Lets play, guess the baby!!!

Cool baby!

Sleepy baby!

pretty baby!

_'s baby blessing!

-Aimee

My 1/2 second of fame

Go to this link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/ns/nightly_news/#43902655

See if you recognize the guy right after Pres. Obama, about 1:38 into the video. They also showed my computer screen a little later at 1:50.

Grandbaby #20

The Word is out...baby #7 will be here around Thanksgiving. It is a girl!

Happy Pioneer Day!

This is a dress that was given to me from a client before I stopped working. It's all handmade and kinda looks like something I would have worn in 1985 but I just love it! Matt and I call it her picnic dress and what better day to wear it than on Pioneer Day!

My Time to Shine

Saturday was the big debut of Les's dance classes. They put on a show at one of the local amusement parks- Heritage Square. Out of the eighty kids enrolled only a few were missing, so it was quite the sea of blue t-shirts. The kids performed for parents and park onlookers and did a great job. Everyone seemed to have a fun time.

Kori, Raya and Adria

Ty, Aimee, Katie, Braxton and Kanyon
Final Bows

The Whole Herd

Brant

Vacation Update

This is what a buffalo looks like out of the drivers window (it was down) at a distance of 24 inches. I had the buffalo on one side and Mom yelling at me to roll the window up on the othere side.

Just a little update. We visited Virginia City Montana and toured an old gold mining ghost town, stayed overnight in West Yellowstone and then entered the park early the next morning. We drove straight to the north east corner to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We saw the canyon and falls from about 4 different view points. It was awesome. Then we drove on up further into the corner and saw our one and only bear. We then drove down to Yellowstone Lake and out the east entrance. We saw lots of buffalo, including the one pictured above. We drove to Cody and saw a gunfight in the streets that night. The next day we went to the museum, took a tour on a trolley, and visited the first LDS church in Cody to see the mural on the ceiling. We stayed in Casper and then came on to Denver on Friday. Yesterday we saw Leslie's group do their first performance at Heritage Square. They did great. Then we drove to Littleton and watched Trent play a baseball game. After that we went to Erik and Jamie's to visit. We saw Shawn for a few minutes. Today was church and this afternoon is naps. Tonight we are all getting together here to watch pictures on the back wall of the house from Brant and Leslie's vacation, Kevin and Lisa's vacation and ours. Sorry, no Carmel

corn, just four layer dessert. It was 102 degrees the day we got here and yesterday it was 101. Today it is a little cooler. Hope you are all well and happy.

Riley's Baby Blessing

We had Riley's baby blessing on Sunday and needless to say, it was a wonderful experience. My parents and two of my sisters and their families were able to come up for the weekend and then Kent and Martha, Lacey and Seth and their boys came on Sunday for the blessing.
We all only stayed for sacrament meeting and then came back to our house for some lunch before everyone parted ways.

Matt and I would like to thank everyone who participated in this special event!

We've had some fun in the last week or two here. Kelly finished up in Utah almost three weeks ago and now she's here to stay. She landed in DC, had two days off, and started her new job. She works at a place called Diplomatic Language Services as a Curriculum Developer. I always tell her to use her title because it sounds better than, "I'm helping write a text book." Basically, she writes language learning lessons and then they are translated into other languages and become part of a program for military and diplomatic clients.
In the last week, we a took trip to the zoo, visited some museums, and yesterday we made it to the beach. I am happy to report that it only takes 1 1/2 hours to drive across Delaware and that it looks just like the rest of the states around here. The beach was nice and I wish I could report that I had a farmer's tan just like Kevin did at the beach. In reality, I have no real tan and I now have a slight sun burn to prove it.
This weekend we have a friend from Utah coming to visit, so we'll probably see some of the usual downtown sights and continue our search for an apartment to move into next month. Hope everyone has fun in Denver.

And Away We Go

Just a quick note to tell you all good morning and let you know that we will be leaning in about an hour on our long awaited vacation. First to bless Riley and then on to Denver. Hope you are all well and enjoying the summer.

California and 14er

Braxton and I (and our nephew, Brenden) were the only ones of the family to take the plunge in the frigid Pacific. I'm the one in the middle, with the farmer's tan.
Lisa spent a week in AZ with the kids. A typical day's schedule:
Arise
Eat
Swim
Eat
Swim
Eat
Go to Bed


Braxton and I hiked a 14er (Mount Harvard) with the employees of Arrowhead Tree and Landscape. He and I didn't make the summit, but we climbed 2500' up, 2500' down, and over 10 miles round trip. I wore him out and he fell asleep on a boulder.

A picture of the valley below (sorry about the poor quality, I only had the camera on my phone).

The blog has been hopping since we've been gone. This picture sums up our trip, well not our entire trip but Disneyland at least. Braxton liked the roller coasters as long as he didn't get jerked around. Raya cried when I told her she couldn't ride Space Mountain, her favorite Thunder Mountain Roller Coaster. I talked Kanyon into riding this one, afterwards vowed never to go on another roller coaster. Adria wasn't too sure about the ride she'll stick to the Rocket ride.
We had a fabulous trip visiting a lot of family, driving thousands of miles, and not sleeping nearly enough. It's good to behome in our own beds and eating regular (not fast) food. And hey, Arrowhead is still functioning, even with the big boss gone for a week! Looking forward to the visit next week!

