ranom pictures

I have to share some randomness from summer.

As noted earlier, summer is BRUTAL on the 4 and under crowd. Frank played HARD and fell hard.

Diana, Emily, Nora, and Isaac each finished their 100 math worksheets - hooray! It was hard some days but the work is showing as they have transitioned back into school. Diana's math was seriously hard stuff (not what I think of as 6th grade work) but she was a super trooper and Ryan was an incredible coach. I need to write thank you notes to Ryan's high school girlfriend whom he tutored and the Math Lab at BYU where he worked, for making him such a  great math teacher.

Homemade ice cream!

Frank and Nelson played around each other for many days but finally bonded over chocolate blackberry milkshakes. Check out the pile of bananas on the back. In full summer that would last maybe a day and a half!

Nelson was thrilled his legs had grown long enough for the big trikes! He spent hours riding.

4th of july

sooooooo. "You're a grand old flag,

You're a high flyin' flag,

And forever in peace may you waaaaave.

You're the emblem of

 the land I love,

 the home of the free and the braaaaave."

Yes, we play Grandma's instruments and sing "You're a Grand Old Flag" every year on our way to the play set, where the scouts in the family raise the flag and we pledge allegiance. It's great American stuff.

Then we head to the parade. It's always great and we always love it and we always run into random people from high school (we sang with the girl standing behind us - good times).

After a full Summer, Nelson still isn't sure about Aunt Mel. She WILL win him over though...she WILL.

Like I said, good times. Look at those smiles. I'm so grateful to be American.

deorens dresses

Over 100 dresses, a house full of little girls and voila! you have yourself an afternoon. Jess, Mel and I pulled the DeOrens dresses out of storage and let the little girls enjoy for an afternoon. Of course, none of them fit because the dresses are adult size, but it was a trip down memory lane for the DeOrens.

The end.

backpack

I lied! I do have pictures of our backpacking trip! Hooray. We did a tried and true hike this year and it was great fun. The weather was sublime, food good, campsite nice and kids GREAT!

Chase contingent. Next year Sarah is eligible to go - eek!

This hike follows a creek and has several bridges with just one bridge-less crossing. Unfortunately the one crossing was OUT OF CONTROL with water, so we all got wet, it was really cool though.

We hiked up to an old mine. We used to be able to go in, but they have since sealed it off. The kids were disappointed.

After the failed mine, we went up to the high lake to check it out. We have decided to rename it "Tick Lake". In about 30 minutes we found tons of ticks on each other - 3 in Nora's hair alone. Needless to say, we skeedadled and felt grateful we were NOT camping at the lake as we had first planned.

Emmy and Josh, bright morning faces.

Endless wet tennies.

Breakfast!

Diana is lovely!

Don't they look fresh and well rested?

Christian is HILARIOUS! He was so tired when he went to bed he threw a totally irrational fit because he wanted two sleeping bags! It was funny. It's amazing these kids do as well as they do with the sleep depravation summer brings.

Hiking out.

We discovered work of water fairies. Very gorgeous.

Frewell.

daddy came to town

We really are "so glad when Daddy comes"...to the farm.

He plays in the sunshine with his kids, goes backpacking, does some good "man labor" and then goes home to AZ happy to have been with us all. I don't have any pictures of the backpacking trip (oops), but here are 2 to prove Ryan was with us.

See, playing in the sunshine.

Man labor (and little girl labor). The kids, with the help of the men spent many days cutting, splitting and stacking TWO years worth of wood - a huge job. They worked really hard and Grandma and Grandpa are so grateful to have a full to busting woodshed. This is only part of what they put up (and it's a very deep shed), they also filled all the extra room in the boat shed.

Whenever I feel bad about Diana missing 2 months of Occupational therapy I have to remind myself of this little project.

musical theater camp

Every two years Jessica, Melani and I offer a free, week long musical theater camp for the kids in Sandpoint. We had a FANTASTIC group of kids this year: great attitudes, hard workers and some talent to boot, so we had a really enjoyable week together.

"Do You Wanna Go To Heaven" from Big River
 

"Joseph's Dreams" from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
 

"I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from The Lion King
 

We did lots of other numbers and some monologues as well. I'm always amazed at what Jess and Mel can accomplish in so short a time (I'm truly just a warm dancing body, they are the brains behind the operation, but it's fun).

school 2014-2015

Yes, it's JULY and yes, school has begun. All summer the cousins and Grandpa would holler "Curse you Chandler School District" whenever the subject came up, but like it or not, here we are.

First off, it's Emily's 10th birthday - we had some time this morning so we made birthday lasagna while wearing backpacks.

Emily 5th grader extraordinaire!

Nora 3rd grader in plaid.

Sarah will start pre-school in August

Isaac is the big 1st grade

Diana is 6th - eek!

And the whole motley crew! I think they are awfully cute. I'm going to try to really enjoy this last year with only one school (preschool doesn't count). Next year jr. high enters the picture.

Finally, Emily asked for homemade ice cream for her birthday so I found the ice cream maker we received for our wedding and have never used and HOORAY, it worked like a charm and the ice cream is scrumptious!