Beautiful day.

Rustin and I went skiing with Jenna's 5th grade class.  

Such a great day!  We think 5th graders are fun.  

We had beautiful weather--Rustin and I spent some time skiing alone while Jenna took a lesson.

Jenna has such a cautions nature.  It may take a couple of more trips before she is ready to really hit the slopes.  She's more of a bunny hill kind of girl...She gets better steadily though. 

Sometimes its just nice to get out and see my world from a different perspective.  My Magic Valley is beautiful.  From the top of the slopes we could just make out the patchwork look of farmland--big round pivot circles and winter wheat just starting to come up.  Spending a day like this makes me think that the rest of the 'Save the World' people would feel so much better if they could come see how the world is simultaneously enjoyed and cared for in my neck of the woods.  Idaho is number one in renewable energy sources in the United States by a long way.  

We do love our Idaho!

 

Treasures

I love summer.  I think I must have been on the flower planning committee in my previous life.  There is nothing that soothes my soul like the beautiful world we live in.  Especially in summer.

Last weekend we went to Franklin and it was exactly the spirit renewing experience that I have been needing.

One night we went up to Willow Flat for tinfoil dinners and a hike up to the spring.  The path follows next to the spring creek as it tumbles over beaver dams and winds through the beautiful green trees, bushes and flowers.

I soon found myself behind because I kept stopping to look at the way the flowers grew around each other  and in natural flowing clumps.  Perfectly in balance.

 In the evening shade I watched a couple of dandelions close their flowering heads and I realized that they are beautiful.  At home I would have pulled the yellow heads off in disgust but up on the mountain trail they fit just perfectly in the landscape.  Everything has a purpose.

When a big fat shiny beetle scurried across my path I stopped to watch him make his way.  At home I would have smashed him and thrown him outside.

As we were walking back we ran into Darren on the path.  As he and I walked along he remarked that the beauty of the mountain is how we know that we have a mother in heaven.  I mentioned that I wish she could teach me how to make my yard look like the beautiful mountainside.  The thought immediately popped in my head, "I already have."

I'm so grateful to live in a land of beauty where the earth as it has been created is appreciated by the people who live on it.

On Sunday (Father's Day) we went to the Franklin cemetery where we could honor and remember all our fathers.  The night was perfect.  Just cool enough for short sleeves in comfort.  The sun was setting behind us and there weren't any bugs.  Darren and his mom, Elva told us about our many fathers.  They shared so many stories about their lives.

I especially love one story about Darren's dad.  LaVar and his brother were walking along the dirt road that leads from Logan to Franklin to attend the celebrated Idaho Days parade.  As they walked along the dusty road in their bare feet, a big black car pulled up and the door opened.  The man inside asked the boys where they were headed and they replied that they were going to the Idaho Days parade in Franklin.  The man in the car offered them a ride and they climbed in.  He took LaVar's cheeks in his hands and asked "do you know who I am?" LaVar didn't recognize his benefactor.  Then the man told him that he was the prophet.  The boys were thrilled and their mother was embarrassed that her boys met the prophet barefoot in their dusty clothes!

I am grateful to be so blessed.  It's always so nice to have things put in perspective. The truly important things don't change.  There will always be something more to be purchased or fixed but in the end, time spend learning about eternal truths is where my true riches lie.

Easter

 I pretty much love all holidays but a holiday that includes Spring is especially awesome!

Rustin and I both grew up doing baskets and egg hunts on Saturday.  When all the kids were small we would tell the them that if we color eggs and  leave them out where they can be seen, then the Easter Bunny can't help but come by and hide them.   So we color eggs on Saturday morning and leave them out while we go for a walk or something.  Then we have an egg/basket  hunt on Saturday afternoon. 

Our Easter Bunny is especially handsome.

Most years we pack up our egg sandwiches and go out to Balanced Rock in Castelford but we didn't make it out there this year.

This Easter our chickens gave us a head start in the coloring department so we had some really 

beautiful egg colors!

We thanked them with an Easter treat of their own.

 This year we had some plastic eggs and I put some money in a gold egg and a silver egg.  It made for an enthusiastic egg hunt!

And might I mention that Paisley found and devoured her own share of eggs.  She pretty much eats anything but dog food--apples, cantaloupe, eggs, noodles, bananas, asparagus...you name it.

I had great intentions of sewing cute spring inspired Pottery-barn-esque Easter bags like my sister made but it didn't get done.  One of these years...

