Summer, School, Family - Chapter 2 the Idaho Story

The second week was spent in Idaho (mainly). It was timed for the Cassia County Fair and Rodeo, and although my cowboy dad was busy for most of it, we spent some great time with them. They spent time on the trampoline, in the trees, riding bikes, 4-wheelers, tractors, and spending time with family.





These pics turned out pretty good. I just couldn't get Campb in the tree with the kids to finish the foursome.

My kids got to be cowboys/girls and enjoy the best small town rodeo anywhere. We also spent some time with the most incredible mustachioed cowboy around.








These 4 are the greatest things in my life, aren't they great!

Summer, School, Family - Chapter 1 Utah

Well, again here comes the deluge of updates from the iowaspuds...
The big updates was our super trip out west. We went through South Dakota, saw the corn palace in Mitchell.


We didn't stop to see Wall Drug, but we didn't know when to turn off, they could have more signs along the way (note sarcasm)...

We spend a couple nights in Keystone, South Dakota, and saw Mount Rushmore and the beautiful Black Hills. The kids loved it, and it is definitely a place to see again.


From there we went to Idaho Falls to be sure my brother and his family were doing good, and the kids played hard with their IF cousins. We also stopped in American Falls to check on some friends we don't see nearly enough.

Then on to Utah! Sara and her family were kind enough to let us stay there and provide babysitting while Sherrie and I went to the temple.
While we were in Utah we went to two weddings and a sealing. What a great thing to be with family in the temple and see people make eternal promises to love and cherish one another. Congrats Tracey/Wade, Jeff/Allyson, and Kristie/Devin!

We took a sweet hike up to Timpanogos Caves. It was a tough hike, but we all made it. Kell hiked the whole way. Dad carried Campbell, and cousin Matt hefted Abigail the whole way on his back (oh to be 19 again). The boys loved the cave, and it is a neat stop.



We stopped by BYU and the kids got to see the ol alma mater. It was also Cole's Birthday, so we were able to spend that with cousins and family.


Our favorite Aunt Lisa stopped while we were at the temple one day, and the kids got to see her and enjoy being with her. She was also so nice as to let us stay at her house one night. She is the best. See if you can spot the antagonist in this photo...


This picture was from the last wedding, and is a little out of the timeline of events, but is part of the Utah fun. We went to Kristie's wedding in Bountiful. The kids loved it and it was so neat to be there with my little family and enjoy the beauty of the temple and those things most precious to me.

New look to the house

Most people know that I am not a big fan of painting, and Sherrie knows that to get me to do it, she just needs to buy the paint and have it all ready to go. Here are some shots of the new color we are putting on. In the family room we painted one wall a red, which really turned out nice. The rest of the downstairs is a chocolate milk type color, which is darker than what we had. It is turning out nicely.




The kitchen has become the problem, we just can't decide what color to do, a red. a green, or a yellow. We have tried about 8 different sample colors and still haven't found the one.




Campbell likes to help as well, and he scaled the ladder all by himself while his deliquent dad watched. At least he is not on climbing up the cupboards, yet...

Cool cakes, lost teeth, muscles, and swimming

Sherrie loves to create cool cakes for birthdays. Maybe her husband needs to show a little more imagination.

Here is David's 'camp' birthday cake.


And Cole had a bowling party complete with this unique creation from Mom's kitchen.



Kell is finally losing some more teeth. He lost his two bottom teeth on the same day, and was pretty proud of himself.


Campbell now knows how to flex his 'guns' I have about 6 more shots of Cam's 'show me your muscles' shot! The expression on his face just makes me laugh.



The three big kids had swimming lessons this month. They had a great time and are progressing well.

Spring and Summertime

So, where to start... Maybe more frequent entries would be best!

Schools out, summer break

Soccer is over. Cole finished with 9 goals for the season (two hat-tricks), dad was 2-0 as head coach (the team was 2-5-1 overall).

One more game of baseball left in the season, Kell has had fun on the A's



Kell and Abigail are both off training wheels and racing on two wheelers



Kell had a birthday. Mom made a volcano cake, complete with dinosaurs and frosting lava.



Campbell is walking - We'll get some pics of him stumbling as he is getting the hang of it.

We did some camping at Ledges State Park



Iowa storms can be wet and wild! Yeah that is our neighbor's swing set blown across their yard into ours. We missed the excitement as we were in the basement waiting for the tornado sirens and warnings to expire...

Chungara!

I thought it would be good to share a couple pics of the beauty of Northern Chile. These two pictures are taken from a drive I took from the coast to the Altiplano in Northern Chile, the first is in a city called Putre (about 3600 m altitude), and the other is at the high mountain lake Chungara, and the (dormant) volcano Parinacota. I am holding the GPS unit that says >4500 meters (15,000) feet. It is up there a ways!

Happy Birthday

My tribute to our one year old failed to include some birthday pics, so here goes

The cake


The birthday haircut. Sitting in the sink is sure a good way to keep squirmy boys contained!


The presents. Campbell got a little walker, a 'old' style Fisher Price Farm, and magnetic farm that makes sounds. He was really most interested in the bows on the boxes!


And the celebration. Here he is ready to dig in. He was tired and consequently pretty crabby, so after a few bites of cake, he took a bath and went to bed while the rest of us enjoyed the treats.