Checkin' In

So, some of you may have seen some of these pictures on the 'net' already, but I thought I would share them here. We had an awesome 4th of July Backyard Breakfast at our place with some friends from the ward. We put together some games for the kids from our household supplies.

Ring Toss. 

This was a last minute addition to the fun. Seth found some 'how to beat the carnies at their own games' videos on youtube and was inspired to make this contraption. 

I couldn't keep from adding a touch of vinyl. 

Our front porch. 

Getting the kids ready for the bike parade. We did it in the parking lot behind our house and managed to avoid major collisions. 

We gave each kid a plate with a number to tie to their bike as they 'registered' for the parade. 

If you look closely, you can see his Halloween socks. It was loads of fun and we will be doing it next year so you should all mark it on your calendars and come join the fun.

And in other news, if you haven't heard: Baby #4 will be joining us the beginning of February. So, if you know of anyone trying to sell a Pathfinder with a third row, we're lookin' to upgrade as we've maxed out the Focus.

Vail!!!

Kori!
Katie!

Me!!

On the bus singing wheels on the bus and the star spangled banner!!!

The parade!

Fireworks!!

Aimee

Garage Sale

Matt did a lot of work cleaning them up
The camping section

More camping stuff

The fan section

The misc. section

Well, after many years we tried our 2nd garage sale. Mom got the stuff ready during the week and then yesterday at about 5:50am we started setting it out cleaning, and pricing. Our first customers arrived at 7:00am. We listed it for 8:00am so we held out till about 7:30 and so many people were cruising the street we started selling. There were lots of people out. They kind of came in groups. The last ones came at about 11:30 am. It was Tracy Windley and his wife. We had already closed shop by that time. We sold almost everything. Mom took the good stuff to The Hope Center (a donation shop in Moscow) and I took the "other" stuff to the land fill. We met lots of nice people, made some super deals, and placed our stuff with some nice homes. One guy was looking at the two back packs and said he was a scout leader and also had a couple of his own boys, Mom got a tear in her eye and made him a "super deal". All and all it was a good success. We didn't make enough to retire early but we can buy a hamburger or two.

Matt, Kimbre and Riley came down Friday to visit, clean old rafts and have dinner. We're always glad to have them.

We leave for our vacation a week from today - looking forward to see you in Colorado .

Baby Buffalo Rescue

With everyone gone on vacation or out enjoying their summer, Dad and I are the only ones left to post new stuff to the blog.

The picture above is one that a local Kootenai County resident sent me after we had a late night call for a loose animal. At about 2 am we got a call for a baby buffalo on the loose and wandering in and out of the road. It wasn't my call, but it was 2 am and I had plenty of time so I started to drift that way out of curiosity and to watch the show. I made it to the area of the call first and found this little guy curled up in a ball in the grass on the shoulder of the road. He was still very wet behind the ears and his umbilical cord was still dangling from his belly. The mother was behind an electric fence across the road. She was pacing back and forth and not at all happy whenever we got close to the little calf.

Out dispatchers were able to locate the gentleman who owned the buffalo and got him out of bed to come claim his newborn prize. I stuck around and helped him shut down the electric fences while he picked up the calf and set him down on the correct side of the fence. I gave him a good scratch behind his wet ears before he set him down.

In looking at the fence, I assumed the little guy had squirmed underneath it, but the owner said the bull in the herd doesn't like the calves and will kick them and headbutt them out of the pasture.

The next day I went back out to try and take a cell phone pic of the newborn calf and ended up talking to the buffalo owner for about half an hour about logging, hunting, and N. Idaho life in general. He told me the calf had also been "liberated" from the pasture again that day by the bull. I left him with my card and he made a comment about sending me a picture of the calf. About a month later I came to work and found a card in my mailbox. He had printed out a picture and written a message thanking me for the help during the early morning round up.

For Grandma

Riley enjoying a sunny day at the Cabin.

With the birth of Riley, I was lucky enough to have the 4th of July off for the first time since 2005. Kimbre and I spent the day at the Cabin and had a great time visiting with family and friends. Harrison put on a decent fireworks show and it was nice to just get out of the house on a sunny day.

In preparation for the 4th, Mom put together a very patriotic outfit for Riley. She wore it most of the day, until a prize winning blowout made a wardrobe change necessary. With the holiday over and everyone gone, we went back to the Cabin on Wednesday for a day with just the four of us (Kimbre, Riley, Kya, and me). Riley had her outfit back on and this time we snapped some photos before anymore accidents could ruin the moment.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th
Flowers and grasses looking good

Pansy patch

Just thought I'd throw in a couple of pictures of the old homestead. We bought a new flag a couple of months ago. Our old one was kind of bleached out. The new one is much more vivid. My Karl Foerster grasses are looking good for their first year. Flowers are in bloom and I like the whole planter, pots, trays, and flowers everywhere thing. Mom and I drove up to Matt and Kimbre's yesterday morning to deliver a couple of things and see Riley. All seems to be going well. Lacey put out the word on Face Book to friends and ward members that they are having an impromptu 4th of July breakfast at their place at 9:00 am tomorrow. Mom will be cooking waffles. She has heard from several families who plan to attend. She also invited some of her neighbors. Hope you all enjoy your Sunday and Monday. We are greatly bless to live in this great country and have the freedoms we do. We love you all, Mom and Dad.