When Kyleigh grows up she wants to be a... Doctor, Costco stand person, or a hiking guide.
When Katelyn grows up she wants to be a... Bear.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Friday, September 4, 2009
Kyleigh's 6th birthday!
August 26th rolled around again. It comes too fast. We had a small party for Kyleigh's 6th birthday. Mike and Holly and the Giles family came over for dinner, cupcakes, and a golf ball hike. Kyleigh got to choose all of the above. We had taco salad for dinner, with doritos instead of tortilla chips ( a specific request). We had spent a bunch of time on the internet to find the right cupcake to make. We found a random recipe for cupcakes with not all the way cooked cookie dough inside, and a cute froggie cupcake pattern. The cupcakes were a combo of the two. The kids loved them and they had fun creating their own frog cupcakes.
The golf ball hike was a huge success. I don't think anyone had been on our route for awhile and all the kids ended up with a huge bag of balls. We opended presents after the hike and she loved all of her presents. We gave her a new bike. She told us that she wasn't sure if she wanted one because she wanted to be able to ride her old bike without training wheels before she tried on a bigger bike. We got her one anyway and a few nights later on her first try on the golf course she rode from the tee box to the flag without any problems. She was so excited. Who knew that all she needed was a bigger bike? She was so surprised that her knees weren't hitting the handlebars and it didn't hurt to ride a bike. She is getting too big too fast. Happy Birthday Kyky!
The golf ball hike was a huge success. I don't think anyone had been on our route for awhile and all the kids ended up with a huge bag of balls. We opended presents after the hike and she loved all of her presents. We gave her a new bike. She told us that she wasn't sure if she wanted one because she wanted to be able to ride her old bike without training wheels before she tried on a bigger bike. We got her one anyway and a few nights later on her first try on the golf course she rode from the tee box to the flag without any problems. She was so excited. Who knew that all she needed was a bigger bike? She was so surprised that her knees weren't hitting the handlebars and it didn't hurt to ride a bike. She is getting too big too fast. Happy Birthday Kyky!
Friday, August 21, 2009
Mainland Idaho.
We spent about 8 days in Idaho and crammed as much as we could into our time there. Darci and Alma flew in from Moscow, and Nate drove down from Moscow so the whole family was home for a few days. Here are a few highlights...
- Met new cousin baby Alma for the first time. We instantly fell in love with her (how could you not?). Kyleigh held her every chance she could get.
- Played with Graves family cousins, Tucker and Payton.
- Got the grand tour of Rissie and Tylers new house. They just bought their first house a couple of months ago and it is very cute. They have already painted the living room and are planning more fun projects.
- Kyleigh and GG went on a shopping trip one day and to the play Aladdin at the Mystique theatre. They had lots of fun. Kyleigh's favorite part of the play was the three "magic tricks," including the genie popping out of the lamp, the magic carpet that really flew and the confetti coming from the ceiling.
- Had a birthday party for KyKy and Katelyn, including lunch at Mrs. Powells in the mall (best soup ever), riding the little rides at the mall, and a famous GG birthday cake.
- Played with Uncle Nate, who is an excellent horse, lion, cat, etc.
- Played in the whale pool and sprinkler, and with bubbles in GG's back yard.
- Got together with some friends from high school and their kids. Played at the park and had lunch and popsicles at GG and Gpa's house.
- Went to the annual Graves family golf tournament. My brother Nate won the tournament this year. It was his fourth win in the 24 year run of the tournament. Not bad, considering he is 24 years old. We had a picnic at Indian Springs (the Nat) near American Falls and got to visit with family that we rarely see. Super fun.
- Had a hot dog roast with the Larsen family at Indian Springs. Kyleigh always loves to see her second cousins Mason and Eden. Eden is 9 days older than Kyleigh. They immediately gravitated toward the creek and spent the entire time gathering shells, trying to catch fish, making mud pies, and having water (and mud) fights. I remember doing the same things in the same creek just a generation ago.
- Met new cousin baby Alma for the first time. We instantly fell in love with her (how could you not?). Kyleigh held her every chance she could get.
- Played with Graves family cousins, Tucker and Payton.
- Got the grand tour of Rissie and Tylers new house. They just bought their first house a couple of months ago and it is very cute. They have already painted the living room and are planning more fun projects.
- Kyleigh and GG went on a shopping trip one day and to the play Aladdin at the Mystique theatre. They had lots of fun. Kyleigh's favorite part of the play was the three "magic tricks," including the genie popping out of the lamp, the magic carpet that really flew and the confetti coming from the ceiling.
- Had a birthday party for KyKy and Katelyn, including lunch at Mrs. Powells in the mall (best soup ever), riding the little rides at the mall, and a famous GG birthday cake.
- Played with Uncle Nate, who is an excellent horse, lion, cat, etc.
- Played in the whale pool and sprinkler, and with bubbles in GG's back yard.
- Got together with some friends from high school and their kids. Played at the park and had lunch and popsicles at GG and Gpa's house.
