Rules

So I figure for this "I Spy" stuff we should keep it to the last 30 days. Basically, what you can scroll through on the main page without having to go through the older posts. What do you think??? Thanks again Kevin for getting this started, what a lot of fun!

Brant

I Give Up!!!!

Where's the stinking Bosch drill case? I've got better things to do than search over 200 blogs.

Drill

I would use my Bosch drill and two battery chargers to build a water fountain.

What Do You Spy?

I spy an alligator wearing a smoking jacket, being kissed on the head by an angel. I also spy a profile of a face and the face of a child on the alligator's arm. I've been spying it for years.
This is taken just behind where the towels hang and above the scale in the upstairs bathroom. One usually has to be sitting for awhile in the bathroom to see it. I see an artist balancing a large head on one foot while carving the giant head's chin. The giant head has very tall hair, and the artist is about to fall over. If I would have zoomed the picture out you would have seen a mouse tossing it's baby in the air.

I Spy

A two foot level

Aimee's Birthday

This week was Aimee's birthday. We did a quick one with Les's mom on Friday (above photo) and then another on her real birthday. Now she is the big 5. Kindergarten starts in a month!

I'm really enjoying the "I Spy" Kevin, keep them coming.

Brant

"I Spy- a Bosch Drill Case"

I'm having too much fun with this "I Spy" stuff.

A German flag.

From Braxton

Hi grandma and grandpa. This is Braxton. How are you guys doing? I'm just about to go to bed. I'm having a really great night. Tomorrow night we are going to have family home evening. Mom is in charge of the lesson, Raya is in charge of prayer, Kanyon is in charge of song, I'm in charge of game, Dad is in charge of dessert. Family home evening is so great to me. I'm having lots of fun. When my other grandma and grandpa come in Thursday night. So the next day we are going to Six Flags. I don't know when, but we might go in the moring or in the afternoon.

Ward Campout

This is some of the Square Dance group we danced with.

This is our little "tent city".

We had quite the camp out this week. The ward wanted to go camping so we lined it up to go to Laird Park. Mom, Lacey, Weston and I left home at 2:00pm and when we arrived at Laird Park the whole park was full. The caretaker lady said it was the first weekend they had been full all year. So now what do we do. Mom suggested we drive back to that private campground a couple of miles back toward Harvard. When we got there they were full too but the guy said if you want you can pitch your tents in these pine trees with all this lawn in front of them. What an ideal spot. We had five families camping and two more came just for the evening. It actually worked out better than Laird Park would have been. We knew that our neighbor Joan (across the street) was going to be there with her square dance group. I went over and visited with her and she asked if we wanted to try square dancing. So, after supper we went over to the "pavilion" and the caller invited all the "LDS married youth group" to join in. We all did and had a great time. After the dancing we all (they and we) sat around the camp fire and talked about what it was like back when us old people were kids. We all agreed we had a better time than if we had been at Laird Park. We came home about noon but several families went back to Laird Park and went swimming in the sub-arctic water.

We are now busy getting ready for our trip. We are still planning to leave Wednesday morning and drive to somewhere just short of Yellowstone. Thursday we will go through the park and see Old Faithful and then go on to Cody. We will tour the museums for as long as we can stand and then head for Denver. We hope to arrive sometime Friday night at Erik and Jamie's. We will attend the baptism on Saturday and the blessing on Sunday among other activities. We plan to visit Monday and Tuesday and then sometime Wednesday we will head for Provo. We will stay there Thursday and Friday and then come home on Saturday. We hope to visit from house to house and stay with Erik and Jamie and Brant and Leslie. Kevin and Lisa with have her family there so we will probably just visit with them.

That's it for now. See you soon.

Dad and Mom

I Spy.

Can anyone spot the Minute Rice box?

Dr Wreckless and Mrs. High

She sure doesn't act like this at home.

The second pic is of Kanyon as a "scarecrow." It was his idea. He loves Scotch tape almost as much as farmers love bailing twine.

