Butterfly Garden

 Ever since we did the butterfly experiment on Kauai I have wanted to find a way to watch more monarchs make their great change.  We have a small flower garden area in the back yard that I thought might be a great spot to try to create a butterfly garden.  The only place a monarch caterpillar will lay it's eggs is on milkweed.  It turns out milkweed is a difficult plant to find.  I had to order mine from monarchwatch.org.  I planted it in the late spring.  It didn't look like much.  Actually, it died.  Then out of the roots of the dead milkweed new milkweed grew.  The new plants limped along all summer.  One day, out of the blue, I glanced down at my sad little plants and saw a caterpillar.  I pretty much started yelling with excitement.  Then, to make it even better, I spotted a second caterpillar on a second plant.  The caterpillars were gone the next day, but we found one of them hanging upside down under our table a few days later.  We watched it go from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly. Good story until I found aphids all over my now beloved milkweed. I sprayed it to kill the aphids and it killed the plants.  Maybe I will get new ones out of the dead ones again?

First Peach Crop

Our first ever peach crop on one of the peach trees we planted last year.  The tree yielded 3 peaches. They were delicious. We were pretty excited.  Hoping for more next year.

Trick or Treating in August

One evening when I had the young women over for an activity Ridge asked Rusty to take him trick or treating.  Earlier in the day we had gone to a craft store and they had their Halloween stuff out.  I think that is why he had trick or treating on the brain.  Russ told Ridge that you can't go trick or treating without a costume.  Ridge disappeared and a few minutes later he came back with a costume on.  Being the Dad that he is, they went trick or treating.  Russ took him to a few people that we know well.  He ended his August trick or treat with two full size candy bars and an otter pop.  He was pretty excited.  We did have to tell him that the next time he would get to go is October.

Floating the River

Floating the river is one of our favorite summer activities.  We can make the trip from our house and back in about 3 hours.  Sometimes we take dinner with us and eat while we are floating.  We jump out and swim. We bring snorkels and watch for fish as we float by.  Occasionally we will stop and stack rocks at one of the stacked rock beaches.  Ridge has a little shark that we tie to the kayak.  His name is Sharky and he loves the river as much as the rest of us.  We look for the lights of Bronco Stadium and get excited when we spot them.  It is sad when floating season is over but we look forward to next year.

Summer Trip to Pocatello

We took a quick summer weekend jaunt to Pocatello.  On the way we stopped at Shoshone Falls.  We haven't ever been there before.  It was fun to see it and the kids especially loved buying little trinkets at the gift shop.  We went to a parade and got tons of candy which Ridge ate double-fisted until he threw up.  Rusty fell right through one of my parents camp chairs, which was pretty funny.  We played with the cousins.  They had a water fight with balloons, buckets, and hoses.  The Dads got in on that one.  Tyler let us all ride his new motorcycle he bought for the boys.  Everybody loved it.  We ate WAY to much delicious food and wished we could have stayed longer.

Cow Appreciation Day

I might be the last person in the world to know about cow appreciation day (CAD).  In case I am not, here is the jist...Once a year at Chick Filet you get free food if you dress like a cow.  This summer Rusty had an employee named Spencer who is well versed in all things free.  He let us know when Jacksons was having 10 cent soda days, when to get free smoothies at jamba juice and, most importantly, he taught us about cow appreciation day.  So, to dress up like cows I pulled a black shirt and shorts out for each of us.  Then I cut shapes out of typing paper and stuck it on the clothes with painters tape.  I found some random winter hats for all of us that looked remotely animal like.  Mine really just looks like I am trying to be a thief but that is OK. I also made signs for the kids, that said, of course, "Eat Mor Chikin."   We went to chick filet and got our free meals and nobody questioned the validity of our awesome costumes.  When I say free food I mean each of us got a whole meal, sandwich, fries, and drink.  We texted this picture to some of our family.  Rusty's sister was so excited.  She said this is the first year she has missed CAD since her kids were little (probably 10 years).  Scandalous.  Friends don't let friends miss CAD!  This was so fun that I am going to look up next years date in January and put it on the calendar.  You should too.  Happy Cow Appreciation Day.

Really Random Summer Fun

Sometimes things get a little slow in the summer.  This is what the kids came up with one day for a boredom buster.  They pulled a flat dolly out of the garage and padded it up with blankets and pillows.  It wasn't big enough for all three of them so them came up with a trailer for Ridge.  Whatever it takes, right?  This entertained them for at least an hour and I am all for that.