Floating the Boise River and the Bee's...

We've been having a great time with my parents--and other family members.

My parents drove up to Idaho last Thursday with all the junk we left in their garage on our way to Sun Valley from Texas. We drove around Boise checking out the town. On Saturday we floated the Boise River, which seems to be the most popular summer activity there. It was a blast. You can take individual tubes or rafts. We got 2 six-man rafts for the 10 of us that went. Jared, my dad, Rachel, Seth and I in one and Annie, Travis, my mom and the other boys in the other. There were plenty of water fights and lots of fun!

When we got to the end we had some water in our raft so my dad and Jared tipped the raft to dump the water out--dumping it all into the raft of the people next to us. That was embarrassing. And then Luke tried to jump out of their raft before they were on the beach and started heading down river (it's pretty fast)--but no worries he grabbed onto Travis' shorts to save himself. However he pulled the back of Travis' shorts down and Rachel and I saw a side of Travis we don't want to see again!

After the river float we hurried home to get ready and head to Ann's for dinner and then to the County Fair! Boy was that a treat! The kids had a good time riding some rides.

Sunday after Sacrament my parents and the kids and I loaded up and headed to Salt Lake. We had a slight delay as Seth had his hands in his pockets and tripped which = major face plant on the wood floor. There was a significant ammount of blood. Luke ran upstairs to report the incident to Rachel and told her, "don't worry, we've got it under control!"

On funny Jonah saying--on the drive down Seth said, "I like the red guys and the blue guys." (I have no idea what he was referring to...) Then Luke said, "Seth do you like red guys or black guys better?" To which Jonah replied in his "all knowing voice"--"Luke, black guys are real you know." I got a good chuckle.

It's always fun to be here. Last night we went to a Bee's game. The kids had a great time. Today I think we'll hit the dollar movies and then Wednesday is Rachel's 1st appointment at Primary Children's. I'm hoping I'm impressed. The bar is pretty high after UCLA and Texas Children's.

That all for now. Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

In honor of a trip to Haworth...

Have fun Sarah!!

In Jane Austin's Garden...(If I recall this was part of our Cantebury Tales trip where we had to read Cantebury Tales and then WALK the entire way--not my favorite outing.)

At the Bronte house...cool graveyard there if I remember correctly...

I don't know why I thought "weaving shed" was funny, but we took several of these pictures.

Those were the days...

Okay Sarah Jones...here you go...

I finally have a couple of rooms to the point where I can reveal some photos...

So here's the kitchen and family room.

The table came last week and the chairs finally made it today. It's a square table, so it seats 8...

We got 6 chairs and a bench--which the kids love. I got the black to tone down all the wood every where. I was starting to feel like I lived in a forest, which incidentally, the previous owners had all sorts of moose and pine tree decor. I guess they are foresty people.

Funny thing...when we moved in there were these 2 big long sticks (like from an aspen tree) in the back yard. Well, I have 2 boys which means there were all kinds of jousting matches and such going on. We even did a little limbo at FHE. The kids had big plans of placing them on the corner fence and making a fort. I had big plans for them to hit the trash that week.

So then our next door neighbor comes over to retrieve them for the previous owner--apparently the limbo sticks were actually curtain rods!! She must have found them in the woods or something and fashioned them to hang her draperies...hmm...

Back to the pictures. I'm still trying to figure out my bookshelves and how to place my doo dads. Also we need to hang pictures which will probably happen around Thanksgiving.

I am happy that my central vac is getting hooked up tomorrow which means--lots of jobs for little children to do!! I am so happy!!

A lot of catching up to do...

I've been a blogging slacker as of late. Too overwhelmed, I guess, with 6 million things needing to be unleashed from their boxes and put into place--places that do not exist in this house with very few closets...

I am appreciating my many closeted house in Houston--even missing my 7 year old carpet and gross white tile.

Onto the latest here...

I have neglected to post on 2 of my kids birthday's. For this I apologize--although they are none the wiser.