An Ode to Poisonous Plants

As we sit here today, both of us are suffering from the nasty poisonous plants that God decided to afflict us with: poison ivy (Trav) and stinging nettle (both, but mine is way worse). Trav got poison ivy from work. The stinging nettle attacked us on our hike up to the old restaurant at Bridal Veil Falls. Our friend Ry-ry is leaving town in a few weeks to go to law school in Lubbock, TX (who knows why) and he's always wanted to go to the restaurant. And we also wanted to scout out a better trail than the one T-rav found when he went up (by himself, the knucklehead) a few weeks ago. We did find a better trail (if you count a Jim Craig quality slope through the trees as better) and Ry-ry and I got to graffiti our names on one of the beams in the restaurant. Exciting. Trav says his poison ivy rash is finally starting to get better after a week. I would have posted some pictures of it here, but since it looks a little bit like leprosy, I opted not to- didn't want to scare the children, you know. The picture on the right is of the view looking down from the restaurant. The one below is of the boys at the top.

Oh yeah, and in case you were wondering, we both finished Harry Potter. It was great. I think I might read it again in the next few days...


For some more pics of our hike and RyRy's story go here.

Speaking of Smells...

Seth and I can check "deal with a sales manager at a car dealership" off our life list tonight. We've been checking out cars and our options to prepare for the day that the Rodeo dies. Well we test drove a Ford Freestyle tonight and the guy got us to run some numbers... I know, never finance through a dealership but I wanted to see what we should prepare for. I told the guy we would run the numbers and that's where it would stop. Well they thought we were suckers. The guy ran the numbers (and I was actually impressed with them) and we told him we had to go home and think about it. Well, he didn't like that and proceeded to ask Seth how he was going to provide for his family, along with other offensive questions. When we told him it was time to go, he got all offended and walked out to go home and go to bed. It was rather interesting and something we won't be doing again. I did enjoy the new car smell, it took me to a place I've never been.

Memories

Today I was at the lumber yard picking up some stuff for work. As a Hyster forklift loaded me, I got a whiff of the propane exhaust. Immediately, I was taken back to the days of Asgrow and dusty old warehouses and seed boxes. It is funny what a smell can remind you of. Good time, good times...

Brant

It's Done!!!

We got this far Monday night. Notice the green folded knee pads. They work great for old people.

The new "chrome" trimmed light fixture in the kitchen.

The finished tile. We finished it this morning. We used the dark brown base board just like the rest of the house. White may be more modern but we like the dark trim for now.

Here it is. All moved back in. We actually changed the door pulls on the pantry cupboards to Pewter color too.

The dining room light. We threw the other one away so fast it would make your head spin.

It wouldn't be complete without a new garbage can. This is the extra volume model.

We finally finished it. It is surprising how much work one little room can be. We decided that cleaning, patching and preping took most of the time. We got up this morning (I have the 24th of July off), finished laying the tile, installed the base board, cleaned and moved the stove and fridge back in, installed the metal threshold strips from carpet to tile, put new door pulls on the two pantry cupboards, re-stained the window sill, bought a new throw rug for in front of the sink, bought a new can opener and toaster (the others still worked fine but weren't pretty enough), and installed a new light over the dining room table. Mom wants to get a new stove and fridge (white) but that's another day. That's it, I've had it, I'm tired.

Dad and Mom

This week in review

Not much too exciting on the picture front, so I thought I would include this shot of Aimee at ballet. As you can tell the class was small that day and Katie thought she would join in on the fun.

This week the kids finished swim lessons. They had a lot of fun and are really enjoying the water. Tyler has now started coach pitch baseball. He had his first game on Saturday. It is fun to watch the kids as they are just starting to learn about baseball. If you can get a hit you can usually turn it into a home run on errors. The kids are okay at throwing but not so hot on catching. There is usually a lot of running after missed catches. Tyler did well and got several nice hits.

Erik and I decided that we had put off large side work long enough and decided to tackle one on Saturday. We tore out a front yard that had been destroyed by the roots of a large cottonwood and replaced it with new dirt and sod. After four tandems (double axle dump trucks) of dirt and sod and one of trash, we added two tandems of new soil. We then laid 2200 square feet of sod. We finished by three and it looked really sharp. The homeowner just kept saying, "my front yard looks so big." He was really impressed.

