Adventures in Idaho

We had the opportunity to visit my brother (we'll call him Shooter - he knows why!) while he was hunting for a moose. The area he drew in was quite near my mother's ancestral home and so we were able to stay in the farmhouse she grew up in on what used to be my Grandpa's dry farm. The boys are quite enamored of The Farm and we all had a great time thanks to my aunt's generousity in allowing us to stay!

The boys spent the better part of two days with these clothespins. They made all sorts of shapes and animals and played games with them. So now I know what to get them for Christmas!

If someone out there has an excess of that filthy lucre, send it my way because I wouldn't mind living with this view.

This is the house my grandparents built before moving to the Lower House after my great-grandparents died.

This is the one-room schoolhouse my mother and her siblings attended along with the other kids from neighboring farms.

We did a little fishing/reconnaissance for moose one evening:

Here is where we put in the river. I thought the remnants of this old bridge looked cool.

While Shooter and The Mister took the other vehicle to the take-out point, the boys and I waited with the boat and I took this picture from the shore of the Teton River. Had we been up there a week later, I could have gotten a picture of the full moon rising over the Tetons.

Getting on the river. As you can see, MKIA is determined to go wading despite the fact that it is nearly sunset and the ambient temperature was probably below 50. Suprisingly, he ended up getting his pants wet and thought he would freeze to death before we reached the take-out and the car.

I saw a moose as we were coming home from church on Sunday. Therefore, I was promoted to Moose-Spotter and went out later that evening to help with the hunt.

I may have been playing with the camera occaisonally.

I think Shooter may have shot the Baby Daddy of these moose.

Don't tell The Mister that I took the 4Runner down this 4-wheeler trail through one of the canyons!

Still playing with the camera!

In the end, the hunt was successful and Shooter shot his moose.

The boys weren't quite sure what to think of the moose. SP was torn between revulsion and wanting to hack a piece off and eat it right there. I think MKIA just wanted to see what SP was going to do.

Seems Like We Are Missing Something

The other morning, we woke up to a rainy, foggy, cold, gray day. Later in the afternoon, the clouds lifted and cleared a bit and this is what we saw up on the mountains.


And now I'm a little confused because I am sure there is supposed to be a season between summer and winter.

School Pictures!

What parent doesn't love having their child's sweet smile documented year to year in the form of school pictures? Especially when said child's good nature and happy demeanor are so wonderfully showcased.


Unfortunately, that is not the case in our family. I present to you SP's kindergarten school picture:

I had been unconvinced that I wanted to pay money for the school pictures. When they sent home the proofs, I was sure!

This year, I didn't even consider buying them. Which is fortunate because this is what I have to commemorate first grade:

Fun to Share! Great for Gifts! Who wouldn't love to re-size that picture to portrait size and hanging it over the fireplace?

Sicko

I got a call from the school the other day. Seems SP's lunch made him sick and he wanted to come home. We've talked a few times about being sick this year and I had told him that when he is sick, I will come get him and then he will come home and have a nap. However, this particular day, I had a playdate set up for MKIA so that I could get my hair done. So I decided that I would go get him and then he could go with me to my hair appointment and keep himself entertained while MKIA went to play with his friend. I had one disappointed little boy on my hands when he realized that he was not coming home to play with MKIA and that he also would be missing the playdate that he had set up for after school with his friend. He argued rather eloquently that I could leave him home and he would be fine if I let him play Lego Batman while I was gone. He presented his argument with passion and theatrical displays but the judge was heartless and ruled against him anyway. He wasn't happy about the outcome but behaved himself admirably while I was getting my hair done.

I'm still not convinced that he was really sick because of the absence of symptoms. I think it was more of a case of testing what would happen if he did actually call home sick and I think that he will be sure that he is sick before he calls home again.

The Circle of Life

SP brought home some school-work that I found interesting. He is learning about animals and their habitats and food. The assignment was to draw his favorite animal. This is what he chose:

(brown bear, not bran bar although bran bars are very interesting animals!)