Luke turned 6!! It's hard to believe. He had to share his birthday with Jonah's baptism day--so he didn't quite get the lime light like usual, but no complaints. He had a great day at the lake opening presents and then a fun birthday dinner with a birthday treat at a pizza place in Ketchum.

It's not hard to think of 6 great things about Luke.

1. He is always happy!

2. He is the most positive kid I know.

3. He is a great sharer--his brothers could learn a thing or 2...

4. He is SO determined. He doesn't stop until he's accomplished what he set out to do.

5. He is excited about EVERYTHING!

6. He loves to snuggle with his mom. A Sunday tradition I hope we can hold on to for a while!

Seth turned 3 last Friday!! That I really can't believe! It has flown by. He has been planning his "Diego Party" for some time. I couldn't pull off a Diego cake, so we went with the simpler "Rescue Pack" cake. It was a hit. He loved it. We had Jared's parents and sister Angela and her girls over for dinner and cake. Seth had a great day.

I will do the rest of the catching up later...until then...

The Winds of Change...

Seth has been on a "Monsters Inc." kick as of late. I popped it in the other day and it was a hit with him. He seems to like Randall--which is concerning. Randall is the bad guy.

Anyway, today he was on the potty--Jared was assisting--and he said, "Shh. Hear that? It's the winds of change." We discovered later for the big kids that that is a line Randall says in the movie. Funny boy.

Well, it didn't take long for the boys to push me over the edge. Last summer I sent them to Vacation Bible School for a week because they were driving me crazy. After a very long week last week I found a fun summer camp with the Parks and Recreation here. Should be fun. It is an all day thing--games, arts & crafts and a couple of field trips. It will give me an opportunity to get things in order here, so we can play the rest of the summer.

Have a good Monday!

Tree planting...

We got the tree planted. It seems to be hanging in there. Time will tell. I'd like to plant a dogwood and a flowering pear on the other corner of the yard. My sister, Ann, planted a dogwood last spring and it is so pretty. So we must try one.

As you can see Jared had some great helpers. I'm not sure what Seth's deal was with the headband. Actually more concerning was that Jonah was wearing his church shoes--no socks.

After we planted the tree Luke said, "When we want to think about Texas we can come stand by our little tree, and we can say a prayer."

Everyone needs a prayer tree.

Delivery and Labor...

Delivery of my washer & dryer--labor doing 10+ loads of laundry. I will have to finish tomorrow.

I have to say this is the most excited I've been about doing laundry--EVER. However, I think that Jared thinks I should be as excited as I would be if he surprised me with a trip to Hawaii.

It is, you know, still laundry.

Houston we have a problem...or two...

So there seems to be an excess of 8-year-old boys in this neighborhood. Which could be good...if they were good. Jonah is my kid I worry most about being influenced by others.

So a new little boy who live a couple of doors down came to introduce himself yesterday. He immediately started telling me everything about himself and his family situation. The resume was not all that impressive--LOTS of baggage I'm sure his mother did not want the neighborhood to know. But that's not the kids fault. He is, in fact, a kid.

And then the expletives start coming. The first time I thought I'd heard wrong. And then again. Four letter words in my home. With our TV guardian we rarely even get any through the TV let alone in person. So I explained to our new little friend that we do not use those kind of words in our home. He was good about it. I'm hoping to not have anymore little talks with him.

I bet you can guess what our Family Home Evening lesson was on...yep...friends, and standing up for what you believe in...like not swearing. We did remind the kids of our rule that they are not allowed into any friends homes that Jared and I do not know their parents.

The other problem occurred yesterday while at Target. I had insanely taken all 4 kids to a Target about 25 minutes away...to find a 2nd bedspread for the boys room--I was certain I had purchased the only one left in all of Idaho Saturday night at our Target and was in a panic. We rushed there Monday morning and, well, they had plenty.