- Went to the annual Graves family golf tournament. My brother Nate won the tournament this year. It was his fourth win in the 24 year run of the tournament. Not bad, considering he is 24 years old. We had a picnic at Indian Springs (the Nat) near American Falls and got to visit with family that we rarely see. Super fun.
- Had a hot dog roast with the Larsen family at Indian Springs. Kyleigh always loves to see her second cousins Mason and Eden. Eden is 9 days older than Kyleigh. They immediately gravitated toward the creek and spent the entire time gathering shells, trying to catch fish, making mud pies, and having water (and mud) fights. I remember doing the same things in the same creek just a generation ago.
Mainland New Mexico
Aside from our backpacking adventure, we had a great trip to NM and ID. Here are a few of the highlights from our time in New Mexico...
- Played with all of the Cook family cousins.
- Played on Nama and Papa's swing set.
- Ate Mexican food at Jalisco's and La Familia.
- Had a combined birthday party for Josh (Aug. 5th) and Kyky (Aug 26th).
- Became a foster family for two baby rabbits.
- Went to church in cute new matching dresses from Nama and Papa.
- Played with all of the Cook family cousins.
- Played on Nama and Papa's swing set.
- Ate Mexican food at Jalisco's and La Familia.
- Had a combined birthday party for Josh (Aug. 5th) and Kyky (Aug 26th).
- Became a foster family for two baby rabbits.
- Went to church in cute new matching dresses from Nama and Papa.
Friday, August 7, 2009
WE DID IT!!!
WE DID IT!!! We returned last night from our very successful adventure. A 4 day 32+ mile backpacking trip through the middle fork of the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico. Adventurers included Myself, Rusty, Kyleigh, Katelyn, Mike, Holly, Naiya, Merrill and Nancy. And we certainly can't forget our personal hero, Cisco the mule. Nancy arranged with our friends Wayne and Lucinda to borrow a pack mule for our trip. HUGE thanks to them. The mule carried a substantial amount of weight which allowed for edible backpacking luxuries like brownies, applesauce, and milk, among other things. Also, HUGE thanks to our friends James, Vicki and baby Connor. They took us to our drop off spot (3 hours from Silver City) at 5 o'clock in the morning and picked us up at the Cliff Dwellings (2 hours from Silver City).
We thought we would be traveling about 7 miles per day. We made our seven miles the first day. The second day we fished, swam, and played a lot. The GPS calculated that we hit our 7 miles, but a cross check with the map said different. Our third day ended up being about 12 miles, and the fourth day was about 9 miles. It was a little intimidating to be taking our kids on such a long remote trip. I am so excited to say that Kyleigh is our super trooper. She hiked every bit of the hike. When we got back to the stables at the end of the trip Rusty had to walk about a mile to let James and Vicki know where we were. Kyleigh wanted to go with him so she finished strong with an extra mile on the road. Kyleigh enjoyed hiking with her Nama all four days. They played dog, taking turns being the hunting dog and the hunter. They played princess when everything was royal, including the horse poop. They also taught each other songs and told stories. Katelyn and Naiya were so great in their backpacks. They complained only at nap time. Then they would fall asleep and wake up happy again. Katelyn got out of her pack and hiked 1/2 to 1 mile a day. They were a little crazy in camp at night, so excited to be able to move and play literally bouncing off the walls of the tent.
We were blessed to see a plethera of animals, including rabbits, horny toads, frogs, caterpillars, a whitetail deer, a rattlesnake, squirrels, fish, a crawdad, and a black bear. The trail included about 100+ Gila river crossings. We came across one beaver pond where the water was really deep. Kyleigh would be quick to tell you that it was up to her armpits. Kyleigh's favorite part of the trip was catching the baby frogs at the river crossings and carrying them to the next river crossing, where she would let them go. At one point in the trail Rusty and Kyleigh were skipping and singing skippity ehh and heidi ho. Katelyn was on Rusty's back. All of the sudden Rusty started yelling at Kyleigh to get back. I was right behind them and saw the coiled rattlesnake just to the right of the trail. I started yelling at Kyleigh and she jerked to a stop, confused as to why we were yelling. Rusty and Merrill proceeded to try and kill the rattlesnake with large rocks, but they kept missing it. It uncoiled so Merrill grabbed a big stick and flung it off the trail and we went on our merry way. Kyleigh had no idea what it was when it started rattling. She said she just thought that a sprinkler was turning on. Indeed, that is what it sounds like. Katelyn's favorite parts of the trip were seeing the rattlesnake, playing with snake grass (which she called rattlesnake grass after seeing the rattlesnake), eating clover, and seeing the bear. Katelyn is obsessed with hearing bear stories from Rusty, and now she has her very own bear story to tell. Mike spotted the bear just through some brush and yelled for us to come see it. Sure enough there it was about 50 yards away. It started walking away, but turned around to watch us as we watched it. How exciting.
The Gila Wilderness was beautiful. The landscape change was amazing. We went from a typical dry, desert landscape to the river bottom where rocks and redwood trees towered above us on each side. We hiked through large meadows and around tight cliffs. We ended up the way we started, in the dry desert landscape. We hiked through an unreal amount of poison ivy combined with poison oak and stinging nettle. We all had quick dry pants on and the only poison ivy we came home with was a tiny bit on one of Merrill's feet. We were really concerned about mosquitos because of Katelyn's sensitivity to them. I was relieved that the mosquitos were almost nonexsistant, even near stagnant water.
