And they are off!!

Can you see the excitement on their faces????    The first two days have been good!  Ben seems to be settling into high school okay, he really enjoys open campus for lunch.

Quiet Labor Day coming up.  Jacob is leaving with a friend for the weekend and JR is going backpacking with a co worker.  Not sure what the bookends (Ben and Joseph) and I will do.  Hopefully some fun stuff and no cooking!!!!

Summer is over!  The last month has flown by and I realized it has been almost 2 months without a post.

A quick recap of the summer. 

We spent 2 weeks in Texas.  Lots of family/extended family time and very hot temperatures (we saw 109).  Thankfully, it was not super humid on the really hot days

We came back from Texas and I hit the ground running.  I have been working quite a bit.  I have gone in to the warehouse (with my assembly job) and helped them get caught up, as well as finally getting unlimited hours to work at home.  So, I have been very focused and busy.

We got in a quick camping trip with our Friday night group.  Had a great two nights out, and the weather was really nice!  The boys had a great time exploring and playing in the freezing cold river.

We celebrated Joseph's 9th birthday!  Hard to believe.

Other than a trip to an indoor nerf arena, we were very low key the last 4 weeks of summer.

Jacob starts tackle football tomorrow.  Looks like it is only appropriate that we are looking at mountain snow tonight!

Benjamin decided he wanted to join a gym.  JR has membership at a 24/7 gym, so we signed Benjamin up and myself.  It was only 10 more dollars.  He has been pretty consistent this first week.  I think the school plan is for him and JR to go in mornings before school/work and then Ben and I will go a few days a week after school.  I will probably still do Crossfit a few times a week. 

School starts on Wednesday.  Hopefully I will get a first day of school picture!

Summer has finally arrived!  The last several weeks have been cooler and very wet!  Everything is so green, which is awesome. 

One of the perks of JRs job is that we get 'hand me downs' from his clients.  Seems like whenever they want to upgrade, or change out things, we get first dibs on the items.  Well, one client did not have room for this, so JR brought it home.

I am loving it.  There is just a perfect spot under the trees and it is mostly shaded all afternoon.  I envision lots of naps and quiet times reading books!  Laying in it, we discovered that we are going to have a ton of plums in our tree later this summer...so excited!

Some random pictures I found on my phone that I thought I had downloaded, but can't seem to find on the blog.

This one just makes me smile...obviously taken last December.

I love it when JR is gone and one of the boys sleeps in our room.  However, this kid is a wild sleeper!

On Jacob's birthday, he said he wanted straw glasses, so that is what I got.  He looked so cute in them!

Some photos taken out on the land where JR rattlesnake hunts.  This boy loves horses.

This one was probably about year and half ago, but never realized the huge smile on his face.  Love it.  Not often I get a smile from this kid when camera is out.

Ben is at camp right now!  The other 2 boys have cycled through their camps and loved it!  So glad they have something to look forward to each year!  The memories are priceless.  Ben gets back on Saturday and then we are making a trip down to Texas.  We scored some awesome tickets, so will be flying versus driving...yay!!! 

Not sure how much I will be posting over the next 2 1/2 weeks!

We are finishing up our first full week and summer and it has gone well.

On Wednesday we drove Joseph over to camp...he is now old enough for their 3 night camp. It is always weird when one of the boys is gone...the dynamic is so different! I sure miss this guy.

We will pick him up on Saturday, tomorrow.


I am way behind in posting pictures from my camera. We celebrated Kristine's 23rd birthday a few weeks ago.

Benjamin 'graduated' from 8th grade and will be off to high school. They had a 'ceremony' for all 256 kids. It is the largest class to ever enter the high school.

he looks so grown up in this picture

It was fun having my mom here for both graduation and Kristine's bday.