Last night was our pioneer day celebration. We had it at a park our stake cares for up in the foothills. They had dinner and then a bunch of little booths with crafts for the kids. Of course the highlight of the night was the pony rides. Even Katie went for a ride and had a lot of fun.

Have a great week!

Brant

Our Busy Week

This is the new Living Room / Pantry area. Notice the ease of watching tv and getting snacks right in the same room.

This is the new Dining Room / Kitchen area. It works well except for the fact there is no place to sit and you have to go around by the piano to get to the fridge.

This is me working over the "hole" in the sheet vinyl. Mom tore up all the flooring while I was trying to get all the nails out.

We finally got the Explorer in to Ford to finish the work on the speedometer. The needle keeps bouncing over a 10 to 20 mph range and when you are using the cruise control it tries to follow the speedometer. The engine surges up and down trying to keep up. They put in a new speedometer head (dial) and sent us home. Friday on the way to Lewiston the new one did the same thing. So, it's headed back in to be worked on again tomorrow. They will put the old head (the new one was $600) back on and try to find the problem.

Friday afternoon Mom and I went to Lewiston to shop for the kitchen. We bought paint, floor tile, light fixture (one for the dining room too), base boards, carpet edging, etc, etc. Saturday morning we took everything out of the kitchen and put it in the hallway, the living room and the dining room. Then we started the cleaning and repair. That was a job! We cleaned every nook and corner. I re-glued several laminate strips on the counter top, caulked all along the back splash, patched nail holes, took out all the nails in the infamous "hole" in the flooring, Mom tore up all the sheet vinyl, and we pulled out all the base board rubber strips. We washed and cleaned the walls and started the new stuff. We painted the ceiling and walls, spray painted the toe kick ahead of installing new base boards, changed the light switches and plug-ins (I have to get different ones tomorrow - the new plug-ins wouldn't work - too many wires on the back). At 9:00pm we installed the new ceiling light and ran out of energy. Tomorrow we will install the new flooring and move everything back in. Mom took a load of junk, old food, etc. to the dump while I ran to the hospital to help administer to a sister who had been in labor for 2 days. It is exciting to see it all come together after 21 years.

Lacey and Seth - Eltons were in church today with their new baby girl. She came two weeks early. They are still job hunting in Boise. Jade and Ben had a baby girl yesterday - after two days trying they finally had a C-section. All is well.

The article from the paper is about the Moscow High School basketball team of 1972 being inducted into the North Idaho Sports Hall of Fame. Steve Berglund played guard on the team. He always down plays his abilities but he was a starter most of the time. It is easy to see him in the large picture but find him in the old black and white one. He is the third from the left. He looks a lot like his son Andrew.

We're getting ready for the ward camp out to Laird Park this week. Lacey and Weston will be home to go with us. Then we will head for Denver the next week. We still plan to go by way of Yellowstone and the Buffalo Bill Museum and come home by way of Provo. We'll give you a better itinerary when we finally decide.

Hope you are all well and happy. Keep those paint rollers out of the reach of children.

Love, Mom and Dad

Weston Is Almost Two

which means he has hit that terrible two stage. I didn't really believe in the terrible two stage until today while I was in the shower. Seth didn't have to work today, so I decided I could take a shower while Seth played with Weston. Well, Seth fell back to sleep and Weston wondered upstairs. I heard some banging and weird noises on the wall and figured Weston was in our room playing. I had totally forgotten about the small paint roller in a plastic bag loaded with paint that Teeny had put on a dresser in the hall. When I opened the door I found Weston standing in our doorway with a paint roller full of navy blue paint. He had painted the wall in the hall, took down our towels and painted the wall where they hang. He painted the bed frame, and right underneath the window. Needless to say, I was a little horrified. Teeny is out of town for the weekend, so I figured we had some time to find a solution. I yelled for Seth to come upstairs and he was able to get all the paint off with Clorox wipes and a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I have found more painted spots since then, so hopefully we get everything before Teeny gets home.

from braxton

i'm at daddy work. we drove the skid steer.

