Katelyn Turns 6!

Our sweet little Katelyn is already 6 years old.  Time flies.  My birthday goal for all of my kids is that they will remember how special they felt on their day.  Katelyn still talks about the day she got breakfast in bed.  It happened to be a day I got breakfast in bed and Rusty walked in her room with the tray and her eyes lit up thinking it was for her.  Rusty couldn't say it wasn't for her went so he went and made her a breakfast, too.  Ever since then she has wanted breakfast in bed again.  At the same time she had chosen to make pancake men on her birthday.  Since you can't make pancake men from bed, we took her a piece of pie in bed prior to pancake men.  Doubly special.  She loved it.  Her birthday fell on a general conference Sunday so we had all day to play.  In the afternoon we decorated the house up.  By we I mean Kyleigh.  She took over the decorations while I made the flower cake.  Kyleigh went all out with streamers and signs throughout the house.  Katelyn wanted dorito casserole for dinner so we made her that.  We also made strawberry lemonade to drink and home mixed peppermint ice cream with the cake.  Mike and Holly and girls joined us.  Katelyn decided to have "dinner" early so she could go over to Grammy's (Rulon and Kathy)  house to play with the kids, which she always loves.  And that is how her birthday came to an end. 

 

We also took a treat to the school for her birthday.  We took it about 1 1/2 weeks early when Merrill and Nancy were here so Nama could come with us.  She chose cupcakes that looked like bear paws.  Not being an expert tracker she just saw them and thought of the bear paws as panther paws.  And since she attends Pierce Park Elementary, home of the Panthers, that is what she chose.  We also had purple frosting, the official color of the PP Panthers.  Her teacher did a cool thing and had the kids all sign a birthday poster for the birthday girl.  I have a terrible memory, but one thing I remember is wearing a crown with a glittery 5 on it when I had my birthday during kindergarten.  I felt so special.  I hope she did, too.

Trick or Treat

Pocohontas, Sacajawea, and Curious George the Fireman were at our house on Halloween.  Before the big trick or treat I made sure they had plenty of real food.  For breakfast we had pumpkin muffins, lunch was goblin tongues and Halloween yogurt.  Dinner included mummies and swamp punch.  Mostly real food except the sprinkles in the yogurt and hot dogs for dinner.  Who cares though, it's Halloween!  We decided to stay in our own neighborhood then head over to a subdivision just down the road.  We stopped at our Bishops house.  He cooks scones on the driveway.  They were really, really good.  Ridge got tired of getting out of the wagon about halfway through and decided to ride instead, while eating candy as fast as he could unwrap it.  We passed Holly and Amy (Holly's sister) as we were walking home.  They were still going so Kyleigh jumped in the car with them and made some more stops before they brought her home.  The rest of us came home for the big sort which is always a highlight.  Over the few days after Halloween the girls did a lot of sharing because Ridge ate all of his candy by 10:00 the next morning.  He spent the next few days begging his sisters for more.  Lucky for him his sisters are generous.  When their candy was gone we had several 2 year old tantrums because he thought they were hiding it.  I  really do love Halloween and I love it when the candy is gone.

Pumpkin Carving

Halloween snuck up on us this year.  We missed our crazy Kauai Halloween season, but had a great time anyway.  We found this giant pumpkin at the Linder Farms pumpkin patch.  We got a good deal on corn maze tickets so we went out to do the corn maze.  As soon as we got there we spotted hay bale tractor rides.  Since Ridge loves tractors more than anything we went for a ride.  It turned out the tractor was going past the pumpkin patch.  We hadn't planned on buying a pumpkin, but when we saw that the per pound price maxed out at $9 we set out to find the biggest, roundest, orangest pumpkin of them all.  We fared well in our search.  It was so fun I don't know that we will ever buy a pumpkin from Walmart again.  We also played in the dried corn pit, on the tires in the tire garden, the kids rode the barrel train and we made it through the very short version of the corn maze.  We could have spent a few more hours there.  Next year we will know to plan more time.  The pictures of the big carve speak for themselves.  Once again, I am so happy to be married to superman.  He can even carve a pumpkin with a Ridgerman monkey on his back/down his shirt/laying on his neck.

