A hot air balloon that landed out in the field by our house recently and more catch-up from the last week...
One morning we went to the tree nursery and picked up two huge trees. They weighed about 500 pounds each...
we had no idea what we were getting into...
It took all day to get those trees in the ground. The one on the left is a Purple Autumn Ash and the one on the right is a Northland Maple. The Ash looks good but with the harsh wind and hot weather we had this last week we are crossing our fingers on the maple at this point...
This week Kyla's class and the other two second grade classes put on plays. Here is a couple pics from that...
Telling about Antarctica...
Colter giving Opal a little scratch on one of the beautiful days we had last week...
Today we spent some time with family at the lake to celebrate Auntie Mary Ann's 50th birthday. The following pictures are from our cool but beautiful afternoon on the lake...
It feels good to say for once that I'm almost "all caught up"! Wish I could say the same for all my other projects and housework!
Yesterday Colter's morning kindergarten class, combined with the afternoon kindergarten class, went on a little 2 mile hike that overlooks our valley. I went along too and was surprised at how many parents came along! It was great to see so many participating! Here are a few pictures from out time... Taking a little break along the way... A bunch of kids... Here I am* with my little man. Can't believe he's almost done with his first year of school... A beautiful day for a hike... Wild flowers along the way... Here we stopped for a snack. Cheese sticks and pretzels. The kids have slowed down a bit... Final Destination- overlooking the valley! KIDS, PLEASE DON'T CLIMB UP ON THE ROCK WALL! Yikes...
And would you believe it if I told you we saw Bigfoot? We did! Really!!!
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Instead of riding the bus back to the school, I just took Colter and we headed into town to go pick up Maya. This is what we saw in front of Tire Rama so we had to stop and take a picture. The driver was there and gave Colter an autographed picture of this monster truck. I would tell you what his name was if I could read his signature... So that was our mother/son morning together.
And now I better get this 52 week post published before Thursday is over...
*52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!
We had a piano* recital for Kyla on Sunday afternoon. Here she is playing her 5 chosen songs. Row, Row, Row Your Boat, Butterfly, MaryAnn, Fourth Grade Band, and Summer Vacation.
Last fall I was trying to find a new piano teacher for Kyla, (her piano teacher moved away :( -sad face) I was having a difficult time finding one near us with time slots that worked for us. Finally I decided to look at the books and see if I couldn't teach her this year myself. It was a little harder to convince her, but I finally did with the promise that we could have a recital with who ever she wanted to invite and then we could have a tea party afterward. That kept her motivated all year long. So I thought I better follow through with my part of the promise...
It turned out to be a great challenge and review for me too. Thanks Grandma, Grandpa, Dave, Denay, Caitlyn and Auntie Mary for joining us... For supper we had hot Panini**Sandwiches.
For dessert we had tea and Chocolate Sheet Cake (there is no way to show how wonderful this cake is by a photograph). You'll really have to try it the first excuse you get...you have my permission!
And now I couldn't resist looking up these two Italian sounding words and find out more about them so here is a little Italian History Lesson for those who are interested! Enjoy...
*The invention of the modern piano is credited to Bartolomeo Cristofori of Padua, Italy, who was employed by Prince Ferdinand de Medici as the Keeper of the Instruments. He was an expert harpsichord maker and was well acquainted with the previous body of knowledge on stringed keyboard instruments. It is not known exactly when Cristofori first built a piano. An inventory made by his employers, the Medici family, indicates the existence of a piano by the year 1700; another document of doubtful authenticity indicates a date of 1698.[citation needed] The three Cristofori pianos that survive today date from the 1720s. -This information comes from Wikopedia
**The word "panino" [pa'ni:no] is Italian (literally meaning small bread roll), with the plural panini. "Panini" is often used in a singular sense by speakers of English and French, as for "salami" (Italian plural for salame), and pluralised solecismically into "paninis". In Italian, panino refers properly to a bread roll and a "panino imbottito" (literally "stuffed panino") to a sandwich; so a paninoteca is a sandwich bar. In Central Italy, there is a popular version of panino which is filled with porchetta, i.e. slices of roasted pork. -This information comes from Wikopedia
Colter was very excited to bring Tober in last Friday for show and tell. Not only that but Daddy got to accompany him to school and help him with Tober. The kids loved her and her tricks... "sit, lay down, roll over". Apparently Tober enjoyed it too and spent some time wandering around the classroom looking for a ball. With ALL those kids, I'm sure she was thinking of all the fun she could have chasing balls!
I guess show and tell and Kindergarten go hand in hand. Writing this post brought to mind THIS POST that I did 2 years ago when Kyla was in Kindergarten.
We met Ryan, Jeannie and family for the day last Monday at Lake Koocanusa.
Lake Koocanusa and the Libby Dam were completed in 1972 as a joint project between the United States and Canada in an effort to provide flood protection and to generate hydroelectric power. The Kootenai River fluctuated wildly in the spring causing flooding in Montana, Idaho and British Columbia. Lake Koocanusa received its name in a contest to name the Libby Dam reservoir. A lady from Rexford, Montana, combined the first three letters from KOOtenai River, and the first three letters of CANada and USA. The lake is 90 miles long extending up into Canada and is up to 370 feet at maximum depth.*
We spent a relaxing morning on the boat fishing and roaming around the south end of the lake. Here is one of the catches for the day!
