A day at the Lake!

Some of our friends went camping at Van Hook. It's only about 30 minutes away. I enjoy camping, but not without Ron! Jackson's and Dimick's went down and spent the week without their husbands! We went down and enjoyed their company and some time at the lake for an afternoon! 

The kids absolutely loved it!! 

North Dakota State Fair!

The fair was in town while Jane and Dustin were here! We took a day to go check it out and see what it was all about! People take their campers and camp out the whole week there! I'm not sure what all the fuss was about. The Eastern Idaho State Fair was better hands down!! I'm  thinking we missed a huge section of the fair! But we let the big kids go on the carnival rides...that's what it's all about anyway!! And dad won a stuffed animal for Payden!

...but pictures are on dad's phone since I remembered mine was in the car when the shuttle came and picked us up!

I have to admit, they have some awesome concerts there every year!! This year we had Toby Keith. Tim McGraw. Sawyer Brown. Journey. Brantley Gilbert. To name a few! $80 bucks for a season pass to see all 7 concerts?? Next year we'll have to jump on that!!

Fun in the Sun!

We've been having so much fun outside!!  The weather has been beautiful! Somedays a little on the chilly side!! If it would stay like this until thanksgiving I would be so happy!! Wishful thinking!! I am bracing myself for an early winter and holding onto summer as long as I can!!

If there is a mud puddle, we will find it!!  Landon begged and begged for a boat so he could sail across the pudddle in the ally. This is what he came up with!!

Somewhere I have pictures of Payden covered from head to toe in the mud!!

Madilyn's most favorite thing to do is climb the tree!! The neighbor boy taught her how to get up there pretty high!!

We play hide and seek. 

We go for walks.

 We play guns!!!

Grandma Jane and Dustin came for a visit. We had a great time!! We were outside the whole time! They taught the kids how to play baseball. I was amazed at how well they could play! Madilyn hit a home run over the roof and into the street on the other side of the house. Landon could hit right handed and left! 

Busy Busy Busy

I'm having this problem staying on top of things. Kids. Cleaning. ...okay that's all I can think of right now. But my daily list of things involving these two is no kidding a mile long everyday!!  And I swear it's the same things EVERYDAY! So...I threw the towel in! I gave in and went to JoAnn's fabric with my good buddy Makala! 

I'm not sure what I was thinking!! I now have about 10 sewing projects to finish ASAP!! <because that's how my brain works...I want them done NOW!> and guess what time it is?!? Canning season!!    Peaches are on the cupboard getting ripe. Cucumbers are fattening up. Green Beans are starting to show up! And its the tail end of the summer! I'm sad to send my babies to school this fall!! I want to enjoy every minute I can with them...not engross myself in the gazillion projects rolling around in my mind!!!

It all started with Madilyn's dress for the 4th of July!

Then I made a skirt for myself! 

I have enough left over fabric I think I can make a matching one for Madilyn!!

Then, the whole reason for the shopping trip was to make this quilt to hang in the living room. I need a little more practice picking out the fabric. I cut out and layed out a half a dozen (or more) options...and I still don't like it! I hope it will look better when it's ready to hang on the wall!!

Madilyn picked out some fat quarters so we're making her another dress and skirt...

Landon felt left out so I let him pick some fabric and we covered some toy boxes!! 

I finally added my embellishments to my kitchen canvas! (I want to change up the other 3 now!!)

I finally have some ideas flowing to decorate the basement...we'll start off with curtains. 

And Ron finally gave me the excuse I needed to break down and get my owl bathroom set. We (he and Dustin) replaced the shower downstairs. He bought a cheap one from the lumber store!! Didn't even know what it looked like till we got it out of the box. Talk about cheesy!! It doesn't even have a door!! So now I get to do my favorite thing!! Be a homemaker and make it look all better!! ...but he gets to do the new sheet rock!!

 

My goal is it finish it ALL and squeeze in Canning, back to school, yearly pictures...but right now it's time to sort the laundry so I can get a head start on tomorrow!! 

Happy 4th of July!!

