Tuesday, August 28, 2007









One of my favorite clients, The Idaho Botanical Garden, hosts yearly events and gave us free tickets to "Bug Day" that I made the program and map for. Since Taylor loves bugs so much, we had to go. Unfortunately, Hannah got the stomach flu and had to stay home.
Taylor got to hold big bugs from other countries, see how honey bees work, make a bug mask, learn about lots of different kinds of bugs and we got to tour the gardens, which were beautiful. We had a great time and at the end, Taylor got his "Certificate of Bugology".



Taylor started second grade on August 22, and he was so lucky to get his first grade teacher, Miss Thornton. We are very happy, she is a great teacher. Taylor was excited to get back to school. He is also walking himself home everyday. Hannah will be next.



We had our friends Brent, Lisa and Jarrett visit us from Washington for the weekend so we decided to hit the fair. Everyone had a great time!

Saturday, August 18, 2007



Mike turns 32, since he was so old I only gave him one candle to blow out. We celebrated at his favorite eatery Texas Roadhouse and the kids picked out presents themselves-Taylor a book and Hannah a black shirt.

Here is a picture of Sean and Chinatsu, we got to have dinner at Mom's before they left for San Fran., and we got to visit a little with them.






What a great time we had last weekend! Congrats to Geordie and Tia! I can't believe my little brother is married..I am feeling pretty old now. The wedding was in a beautiful lawn with a pond and great landscaping and we all had fun. Hannah was the flower girl and Brendan the ring bearer, they did a fantastic job, even if I did have to bribe Hannah into doing it with a trip to Build-A-Bear Workshop. Sean came all the way from Japan with his friend Chinatsu that we got to meet and it was really nice. We also got to meet Tia's family, and saw some old friends we hadn't seen for awhile.







We traveled last weekend to Salmon for Geordie and Tia's wedding and on the way home stopped at the Sacajawea Center. Salmon is her birthplace and they had a great museum and lots of fun stuff for the kids to see and learn about. They also had a "living experience" of what life was like in 1805-people actually were living the life in teepees, making pottery, jerky, tanning hides and it was great for the kids to see that. I have always been interested in her life and living in Salmon, we learned a lot about Lewis and Clark and her role in their journey, so I learned as much as the kids. There was a forest fire burning in Montana, thus the smoky mountains in the pics.

Monday, August 6, 2007



Taylor lost another tooth on the bottom while we were at dinner Saturday night. Actually it was hanging there and Taylor let Mike pull it out-yuck!
The tooth angel was generous and gave him a dollar bill! Where was she when I was little?

Today, after months of contemplating, Hannah got her ears pierced. She has been going back and forth and while at Wal-mart I asked her if today was the day and she said only if they had flower earrings! Well they did and they were the most expensive but very cute.

I was very proud of her, she was white as a sheet sucking her thumb furiously after the lady let her see the gun and explain the process, sat very still and with one gun on each side, viola! her ears changed forever. Twenty minutes later of crying and a Tylenol dose, she asked if when we got home I could take them out. By bedtime i was cleaning them and she was turning them like it was no big deal.

I tell you these babies of mine grow before my very eyes and I only hope I am taking enough pictures to capture all these moments.

Saturday, August 4, 2007




Turns out both Katie and Hannah are complete camera lovers-as soon as it came out they were posing and hamming it up. These are just a few or their "poses"-so cute! I managed to get a great shot of Kodie out in the forest.









This summer we got to go camping with Grandma Carol, Aunt Laura and cousins Kody and Katie at beautiful Lake Tahoe. The kids got to spend time with the whole rest of Mike's family for a week and it was wonderful-we didn't want to come home!
We had a a BBQ at the campsite to celebrate jacob's birthday and in the picture of mike with the cup-he is showing off his talent of the belly shelf.

This was our first time getting to camp in a trailer instead of a tent and it was awesome. The kids had great bike/scooter paths to explore and the lake to swim in. They had a really nice time spending time with Kodie and Katie.

I also got to see my best friend Melanie who just moved to Reno and it was so wonderful to spend time with her.

The week went by way too fast!



Alley cat takes on each new dog we get with a special love that I haven't seen with many cats. Since Harley was a tiny puppy, he would hold him down and clean his face and ears, I think he understood how gentle he had to be, especially since we got Harley at 5 weeks. Forty pounds later, Harley's exuberance and love for his cat friend usually knocks poor Alley down, but alley just jumps up on the couch out of his way. Sometimes, Alley cat still manages to hold Harley down and clean him. He bites his neck and lets him know he is in control and it is so very funny to watch as Harley patiently lays there unmoving while he gets his bath. One move earns a hefty bite to the neck or legs-the second photo shows just that, a little bite to let Harley know who is in charge (this time). I think we might be pushing it if we get another puppy in the near future but we couldn't have asked for a nicer, tolerable, more patient cat.


I am a little behind in my posting, this is from June-which it now being August seems like such a very long time ago. Hannah's wonderful pre-school hosted a end of the year program, and like the Christmas one, she just stood on the stage with no singing or hand motions. I think she got a little stage fright :-)