And the kids got to do a little fishing...
Lane admiring a fish that his Daddy caught...
Colter holding the line...
Waiting for a big one...
Grandpa Larry, we thought and talked about you and wondered at what place you would have been working/eating/sleeping, back in 1964, hundreds of feet below us in the forests and town that was covered up by the waters of the reservoir. The kids weren't quite sure if they like thinking of a town being way down there... At one point, the guys were talking about seeing a "school of fish" down below on the depth finder and Kyla was sure they were talking about seeing a "school" down there. ;) (I tried to find some information on this little town of Worland that was covered up by the reservoir in 1972 but I'm afraid it got completely washed right off the map...)
We had to dock for awhile because of a little squall that came up. A little thunder and rain. So here we are staying dry...
Kyla enjoying her book...
In the afternoon, the kids and I vacated the boat and we understand the boat was very quiet and peaceful. Lane and Morgan fell asleep, Jeannie read a book and the brothers spent uninterrupted time fishing, and visiting.
And what were we doing on the shore? Here is a little peek, and I'll tell you one thing... we were NOT taking naps... or sitting still... or being quiet...
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We were up here running off a lot of excess energy...
And they were way down there in the boat enjoying a quiet, peaceful ride...(do you see the boat to the left of Maya in the picture below?)
Yes, there they are! Do you think they will come back and pick us up? I don't think so! ;)
We also enjoyed walking along the dam and playing on the new awesome playground structure. We ended our time together with a quick barbecue supper and headed home. Thanks R and J for another fun time together! Here are a few more pics from our time.
Hope you enjoy these Grandpa Larry and Grandpa Steve. We know you both spent time in these areas and it was fun to spend a little time there too.
We had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. Randy was home Thursday and Friday and we got lots of stuff done. Saturday we went to preps and Sunday evening we enjoyed a picnic in the park with family. On Monday we met Ryan and Jeannie and family for the day at Lake Koocanusa. (more pictures to come) The kids and I took a little walk along a trail in the woods that overlooked the lake far below. We found lots of beautiful flowers...
May your day be full of happiness and beauty! Happy Friday,
It was 12 years ago that we became engaged. So I thought I would post this picture (taken from our wedding scrapbook)for this weeks challenge.* I laugh now as I look at this silhouette picture of us. When someone suggested we display it on our guest book table at our wedding, I turned a little pink, thinking of people seeing us being "kissy" and all. I believe I turned several shades of red when we actually kissed in front of all those people at our wedding! Now after 12 years of being "kissy" with my husband and 3 kids, it doesn't bother me much anymore. Anyway...
Here is the story of our engagement in order to record it for memory failure in our later years...
We met at Bible Study in November of 1995 after he moved to this area, accepting his first job after college. I was going to the local community college at the time. We began dating a couple months later. After one and a half years of dating, talking on the phone every day and seeing each other nearly every day, I began to wonder if he was ever going to ask me to marry him. We talked about getting married a few times but that's about as far as it would go. When people asked me where I was headed after I finished school at the community college, I would say "I'll probably go on to school in Idaho (my parents were living there at he time) or to the U of M and get my degree in accounting." Despite all my childhood ambitions to become a teacher, a pilot, a horse trainer, and on and on, there is one ambition that weighed out all of the rest. It was the ambition to be a wife and a mother. And I knew this was the man I wanted to be a wife too.
As the weeks sped by and the day of my graduation loomed closer, I realized that I really needed to make my plans for the next year. I began looking at colleges and half heartedly packing up my stuff from the place were I lived, in order to move in with my parents for the summer. The weeks of year-end-projects and finals and the spring busyness kept me going and it was with much delight that I looked forward to spending a quiet evening with my boyfriend at one of our favorite restaurants on Friday night. It was a little chinese place and we quietly talked about our week but avoided any discussions of future days.
All too soon, the waiter brought our fortune cookies on a little tray. We each took our cookie, broke it open and exchanged our slips of paper so the other could read it. It was a little ritual we had adopted whenever we ate at a place that handed out fortune cookies. I took the slip of paper he handed me and opened it up and read it. It said "Will you marry me?" I looked up at him in alarm as if to say, "do you know that this says?!"... and he was smiling. I said "are you serious?"... and he nodded his head. So I said "yes...of course!..."
I have no idea what the other fortune cookie said. Maybe something like, "take time for the things that really matter most", or "you will see many of those you love in a few months", or "your plans are about to change for the better". They did change for the better. I did move to my parents for the summer and spent my days getting ready for our wedding that was scheduled for the end of August. I never did go on to more college, but I can still say "it was for the better." Good fortune was smiling down on us that day.
*52 Weeks is a year long challenge for YOU to be in a picture once a week for 52 weeks. We are always the ones behind the camera, this is YOUR chance to get out in front and be in the pictures with our family. We are glad you are joining this challenge. More importantly your family will really enjoy having you in the picture. Thanks for playing along! Oh, you can just jump in now with 1 of 52, you're not getting off that easy! Now go take a picture!
A hot air balloon that landed out in the field by our house recently and more catch-up from the last week...
we had no idea what we were getting into...
This week Kyla's class and the other two second grade classes put on plays. Here is a couple pics from that...
It feels good to say for once that I'm almost "all caught up"! Wish I could say the same for all my other projects and housework!
