Teton Hike

This weekend we went to Driggs with my sister and her family and went for a hike in the Tetons. It was so beautiful, but native Idahoans will know what us Arizonans did not. Hiking in the Tetons is best done in July.

Our first clue should have been this:

The stream we were crossing was supposed to be a dry path. My brother-in-law, who hiked this last July, was surprised to find a flowing stream covering the path. Undaunted we crossed the trees and continued our hike, we should have paid attention in the beginning.

We crossed snow and a million downed trees that blocked the clearly marked path. It was hard but fun. Then we got 2/3 the way there and ate lunch.

If you will note on the picture where we were supposed to end. It was about another full mile around the rim of the canyon and covered in snow. So we ate lunch, enjoyed the view of the waterfall and cave we were supposed to be.

On the way down, Jack, who had been a trooper on the way up, gave out completely. Jason carried him the full two miles down the mountain, over the snow and slippery, muddy path. My hero, and certainly his son's hero.

First Blog of Summer!

Summer has finally TRULY come for Idaho, so we got out our water slide. The kids were sliding normally on it for about three seconds, and then they started this.

Easter 2009

It was a much happier easter for us in Idaho this year. There was no snow! But there was a fabulous double rainbow the night we dyed eggs. It was so cool and bright and it made a full arc in the sky, although we weren't able to get pics of the full arc. (Just too dang big.)The kids hunted eggs twice this year. Uncle Mike and Aunt Laura hosted one egg hunt and Aunt Holly and Grandma Norma hosted the other one. It was fun and the kids ended up with so much candy you'd have thought it was Halloween.

Being the dork that I am, I like the kids to match colors on the holidays (I've come a long way from when the three girls used to wear the same dress. I had to change, though, because Jack just didn't look as good in the dresses.) Anyway, I really love this pic of my kids.

Taryn Turns 6!!!!!

I lost my cord to my camera for a while, but I found it now, so let the blogging begin.

Taryn's 6th birthday was supposed to be Welcome Spring. I got the idea two weeks earlier when the temps were in the high 50's. Fast forward to her birthday, freezing cold and wet outside and we had the Welcome Spring birthday indoors.

Her cake was one giant cup cake, which I loved. It was easy to make and easy to decorate.

But I had left over batter so I made these:

I thought my family would enjoy the cupcakes, but I forgot how much kids love cupcakes. The end of the story is that my family enjoyed a giant cupcake for a week and the kids ate the little cupcakes.

Taryn had all her friends from kindergarten there. She had a great time and this is my favorite picture from the whole party.

My 15 Minutes of Fame

We had an awesome Super Bowl Party last night (even though the dang Cards lost) and as proof, here's Channel 6's story on it. There's a little of our party in the beginning, but most of it comes at the 2 minute mark. Watch for me, I have something witty and intelligent to say. (HA!)

Answers to Prayers

This is a hand of God entry, for which I am grateful. I had a prayer answered over a month ago, but I didn't realize it until yesterday, so much for being in tune.

I'd been having problems getting my kids to clean. Now, I'm no neat freak, far from it, but I just like the clutter and the toys picked up and, after nine years, I was getting tired of being the main picker-upper. However, none of my kids love to clean up their toys--shock--and two of them outright hate it. So it was always a struggle, usually leaving me seething and the kids angry or crying and the basement only half picked up.

I'd been praying for a while for some inspiration on what to do, and every time I thought I'd found a fix, it would work once or twice, and then we'd be back to normal. Well a month ago I had an inspiration while cleaning. I was holding a flashlight and it was darkish in the basement. As a joke, I said, "Let's play CSI cleanup," because, as anyone who has ever watched an episode of any of the three CSI's, it can be full sunlight, dark midnight or anywhere in between and they use their all powerful flashlights, forgoing turning on the lights, to find clues. I shined the light on toys I wanted them to pick up and told them these were clues to why the basement was such a mess. We had a good time, they fell over themselves picking up the "clues" and that was that, except the basement was 100% picked up and there were no tears.

Since then, I've used "CSI Cleanup" at least twice a week, including two times when they cleaned alone, and we never have tears, no fights and everything gets picked up. EVERYTHING, even when they do it. (I suspect it's the power of making their siblings pick up anything they shine the light on, it's a heady thing.) But yesterday I realized that this was my long awaited answer to fun cleaning with my kids. I'm grateful that our Father in Heaven answers all prayers, even the ones that in the grand scheme of things, aren't really that important.