With summer here, I have decided to do Crossfit at 6:30 in the mornings, three days a week. Although I don't like getting up and out of the house early, I sure enjoy the earlier workouts. A lot less people and cooler temps for when we are outside. Today's workout, I had been dreading for several weeks. I even went to bed last night trying to think of a legit excuse not to go. I woke up several times in the middle of the night and wondered if I was gonna get out of bed this morning or skip the workout all together. I got out of bed this morning and went to the gym. Turned out the only other one working out was a guy that tends to crush all the workouts. As the coach asked me if I was ready, I had to swallow hard and force the tears back. I did not want to do this workout because this workout was running. I do not like to run, I am one of the slowest and of late, I have really struggled with my breathing and then I feel like I almost hyperventilate and have to stop to walk. I was not looking forward to the 1 mile run, 2000 meter row and then another 1 mile run, all while being timed. My goal was 40 minutes. Matt and I started the run and with the first step, his lead grew greater and greater. After about 200 meters, I was struggling to breath. I dug down deep and really focused on my breathing and then got into a slow, steady pace. (I am doing a running clinic right now, focused on form, so I had lots to think about besides how much I did not want to be running). I put my head down, ran, rowed and ran some more. I finished in 35:57! I was so stoked. That was 12 min miles, and I even walked a few stretches. I am so glad I got out of my comfort zone and faced my fear! I think I have turned a corner in my attitude with running! Not that I will ever be a runner, but hopefully I won't dread it going forward. The gym's June challenge is to walk/run/hike 50 miles. I have been walking 2 miles most days. Joseph rides his bike alongside me, and off we go. Well, when he returns from camp, I can run with him now!

Joseph recently had a field day at school, as well as a dance party for reading 2,000 pages.

I had never seen these cool big stacking cups, but they had relay to move the stacks to the other end of the field.

Dance party..not sure why he looks so unimpressed, but he had a great time.

line dancing

doing the limbo

The lady holding the right side of the rope is the principal.  She unfortunately has resigned after 2 years.  It is more like the school board forced her resignation.  There are huge issues with our school board right now and a lot of distrust with the community.  It has only been recently that community members have been taking notice and showing up in droves to the monthly meetings.  One board member was recently voted out after 15 years of serving.  The Superintendent was also forced out, or should I say his contract was not renewed by the board!  Will be very interesting to see the direction things go in the coming months as more pressure is being put on the school board for some answers.  In the recent election, 4 levies failed, that would have added more staff/resources and expanded technology.  As it is, Joseph's elementary school has 2 computer carts (i pads) that are shared among the whole school.  We are so far behind but can't seem to get the levies passed that we need for our quickly growing district (we are the fastest growing county right now)

This is a terrible picture, but look at Jacob pogo sticking without any hands!!!

The construction in the field continues. The road directly behind our house is basically done, minus the paving. I assume they are waiting for other roads to be done so they can pave everything at once? It is nice to get out there and have non traveled roads to walk on.

Joseph, Kristine and I recently hiked to Storm Castle.  A beautiful day for a hike.  We started at 8am, hoping to avoid the intense sun mid day.  So glad we started earlier.  I never anticipated all the people we would see on the trail as we came down.  We climbed 2500 feet in under 2.5 miles.  A lot of long traversing and almost always slow, gradual climb, but amazing views from the top.

There are not a lot of pics of myself that I like, not sure why, but I really like this one!!

I love this picture...great view of the drive up the canyon.

Bree did pretty good.  We were a little worried up top because there were some drop offs.  The river was also really fast at the bottom, so once we neared the trailhead we tied a shirt around her collar so she would not run ahead of us and get swept away.  We are now at 6.7 miles for the summer!

I have bought a nice glass pitcher with a spout on it for my kitchen sink.  I have started drinking a gallon of lemon water every day (about 1/2 cup lemon juice per gallon).  I am amazed how much more I sweat now, especially at Cross fit.  I have always considered myself pretty hydrated, since water is my favorite beverage, but obviously not!  I can tell some significant differences when I don't get all the water in.  So important to get plenty of water.  There are even a few days I have hit closer to 1.5 gallons.  My body seems to be adjusting and I don't go to the bathroom as frequently as I expected.

Our neighbors finally got their townhouse under contract!  Will be sad to have Jerry and Heidi leave.  All of our neighbors (4 units) are all great.  Very nice and respectful.  Fortunately we have never had, say a roofing issue, where we might have needed to split costs for something.  Hopefully the new person(s) moving in will be just as easy to live next too.

Joseph is done with baseball and he really enjoyed it.  This is Jacob's last week of football.  Then starting next week, the boys will be heading off to summer camp!  Can't believe school ends Thursday and summer is here!

We headed to a pump track the other day.  A pump track is a bike track that, if you ride it correctly, you don't need to pedal, as I understand it.

Look at Ben go!

Look at this, some great air....

but a little too much for that short jump!!

This was a pond just next to the track!

