4th of July

We spent another 4th of July in Driggs. What better place to be?

Lander, Jake, Drew, Jayden

Our top ten eleven highlights of the weekend

11.

The cool, windy weather

 (kidding, but seriously, why do we expect good weather? We should know by now!)

10.

Josh & Jarrod wading through the "swamp" at the disc golf course

9.

Playing round after round of Wizard.

Watch out guys. I swear I am going to kick some bahushki next time!

8.

The bike-riding treasure hunt to find snappers, candy & bubbles.

"Bubbles are for babies, Mom." -- Jake

7.

Fixing the sprinklers.

The 1 hour job turned 10...ish...or was it 20?

6.

Underwear baseball. It's not what you think...but close.

Let's just say that if I posted it, the little boys would kill me!

5.

Shelly's homemade Oreo's. YUM!

4.

Playing in the creek.

Numb toes are okay, right?

3.

Awesome fireworks..
those crazy, nearly-burn-the-house-down (kidding Grams!), totally legal fireworks

(definately getting more of those next year!)

2.

Shaking Glenn Beck's hand & then staring at him & his family during church!!!

1.

Best of all?

Spending time with family!!

Jayden, Jake & Grams

Jarrod throwing disc at Targhee

Jake in Horseshoe Creek

Jake, Dixie, Lander...so typical!

Clean Mountain Air

Or not so clean...

This was our view tonight thanks to a wildfire at the Site.

The plus? Josh had to "evacuate" so he got to come home early.

On an equally important, but totally unrelated topic;

extra points for those of you who can find the two dead trees in my yard.

Talk about a tragedy!

Jake's Practical Joke

Jake's idea of a joke on his brother. Luckily he has a really easy going mom! ;) 
Just in case you can't tell...it's a dead snake that he found on the side of the road. Hand sanitizer anyone??

June in a Nutshell

It's the middle of July already. Yikes! So much has happened, but nothing chronicled, so bear with me here as I post away.

School ended a week early thanks to a school district finance deficit. The boys couldn't have been happier. A week later, we headed down to St. George so the boys could attend skateboard camp with their cousin.

Jake & Lander

(Thanks for the awesome photos Tiff!!)

Devin, Lander, Jake, Brianna

While the boys played, I decided to get fixed. I mean, why not, eh?

Dixie on drugs & the doting Josherboy

Family & friends were so king & thoughtful. Josh took a few days off from work. Flowers, dinner & treats  flowed in (I'm now hooked on the Cocoa Bean!) while I zoned out with my wimpy tolerance to drugs.

Thanks Sibs for the awesome flowers & thanks Mom & dad for the fruit basket. It was YUMMY!

Tiff & Chad brought the boys to Salt Lake to meet up with Josh. (A million-zillion thanks for taking care of the boys!!) On there way, they passed a semi hauling transformers. The truck driver was a bit--okay very--peeved when they followed him to a gas station to show the kids. What a scrooge! They were persistent & the kids got a peek at the cool trucks.

This is the best picture of the transformers. They really do transform!

Jake returned home to find out that his baseball team had won the championship while he was out of town. I asked if he was upset. His response...."No way! Devin has a pool!"

Josh spent the month alternating between work and golf, mixed in with a few extra doses of helping at home (thanks for weeding the garden, Babe!).

Alan & Heather made a quick trip to visit. Jake & Lander still say they miss seeing Travis. And then Kelsey & Mom came up for a spur of the moment trip bringing Sydney & Jenna. Late nights. Lots of games. Puking little girls. And that writing session. Goood times.

And that's our June in a nutshell.

spring?

the SUN is shining...sort of!

and the award goes to...

Josh is officially awarded the "Dad of the Year" award for finding this Rip Stik (Jake's #1 item on his birthday & Christmas wish list this year) at the thrift store. $7 baby!! Now, what am I going to get him for his birthday???

Jakey, hardly able to contain his excitement

Lander's first attempt didn't go so well

Lander wanted me to point out that if you look really close,

you can see the start of his bruise

(middle of his shin, for those of us who are near sighted!).

HELP!

The boys (Lander to be specific) are out of control. This is their room 5 minutes after they cleaned it.  It was getting so bad that we had to have a family intervention!

Artwork by Lander

Look what I just found on my camera. Apparently, Lander really liked his picture that he drew.

It's Baseball Season!

Jake huddling with his team

what to do, what to do?

The dilemma? How to transport a life-size manikin, a very expensive--cost nearly as much as my car--manikin? Here was my solution:

Boy, you should have seen the looks I got.

baby Liam needs help

My cousin's baby boy is in trouble. He began having seizures just days after he was born. Nothing has been able to stop them. Without surgery he will die. Here is the blog for anyone interested:

www.liamrileyhowe.blogspot.com

Hurry up!

