Odds and Ends

Things are lovely at the cabin. It rained for two days and we even had a fire to warm the cabin!

 Noah is home and so happy to talk all about London and music and his life. My friend Nicole, who lives on lane A, came by with 6 of her grand kids last night to play on the big swings and they loved how high the swings go.

Sweet Anne and Brooke came up for a Little Hike and sit on the beach with our feet in the river. There is nothing like an old friend who laughs loud when you are trying to be funny. We had a wonderful dinner with the Floyds at the Henniman's house. So nice to be with good friends again.

There is a 10 yard load of mulch waiting for Noah and I to spread on the septic field garden today while Roland goes into Crouch to order a chainsaw and a brush cutter! He feels like a professional logger just saying that out loud.

Tomorrow we are going to Cascade for the white water rodeo and then Chris and her grandchildren will come up and stay the night. There will lots of frog catching and a big campfire! 

I wish I could figure out how upload photos to the blog from my iPad. I am sure there is a tutorial but I would rather be outside!

Better Late Than Never?

Is it true what they say, better late than never?

Let's see if we can remember the summer of 2012 before winter gets here!

First we drove to the cabin. 

Ike had a spankin' new driver's permit and drove us through southern Idaho.

We tried to get a picture that looked like he was eating the oncoming traffic. 

On the way we stopped to have lunch with Hannah at work. She is a fabulous waitress and it was the most delicious meal of the summer. 

If you are in Provo eat at The Black Sheep.

I like that this picture looks like Hannah has flames coming out of her head.

Then we met up with all the Austins at the cabin. 

Every single sibling and all their children were there...except for Noah! He was working at 

Philmont Scout Ranch: 

The last time our whole family was together was my Dad's funeral 3 years ago.

I think we had 29 people. 

It was amazing and fun and such a treat to have everyone there together. 

We celebrated the 4th of July for 3 days and only had the sheriff called on us one time!

Up next:

VIPs on the John C Stennis Air Craft Carrier

Coming soon:

Sweet Baby Liberty

Alaska!

Haunted House/Philmont

Hannah's Graduation

Lancer Lunatic

Ballerina Ike

Mount Rushmore

Ike's Sweet 16

Where Were You On 9/11 ?

Roland is flying today. I'm not too worried, but I did make sure we had water and all the cars are fully gassed. 

On 9/11/01 Noah was home from school to take his new dog, Zip, to the vet with me. Roland was in Portland. My mom called and told me to turn on the TV and didn't say much else. Noah and I watched in horror as people started jumping out of the buildings. I snapped to it and realised that Noah shouldn't see it so I sent him outside to play with Zip until the vet appointment and I watched TV while I called the kid's schools (they were in lockdown mode and strongly discouraging parents from picking up their children) and tried to reach Roland. When we drove to the vet I saw that the grocery store parking lots were full and there were long lines at all the gas stations - fortunately we had 2/3 tank of gas. Each time I heard a siren I felt panicked and sick. We tried to act like it was a normal day at the vet's office but everyone was tense and distracted. 

Roland called to say that he was fine, he cancelled the training and was going to keep his rental car and drive home from Portland because the airports were closed. The kids came home from school and told me how they had a lock down and had to hide under the desks and then watched the tower coverage over and over. We turned off the TV and radio and spent the rest of the day in the back yard, played with Zip, and had a picnic. Roland got home that night and we decided to take the kids out of school and head up to the cabin. It seemed that we couldn't escape the horror of the event and focusing on it wouldn't help our family or make anything better. The next morning we loaded up the car with yummy food and fun games and spent a 4 day weekend playing on the river with our new dog, we ran into town and get a paper everyday and Roland and I would read all the latest news and quietly speculate on why, how, and what would happen next. 

It was such a blessing to have a new cabin and a new dog to distract us from the gloom and misery of that horrible time. I remember making a conscious decision to focus on the sparkling river and my sunshiny children playing fetch with Zip, who was so happy to be adopted into a family again. Zip and the cabin loved us all better.