Jacob has always had very bad seasonal allergies (pollen).  To the point where he is miserable and his eyes get really swollen.  A friend of mine told me about a naturopath that has great success in getting rid of allergies.  I have taken both of the younger boys to her.  If you have never seen muscle response testing, it is crazy how it works.  Anyway, she found out that Jacob is allergic to pollen, but not bees.  She did her muscle response testing and lasers on him.  So far, Jacob has done really well.  He has sneezed a little and had a little bit of a runny nose but nothing consistent!!  She determined that Joseph had an issue with cheese.  He has also had some bumps on his foot for a while we could not get rid of.  She tested him and everything was pointing to a virus.  She did her cheese stuff on him and some virus stuff.  Dr. Jill also gave both of them some naturopathic drops to take.  Joseph's bumps are still there, but appear to be getting smaller (he has had them for probably 9 months).  Just fascinating how other things than modern medicine can work on the body. 

As I headed to one of Joseph's baseball games, the National Anthem started on the main field.  It was so cool to even see the kids get off the swings and stand for the national anthem.

Joseph is really enjoying baseball.  During a recent game he was at bat 3 different times.  He hit two to right field and one to left field.

The way their age group league works, is that every team gets three outs, but you can only bat once an inning.  So if the outfield team has not gotten three outs when the last batter gets up, then when the ball is hit, every one base runs home.  The kids love it.  Joseph was last batter and look at that smile as he heads home.  Never mind that the catcher has been at home plate with the ball long before he rounded third base.

Love this shot...

I wish I had gotten this shot closer to first base line.  He slid into home and not even sure if he slid under the glove or not.

This ball rolled to the left field fence!

There he is in right field...a beautiful night for baseball.

Today Jacob had a track and field day at his school.  He signed up to run the 100 yard dash, 800 m, mile and a few other events.  (Because of the field trip with Joseph, listed below, I was not able to go watch him.  He said he got 3 ribbons though, although he has not received them yet.  He told me he ran the 800 (1/2 mile) in 3:10.  He ran the mile in 6:22!!  I pointed out to him that his mile time was almost exactly half of his mile time, which meant he paced himself almost perfectly.  I told him he should get with his cousin, who ran track in high school and collage, and get some tips from her.  Who knows how he could improve by the time he is in 7th grade...which is when you can run track at the middle school.

Joseph finally got his 10,000 page reading prize. The principal took 45 kids and I got to go as a chaperone!! That is 450,000 pages read at the school. We went to West Yellowstone to the Grizzly and Discovery Center and then we saw Amazing Predators at the IMAX (Joseph had never been in an IMAX). I loved the movie, just incredible photography, or is it videography.

All of the animals were born in captivity. Once an animal is maimed or has become a problem (not afraid of people), they are relocated. Of course once they are relocated, they can never live in the wild again. Some of the wolves were howling and it was amazing to hear.

To keep thing interesting/stimulating/real life for the animals, things in the habitat are changed/moved daily, food is buried, scents are put out, etc.  We kept waiting for this bear to stand up on all fours, but he was way more interested in rooting around.

This was a pond in one of the wolf habitats.  Every couple of weeks they restock the pond.  We happened to be there on restocking day.  Too bad one of my pictures did not show the fish shooting out.

The wolves had just been let back into their area, so not too concerned with the fish.  It was neat though to watch them find the scents and hidden food, although they did not immediately eat the meat, so I think the ravens flew away with it.

One of the displays in the museum

They had a display of bear proof containers and containers that bears had gotten into.  If something is 'bear proof', it is filled with something very enticing for them (fish) and then put in their habitat.  If after 90 minutes of bears messing with it, it is still intact, then they truly call it bear proof.

This picture was by far the most hilarious one I took all day.  I found it taped inside of a bathroom stall.  I know toilets are different all over the world, but can't imagine someone trying to post on the left!!!!!

Speaking of the world, there were lots and lots of tour busses of asian people.   They were fascinated by all of us.  They would video us walking by, they kept saying hello and loved for opportunities to high five/fist bump the kids!


Now that the snow has melted, the new favorite thing at the house is pogo sticking.  The younger two are getting pretty good and Joseph has been practicing at least 10-15 minutes a day.  From the looks of the pictures, I need to find something more challenging, or build something more challenging for him.

I keep telling him he must wear a helmet because if he fell backwards, look out.  They make really nice (professional) pogo sticks, that allow you to get 4-6 feet of air, which would mean you could do flips, etc.

My niece, Kristine, and I have decided that we are gonna hike 100 miles this summer.  Okay, maybe I just decided it and told her she was gonna join me!  Anyway, we are 2% toward our goal, as we did a 2 mile hike last weekend.