The long awaited day has finally arrived

I have it- the seventh and final Harry Potter. We stood in line for lots of hours and finally got one at about 1 am. I stood in line at Barnes and Nobles (there was a huge party along with lots of stinky people packed in a line together) so I made trav go to smith's to hunt for a smaller line. He found one and so I left the stinky line at 1 to go home and start reading! I'm trying to contain myself and actually do things other than just read all day. I'm trying to make it last...

Not his Father's Son

Here are a couple of shots of Tyler's swimming lessons. They've got that kid jumping and treading water. He must get it from his mom. I still remember my swim lessons in Moses Lake. I remember the water was cold and we did "I'm a little teapot" off the diving board.

Brant

Butchery

Anyone notice the quality of tree-pruning in the Century 21 Warden picture?

This is almost like "I Spy" or "Where's Waldo?"

Bear Lake

You know, there's a funny thing about Bear Lake. You'd think that, as it's called "Bear" Lake, it would be a place where bears might live. But you'd be wrong if you thought this. Unless bears like sandy beaches and sage brush, there's not a single place around Bear Lake that might sustain an actual bear. I wonder what they were thinking when they named it...Anyway. We went camping this weekend at (yes, you guessed it) Bear Lake with some friends in our ward. Our trip was full of adventures, such as when we arrived at our reserved campsite and it had been stolen by a family with a tent the size of our house. Then we tried to steal a campsite that belonged to some Mexicans, and ended up with the only campsite that hadn't been camped in since the bulldozer came through and roughed up all the surrounding terrain.

Saturday we went and played in some ice caves (that Trav didn't think would be cold enough to warrant wearing a sweatshirt) and swam in a freezing cold lake that had a slightly sketchy looking rope swing (pictured to the right). Our friend Josh's cadillac even overheated on the way down the windy dirt road into the "civilization" known as Paris, Idaho (did I mention that the ice cream joint in town has pictures of Paris, France all over it and Trav wondered why?) We wrapped up our camping with an evening feast of dutch oven chicken 'n dumplings and peach cobbler on the beach of Bear Lake. De-lish. It was so tasty that we're actually making another batch as we speak on a bed of coals on the sidewalk.


I neglected to mention that before we arrived at our campsite, we had the pleasure of going horseback riding at our friend Josh's brother's house in Logan. All was well until the horse I was riding decided that she was too excited to go home to simply trot- she wanted to run. So run she did. As I tried to rein her in, she simply went faster. And then faster. Finally giving up the idea of slowing her down, I did what any logical person in my situation would have done- leaned forward like a jockey, grabbed a handful of mane and held on for dear life. This, of course, only encouraged my dear mare to go even faster. To my trepidation we were rapidly approaching the electric fence, and I feared she meant to jump. Luckily, she came to a screeching halt instead of jumping, and I survived to tell the tale. Exciting, eh?

Jaime's Kitchen

The "stuff" in our kitchen is lanolium, it just has a raised tile pattern. It was an upgrade when we bought the house but is just the basic. Look into tile because it is easy to do, only it can crack a little kids head.

Erik

Christmas in July Question

I know it's very early to be asking this, but since Brant mentioned it. Is anyone toying with the idea of coming to Moscow around Christmas time? I'm not sure what our plans are, but we will have a new baby at that time and I was hoping to bless the baby around New Year's if people are going to be here. No pressure, but it would be nice for my brothers to actually come to one of my baby blessings considering I've come to most of theirs...ha ha. I was just wondering. We have a three bedroom apartment too, so if anyone wants to stay with us, that's always an option. But you never know, maybe Mom and Dad will have added on by then with all their makeovering.

This is a picture of my 3 for 3 run. I kinda mostly wounded that last one, but a kill is a kill. Just like George on Seinfeld, I said, "I'm outta here" and left them on a high note. It was a lot of fun shooting with the boys. We also enjoyed shooting with the other groups up there. It got interesting as we left and one group was adjusting their targets and the other group opened fire on their targets to the side of the first group. The first group got a little excited. Needless to say there was a lot of firepower up there including several semi-automatic rifles.