Hangman

Katelyn has learned how to play hangman and likes to practice spelling words she knows.  She drew up a game and wanted to play at dinner tonight.  Ridge grabbed Rusty's neck, lifted his legs and started laughing and saying, "this is how you play hangman!"

:(

I have a very sad story to tell.  Characters include an iphone loaded with important pictures, a terrible toilet, and a cute girl.  The cute girl was dutifully doing her chores when she asked her kind mother if only she could listen to music on the said phone to pass the chores quickly.  Of course the nice mother obliged.  The phone was carefully placed on the counter and then accidentally bumped directly into the terrible toilet while the cute girl was cleaning the counter.  The poor phone never turned on again.  Phones can be replaced but the pictures cannot.  I told you it was sad.  Most of the pictures don't matter much, but the pictures of Kyleigh's birthday were the worst to lose.  So you have to picture that super cute girl (Kyleigh) turning 9. 

She chose a tic tac toe themed birthday.  We had cupcakes on a platter in the shape of an x and an o.  The tablecloth had tic tac toe boards drawn on it.  Each cupcake had an x or an o and we played a few games with our cupcakes before we ate them.  She had dorito casserole for dinner and her big gift was a new compound bow.  It is camo and will look great in the indian room she is planning for our new house.  Because she started school the day after her birthday we are going to take cupcakes to her class for her 1/2 birthday.  We also decided not to have a friend party this year because she hadn't started school to make lots of new friends yet.  She was O.K. with that, though, because she had figured it out and every other year parties weren't going to land on her 16th birthday.  How funny that she is thinking ahead to her 16th birthday party.  Happy Birthday to my big 9 year old. 

Just the other day Holly and I were riding in a car with a lady who asked how old our kids were.  I said mine were 9, 6, and 2.  Later Holly said she had to take a minute and figure out who was 9.  I agree, it seems like yesterday that Kyleigh was turning 8 and getting baptized.

On another note, I also lost pictures of Kyleigh's first time to shoot her bow, our trip to the Western Idaho State Fair, pictures of Ridge on Bob the tractor guy's tractor, our house as the concrete was being put in, and many, many other things.  Next time I will save them sooner!

Visit from the Giles

We are always excited to spend time with the Giles.  They came to see us over Labor Day weekend.  We made the most of the time we had.  We loaded up all of us.....thats 9 kids (8 girls and Ridgerman) and 6 adults for a trip to the Discovery Center.  Then we had a picnic and played in the park.  Our afternoon activity was a kayak/floating trip down the Boise River.  We ended up in Julia Davis Park and had a bbq complete with homemade rootbeer.  I've been wanting to try that for awhile.  I had no idea it was so easy.  We happened to be there the same time as the balloon festival so we stayed long enough to see them blow up a few hot air balloons.  If I remember right Sunday was kind of a lazy day.  Monday morning we went ice blocking at Simplot hill, had lunch, and way to soon the Giles headed home.  Because I have waited so long to post this it is nearly time to see the Giles again.  We plan on heading down their way for a some Christmas Giles time!  

Park nights and swimming

We tried to make the most of all the parks and pools in Boise this summer.  The girls had swimming lessons at one of the local pools.  The first day Ridge spent the entire time trying to jump out of my arms to get in the pool.  I couldn't blame him, it was so hot.  They wouldn't let him swim unless we paid for entry to the pool.  In order to make that worthwhile we would have had to come early because they closed the pool right after the girls were done.  However,  they wouldn't let the girls swim before their lessons unless they paid also.  It adds up fast.  Then we found out about the annual pass.  For the family to go to any of the six outdoor pools in Boise it was $114.00 for the whole summer.  They went on sale for half price two days after the girls started lessons.  We bought one when they went on sale and LOVED it.  A pass made it possible to run to the pool at night after Russ got home from work and spend an hour and come home without feeling like we didn't get our monies worth.  We will definitely buy a pass for the whole summer next year.

We also tried to visit as many parks as we could.  We found the park from the picture because it was the location of a park day.  It had all kinds of funky toys.  We loved it so much we took Russ back one evening and had a picnic and played on the toys. 

The girls did a few other classes during the summer.  Kyleigh did pottery and hip hop dance.  Katelyn did art and ballet.  During the time they were at classes the rest of us went to the zoo or discovery center (both of which we have passes for).  One of Kyleigh's classes was at night so we visited the story trail at Foothills learning center.  You walk around a little path and read a page of the story at each stop.  After we would pick Kyleigh up and go for a picnic and to feed the geese at the parks. 

