Superhero Dinner

This is what happens when Dixie gets bored while making dinner. 

No judging!

building more than just a treehouse

Josh and the boys build a treehouse in Driggs out of the old redwood deck.

Jenny Lake

 Because we were already in the national park, we decided to make a quick stop at Jenny Lake (despite Jake trying to bah-humbug the plan). It was terribly windy but gloriously beautiful. The Rocky Mountains are the best!

Dixie, trying to stop being blown away

 Lander loves his daddy

 Josh and Shauna

Church of the Transfiguration

Grams' parents, Cecil and Evelyn were married in this very church, the Church of the Transfiguration. It sits on land that is now included in Grand Teton National Park.

Lander, Jake, Nana, Grams, Josh

 This is the view of the Tetons from inside the church. Amazing!

This picture captures a big essence of Jake and Lander's relationship. Sure, they are brothers who like to mercilessly torture one another, but they also are the best of friends.

Mormon Row

We decided to do a little Jackson Hole sight seeing after cleaning the graves. Our first stop, Mormon Row.  Mormon Row is a group of old farm buildings left by the predominantly Mormon homesteaders. The land was sold to the Rockefeller Snake River Land Company and turned into part of Grand Teton National Park.

We were thrilled when we came across a herd of bison. Believe it or not, but these are the first wild bison that our boys have seen. We've been to Yellowstone. We've been to Custer State Park. But nope, have never seen one. 

This herd was scattered across a dirt road and didn't seem to mind the cars much. 

Jake, Shauna aka "Nana" and Lander standing in front of the Moulton Barn, 

the most famous structure in Mormon Row, overlooking the Tetons

 the boys....sigh.....love these hooligans!

The boys were fascinated by the ground squirrels (or whatever ground rodent it might have been) that lived on the farm. There were hundreds and hundreds of them!

Lander and Jake look at the ground squirrel that they just chased down a hole

 Dixie and the boys exploring another barn

Paying our Respect

Memorial Day was spent tidying up family grave sites. We started at the Bates Cemetery in Driggs.

Jake places flowers at Peepaw's grave

Lander missing Peepaw 

Then we moved on to Jackson, Wyoming to the "wild cemetery" next to Snow King Resort. Jake and Lander's great-great and great-great-great grandmothers are buried here.

Lander cleans weeds and debris from Grandma Mamie's headstone

Grams was worried that she would not ever be able to make the trek to the grave site because it is steep, rocky and uneven. But, as you can see, she made it, and was so glad that she could.

Shauna, Dixie, Grams, Jake

 All done!

Shauna, Grams, Dixie & Jake, ready for a little break

fire rainbows

This little gift greeted us when we got home today. 

Fire rainbows are supposedly rare (if you happen to believe claims by Nasa), but we seem to find at least one every year. Some claim that the average person only sees these once or twice in their lifetime. Maybe it is a message? Or an omen? If so, we think it's a good one!

Jake's last day of middle school

This wasn't exactly what we had in mind when we thought of the last day of middle school. We didn't imagine a tween-age bully getting over zealous today, we didn't imagine a meeting with the cops, and we certainly didn't imagine that we would need to use nail polish to glue Jake's head back together.

But that's what we got.

Luckily, it didn't rain on our parade.

best buddies: Shiwon, Jake and Ethan D

And just for the record:

1. The school will make sure that their lockers are farther apart next year.

2. NO! We didn't press charges on the boy. We were shocked when the school asked us if we wanted to. My thoughts were "Seriously?" The principle clarified that no one up to this point has taken him up on an offer to do so in similar cases. Thank goodness.

3. YES, nail polish! It actually worked really well when we couldn't find any super glue! Just be prepared because it does burn, and try to stick with a quick-dry clear color....just sayin'....

4. Of course, we will be continuing with taekwando. Jake was able to stop the attack after the first (surprise) blow to the head, and get away. I call that a success!

tragedy at the Jamison house

Look at that face. 

...sigh...

It doesn't take a genius to see that something was wrong. Seriously wrong. Tonight when Jake went to bed, his pet hamster, Hammy, didn't run to the edge of his cage to greet Jake. Instead, he was laying upside down. Not moving. The experts (aka Mom and Dad) were called in, and the prognosis didn't look good.

Hammy was dead.

What!?! Questions followed. When? Why? HOW? Unfortunately, the answers are a bit more elusive than we want. What we do know? He seemed healthy and happy the last time that we saw him. Eating normally....excreting normally. Other than being a bit more active than normal for the past two days, everything was status quo.

So the coroner (aka Mom) pronounced the cause of death to be head trauma that occurred when Hammy ran so fast on his running wheel that he flung himself off, and met the ceiling of his cage. Death was instant and painless. For all he knew, it was the most exhilarating ride of his life!

According to the CDC, this is the cause of 35.2% of all fall related deaths. It could happen right? And it sounds a lot better than choking, dying of loneliness, or expiring from wet tail. (The name even sounds bad!)

Jake created this headstone for Hammy's burial site and then said a heartfelt and beautiful prayer.

We love and miss you Hammy!

Look no further if you have a weak stomach, 

but Jake wanted a record of what his hamster looked like. This is for you, bud!

Spring is HERE!

Spring doesn't truly ever feel like spring until the crabapples start to bloom and the brown grass turns a vivid green.

Looks like spring is here!

test time

It was belt testing time in taekwando. This was the group portion, where the kids had to recite the motto and a few other things. Then they were evaluated individually on their kicks, blocks, punches and other forms including breaking boards.

THEY. NAILED. IT! 

Jake (standing, first on the left) and Lander (standing, second on the right)

Way to go boys! 

that's my boy!

Lander came home from school eager to share his Mother's Day gifts. The first was a coupon jar with lots of fun acts of service that Lander was giving to his mom. Some of the coupons were scratched out.

"Mom, I already do those anyways!" 

This was the first one that Lander chose. On purpose!

What a sweet, sweet boy!

love notes

Occasionally we get sappy, you know, as in the googly moogly sort of way. Sometimes, we just get plain silly. You decide which category this love notes fall into:

time for work, time for play

The boys got a little job, walking the neighbors dog. They LOVED it!