Congrats Mom and Dad on the new upgrade. Send down some photos of the new place so we recognize the place at Christmas time. Sounds like it is going to turn out really nice. We used the sticky tiles in our master bath and so far they are working very well. We used a dark color slate and they look really good. They were also pretty quick to install.

Have a great week!

Brant

From Moscow

Greetings from the interior decorators. Mom and I have decided that since we cant afford to move and build a new house (we don't want to anyway), and since we cant eat the elephant all at once, we will take it on small project by small project. Recently we put up new blinds and drapes in the living room, new blinds in my office, and new blinds (not up yet) in the computer room. Yesterday the drapery rods finally got here and we put up new drapes on the sliding glass door.

Mom and I have been thinking about colors and walls to paint in the living room and we finally decided on what and which. About 4:00pm yesterday afternoon we were talking about it and I said lets do it right now. So, we drove out to Wal-Mart bought the paint (that's going top of the line) and a few supplies and painted the living room. We finished at 11:00pm last night. We both love it. We painted the whole north wall, the east wall past the glass doors to the cupboards and then that little short wall where the two chest of drawers are. We replaced the electrical cover plates too. We took down all the pictures (yes, Lacey and Matt your high school pictures are down) and only put the big family picture back up. In the living room we are going to do a collage of new family pictures (look out, we are in need of 6 family pictures - be ready when we get to Denver, Coeur d'Alene and when Seth and Lacey get back to Moscow - nothing fancy, just digital shots) the "family name" (thanks Erik and Jamie) and a couple of other things. We still need to find a home for the wedding pictures.

Our next project is the kitchen. We are going to paint it, put down new flooring (Do those of you that have used the 12" square tiles with the sticky back think they would work in the kitchen)?

We'll send a picture one of these days.

It has been terribly hot but has backed off a little today.

We love all the blog pcitures.

See you all soon.

Dad and Mom

Guns!!!

Last night I went camping with my dad. This morning when we woke up and ate breakfast. The Priests made dry ice bombs. These pictures are me shooting a .22 rifle and a cowboy gun. I shot some cans, a piece of wood, and some clay pigeons. I slept in our car with my dad. It was fun sleeping in the car with my dad. I sure had a fun time

Tyler

Daisies

Weston has a double chin...
Taking pictures of himself.
Teeny asked me to make cupcakes for their Super Saturday. They wanted daisies. I think they look like egg whites and yolks.

Summer FUN

This is what we have been doing for the past two weeks. We still have one more week. So it is definitely keeping us busy. We're looking forward to the break in routine when visitors come. Travis and Kelly are you coming out? We hadn't heard. Sure wish Matt and Kimbre could come....

A Slow Night in Moscow

Don't you guys have anything better to do on a Tuesday night?
Mom just spent the day in Coeur d'Alene. She took the sister missionaries up for a zone conference and then went to visit Matt and Kimbre. Kimbre had to go to work so she took Matt to lunch. She left at 6:00am and got home at about 6:00pm.
See ya!!
Dad

Did I get it?

I think he posted his post over ham radio???

???

What did you do?

Travis

Hmmmm???

Anyone want to guess how I did this????

Brant (still in Lakewood)

We've started a blog

My friends and old roommates have created some fun blogs. So, I decided to do one for our family to share with the roomies and what not. While we were in Moscow, we put all our pictures from the parent's computer onto disks and then downloaded them onto our computer. I posted my favorites on our blog to show what we've been doing over the past three years. There are lots of pictures and most of them are of Weston. Our blog is http://sethandlacey.blogspot.com. Don't worry, we'll still post on the family blog.

One More

How could I not publish this picture of the two cuties!