Notice the detailing on the teeth and claws!



Next, he was asked to draw the type of food that this animal eats:

(humans)

Of course this human is going to be eaten - his legs are way too short to run away effectively!


Not only is my son an excellent artist, but he has a firm grasp on his placement within the food chain!

Mental Health Warning

NT shared some information with me today that I thought might be helpful to anyone concerned with memory loss. I know that for me, memory loss is a rather big issue. I tend to forget to do something at least once a day - usually the cleaning! I thought this was a natural part of aging and I would just have to deal with it.

However, NT has a different theory. He tells me that when we drive down bumpy roads, he loses his "remembers". Due to recent bumpy rides, he no longer remembers being a baby.

Of course, that may be more related to all the times his head hits the car door when he starts nodding off to sleep.

Another Redneck Weekend

This last weekend, our family went on an adventure to the little mountain lake up in the canyon. We gathered up the fixin's for a picnic lunch and drove on up the canyon. The Mister was driving and felt impelled to drive as quickly as he could despite the winding, twisting road. So SP and I were both feeling somewhat carsick by the time we reached our destination. However, we found a little cove by the lake and after a little lunch everyone was feeling better.

It has obviously been too long since my last physics lesson because I forgot Newton's Fourth Law which states that when a boy intersects with a body of water, they must interact. Or, in other words, boy+Water=wet.

Being rednecks, we were able to improvise:

We were in a kind of secluded little spot so they were able to get into the water and covered before they were in view of anyone else.

After the refreshing dip, we walked the trail around the lake. During one of the many "rest" breaks we took while The Mister tried to catch a fish, NT found this treasure.

I had to insist that he stop touching it since he had ideas of taking it home and perhaps having it for dinner. At least someone caught a fish!

Meanwhile, the entire walk around the lake SP asked approximately 718 times why he couldn't just try to ride on this dead tree that other rednecks were using as an improvised canoe. After explaining that we did not have swim shorts and The Mister wasn't towing him out there in his underwear the first 20 times that he asked, I began tuning him out. I instead took a picture of a wildflower for each time that he asked. I'm not sure which of us was more distressing to The Mister!

I guarantee that if he happens to look over as I post this picture, he will ask at least one more time why we insisted on ruining his childhood by not letting him go sit on the log with everyone else.

I'm not sure why I bothered having the boys take off their shorts during the time that they swam because they still managed to wade out in the lake several times during The Mister's fish breaks. Which led to the redneck clothes drying method:

The Mister's Clampett radar was working overtime!

On the way home, we stopped here:

Here the boys were able to put on their shorts - which were now dry - and immediately wade into the spring water, getting them wet again.

After this stop, we headed for home once again. I believe The Mister had vague ambitions of stopping at the dam in order to try his luck fishing again. However, I made the suggestion of turning off at one of the sideroads, just to see what might be up there. Turns out this was the road to Ephraim's grave. Neither of us had ever been there so we decided to check it out. After all, it was only 9 miles away so it wouldn't take too long.

HAHAHAHA! It turns out that on dirt roads through the mountains, you can't drive as fast as you do on the highway! SP spent the next 45 minutes asking if we were there yet while The Mister and I put bets on how many times we would hear that question before reaching our destination. NT spent the time like this:

We did see a deer run across the road which pleased The Mister to no end because I then made him stop and back up and then drive forward again several times in order to get the right angle to photograph the deer. So worth it!

We finally made it to Ephraim's grave. I managed to get NT to stop crying after being woken prematurely long enough to take this picture in order to memorialize this unforgettable family trip.

(For you who may not know, Ephraim was the last recorded grizzly bear in this area. He was killed in 1923. He stood nearly 10 feet tall on his hind legs. Some scouts put up this monument in the 60's to mark the spot and the height of the monument matches Ephraim's height. His skull is in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.)

