My Pablo Picasso's

I thought it would be fun and super cute for the kids to create their own artwork to hang on their bedroom walls. So, I went out and bought some canvases and paint and let them get creative. I told them they could paint whatever they wanted...
Landon painted a picture of Spiderman swinging through the sky...

Mackenzee went a bit more abstract with hers :0)

They had so much fun and it was fun to watch them do it. I think their favorite part was when I hung the pictures on their bedroom walls. :0)

The Gun Show...

I have been wanting a punching bag for a while now...
I know...random...
Anyway, after months of poking at Jaysen he finally consented to the expense. :0) He even bought me some boxing gloves to go with it. Nice huh?

Don't I look so fierce? I'm hoping to not only let off some steam with this baby...but to maybe get some actual muscles in my arms. It could happen.....

The kids were so excited about it too. :0) They had so much fun punching and kicking at it. They even went so far as to get their winter gloves on to pretend they were boxing gloves. {BTW...Landon does not usually wear his pants inside out....it was for Red Ribbon Week}

I don't know if you can tell from this picture...but Landon is flying through the air. :0) He had some good kicks going on....of course, when he asked me if I would do a double kick for him I didn't back down from the challenge. Unfortunately....I'm not as quick as I thought I could be and I totally biffed it. Did you know there was concrete underneath this carpet???? Yeah....my tailbone was bruised for a few days afterwards. So much for trying to be cool for my kid...

Mackenzee needs to grow a few more inches in order to kick the actual punching bag...but she sure did try her hardest anyway. She's got some mean punches in her though. :0) Do you see her pink boxing gloves???

(October 2009)

Shoshone Ice Caves

One of the things on my "to-do" list for this summer was to hit several of the geological sites here in Idaho. I learned quite a bit about them and the "science" behind them in my geology class that I took several months back and knew I wanted to go check them out with my "new" eyes. Because it is so close, our first stop was the Shoshone Ice Caves. My nephew, Talon, has been visiting and so we took him along for the ride.

Not to be boring here, but I'm going to get a bit of my "science" ON....at least the information I actually retained from the class. Science is NOT my forte.

Forever ago, Idaho was covered in hundreds of volcanoes. In fact, much of the rocks that are around here are volcanic. Of course, they are all pretty much sedentary now and most of them appear as simple hills now. Often, the lava travels underground forming "tubes" in the rock. That is what the Ice Cave is. It is a low pressure wind tunnel underground. The rocks there are porous, meaning they will absorb the water. When the rocks can no longer absorb any more water, there is run-off. Underground....the water accumulates and because of the air traveling through the tunnel, the water freezes.

So, the Ice Cave isn't necessarily a cave....it's a lava tube filled with ice. Make sense? Ok....moving on.

It was a really hot day when we went...about 87 degrees. What was the temperature down in the Ice Cave? Well....it was freezing. :0) 30 degrees. I'm glad they had jackets available for us, because we dressed for the outdoor weather.....not for winter. I should have thought smarter on that one.

I love this picture of Mackenzee....she was so determined to hike out and about without any help whatsoever. Poor Jaysen was so paranoid about it though. There are a lot of ledges out in volcanic rock country....and this little girl showed NO FEAR. The stern look on her face in this picture captures exactly what her stubborn mood was that afternoon. :0)
This is the entrance to the cave....or the first set of stairs going down into the cave. The walls were lined with sparkly ice and we walked on a wooden bridge set up over the ice floor in the cave. The lava tube is 1,000 feet long and is actually one of the natural wonders of the world.

Our tour guide climbed out onto the slab of ice at the end of the tunnel to show how thick and sturdy the ice was. The kids were excited that they were allowed to touch the ice and put their feet on it.

The boys especially enjoyed the tour and were amazed at all of the things they learned. Talon even spotted a red bellied lizard next to the trail. Of course, Landon then begged me to have a pet lizard of his own. {Not gonna happen!}

Because the landmark contains formations that are millions of years old, they have giant "dinosaurs" out front. Landon was desperate to climb on the biggest one and was fairly annoyed at his mother when he was told that it was against the rules. {I'm telling you....I totally win the Meanest Mom award!}

So, one landmark checked off the list and only oodles more left. Though I have been to Balanced Rock oodles of times, neither of my kids have seen it so I'd like to take them out there to hike around a bit. There's also the Hagerman Fossil Beds that are fairly close. Craters of the Moon is at the top of my list but I'm not sure I will make it there this summer. :0( Hopefully something changes so we can check out this other volcanic area.