We've known the Clark's since we moved to Nodak, but we've never had the opportunity to hang out with them. They moved to Burlington last fall. Makala and I have stayed in touch and decided we needed to celebrate the 4th together!! 

They came out to the Stanley parade with us! We love the parade here!!

The kiddos loved it! Payden even got with it and waved at everyone!! ...once I buckled him down! He kept running to down to the family next to us!!

Our neighbor Leah was in the parade with her Grandpa!

After the parade we went to Lake Darling for the day! We had a great time on the boat and fishing!

Then we grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for dinner!! 

The kids had fun seeing how far up they could climb the tree there!  Once Landon got brave I had to set limits on him!! At first he didn't dare go up more than a few feet!!

Then they chased squirls and raced obstacle courses!

We finished off the evening by fishing off the bank! Landon caught the first fish!! Boy was he proud!!  He actually caught 2 of them!! (Dad did catch one on the boat, but wouldn't let me take a picture!!)

I was afraid Madilyn's whole day was going to be ruined because she did catch anything!! Luckily at the last minute she snagged one up too!

We came back to Stanley and enjoyed the fireworks from our lawn!!  

We love the fourth!! And are super happy to find someone to celebrate with!!

Nauvoo

Nauvoo was a really cool place! We didn't do a whole lot while we were there.   Most things were over the kids' heads. They were bored listening to the 20 minute tours at each place, so we mostly walked around the town and pointed things out to them, giving them our own tour. 

Here they are waiting to see the printing press for the newspaper.

When most people found out we were only there for the afternoon, they sent us away to go find more interesting things to see like the blacksmith and the brickyard. I was impressed with the kids' listening. Especially Landon! We went to one station with candle making. They thought they were going to actually make candles there. But it was just a demonstration. When we got done Landon was playing outside and was excited because he had "found a smooth stick! Now he just needed to find a rock and he could make a candle!"

We got to the blacksmith and had to wait for the next tour.  So they kids played around outside waiting!

Landon was bored the entire time! "What's next mom? What's next??!" He couldn't wait for some hands on activity! He was thrilled when they started playing with fire to make a horseshoe! 

Madilyn and Landon in the shoot for shoeing oxen!

Outside the tour for the brick yard! This one was dad's request!! He went to Nauvoo durring the temple open house. There were so many people there that they couldn't keep up with the production of the bricks. He's always been jealous that I had a brick and had never been! He had to go back and get one too!!

The best part of the whole day was being able to throw rocks in the river!! This was at the end of the trail of hope where the saints crossed on the exodus to the west.

Here we are on a barge used to take the wagons across the river.

We thought the kids would appreciate an oxen ride or a ride around town best, but by the time we decided that they were done for the day. The afternoons get too hot for the animals.  We walked around the visitors center a little.

We went and saw Joseph's grave.

And his actual home. We didn't tour any if it. It was an hour long tour and Ron was in the car with sleeping Payden. (He does NOT sleep in the car! The whole trip he slept maybe 4 hours both ways. In the two minute drive to the other side of old Nauvoo he crashed!!)

Before we left, I wanted to take the kids and walk around the temple. They were not happy! They were too hot and too tired! Once we got out, they didn't want to leave, they wanted to "discover" things! (Their word for explore.)

It's amazing how tall and beautiful it is in person! Pictures just don't give it justice!!

<sorry, I can't remember who the statues are of!!>

I was disappointed. The kids seemed to be bored out of their minds the whole entire time. It didn't mean as much for them as it did for me. I think we will go back again when they are all older and can appreciate being there. So I am really surprised that they still talk about being there and how neat it was!!

When we got to the hotel that night, Landon started emptying his pockets.  I asked him what he was doing. "I got wocks fwom the lake, I mean the wiver for my collection!" I had no idea he had stuffed his pockets full of rocks!! 

And Mr. Payden would not lay down and go to sleep!! He was too busy talking out the window!!

We finally made it home the next day! We were all exhausted! It's taken a week for even me to catch up on sleep! I can't seem to get myself out of bed before 8:30!! Hopefully that changes soon!! We had a great trip!! It was really nice to get away and spend time together!