After this, we debated which way to go home: we could go back the way we came or trust in the sign we had seen that told us that Blacksmith Fork canyon was only another 6 miles. (Technically, it said that Left Hand Fork - which is accessed from Blacksmith Fork canyon - was only 6 miles away, so we may have made some assumptions.) After deciding to go the way of Left Hand Fork, we spent the next hour and a half traversing up and down mountainsides and through valleys in search of civilization. We finally made it to Hardware Ranch and The Mister breathed a HUGE sigh of relief, knowing that we were not going to be lost in the mountains forever, listening to me ask again how glad he was that I had him fill up the gas tank before we left!

To help The Mister come to terms with the lost fishing time and as a reward for survival, we stopped at McDonalds so he and the boys could have cheeseburgers while I had a shake.

Fun times!

Cuz We're Rednecks!

The Mister was gone over the weekend so the boys and I partied. There was a demolition derby on Saturday and of course we went. The Mister doesn't really enjoy such low-brow entertainment but we sure did! We had a moment of unpleasantness at the beginning when a couple of cool guys were talking rather loudly during the national anthem but enough of us turned around to glare at them that we finally shamed them to silence.

And then the real fun began!

We had flames

We had explosive radiators

And even geysers! Who needs Yellowstone when you can see geysers at the Demolition Derby?

Gotta keep that door closed somehow!

I wonder if the brick pattern helps reinforce the vehicle, making it less susceptible to damage?

Perhaps they should have continued the brick theme on the tires because that one's not looking so good!

There were alot of interesting after-market mods to most of the engines.

more mods

I really liked the hose hanging out of the front of this one!

more mods

more mods

Isn't that sweet!



This car took the most abuse I have ever seen! I didn't get very good pictures of the "Bash to Last" because it was too dark but I wish you could have seen how mangled this car was by the end.

Ooops! Someone lost a tire!



Guess they don't need that tire after all!



SP called this station wagon (#7) the Death Wagon because it just kept pummeling the other cars and never seemed to take any damage.

What Will I Do?

SP just had his 6th birthday. It was slightly surreal to realize that he is getting so big. He is so smart and responsible! He learned so much in kindergarten. And next year he'll be gone all day! What will NT and I do without him??

Now NT's birthday is coming up and he will be four. Soon he will quit garbling everything he says that makes me laugh so much. Today he started singing one of his Primary songs. I know you know it so sing along - "If you're happy in your nose, clap your hands!" Another favorite is "Eeny, meeny, no, no, no." I need to be better about writing these things down so I don't forget them.

I love being a mother to these boys. It's not always perfect but I always love it!

BTW, now that NT is turning four, I probably can't call him the Naughty Toddler anymore. So if you have any suggestions, let me know!

Trip to the Canyon

While my parents were here last weekend, we took a drive up to one of the canyons. Here are a few of the pictures I took.

There were runoff waterfalls on either side of the canyon. This is the one on the opposite side of the canyon that we were on and I didn't see anyway to get to this one. However, some other people who were up exploring told us we could walk up to the one on our side. So we did.

Here is the waterfall SP and I hiked up to. NT fell asleep in the car so Grandma generously offered to stay with him and Grandpa had his cowboy boots on which are not very well suited to hiking, so it was just us two.

That little black and white spot on the flat, gravelly part is Grandpa headed back to the car.

Here is a closer view of the waterfall. You can see that there was still quite a bit of unmelted snow in the shaded area to the right of the fall.

This is a hawk we saw soaring as we hiked back to the car.

This is SP as he insists on trying to give me a heart attack by walking as close to the edge of the dropoff as possible!

This is what is left of the runoff stream 50 yards downhill of the waterfall. The rest disappears into the rocks.

This is a picture of one of the rocks SP had to collect for his cousin.



I'm not sure what this pan thingy is - I'm wondering if it had anything to do with the quarry?? Feel free to enlighten me if you have any ideas.

Someone apparently loves Kelly. Just so you know.

This is the view of the other side of the canyon from the waterfall we hiked to.

We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful place with areas like this 15 minutes from our house!