We caught a few movies at the dollar theaters during the summer.  I am so happy to be back in dollar theater land.  There is one right by our house.  Three dollars for a REALLY nice theater.  They even do movies in 3D for five dollars.  Or if we want treats we can catch a theater on Overland that is $5 and includes caramel popcorn and a drink or candy!!!  I missed the dollar theaters.

I can't fail to mention the greenbelt.  Our girls are troopers, biking up to 9 miles in an afternoon.  We have recently learned the way to the candy store from the greenbelt.  That will be our next greenbelt destination.  We had to take a break from the greenbelt when the temperatures started hitting 105 and up.  Fall is here now so we will be back.

Of all those listed above I think the family favorite as a whole is floating the Boise River.  We got it down to a science.  We could leave home after work, drop off cars, float the river eating dinner on the kayak, pick up cars at the top, and be home by bedtime. 


And that is how our summer went. 

Chubbuck Days

 

For several years our trips home landed on the weekend of Chubbuck Days.  We loved the Chubuck Days parade.  They got the parade thing right with lots and lots of candy.  Last year, which was not a year we were visiting, it was the same weekend as Zoofari at the Pocatello zoo.  Zoofari is an event at the zoo where they have bounce houses, music, and all types of ice cream at all the zoo exhibits.  You pay admission and can eat all the ice cream you want.  I was so sad that we missed that last year.  I told Mike and Holly when we moved back we all had to make the Chubbuck days trip an annual event.  So when it rolled around this year we packed up our trucks on Thursday night and headed to Chubbuck.  Luckily GG and Gpa have lots of extra rooms. 

 

We hauled down a trailer full of trex decking and Mike and Russ re-surfaced Mom and Dad's deck on Friday.  It looked really great when they were done.  Dad took the day off to help and they got the job done in a day.  Friday night Mom and Rissie put on the Graves backyard olympics.  The olympics were complete with a program, flags, an opening ceremony, numbers for participants, games, certificates, and gold medal baggies (of candy).  Games included fence to fence (a foot race), jousting, doughnuts on a string, long jump, etc.  Go GG and Rissie.  It started our sugary weekend off to a great start.

 

Saturday morning we geared up for a full day of more sugar.  We started off right at the parade.  The candy throwage did not disappoint. Just when you wanted to leave (because parades are really pretty boring), a new shower of candy came through to save the day.  We had a low key afternoon and went to zoofari in the evening.  The best part of zoofari, next to the ice cream, was seeing Shauna.  After I paid I turned around to walk in and Shauna was standing there.  A few weeks before I had talked to her and told her we were coming for Chubbuck days that weekend.  She decided to come up from Malad but forgot her cellphone and couldn't call to see where we were.  It just happened that she caught us at the right time at the zoo.  It was fun to see her and her cute kids.  We finished the day with plenty of ice cream.  Believe it or not my kids still got some sleep that night.  Hats off to high sugar tolerance.

 

Chubbuck Days weekend is a do-over.

Another summer adventure was the appearance of Red Verbena, or so she was named.  The little bird must have fallen out of her nest and ended up on our lawn.  She was squaking away when the girls found her.  Luckily they found her before Tank found her.  My favorite part of this story is that Kyleigh was so excited she insisted on running down to the lot to tell Rusty to come look.  It was right in the middle of the day and I tried to soften the blow of him not coming with a reminder that he was working.  She insisted and a few minutes later Rusty ran in the door with her.  Honestly, he is such a great Dad.  He helped her get a shovel and he and the girls dug for worms before he left to go back to work.  It was tricky at first but Kyleigh figured out how to get Red Verbena to eat the worms and Katelyn kept supplying them.  The first day she ate 11 worms.  They set her up in a comfortable box with some grass and a bowl of water.  Her health and appetite quickly deteriorated, though, and she died on the third day.  So sad but it was fun while it lasted.

