A girl and her "hipod"....

Emily was sitting in the chair watching Clifford on my "hiPod" and fell asleep clutching the "hiPod" like she would a stuffed animal. It was just too cute.

On your mark, get set......

On your mark, get set......

GO!!!!

Katie and Emily had fun racing from that car in the background to the table where we were sitting. It was Emily's idea and Katie played along! Emily crossed the finish line, breathing heavily with much exaggeration.

Cute kids....

After splashing in the water at the City Hall plaza I saw this great brick building and wanted to get a few shots of the kids with the brick in the background. Carson was a willing participant and posed nicely for me.

This was the only quick shot I could get with Emily in the shot.

Cute kids!

City Hall .....

The kids had fun splashing in the water at the new City Hall plaza in Meridian.

Cake anyone?

I am practicing my cake decorating and trying to find the best white cake recipe to make my sister's wedding cake. This was my first attempt at some design that she likes. This was our Sunday dinner dessert.

I have never done filling layers in cake other than just frosting between two layers. We got the raspberry and lemon fillings already made from Cash-N-Carry in Boise. I am going to try two new recipes for cake and a different design on the frosting using some Wilton cake decorating presses.

I love decorating the cakes!

A blast from the past...

Steve found some slides this morning and used my camera to digitize them so we could see what they were. These were shot about 10 years ago now, while we lived in Washington. I can't believe how small they all were. I was sure at that time in my life that they would NEVER grow passed toddlerhood. Four car seats, three in diapers and potty training and lots of tears and tantrums too! Jonny was in Kindergarten, Carson and Kristina went to developmental preschool, and Logan went to private preschool. We did survive those years and so I know I will survive these teenage years too! I just can't pick them up and put them into time out anymore!

Boise Zoo....

We had a fun time at the Boise Zoo today. Emily has been asking to go to the zoo all week. She would tell me that the animals would be happy if we came to see them. We went through the new Wallaby exhibit. You get to walk through the open area where the Wallabys are free to roam around. They could even walk up to you but you are instructed not to touch them. There were 6 Wallabys in the exhibit, all of them sleeping in the shade until my Mom made her own Wallaby call and woke them up. We ate lunch in the park before we made the mad dash home to get Carson and Logan off on scout campout.

Old Farm Buildings.....

On our trip to Utah back in July, I was fascinated by all the round silos. It seems that they are everywhere along that road heading east towards Pocatello and then south down into Utah. It was fun trying to quickly focus and catch the shot as we were driving quickly by.

I love seeing the old buildings and always want to catch a picture of them. I love to ponder on what life was like when those buildings were new. What about the day they were finished? Did the family marvel at their work? How many people lived there? What did they do for fun? I wish I could go back in time and just watch from a distance.....

1st Annual Hike to the Y...

Read more about the history of the "Y" by clicking here....

I have been going to Utah to visit family for over 20 years now. I have always wanted to hike to the Y on the hill that overlooks BYU and the Provo area. This year we did it! We started early in the morning so it was still cool. The sun finally broke over the top of the mountains as we were headed down. We got to the trail around 8am. There were lots and lots of people coming down the mountain already. There was entire group from BYU that had been up and back, campers coming down off of the mountain too. We were passed up twice by a gentleman who had to be in his mid 80s. He was on his way down for the second time before we made it all the way to the top for the first time! It was a great hike up and coming back down was a challenge too, it is quite a steep trail most of the way. We have decided this will be an annual thing!

Indian Creek.....

There is this great little pool area off of Indian Creek which is a block away from my mom's house in Kuna. The pool area is deep enough to float around if you bring something to float on. However, it is also shallow enough that 5 yr olds can walk around and have fun too. Many people float Indian Creek and you will see them go by frequently this time of year. There is lava rock that has been stacked up to give a nice boundary to the safe area to play and swim. I had two of my kids gone today so we brought along substitutes, cute little blonde twins! The kids spotted a good sized trout in the middle of the pool area. There are tiny tadpoles in the shallow pools too.