Didn't know I was such a geek did you? I know....but Landon loves this kind of stuff and is extremely interested in science. I want him to continue to enjoy it and not realize how much I truly hate it. :0)

The Buxton's came!

Wade, Jodie, Rachel, Aubrey, and even Buster {their dog} came up from California for a short visit and we were so excited that they were able to make it! We don't get to see them too often because they live so far away so it was nice to have them here. We played for days with them and Mackenzee and Buster got to get reacquainted. :0) We all took a trip over to Hop 2 It, which is a ginormous bounce house. Ok, so it is a building that has a bunch of different inflatable bounce houses/slides/obstacle courses. I forgot my camera {dang me! Jodie...don't forget to send your copies my way!} and so I have no proof of the craziness that went on there. But, we did have a good time.

Everyone had so much fun hanging out and spending time together. I learned that the fish at Bass Lake are always biting.....as long as you are always offering them hot dogs. Crazy, huh?

After our swimming adventures we all went to Breanna and Hayley's softball game out in Jerome. Breanna is #4 and Hayley is #11. Both girls did great!

Shriners Circus

The circus came to town last week and so Jaysen and I took Mackenzee to check it out. I wasn't sure how well she would sit through it after I found out there weren't any cool animals in it, but she was completely enthralled and didn't move except for when she dove into her cotton candy.

They had some pretty great performers in the show. I was pretty impressed with the mad skills these three guys had on the trapeze. One of them did a triple flip in the air before being caught by the other one and then being flipped back to his original swing. It was crazy.

There were lots of other performers as well, but Mackenzee's favorite was the pink dogs.
Yes, pink and blue poodles did pet tricks for us and Mackenzee was so thrilled! At intermission they let the audience come down to get their picture taken with the dogs {for a price, of course}. Given the choice between the inflatable Dora toy and the dog picture....Mackenzee picked the dogs. :0) Sadly, after the fact we found out that we paid $10 for a BAD polaroid photo. Oh well. Mackenzee was thrilled with it, so I guess that's all that matters.
Thanks for the tickets mom! Mackenzee had so much fun. And thanks for taking Landon with the boys. He loved it too!

Cousin Fun

Because my sister's graduation was so late on Thursday night I figured it would be easiest to just stay the night at her house and then go home the next afternoon. My kids were so excited to have a sleepover with their cousins.
It was such a gorgeous afternoon that we decided to take the kids into Rexburg to go to the park. I had Landon bring a basketball so that all of us could play HORSE together. {Um...I totally beat EVERYONE!}

Actually, it was Landon who ended up giving Stephen all of his letters. He made some pretty amazing shots that could not be duplicated. This boy's got some skills. :0)

Mackenzee was just so excited to be outside {as usual}. I think it took her only just a couple of minutes to fall asleep once we hit the road to go home.

Thanks for putting up with us Melanie! I promised the kids we'd go back and visit again this summer. So, get ready!

Can We Go Bowling?

Landon has been bugging us to take him bowling for a while now. It seems everytime we go down to the bowling alley or call in, it's league night and they have no lanes available! Apparently, EVERY night is league night.

So, when he asked me yesterday morning if we could PUHLEASE go, I let him know they probably weren't open AGAIN. Miracle of all miracles....I called down there and they were letting "regular" people play! Finally!

We had Landon's basketball game at 12:15 and while we were there Jaysen's parents invited us to go out for lunch with them and Jaysen's brother, Jeff. So, off we went to eat and Landon was so excited to see Gage there with his dad, Jeff. Gage is the same age as Landon. So, of course, there was some instant negotiating going on between Gage and his dad over our bowling outing. The begging and pleading if he could come. Finally, Jeff caved under the pressure of Gage's pleading eyes. Not only did Gage get to bowling with us, he got to spend the night too!

So, off bowling we went and on our way there Gage reveals that he has NEVER been bowling! What? Well, he did pretty well for a beginner....

Do you see that picture of a strike? That was Mackenzee's first ball...the boys went crazy!

We had a great time, and now Gage wants to go bowling ALL the time. :0)