Is anyone besides myself getting impatient because they haven't posted a preview for Eclipse yet? I mean, come on! It's February already & the movie is out in June! The winter is dragging in Idaho & since I can't go somewhere tropical (hint, hint Josherboy!), I plan on using Eclipse as my vacation!!!

Beth P., Shanie P., ME(!), & Heather

We took this picture while we were waiting for the rest of our friends to arrive at the midnight premier of New Moon. (Nov. 21, 2009)

Snow King Resort

The little boys got to go sledding at Snow King Resort (a ski hill in Jackson, WY). It was really fun!

Jake riding the tow rope

a HaPpY Lander

stroll down Memory Lane

Check out this picture that I just found of Josh & I

with Dan & Emily! I think it was taken in 1997 or 1998.

(Can anyone help me on this one???) Talk about a blast from the past!

Pinewood Derby

Jake had his first Pinewood Derby last week. Here are the boys modeling their cars (Caleb H., Lander, Jake, Job G., Jorge G.).

P.S. Jake really is happy (this picture was taken before the race which explains why he was happy & not crying), but I just couldn't resist posting this particular picture. Lander's expression is HILARIOUS!!!! :

And, the race is on:

Wow. Better luck next time?

Captain Jake Sparrow

Jake: "Mom! Guess who I am?"

Mom: "I don't know? Maybe Captain Jake Sparrow?"

Jake: "Oh man! How did you guess!?!"

Lander's Favorite Thing

Every morning you can find Lander here, hiding in the bathroom, playing with his toys while the heater cranks away. The tiny bathroom usually feels like a sauna!

Jake's Brownies

Jake decided to make brownies, something he learned to do in school last month.

melting chocolate & butter next some eggsand some sugar

blend it well

add the chocolate

and some flour

then baking powder & vanilla

bakeThey were really yummy! Good job, Buddie!

Jake's Brownies

2 Squares Unsweetened Chocolate

1/2 C. Butter

2 Eggs

1 C. Sugar

3/4 C. Flour

1/2 tsp. Baking Powder

1 tsp. Vanilla

1/3 C. Chopped Nuts

Do not preheat oven. Melt chocolate & butter. Beat the eggs and add sugar. Add the chocolate and butter, beat. Add flour and baking powder and beat. Add vanilla and nuts. Bake in greased 8" pan at 300 for 55 minutes.

since we are talking about food...

It actually felt like Christmas today when I picked up my first order from the local fruit co-op. For $15 you get whatever assortment the co-op is able to purchase. It varies every time.

This was my $6.00 "Italian" basket. (2 zucchinis, 2 red onions, 2 yellow onions, garlic, mushrooms, oregano, basil, Italian parsley, eggplant)

And here was my $15 fruit/vegi basket. (10 Braeburn applies, 3 lb pears, 6 tangelos, 8 bananas, 2 mangos, Romaine lettuce, strawberries, broccoli, russet potatoes, spaghetti squash, orange bell pepper, 6 red onions, 3 roma tomatoes)

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree

We decided to do something different this for Christmas--cut down our own tree. Here we are, looking for the "perfect" tree on Packsaddle Loop, just a few minutes drive from Gram's house. It turned out to be a lot harder than we expected. Finally. 2 hours later we found one thanks to Todd.
"You're doing a great job, guys!"

(Lander, Dixie, Uncle Jarrod, Jake, Drew, Jayden)
Todd securing the tree.
Was it worth it? Depends on who you talk to. But we would say definitely!

Thanksgiving in Driggs

just a few highlights...

Grams enjoying the sun while it lasts Drew & Lander's snowman

Another self portrait. It almost looks like Jayden is picking his nose in the background. What are you teaching him Shelly?! :)

let it snow

For some strange reason, I have little boys that will NOT build snowmen, have no interest in snow forts, and generally try to stay indoors until Spring arrives. Fortunately, Jake forgot this when the first real snowstorm hit in November. He tired himself out rolling the HUGE base of a snowman so Josh & I offered to help. The tiny top of the snowman was the result. No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get the snow to pack. I have no idea how Jake was able to make that gInORmOuS ball of snow.

Mesa Verde

On our way home from New Mexico (after Josh's hunt), we decided to keep the boys out of school for an extra day so that we could visit Mesa Verde. The timing turned out perfectly. The weather was warm, there were only a handful of visitors, and then to top it off, Jake's class studied Mesa Verde and other ancient American civilizations a week later. Jake was able to bring pictures and maps for his class to look it.

I'm glad that we didn't have to scale the rocks using toe holds like the Natives. Here Lander is climbing one of the many ladders it took to reach the old ruins.

Self portrait in front of Spruce Tree House

These are some of the stairs that have to be climbed to get out of Cliff Palace. I am standing just two steps below Josh.

Cliff Palace