Jamboree

Every year before the actual season starts the Optimist club puts on a jamboree. This is where the players get weighed, get their pictures taken and then get to play a mini game on the Blue. Pure heaven for this BSU fanatic.

My little guy is playing linebacker this year. All 68 pounds of him.

The pictures show how this play unfolded. Taylor saw this guy coming and wasn't about to let him score. Loved it!

Taylor is #10 and his buddy Joel is #22.

They are a good team.

Taylor went after this guy with all he had but in the end all he got a hold of was some turf.

My first drive in movie

Yes, you heard correctly...I had never been to a drive in movie before. Not as a child, a naughty teen or a young adult, but at 34 I finally made it! It was the perfect night for a movie.

Sneak Peek

A couple months ago Becky Higgins did a "Big Photography Giveaway" where photographers from all over were giving away free sessions. After watching her blog for days and days she finally had a photographer from the treasure valley. I was so excited to finally be able to have a chance to win. And guess what...WE DID! We won a session with Amber Fischer! And she was fabulous! She was so personable and actually got Austin to smile a few times ;o) This is the sneak peek we have and I am chomping at the bit to see the rest!

40 Years

We threw a surprise party in honor of Rodger and Terry's anniversary and, together, friends and family celebrated 40 years!

Surprise!!!

Green Box Scavenger Hunt

We teamed up with Rich and Steph and Marc and Skye to do the Green Box scavenger hunt. We had a ball driving all over creation taking silly pictures. Here are just a few of the things we had to do. Some of them were team photos, some were individual and some just had to be a certain object.

The rest of the team trying to figure out the first clue so we could get our big list of clues. It took a while cause it was three pages and coded.

The Preppy Potatoes. We came in 9th out of 14 teams. Not bad for our first year. We plan to do better next year.
In a dog house

Wearing hats

With a fish

Wearing glasses

On a trampoline

On rollerblades

In BSU gear

Getting a whole restaurant to 'raise the roof'

Mary Mary quite contrary...

We planted a garden again this year. We didn't plant as much as last year because we were gone so much in June but we did get some things in.

carrots/lettuce/spinach/broccoli/cucumbers/string beans/zucchini/potatoes/pumpkins/strawberries/cantaloupe/raspberries/tomatoes

The bad thing about planting a garden and leaving the country is you miss out on what it has to offer. We missed all of our broccoli because it matured and flowered during the ten days we were gone. Bummer. We also lost a lot of our lettuce and decided that planting spinach is worthless. Mature spinach is gross.

We were outside last night and the kids wanted to pull some carrots. We may have waited a smidge too long since they were so big but the kids loved them.

These carrots didn't fair so well.

We've been having a lot of crazy summer fun the last few weeks. My favorite so far has been boating. Marc and Skye have asked us a couple of times to go and we always have the best time.

Rob and Austin learned to wake board, one taking a little longer to get it than the other. Austin put on that board and it took him three times to get up and look like a pro. Rob took a little while longer but got the hang of it too.

Taylor really wanted to learn to water ski so Skye offered to teach him. She stayed in the water with him to help hold him up, explained everything he needed to know and when he was ready we took off. Unfortunately no one told him that when he fell he needed to let go of the rope. Poor little guy. He fell and all we could see were his two little hands hanging on for dear life. Needless to say that was his first and last time trying that for a while.

We love summer!

On the road again

Actually it probably should read on the plane again since we leave for Cordoba, Argentina bright and early tomorrow. We are travelling down to work with Sasha and Maria Silvia as they try to reach the youth of Cordoba for Christ.

I am thrilled.

Excited beyond words.

But I feel a little unprepared. Although we have planned for this trip for over a year it seemed to come out of nowhere and suddenly we are leaving tomorrow.

I have a couple prayer requests. First for our traveling safety. The older my kids get the more I think about this. Second for our kids while we are gone cause it gets hard on them after a while. And finally that we would accomplish whatever it is God wants us to do while we are there. We have an awesome group going and I am so excited to spend the next eleven days with them.

Well most of them ;o)

I also thought of another request...pray that we stay warm. They don't have central heating where we are staying, or many places for that matter, and I don't do well in the cold. Especially showering when it's 49 degrees outside.

See you all on the 21st! I am going to try to post pictures on facebook while we are gone so if you want any updates check there.

What a weekend!

Saturday I got to attend celebrations for two special women. The first was a bridal shower for my cousin Becca who is getting married in August. It was a sweet shower filled with food, laughter and sunshine.

Top row:Landry, Marlene, Roc, Becca, Natalie

Bottom row:Lizzy(with soon to be baby boy #2), Me, Mom, Theresa

The second celebration was a bachelorette pajama dance party for Alyssa. We had a blast!!! We ate and danced and danced and danced some more.

The bride to be

Last but not least was the wedding for Alyssa and Randall. It was a beautiful ceremony followed by more dancing and eating...two of my favorite things.

I had to post this picture of Emily and Rob because when Rob went to get her to dance for the father/daughter dance she ran away. Wanted no part of it. Something about being embarrassed. She finally gave in and spent the rest of the evening dancing her little buns off.

She was dancing with Alyssa here and I'm pretty sure she was over the moon.

Here is the beautiful bride. We wish them all the love and happiness in the world!

One man's junk...

The whole family headed to Sumpter Oregon last weekend for the big flea market they hold three times a year and did we have a good time. The treasures I brought home...oh the treasures! Unfortunately I had to leave more there than i wanted to but you can guarantee we will be back.

First up is this lovely bowl. I simply couldn't pass it up.

I got two Pyrex bowl for $3.50.


I got this wooden fork for 25 cents. I can't tell if it is an old fork that was functional or if someone just carved it as a decoration. Either way I loved it when I saw it. The Nehi bottle cap is something I had been looking for for a while. When we were younger my brother and I would spend time with our grandparents who lived in Wimer, Oregon. It is a teeny tiny town complete with a covered bridge. We spent many a day walking that road across the covered bridge to the ice house that sat just on the other side. Inevitably each time I would get a blue Nehi in a bottle and every time my grandpa would tell me it looked like I was drinking battery acid. I was so happy to find that bottle cap in memory of our days there.

I saw this set from across the way and practically ran to it. Sometimes there are things you just have to have. You don't know why but they call to you. This was one of those things. I can't pinpoint why I love it but I do. And for $7 I think it was worth it.

This set makes me smile. I love the color, I love the size of the pieces, I love the handles on the bowl. I love it all!

I have come to the conclusion that I love stemware. All colors, all designs. They had some great sets but this was the one that made it home. The orange is fabulous and I love that the stem and base is a different color. They are so bright and fun.

Looking forward to Labor day when I can do it all again!