Mexican food fix. A few unexpected things also happened to us on this trip. The second day we were there our car overheated on the freeway between Barstow and Hesperia. My brother-in-law rescued us and then my car sat in the shop getting fixed for the next 3 days. The day after my car broke down I recieved the news that one of my oldest, closest, friend's mom had passed away that day. This news was so upsetting and I couldn't think straight for days. I have so many fond memories of spending time at my friend's home as a teenager and of being around her mom. Though I wish it hadn't happened at all, I was thankful that it had happened while I was down there so I could be there with my friend. It was tough to see her hurting and I wish I could take all that pain away from her. I decided to extend our visit until after the funeral which was three days away from when I had planned to return home. A couple of days later the kids and I headed out in our newly repaired car to go visit my Grandma. We were about 40 minutes into our journey when once again our car broke down. This time the transmission went out. I called Aaron in a panic to tell him what happened and a second later my cell phone died. I couldn't believe that I was stranded on the freeway in San Bernardino with no phone and three hysterical kids. I had absolutely no idea what to do. Fortunately, we prayed desperately and then things began to fall into place. I know that Heavenly Father heard our prayer, then gave us His help and protection. About an hour and a half later a tow truck dropped us off at a shop in Hesperia. After it left we learned that that shop didn't fix transmissions and we had to have it towed a second time. It then sat in the shop over the weekend until it could be looked at on Monday. The evening of the day that my car died, Aaron flew in for the funeral. After a couple of missed and delayed flights he finally arrived. Boy was I glad to see him! The funeral service was very nice although it was hard to get through. My friends and I wondered what we were thinking when we put on our mascara that morning. Determined to end this trip on a good note, Aaron and I took the kids to Knott's Berry Farm that Monday morning. It was there that we received the call from the shop informing us that to fix our car would mean paying more money than the car was worth. Suddenly, we weren't in the mood to ride roller coasters and we spent the rest of the day moping around the amusement park. After much thought we decide that the best thing to do was to trade in our deceased car for a new one. We found a great deal on a beautiful forest green Yukon Denali and made the purchased. The excitement of owning a new car was dampered by the fact that we had just paid off our car and were now forced to get into having a new car payment. Such a bummer. The up side was that we now had reliable wheels and could finally go home! The ride home was not a fraction as peaceful as the ride down and it seemed to take quite a bit longer. I can't even say how happy I was to drive down the hill into our little valley. Home at last!

At Last...Home Sweet Home!

I am happy to report that I am finally home! What was supposed to be a one week visit to California unexpectedly turned into a two week stay. If anything has ever taught me to "go with the flow", this trip would be it. I'll post all about it as soon as I can but for now, I'm off to bed. I feel almost giddy that I will be sleeping in my own bed tonight!