GPa's Surprise

My Dad called me one night to tell me he had to make a quick trip to Boise and asked if we had a few hours to spend with him.  Even if we hadn't we would have made time.  We had lunch at the park and took Kyleigh to her pottery class.  Then me, Dad, Katelyn, and Ridge went to the zoo and hit it just in time to feed the giraffe.  This was so fun.  You pay $3 for a leaf of lettuce.  You can break it up into 3 pieces.  Then whoever wants to can feed the giraffe.  Ridge almost kept it in his hand long enough to feed it to him, but when that big head got too close he dropped his lettuce.  Katelyn was brave and held on. 

It was so fun to have GPa here for a quick afternoon.

Pulley System

Hats off to whoever planted this tree in our backyard.  It is the source of hours and hours of entertainment.  This particular day the girls decided they needed a system for raising and lowering equipment into and out of the tree.  They devised a pulley system with a paper cup and some yarn.  It took some time, but they were so proud of themselves when they were done. 

Every kid needs a good climbing tree.

Holly's family has a super fun summer park day schedule.  Every week they meet at a different park  and play for a few hours.  Everyone brings some lunch and treats to share.  Kids and adults alike have a great time.  They were kind enough to invite us to park days and we went as often as we could.  One park day Kyleigh decided we needed to have a party for everyone at our house.  She and a few of the girls planned it all out.  They had the idea to make invitations for it at the following park day.  They made assignments for the invitation supplies.  Kyleigh wanted to start calling and reminding them of their assignments 5 minutes after park day was over that week.  I was able to convince her to wait until the day before park day, but only after lots of coercing.  The next week all of the older girls sat under part of the playground equipment and crafted invitations.  It was super cute.  We decided on a day and got the invitations out to everyone. 

For our party we set up our famous slip n slide (black visqueen with a sprinkler and dish soap) on the back yard.  We made rocket dogs (hot dogs on a skewer baked with bread dough wrapped around it and a triangle tip of cheese at the top) for lunch.  I had found some huge inflatable boxing gloves for boxing.  We also set up a marble racer off the deck.  I cut a noodle (flotation device) in half and you raced marbles down the grooved middle.  We also had a make your own bubble wand station with lots of bubble juice. 

The kids had a great time, and I was so happy to do something to say thanks for inviting us to park days all summer. 

4th of July Park City with the Keeps

I have only two incredibly random pictures to show for a really great long weekend in Park City with the Keeps.  "Uncle Shawn" and "Aunty Debbie" invited us to Park City over the fourth of July.  They were able to get an extra condo with their timeshare deal so we got to stay in the Marriot.  I had no idea Park City would be so fun.  We had a GREAT time.  Rusty and I brought our mountain bikes and, along with Shawn and Nathan, we bought lift tickets to the top of the mountain.  They loaded our bikes on the ski lift.  No riding up, just down!  I don't think mountain biking could get much better than that.  Debbie watched the kids while we rode.  They had a fabulous time, including a trip to the candy store. 

The resort had a big pool with 6 hot tubs around the outside.  We spent lots of time in the pool.  Shawn's family came up one night for a barbeque.  The kids made friends with a few of his nieces and nephews and played all afternoon in the pool with them. Rusty and I were blown away by how much one of the Keep brothers is Dale's twin in every way.

The resort also had a kids club room where we went with the kids for some fun crafts and activities.  Two different nights we went down by the pool and roasted s'mores over gas fire pits.  We were inspired by the no smoke, no showers all around s'more making and are currently researching putting in a gas fire pit in our backyard. 

I think a highlight for the kids was the big pillow fight they had with Uncle Shaun.  Two months later Ridge randomly sat down at the piano and started playing it and singing a song about having a pillow fight with Uncle Shawn.

One day it rained and we went down to Salt Lake.  We went to temple square and visited the new Book of Mormon Celebracion exhibit, the Brigham Young house, and watched "The Testaments."  That particular movie has new meaning for us as it was filmed on Kauai and we like to watch for extras that we know and love from our Kalaheo Ward.

We attempted the Park City fourth of July parade but it was completely candyless.  LAME.  We left halfway through because the kids were bored out of their minds.  Whoever decided on a parade without candy was not thinking clearly. 

We had so much fun and didn't even get a chance to do some of the famous Park City things, like the Alpine slide, which was right behind our hotel.  We look forward to going back and to seeing the Keep's again, hopefully soon!

Tying Flies

Daddy and the girls spent one scorching hot Sunday afternoon in the air conditioner trying to figure out how to tye a pretty fly.