Brant

Fourth Celebrations

Here are some shots of the herd from Vail. Leslie took the kids out to Utah for Tina's baby blessing. They came home through Colorado and I met up with them in Vail. Normally, that place is packed, but this year there were a lot less people. We figured that it was because the Fourth fell on a Wednesday this year. The pictures show Les and the kids on Thursday after I left. They played in the children's fountain and then rode the gondola up to the top of the mountain. It was very cold up on the top, so they did not stay long.

The Explorer saga continues. I took the Explorer in Thursday (ten days ago) for a two day transmission repair. I guess my days are different, because I still don't have it back. Hopefully, it will be done "tomorrow" and I'll pick it up after work.

Other than that it has been hot here as well. I pushed it a little too much on Friday and ended up with dehydration. (Or it was the nasty water coming out of a newly built house. Not quite flushed out yet.) I just kept getting worse and worse on Saturday. My body ached all over and I had a fever. Les was burning up and I was walking around in a sweat shirt and pants. I slept a lot this afternoon and am now feeling better.

That's all folks!

Brant

200!!

I just wanted to get the 200th post. :)

Just a Little Bit of News

This has been a hot!!! week. It started out in the 80's, moved into the 90's, and finally hit the 100's. That little air conditioner we bought several years ago just keeps chugging away. We close off the basement and all unnecessary rooms and it will keep it in the 70's to near 80. Today the weather is a bit cooler and it is still 72 degrees at 4:00 in the afternoon. Our weather report says we are headed back into the 100's this week. Oh, Boy.
We announced our ward camp out today. On the 26th and 27th of July we are going to Laird Park for an over-nighter. Mom and I drove through there on the 4th of July and there were only 4 campsites being used in the loop we like. I hope it is that open when our ward gets there.
Mom and I also drove the Skyline Drive again on the 4th. That is the drive up in the mountains that starts just north of the rest area north of the Potlatch turnoff and comes out at Tensed. We only saw two vehicles on that trip.
We put new drapes in the living room. I really like them. They are shorter and more colorful. We put new vertical drape things in the windows and then hung a double rod and added a valance and drapes that cover the window. They are plaid beige and solid blue panels. When the other rod gets here we will hang new ones over the sliding glass door. Mom is considering painting the living room beige and/or blue (a couple of walls of each). I think it will look nice when we are done.
Several years ago they painted one of those little houses next to the Micro Theater. We really liked the color and since the housed is owned by the Terra Graphics Company (we mowed their lawn for a while), they are just north of the bank on the corner of third and the one-way headed south. I stopped in and asked them what the colors were. They referred me to another person who called and told us the Sherwin-Williams colors. Saturday, Mom and I stopped in at the Sherwin-Williams store and when the salesman came up to us I said I had the paint numbers from a house in town and wanted to know if the paint was still available. He said, "You mean that house on 3rd?" I said yes. He knew the house before I even told him where it was. He said there are about 6-7 houses painted that same color. At least we know we have similar taste if not good taste.
That's about it from here. We enjoyed having Seth, Lacey and Weston here for a couple of days. We hope to see the rest of you soon.
I just checked and if I were to add another post it would be #200. But, I'll leave that to chance and see who it will be.
Love, Dad and Mom

Randomness

While we were in Moscow, we downloaded all our pictures to put on our computer. Here are some random ones that I liked seeing again...

Look how cute Seth was/is...

The Jones Family also had a tin freezer with a hump where the engine was, Seth said the floor would get really hot near the engine. They also didn't have to wear seatbelts. I wonder if they ever had a port-a-potty in their van?

Look how proper we look...

Yes, we did actually swim in the pond.

Sunday Morning

Here are some pics because it's Sunday morning and church doesn't start for a LONG time still.

Merry Christmas north Idaho style!

The main street electrical parade at Disneyland (which is actually no longer on main street nor is it at Disneyland)

happy sunday

To day my mom is going to be my sunday School teacher.
i'm having a Good day 2nd sunday
from braxton

A Question

How do you tell which number your blog entry is?

Waitin for the madhouse!

Tomorrow we hit the 200th post! Who will it be? Will we have a silent sleeper like on Ebay who jumps in at the last moment? Will Kevin or Matt post at 3:00am this morning to beat all those who doze off? We'll see....

