Grandpa's visit!

We just enjoyed a wonderful few days with my dad, who came to visit us from Michigan.  The kids love to have their grandpa come and play, and they were very sad when he left this afternoon.  We started out the weekend on Thursday with a camp-style cookout at one of our favorite local mountain campgrounds.  We spent the evening chowing down on hamburgers, chips, watermelon and s'mores while enjoying a nice campfire and the beautiful surroundings.  Grandpa ran around with the kids playing "bear" and skipping rocks in the creek.

On Friday morning we drove out to Rockland, Idaho to see a windmill farm.  My dad works for a company that supplies parts to build these gargantuan machines.  It really was an amazing sight to see all of those huge windmills against the backdrop of a brilliantly blue sky and the rolling fields that had been recently plowed.

After we took some pictures of the windmills, we headed over to the American Falls Reservoir for a few minutes and a photo op, then we drove down river about a mile to a fish hatchery where the kids were able to feed some rainbow trout in a pond.

After that, we headed back home for some lunch and because Chris needed to get ready for work.  Then my dad and I took the kids into Pocatello to go bowling, followed by dinner at the family favorite Pizza Pie Cafe and a mini-shopping spree at Wal-Mart where the kids were treated to gifts from grandpa.

In the evening we had movie night, watching Despicable Me while having root beer floats and popcorn.  My favorite part was watching Sophie and Nicolas cuddling with grandpa on the couch.  This morning the kids had more fun, playing with grandpa's IPad and enjoying their new "toys".  Grandpa got Sam a new (kids) guitar and showed him how to play a few chords.  Sam is excited to practice and start learning some songs on his own.  After breakfast, we went into town to run a few more errands, then back home for lunch after which my dad had to pack up and head back to Salt Lake to catch his flight.  It was a short trip, but we enjoyed every minute.  The kids were so exhausted that I had no trouble getting them to sleep tonight! :)

Once again I've let more than a month pass by...

It's been over a month since my last post, so I figured it was time for a recap of all that has happened in our family as the summer comes to an end.

In July we had a few family events.  Early in the month we had a little get-together with one of Chris' cousins and her family.  After a picnic lunch, we all went to a water park in Pocatello.  The kids really loved going there, of course.

We also did an overnight camping trip to Big Springs Campground, one of our favorite places to camp.  It was too short, but still a lot of fun.

During the third week in July, our oldest nephew got married in the Rexburg temple.  We were also blessed to have Chris' sister Brittania and her 3 little children and Chris' youngest sister, Sarah, come stay with us for the few days surrounding the wedding.  All of the kids had so much fun playing together and it was nice to have them here with us, even if it was just for a few days.  The wedding was lovely and we're glad we were able to attend.

On August 3rd, Chris and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary.  That morning we woke up to some adorable and thoughtful "signs" and cards made by the kids, put out where we would find them when we came out of our bedroom. Chris did a 13 mile training run in the morning, then we enjoyed an evening together at one of our favorite restaurants (Texas Roadhouse), followed by a little shopping.  Not super exciting, but we enjoyed every moment.  We are so happy for any time we have together.

On another one of Chris' days off work, we packed up a little cooler and took the kids to a "beach" about 25 minutes drive away.  It's a little reservoir with a sandy swimming area, picnic tables, playground and frisbee golf course.  The kids had a blast enjoying one last little jaunt before the start of the new school year.

On August 22, the kids started back to school.  Noah is now in the 6th grade, followed by Samuel in the 4th grade, Sophia in the 3rd grade and Nicolas in Kindergarten.  Nick has school all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which means that for 8 hours a day on two days a week there are no kids at home - such a strange feeling!  I don't doubt that I'll find plenty of things to keep me busy and that time will go by in a flash!

The rest of August will continue to be busy...yesterday Chris and I gave talks in church, on Tuesday we have a Court of Honor to attend where Noah will be receiving an award for Scouts, on Wednesday Chris will be heading to Boise (3.5 hours away) for the day for work stuff, then this weekend we will be participating in the Pocatello Marathon.  Chris has trained hard for the Half-Marathon (13.1 miles) and he hopes to have a great time on his first official race ever!  I will be running the full marathon (26.2 miles) and this will be my third marathon in less than a year.  I am very excited and looking forward to running in my own backyard, so to speak.  The weather forecast looks good and it promises to be a great day on Saturday.

September will probably be equally busy, with several things going on.  I have been called to jury duty for the last two weeks of the month, whether or not I have to serve the whole time is yet to be seen.  In the meantime, we're looking forward to a fun visit from my dad, who will be coming from Michigan to spend a couple of days with us.  Also, with the school year back into full swing, the kids will have lots of things going on, and I will be getting back to regular weekly cub scout meetings after a nice (but short) summer break.

Independence Day!

I love celebrating the fourth of July.  Some of my favorite memories from when I was young are of the good times we had getting together with our extended family or going to the lake, having a barbecue, doing sparklers and going to see the fireworks.  For some reason, since I've been married with my own kids, it's become a less celebrated holiday in our household.  I can remember taking the kids when they were babies to see fireworks a couple of times, but Chris has never been a fan of staying out late, dealing with crowds, for 45 minutes of flashes in the sky.  And now, since we don't live conveniently close to many family members, and Chris works most of the time on the 4th, as he did today, we spend a quiet day at home, just us.  We do, however, have the luxury of living on the parade route, so at least we get to enjoy seeing the community honor this day.  I just love seeing all the flags and thinking about how lucky we are to live in this beautiful country.

