I saw this snickers bar at a rite aid and had to buy it for Russ.  It says, "who are you when you are hungry?"  Answer-CRANKY.  And yes, if you have only met the normal, extremely happy Rusty, you may not believe me.  The cranky Rusty only comes out when there is a lack of food.  We try to keep him far, far, away.

Puzzle Walk of Fame

Ridge loves puzzles.  Sometimes he decides he wants to put together a whole bunch of puzzles and he lines them up all done in the hallway.  I leave them up until I can't stand the clutteryness of the puzzles in the hallway anymore and put them away while he is asleep.  Fun while it lasts.

Not sure why...

but Ridge really wanted to put stickers on our faces one day.

Loon Lake Hike

After Rusty and I went on a backpacking trip to Loon Lake last year we decided we would try to take the kids on a day hike to the same place the next summer.  We put it on the calendar in the spring and started training for it.  We knew it would be a big hike for the kids.  It is around 11 miles round trip if you include the trek around the lake to see the crashed airplane.  We left at about 5 in the morning from Boise for the nearly three hour trip to the trailhead.  Our kids have a hiking usual.  Katelyn always runs up the trail and has an overabundance of energy on the way up.  On the way down Katelyn starts to wear out and her legs start to hurt.  The complaining starts.  Kyleigh is grumpy on the way up.  Not sure why, but she always is.  On the way back down she is a rock star.  Ridge requires bribes made of sugar, on the way up and way down.  Regardless of the negative parts, we always enjoy a full day hike.  Everyone has a sense of accomplishment when we are done.  This hike is a loop hike, which are my favorite.  The hike to the lake is about 4-5 miles and is a nice gradual climb with some water and shade.  Once you get to the lake it is quite a trek to get to the crashed plane.  Lots of swampy areas that require going up and over lots of downed trees.  The loop back down has water nearly the whole way and is very enjoyable.  The girls finished strong.  Ridge's legs gave out at about 9.5 miles and Rusty carried him the remainder of the way.  We all enjoyed seeing the plane.  Ridge asked about a million questions about it and was very excited to see it up close.  Overall a great trip.  Always glad we went.

Pre-Halloween

 I try to make class party cookies ahead of time and freeze them.  When I do that I always make a big cookie for each of us to decorate for a dessert.  Here are our pre-Halloween cookies 2015.

Window Weekend

 We spent a weekend last fall helping Mom and Dad (by "we" helping I mean Rusty) replace their front window.  In addition to a window change we got in lots of cousin time playing in the leaves, wrestling with Uncle Rusty, good food, and when it was all over Mom and Dad had peace and quiet with a new front window.

Some days are harder than others...