Rexburg Civic Club Art & Poetry Contest

The kids both entered this contest and ended up winning prizes...Evan won first place for his poem "The Treasure Chest" and Abbi got third place for her painting "The Secret World."  They both got cash awards and entrance to the state level competition, so we'll see what happens...

It was sure fun to see them so excited to be presented their awards and do a great job with telling about their entries!  They are great kids.

On to 2011!

I think it's been long enough since I posted; according to this blog, a whole year of my life is missing!

Here are some memorable things about 2010:

*A LONG Winter (snowed June 15th!)
*New plane for Steve to fly at work to go with a salary!  Hurray, we can have a budget!
*Lots of trips to Utah (12 during the year).  Kids took fun trips with dad too.  Sadly, none for me.  But 2011 will be different.
*Sad Goodbyes to Grandma Behling and our favorite dog, Marge.
*Lots of summer visitors (My mom, Steve's parents, all his siblings, my Aunt Carol and Oma who turned 90 this year) and trips to Yellowstone.  (If you want to come visit this year, we would love it but we will probably send you to Yellowstone alone. ;)  )
*Camping and hiking in the local BEAUTIFUL mountains with NO BUGS this year!  Cliff Lake in Montana is our favorite for canoeing, hiking, rope-swings, exploring etc.
*The garden didn't do well (again).  Except for peas, onions and carrots.
*Fun trips: Denver in March, and Lake Powell in September.  Perfect weather both times. And LOTS of fun.  The only bad part was that our camera ended up at the bottom of the lake, so NO Pictures. :(
Lewis and Clark study trip to Montana with our Ashton Homeschool Co-op Friends.  (Saw/toured  the Gates of the Mountains,  Lewis and Clark Caverns, Fairmont Hot Springs, dug for crystals at Crystal State Park)
*New friendly pound-dog, Henry (Henrietta) joined our family, and we love her but miss ole' Margene.
*Co-directing and kids performances in The Christmas Carol at a local theatre, Abbi as The Ghost of Christmas Past and Evan in his 5 roles as gentleman, boy in the street, party goer and dancer.
*Our first Christmas spent at home in our own house since moving to Ashton.  (What fun!)

It was a great year; we are already making 2011 fun, too.  (More later).

January Birthday Party

Wow, it's January! Abbi's 8th Birthday was this month and we had a party. I had a lot of fun making it fancy for Abbi and 3 of her friends and their dolls, which was what she wanted. The girls had a 'luncheon' with Evan and Dad being the waiters (and magicians) complete with frilly toothpicks in their crust-less triangle sandwiches (ham and cheese, pb&j, and cucumber cream cheese), crossaint-wrapped mini hot dogs, fruit kebabs with fruit dip, veggies and ranch, cupcakes and homemade pina colada ice cream. They spent at least an hour speaking with British accents and calling each other 'darling' and used their best manners (without even being asked!) All the girls came dressed up, with their dolls dressed up,too. We made fleece doll sleeping bags and flower bouquets out of colorful buttons since Abbi loves crafts. They had lots of play time, opened presents and had a treasure hunt for bags full of girly treasures. Abbi beamed the entire afternoon, and that made us all happy because when she smiles the whole room really lights up. It's definitely one of her talents. We are so happy she's our little girl, although I think she's growing up too fast. ">

Backpacking Canyonlands and Arches last week.

Last week we got to go with Steve to drop off the plane for a week of maintenance in Grand Junction, CO and of course, we turned it into an adventure: backpacking in Canyonlands and Arches National Parks. It was the first real pack trip for the kids now that they have real packs, and they did an amazing job carrying their own gear up to 2 miles at a time. We somehow got the only back country permit in the "Island in the Sky" area of Canyonlands and headed out to Murphy's Point, where we set up camp on the edge of a huge cliff overlooking amazing red rock canyons.

Don't tell the NPS (National Park Service!) but Evan especially had a great time chucking rocks off the cliff, which took 6.5 seconds to hit bottom. (About 1200 feet down?) We loved the first night in the new pyramid tent (specially purchased for it's rave reviews about light-weight 4 season versatility) and it seemed we were camped out in a bug shelter under a bazillion stars. But then the wind kicked up the next day so we put on the cover, left our stuff and we came back from 6 miles of hiking to find the thing completely blown over, full of dirt, and otherwise uninhabitable for the night. Definitely NOT a 4-season shelter! The kids helped us vote on packing up and out of there around 8 pm and bravely night-hiked with full packs back another 1.8 miles to the car. We spent the next 2 nights in a Grand Junction Hotel awaiting another tent (we got a great deal though, so it worked out) overnighted to us by REI in Seattle.



Some of these shots look scarier than it really was. I don't like seeing my little boy out there on that cliff!
Can you see our pyramid behind us in the group shot?
Our favorite hikes around there were to Mesa Arch and Whale Rock.
This adventure was a great learning experience too: the kids got to learn lots about desert ecology/habitats, plants and animals, the elements, geology and the food chain. We saw lots of lizards, ravens, a kangaroo rat, a coyote, huge beetles, a scorpion and mice/chipmunks. We were surprised at how much green there was for a desert environment and it was fun to hear things that the kids related/remembered from our Mesa Verde trip.



After getting our NEW new tent, we spent a night near Colorado National Monument in a place called Potato Rock and The Potholes which was pretty cool. Our new tent is definitely a 4-season super shelter and we gave it a good breaking-in that night when the winds (again, only WORSE) gusted hard all night. After that, we headed to Arches and packed in behind Double Arch and the Windows to a back-country desert paradise and stayed 2 nights. We saw lots of arches, Sand Dune Arch being the kids favorite, and Fiery Furnace being Steve and my favorite place with lots of maze canyons and hidden arches etc. SO BEAUTIFUL and COLORFUL there. I'd go back every year if I could! October is a great time to visit. I'll add a slide show of the rest of the trip later...

Our Latest Fun Times

We've had a fun and busy summer; here's what we've done just in the last 2 weeks:

Monkey Rock Falls, Fall River near St. Anthony, Idaho:





Steve and I took a kid-less (!) Getaway "business trip" to Colorado. We haven't laughed this hard for forever; we went to Mesa Verde National Park (awesome cliff dwellings/ruins from 750 years ago)in Cortez, and did some great hiking in Colorado National Monument in Grand Junction. We also had an AMAZINGLY hot loaner car--I didn't know this was the style in 1991 during highschool! It leaked oil like crazy, we filled up and leaked gas too (all over the gas station), got pulled over for a missing tail light, and got in trouble for borrowing it from the airport for 2 days instead of 2 hours. OOPS. We tried to have fun in Durango but I got sick and had to stick to the hotel room for a few hours. BUT it was an amazing trip anyway, a lucky perk to the contract pilot job! And the best part is, we get to go back and do it all over again WITH the kids THIS weekend! I love free rides in luxury airplanes!











The day after we got back, we packed up our backpacks (see sidebar) and hiked in to Sheep Falls for a quick overnighter with the kids. No bears, but we did surprise some naked (and busy) people on the rocks. Luckily the kids were otherwise distracted there for a minute until the coast was clear! Despite that, it was a great night for camping until Evan got sick in the middle of the night. Let's just say it was a LOONNGG night, but a fun adventure to add to the list this summer.