Summer fun, camping, friends, family reunion...

Gosh...has it really been a month already since I last blogged on here?  Another few busy weeks are behind us, and I thought I would post some pictures from our recent camping trip and family reunion.  We were lucky enough to be able to stay at a campground just outside Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming for a few days with some friends who made the trip from Colorado to camp with us.  It just happened to work out that the Bake family reunion was being planned for the weekend immediately following our previously scheduled camping trip, so the trip stretched into 9 days worth of traveling and camping for us.

We started out last Saturday by driving about 2 hours and setting up camp at a campground at the base of the Palisade Dam in eastern Idaho.  Our original plan was to spend the next day on an 8 mile hike up to a mountain lake, but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate.  We experienced rain and thunderstorms for the first two days of our trip, so we had to improvise with our activities.  We went for a lot of (short) walks, even in the rain, Chris and the kids fished, for as long as they could stand being in the rain, and the rest of the time we spent in the camper - reading, coloring, playing DS, eating - whatever kept the kids occupied.

Monday morning we packed up and headed up towards Jackson Hole, another 45 minutes and we were at the Gros Ventre Campground.  From our campsite, nestled below towering cottonwoods, we had an amazing view of the Teton Mountains.

We set up camp again, and then spent some time exploring the new area.  We saw several moose in the trees on the edge of the campground, actually in the campground! That afternoon our friends arrived to join up with us and it was great to see them after a couple of years since our last visit.  They have four kids also and they all get along really well with our kids so we had a lot of fun with them.

During the three days we spent camping there with them, we went to the visitor's center in the town of Moose, we went on several short (1-2 mile) hikes around some of the most picturesque areas, took the kids on a 5 mile hike that led to a place called Hidden Falls, where we had a picnic lunch before hiking back to our cars, we went on drives in search of wildlife, went to downtown Jackson for treats, and spent the rest of our time enjoying yummy dutch oven food, and catching up.  We're hoping to make this an annual event.

When our time at Gros Ventre was done, we had one night to spend wherever we wanted before heading back down to the Palisade area for the Bake family reunion, but since we had been camping without electrical hook-ups for the previous 3 days, we needed to camp somewhere with hook-ups so we could recharge the  battery in our trailer, dump our tanks and fill up with water.  We decided to spend Thursday night at Colter Bay RV Park, which is right in Grand Teton National Park.  On our way, we encountered a "bear jam" about a mile from the RV park.  Chris dropped me off where all the people were on the side of the road while he drove the trailer further up where he could pull of and park temporarily.

  I was able to take a lot of photos of a mama grizzly with 3 cubs in a meadow on the side of the main park road.  After that excitement, we went and set up camp a third time.

 At the RV park there were no campfires allowed, so after we ate and got cleaned up, we spent the rest of that day exploring the Colter Bay area and driving through the park looking for wildlife.  We got lucky and had several more bear sightings, up close and personal!  We also saw a moose, some elk and of course, bison.  We enjoyed every minute of it, right up until it was too dark to see and we headed back to camp.

Friday morning we packed up again and started making our way down to the family reunion.  After a stop at the grocery store in Jackson, we finally arrived at our final camping destination on Friday afternoon, Big Elk Creek Campground near the Palisade Reservoir in Idaho.

Once we were set up, we spent most of the day sitting in the shade of our trailer awning, visiting with family members and watching the kids play with their cousins.  Saturday morning a few of the adults, including myself, Chris, three of his brothers, one sister and his dad, all rounded up some of the kids and ventured out for a hike on a trail that heads out from the campground and goes on for miles and miles.

We weren't sure how far we would go, but I wore my Garmin gps watch so I could keep track.  About a mile and a half in, most of the kids were complaining they were done, so Chris' brother Dean, and their step-mom Anita took the littler kids and turned around and headed back to camp.  The rest of us, including Chris and I and our little Nick, continued on for a little longer and ended up doing 6 miles round-trip.  Although we didn't see any mountain goats as we had hoped, we all really enjoyed each other's company and the beautiful scenery as we hiked, not to mention sweating a lot and burning off a few of the extra calories from all the yummy camp food!  Nicolas was such a little trooper that we told him we would soon get him his own Camelback-type backpack, and he was very excited about that. Later in the day on Saturday, some of us gathered with the kids down near the "creek", which was more like a small lake, where the kids played in the water and uncle Wil gave them rides in his drift boat.

I'm pretty sure that boat was the hit of the reunion with the kids.  After we had soaked up enough sun and everyone was feeling worn out, we went back to camp for dinner.  Our kids went to bed well that night, and Chris and I were able to stay up a little later enjoying some time around the campfire with some of the other family members, and I got to hold my baby niece, Trinity until she fell asleep...around 11pm!  It was fun to love on a little baby, it's been a while since we've had one that small!  Sunday morning was spent cleaning and packing up, then we made the 2 1/2 hour drive home, where I spent the rest of the day doing laundry!  It was definitely a fun trip, and now I feel like the rest of the summer will be sort of anti-climactic.  ;)