Where were you on 9/11?

Girl Friends - Blogging

The second part of the week at the cabin we had 8 women up who are members of a private blogging community. I had only met one of the women before so I was really looking forward to seeing them in person. They came from Washington, LA, Idaho, San Fransisco area, Utah, and Colorado (of course). Oh. We had fun!

 We rafted the main fork of the Payette River:

We ate lots of good food:

I told everyone what to do.

We picked and ate wild berries on our hike/walk.

We wore caftans and played charades.

We sat in the sun and solved world problems.

We dressed Sally for her 20th reunion:

We drank green smoothies - without makeup - after our hike to the spooky old cemetery.

We had makeovers (everyone looked awesome) and then we went to Starlight Mountain Theater and watched Singing in the Rain under the stars.

We had campfires:

And we loved each other. Even though I never went to bed before 3:00 AM it was such a lovely fun uplifting and restorative weekend.

Paige, Kristen, Kimberly, Tristan, Ilene, Sally, Me, Celia, Andrea

Girl Friends - Painting

My Besties: Suzanne and Ann (at Whitney's farewell) They are as tall as me, but I was standing on a curb.

Courtney and Dani - two of Suzanne's girls

Last week I went to the cabin for a girls week. First, Ann and Suzanne came up to hang out, catch up, and do a little art project. Ann teaches art and does beautiful pottery. Both Ann and Suzanne are amazing gardeners and very artistically inclined. 

So we painted chairs.

Here the chairs are before. Poor sad spider egged chairs. They were in the dump pile but Sally and I rescued them and spray painted them white (in the picture below - Sally is spray painting other chairs for another post).

Ann shows us how to mix the paints.

My practice page.

Suzanne and her chair (below).

My mom painted a box to store hotel grooming samples in the cottage bathroom.

Mom, Ann, Sally, Suzanne

Sally (with our inspiration photo in the background).

Ann is meticulous.

Before

After! 

Chairs by (L to R): Robin, Suzanne, Ann, and Sally. Box by Mom.

These look awesome in the newly decorated cottage (more on that later).

This was such a relaxing rewarding activity. I think we should do a women's painting week next year. Are you up for it?

Late that night The Famous Julie Phipps, beautiful daughter Claire, and spazzy puppy Rolf, dropped by to spend the night on their way home from Moses Lake. Awesome!

Summer Fun!

I love being at the cabin with family and friends. Each year the cousins get to know each other all over again and new friendships are formed. Food is shared, games are played, adventures are had. The grownups catch up and spend precious time sharing our dreams, concerns, worries, and hopes while encouraging each other and congratulating each other for being so awesome!  Darts, swings, bows and arrows, pellet and BB guns, puzzles, watermelon, popsicles, Boggle, Speed, croquet, fireworks (We got a firework lecture from 2 neighbors this year - makes us feel rebellious!), reading, butterflies, baby fishies, frogs, eagles, deer, elk (with antlers!), tubing, hiking, swimming and then eating some more.  

It goes too fast.

This is what summer is about.

Getting ready to tube the middle fork of the Payette.

 Swing fun.

 Sun screen applied and waiting for tubing.

 Bedtime Story time.

 Campfire talent show.

 Tractor rides!

 The table was constantly covered with puzzles and comic books. We completed 4 puzzles, modge-podged them, and hung them in the garage.

 Note the snow on the mountains. 

What is it about this picture that makes you think it was staged?

 Or this picture?

 Jason shows off his "handkerchief through the ears" magic trick while balancing on a tube.
Its just nice to have him around. 

 Ike bit it right after this. We rented a pontoon boat that wouldn't go faster than 25 mph and broke down on Cascade lake 3 times. THREE TIMES.
That's why we have more staged photos than real photos.
 Bummer.

 Ike and buddies get ready for church at the Garden Valley branch.

Such handsome boys.

Cam, Ike, Jason, and Spencer - summer fun!

Can't wait for next year!