Next year remind me to skip the grass in Jackson's basket...

 (picture him saying "Mine" and "hey" a thousand times...)

(of course his thieving brothers probably had something to do with that...)

Now I am thoroughly determined to make this hydrangea plant grow somewhere in my yard!

Happy Spring!

Look who's grown up!

I kind of think it's awesome to be forty.  I can't really explain it except that it feels like a new beginning.  Maybe I only say that because I still have another year in my 30's...

I called Rustin's office and got his Friday afternoon schedule cleared and I whisked him away to the Sun Valley lodge.

It was beautiful.  So nice to see some snow!

 The lodge wasn't busy so we sat by the fire...

 And remembered one of our first dates--almost eighteen years ago!  We skated and twirled and held hands and laughed and talked for hours and hours without ever running out of things to talk about.  We can still do that today.  Except we aren't so good at the skating and twirling part...

 We went window shopping at all the little shops in the Village.  I'm serious about the window shopping part... This lovely coat and handbag cost over $6000!  Whew.

 There were lots of cute toy stores and fun Christmas window displays and Christmas lights in the Village Square.

 We ate one of our most memorable meals ever at the Ram at the Inn.  Delicious. Food. 

We climbed under the covers and watched Sun Valley Serenade which plays continually on the TV's in the lodge rooms.

.

It was a great weekend and reminded me of how lucky Rustin and I  are to have found each other. And how lucky we are to be able to do all the great things in life together.  With many more still to come!

Happy Birthday.

Thanksgiving

This fall has been beautiful.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year.  This year it has been impossible to keep any kind of decorations on the table.  Jackson climbs up and throws everything off.  So I cut up a skirt that I made out of linen  (the skirt was terrible so no loss there...) and made these cute little pumpkins.  I love the linen with the black.  They are weighted with rice in the bottom.  It has been perfect.  Jackson can throw them on the floor and they are no worse for the wear.   

Just before Thanksgiving we made some pies.  I haven't hosted Thanksgiving by myself for years so I haven't made pies for a loooong time. I kind of stink at pies but it wasn't as bad as I feared. In fact I would say we had delicious food the entire weekend.

Pie day.

Quality assurance by Jackson who 'helped' make the apple cranberry pie--

when he wasn't taking a nap with Beau! 

We had Jotham and Jamie and their kids over.  They are the best house guests.  Our kids all get along so well and our lives are so similar that I never worry about what they will think of us and our craziness.  And they are super helpful with meals and games and cleaning up.  We were so laid back we didn't even take any pictures.  Darn.  We put the leaves in the table and we were able to seat 12.  We put Holly and Jackson and Gavin at their own little table. 

It was a great weekend and I  am ready for the Christmas season to start!

Jack-out-o-the-box

 Just to catch up...

 We were lucky enough to have the perfect Jack-o-lantern smile just in time for Halloween.

 Seriously.  Benson's teeth couldn't have been more perfect for a freaky pumpkin carving template.

Along with a dirty faced baby.

We had a great Halloween.  Perfect 70's-ish weather (we have had snow in some years...)

And happy kids.

And of course lots of spicy pumpkin seeds. 

And the all important costumes--

Jenna was a witch, an Egyptian Princess and a 50's girl--all this year. (can we say indecisive?) 

 Austin is a Rasta man, Dallin is a vampire bat, a random friend is a pirate, Landon is Rocky and Benson is Bilbo. (As opposed to Frodo from last year... no complaints from me!)

 And Royalty!

We tried putting Jackson in a box. { Jack-in-the-box...}  He didn't go for it.

Go cubs!

I have to admit it--I love watching the boys play football.  Two hours every day of blood and sweat finally pays off at the game.  Dallin and Landon were on the 7th grade team.  As usual for us, Dallin ended up in the  ER with a sprained ankle at the beginning of the season so he only played in the first and last games.  Opposite foot from last time.  Landon had a great year playing defensive line and he carried the ball a couple times on offense. The coaches created a new award (head hunter) for Landon after one particularly great game (more than 20 tackles).  

Landon 67, Dallin 62.

Benson with a little half time show of his own.

Austin had his first year playing tackle football. The daily two hour practices were a shock to his system at first but he loved it. He played offensive line most of the time but spent quite a bit of time on defense. Rustin told him if he got a solo tackle he would buy him a milk shake. He finally pulled through on the last game of the year.  Dallin and Landon knew they would benefit from Austin's success--we can't think of a better way to encourage brothers to cheer for each other!