So we are headed to the register and find ourselves walking past the intimate apparel. I look over and Luke is fondling a bright pink, and very padded, brassier!

I yelled, "LUKE!"

He looked at me surprised and said, "Oh, I thought they were knee pads!"

Boy-Z

That's how the locals say it. According to my atlas it is boy-see.

It is going to be months until we get this place put together. The smaller bedrooms are causing me grief. None of our furniture fits like I would like. Poor Jared has been moving dressors from room to room for me to see where they'll work out. Our fabulous "queen bed in Rachel's room" project is not working out so well either. This is a house for 2 big people only...in the master.

I've got one more option I'm going to try and then we will have exhausted all our ideas. So the Queen bed may be headed for the spare room--which I don't think will be spare for long as the "3 boys in one room" plan is not working out so great either. I'm missing our Tomball house.

It will say that this is a much nicer house than ours in Tomball...nicer floors, cabinets etc...so I will try not to complain about the missing space we enjoyed there.

The gas and electric companies are supposed to be out today to mark the lines for us so we can plant our oak tree. It's still hanging on.

Did I mention my oak tree??

So we had this 100+ old oak tree in our back yard in Houston. It was a bit sickly from the day we moved in, but provided some good shade...and was the only one of it's kind in any one's yard in the neighborhood. Side note: the guy at the sales office when we bought the house joked that it was a $10,000 tree. We told this "joke" to someone who didn't get that it was a joke and over time had several people make comments about our tree we paid $10,000 for--comments alluding how stupid it was to pay that much for a tree. Silly people.

Anywho...every time a storm blew through it lost branches and each Spring we waited anxiously to see if it was still alive after losing all it's leaves in the winter. Each year it came back. Jared had wanted to cut it down from the get go, but I wanted my oak tree.

Then one day in June of 2004 I was out back looking at my old oak and got a funny feeling. The neighbors were having a guy cut down a tree in their yard, so I had the guy come give me a quote to what it would cost to cut down my good friend.

So we did it. And here's the thing...when they made the last big cut on the stump at about 4 feet, we discovered that the bottom 4+ feet of the tree were completely hollow. Only about and inch of the outside of the trunk was left around it. And after the cut was made, THOUSANDS of tree roaches and carpenter ants bubbled out of the trunk. You could see the whole lawn moving. It was quite disgusting.

The guy looked at us and said that the next big storm that came through would have knocked that thing down onto our house (or the Christies)--and then it would have been the $10,000 tree--$10,000 worth of damage!

The next "big" storm was Rita just a few months later and I'm certain it would not have withstood the winds that came through Tomball.

So...now to my oak tree in Boise...

The Tomball oak did leave me some little babies in my back yard. I let them grow, so that I could re-plant them in appropriate places--like my yard in Boise.

Yes, we potted one and hauled it all the way here. Well, Kenny Christie was kind enough to dig it up for me... It had a front seat in Jared's car with me. It's still looking pretty good. Must have been all the singing and talking I did to it on the 3 day drive. I'll post a picture when it's planted in it's new spot...

Yes, I know I'm crazy.

Goodbye old friend...

So we had to leave behind several items...

and my trusty blue chair was one of them. Jared purchased this fine piece of craftsmanship 12 years ago in preparation for our move to Chicago for his Master's program. It was $10 and worth every penny.

I nursed 3 babies in that chair (the 3 boys--Rachel wouldn't cooperate)...which is why we had it for so long. Each time we had a baby Jared begged me to get rid of it and let him buy me a new chair. We searched high and low, but nothing was to my satisfaction. So I hung on to Ol' Blue.

It's amazing that one would haul something like that from Provo to Chicago to Los Angeles to Houston...that means good chair!

Gender...

So the potty training thing has kind of gone down the drain. Jared keeps expressing his disappointment that "we" are not moving forward on this ordeal...I guess I need to remind him that I'm trying to unpack a house AND I have no washer/dryer to assist in any certain laundry needs that come with potty training.