One highlight of the trip was Jordon hot springs. We stopped on our last day and soaked our feet/bodies in the nice warm water. We were the only people there, although it is a fairly popular destination and only 7 miles from the cliff dwellings. Another highlight was Mike's brownies on our first night. Mike managed to make us a pan of brownies over the fire. He was very proud of himself and we were all happy with the results. We enjoyed all of the food we ate and we ate good. We had gourmet tin foil dinners, hungry man burritos, s'mores and a wide array of snacks.
At the end of the trip our feet looked like hamburger, the kids looked like orphans, and it was hard to stand up after we sat down momentarily and stiffened up. More important, though, is that we all felt a sense of accomplishment. None of us would hesitate to do it again... just give us a few days.
The group at the start.
Petting a horny toad.
Russ and Katelyn fishing.
We thought we would be traveling about 7 miles per day. We made our seven miles the first day. The second day we fished, swam, and played a lot. The GPS calculated that we hit our 7 miles, but a cross check with the map said different. Our third day ended up being about 12 miles, and the fourth day was about 9 miles. It was a little intimidating to be taking our kids on such a long remote trip. I am so excited to say that Kyleigh is our super trooper. She hiked every bit of the hike. When we got back to the stables at the end of the trip Rusty had to walk about a mile to let James and Vicki know where we were. Kyleigh wanted to go with him so she finished strong with an extra mile on the road. Kyleigh enjoyed hiking with her Nama all four days. They played dog, taking turns being the hunting dog and the hunter. They played princess when everything was royal, including the horse poop. They also taught each other songs and told stories. Katelyn and Naiya were so great in their backpacks. They complained only at nap time. Then they would fall asleep and wake up happy again. Katelyn got out of her pack and hiked 1/2 to 1 mile a day. They were a little crazy in camp at night, so excited to be able to move and play literally bouncing off the walls of the tent.
We were blessed to see a plethera of animals, including rabbits, horny toads, frogs, caterpillars, a whitetail deer, a rattlesnake, squirrels, fish, a crawdad, and a black bear. The trail included about 100+ Gila river crossings. We came across one beaver pond where the water was really deep. Kyleigh would be quick to tell you that it was up to her armpits. Kyleigh's favorite part of the trip was catching the baby frogs at the river crossings and carrying them to the next river crossing, where she would let them go. At one point in the trail Rusty and Kyleigh were skipping and singing skippity ehh and heidi ho. Katelyn was on Rusty's back. All of the sudden Rusty started yelling at Kyleigh to get back. I was right behind them and saw the coiled rattlesnake just to the right of the trail. I started yelling at Kyleigh and she jerked to a stop, confused as to why we were yelling. Rusty and Merrill proceeded to try and kill the rattlesnake with large rocks, but they kept missing it. It uncoiled so Merrill grabbed a big stick and flung it off the trail and we went on our merry way. Kyleigh had no idea what it was when it started rattling. She said she just thought that a sprinkler was turning on. Indeed, that is what it sounds like. Katelyn's favorite parts of the trip were seeing the rattlesnake, playing with snake grass (which she called rattlesnake grass after seeing the rattlesnake), eating clover, and seeing the bear. Katelyn is obsessed with hearing bear stories from Rusty, and now she has her very own bear story to tell. Mike spotted the bear just through some brush and yelled for us to come see it. Sure enough there it was about 50 yards away. It started walking away, but turned around to watch us as we watched it. How exciting.
The Gila Wilderness was beautiful. The landscape change was amazing. We went from a typical dry, desert landscape to the river bottom where rocks and redwood trees towered above us on each side. We hiked through large meadows and around tight cliffs. We ended up the way we started, in the dry desert landscape. We hiked through an unreal amount of poison ivy combined with poison oak and stinging nettle. We all had quick dry pants on and the only poison ivy we came home with was a tiny bit on one of Merrill's feet. We were really concerned about mosquitos because of Katelyn's sensitivity to them. I was relieved that the mosquitos were almost nonexsistant, even near stagnant water.
One highlight of the trip was Jordon hot springs. We stopped on our last day and soaked our feet/bodies in the nice warm water. We were the only people there, although it is a fairly popular destination and only 7 miles from the cliff dwellings. Another highlight was Mike's brownies on our first night. Mike managed to make us a pan of brownies over the fire. He was very proud of himself and we were all happy with the results. We enjoyed all of the food we ate and we ate good. We had gourmet tin foil dinners, hungry man burritos, s'mores and a wide array of snacks.
At the end of the trip our feet looked like hamburger, the kids looked like orphans, and it was hard to stand up after we sat down momentarily and stiffened up. More important, though, is that we all felt a sense of accomplishment. None of us would hesitate to do it again... just give us a few days.
The group at the start.
Petting a horny toad.
Russ and Katelyn fishing.
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