What we did on the 4th

We had a fun 4th of July even though we didn't get to watch the fireworks from the grass in front of the University Inn while eating tootsie pops. We got up early and went and watched the hot air balloon launch over by the hospital. We then had our custard donuts from Smiths and watched the entire parade on University Ave. We didn't feel like splurging for tickets to the
Stadium of Fire so we went with Buddy and Michelle and sat on the grass by the Marriott Center for the firework show. The show lasted about 25 minutes and had some of the biggest/loudest fireworks I've ever seen. Somewhere in the middle of all that we played bacci ball in the park.
On another note, I took the day off work Monday and went with Grandpa Jacobs up by Strawberry Reservoir. We spent the day riding horses and clearing trails. By the time everyone got saddled up there were 14 horses and a whole lot of leather and wranglers. I was the only one not wearing a cowboy hat. The only thing I really missed was that I didn't get to carry a six-shooter like some of the others. All in all a fun time and only one guy got bucked off and kicked in the head by his horse.

Weston's Brother

Well, I opted not to post the picture that proves we are having another boy, so here's his profile. Seth and I had our ultrasound today and we are having another boy! I am actually excited. I've been hoping for a girl, but this morning I realized how much fun (and cheaper) it would be for Weston to have a little brother.
We drove to Moscow on Tuesday night. Yesterday, we went to our ward 4th of July breakfast, hung out a little bit with the fam and then went to the cabin in the afternoon. Harrison had its usual display of fireworks but the bay was better. The winner this year was a spinner thing Vi's family nailed to their post that shot off a nice display. Seth talked to them about it after the fireworks were done and it turns out they were only $3-$4.00. So we know what we're getting next year. The day's events also included a trip to Harrison for ice cream. Shawn decided to park the boat in a red zone and had a little visit with the Kootenai County Marine Patrol. Annie dropped Matt's name and they just gave him a warning. Matt they said to give you a hard time about your donuts and chocolate milk at the meetings...
We drove back to Moscow after the fireworks and had our doctor's appointments today. Now we are hanging out inside, it's almost 100 degrees outside. Tomorrow we will move our stuff from storage into our apartment and we'll head back to Seattle on Saturday.
It's good to be home.

Greetings from the UK

Just kidding, I got back last night and I'm now about to shower you all with the highlights of my trip. First of all, we (my mom and I) had a lovely time. We flew into Manchester on Sunday morning last week and took a train north towards Newcastle upon Tyne, where my conference was (click here to see a map of England). The conference went well enough- I talked way too fast throughout my presentation, but other than that I think it was fine. Then we went across the northern part of England and stopped to visit Hadrian's Wall and see a Roman fort that was built on the wall. The first picture shows the wall. The one under it shows my favorite part of the remaining fort: the latrines.

























Next we headed further west and then south to the beautiful Lake District and a visit to Beatrix Potter's house (for those of you too lazy to look up who that is, she was a children's book author. I grew up reading her books). I thought the Lake District was gorgeous but it looked a lot like the Finger Lakes of Upstate NY. The picture on the top is of the area around Beatrix's house. The one on the bottom is a view of Lake Windermere.





















Then we traveled up into Scotland for a few days in Edinburgh (pronounced "Edinboro"). We saw a castle, dead volcanoes, in the form of Arthur's seat (the castle is built on one of the vents from the volcano), the queen's palace (though we didn't get to tour it because the Queen decided to come to visit so they wouldn't let tourists in), some museums, lots of shops, bagpipers, and a whole bunch or other stuff. Here's a picture of the castle on the left (it's between the two church steeples). The picture on the right has a funny story to it: in the early 1800s the Scottish government decided to build a monument to honour those that died in the Napoleonic wars.
















So they decided to try to replicate the Parthenon to show their respect for the soldiers of their country. But since it was a government project, the money was coming from public donations and unfortunately for them, they ran out of money after only 12 columns had been finished. I think it's kind of funny...

And finally, here's a picture of me and me mum in front of the castle.



Did I mention that I really really really loved hearing all the different accents? It was superb.