When I was at my parents last I found an almost full package of pull-ups. Pink--from Rachel's potty training days. That is probably the last time we used pull-ups. So I thought, I'll make good use of these and save some cash. No deal.

I pulled them out and Seth panicked. He started backing up and said, "I don't like these. They are for girls!"

I said, "why are they for girls?"

And he replied correctly, "Because they are pink. Girls like pink."

We had a great time last night visiting with the Fikes. The kids were so happy to have some friends over. It even motivated them to "clean up"--well, put things back into the boxes that are still everywhere.

So now onto Friday...

Sun Valley & Jonah's baptism...

Sun Valley was GREAT! A much needed vacation!

My whole family was there. Good times.

Every summer growing up we headed to Sun Valley for the Utah Bankers Association Convention. It was great fun. The best part is that back then we just ran wild while my parents were in meetings. We'd swim, play tennis, do paddle boats, ice skate, float boats down the streams. It was awesome. It was also a good time to re-aquaint with some of our Layton cousins...since their families were often there as well.

So my mom and dad went to the convention Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday...we got up there Tuesday afternoon. Tuesday we got to see the ice show--Nancy Carrigan was the star this year. It was great. We went swimming, bike riding, shopping, golfing, shooting...and just enjoyed the nice cool weather. We can't wait to go back!!

Jonah's baptism was GREAT! Ann and Travis scouted out a place for us, and found this nice spot at Pettit Lake--just south of Redfish Lake. It was beautiful. We had a nice picnic--Jared's parents and sisters Angela and Sarah joined us.

We had a nice program...mys sister Karen spoke on Baptism and Sarah spoke on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The water was quite cold, but it was wonderful. Congratulations Jonah!

Way to go Idaho...

I JUST got my Internet!! It's been painful to be out of touch!



We have had a warm welcome in Idaho.



The first 2 days we were here we had neighbors deliver cookies...and had lots of kids show up on our door step to introduce themselves. After church on Sunday I even returned to my car to see a nice "Welcome to Idaho" message written on my VERY dirty back window.



The kids (and I) are adjusting...there is a cute boy Jonah's age about 4 doors down. They seem to get along very well--even tricking Rachel into stepping into a trap they'd set for her in the back yard and then tying her up with a rope. I think they'll be good friends.



There are a few 10 year old boys around, but not so many girls. Rachel did meet one girl at church who is very nice. She will go to school with Rachel too. Her mom reminds us of Sharee Fike. The Fikes are coming over tonight to visit. We are glad we have a few friends who will be visiting the Boise metropolis on occasion.



Things are coming together around here. Still a LONG way to go. We have no kitchen table...it will be 3-4 weeks until it is delivered...and the washer and dryer will come next Wednesday. I went with the Cabrios. I am quite excited. The washer is HUGE! I'm thinking I'm going to cut down my laundry time in half!! They are top loaders with no agitator--so you get all the benefits of the front loader--without bending over. I'd love them even more if they were orange...but I think I'll just paint my laundry room orange and be happy.



We are having some bedroom issues...they are just enough smaller that it is tricky to fit all the stuff and people in them that I'd like. I think the 3 boys in one room will be a short lived thing. I'm still going to hold out until Christmas if I can...



Rachel is loving having her own bathroom, and is being very responsible about it. We'll see how long that lasts.



Not much else to tell...my oak tree that I brought from our yard in Houston is hanging on...we have yet to plant it because we can't find out where the gas lines are. Hopefully today.

One observation. We discovered where EVERYONE in Boise eats lunch. Costco.

The kids and I went to get some prices on mattresses the other day and when we were leaving it was standing room only in the food court...and most of the standing room was gone. Even Rachel noticed it and said "WOW! No one eats here in Texas!"

Speaking of our trip to Costco...as I said it was an information gathering trip...not a purchasing trip...

As we were leaving I heard Jonah say to Rachel, "We came here for no good reason." They did get some good samples. THAT's a good reason if you ask me!