jump up and down

i'm back

 

Hello everyone!  I think I'm ready to be back here.  Thank you so much for all of your kind words and sympathy.  It really meant so much to me.  I've never had anyone close to me pass away before.  I think it's one of those things that you just don't really know what it will be like until you experience it.  So, I spent the week after the funeral just kind of taking it all in.  I think it helped that l had such a long time to anticipate my grandpa's death and come to some sort of peace with it before it happened.  I'm grateful for the good influence he was in my life and for the good things he did.  

Then, I spent last week with the young women from church at Girl's Camp.  I had't been camping in a long time (since the weekend before we found out we were pregnant with Peter), I'd never been to Girl's Camp as a leader and I never spent more than one night away from my boys, so I was a little nervous.  I had fun though - I'm glad I went.  I did miss my family a ton, but the girls were wonderful to us and each other.  It was nice to get to know them better and to bring that happy spirit from camp home with me.  

And now, the summer is before us - it's finally warm here and we have made our first plans to go to the pools with friends, we have a couple of road trips planned, the clothes are on the line for drying, the boys are enjoying lots of time outside, and I'm just hoping it doesn't end before I'm ready for it to end.   

so excited

These came in the mail recently.  Ryan and I decided that we would do something nice to celebrate our 10 year anniversary this summer.  I cannot wait!

gorgeous weekend weather

I'm so glad we took advantage of some gorgeous weather we had two weeks ago,  because last weekend and this upcoming weekend are looking rainy and cold.  Here's what we did...

We went to see Shoshone Falls again - the website says this was medium flow.  There was definitely more flow that when we went last August, but I think I was expecting a little more.  It was beautiful and I loved the very prominent rainbow.

 The boys helped me replant the hanging baskets and plant a few flowers in our beds. And, they all survived the freeze we had early this week.  Phew!

We bought a tiny BBQ (we had one of these early in our marriage and loved it, but left it in one of our moves haven't had one for at least five years - welcome back tiny BBQ grill!), and had some fun playing soccer while we waited for everything to get cooked. 

daycation

Our weekends have been full this summer - full of unpacking at the beginning, intermittent 5K runs, visits to and from family and friends which we've enjoyed, but we haven't had much time to do things with just the four of us.  Last Saturday was our first free one in a long time, so we headed off for a daycation - complete with a trip to "the Niagara of the West", thrifting in the nearby town (more on that later) and lunch at a great Thai restaurant. 

The boys loved it.  When we told them we were going to see a waterfall, Ned asked if we were going to the pool, so I was a bit worried that he might be disappointed that there would be no swimming.  As we drove down the windy road to get to the big falls, there were several small waterfalls and both the boys shouted with glee that we had made it to the waterfalls...no disappointment whatsoever. 

We have decided a return trip in the spring should be on the agenda, so we can see the falls in its full glory.

It gave us the chance to step away from our big decision about what to do about Peter's schooling next year.  More on that later too.

It was a great day - the boys are old enough now to both enjoy a trip like this, so I think we'll be doing more of these "daycations."

friday road trip

On Friday, after I had taken my last exam before finals, I picked up the boys from the babysitter and we headed off for a multi-tasking adventure.  Twenty miles down the road, at our first stop, we dropped off an item I had sold on Craigslist - the purging has begun in full force around here.  Hooray for Craigslist to help me make some money from all of that purging!  At our next stop, about thirty miles later, we stuffed our trunk full of free moving boxes that I found on Freecycle.  And another 30 or 40 miles later we stopped to visit a friend who was a missionary in Argentina with me that I hadn't seen since we flew home together.  I reconnected with her on Facebook a couple of months ago and found out that she is remodeling this great old home (which I forgot to take pictures of because we were having such a great time chatting - next time, next time) in a town not too far away from me.  The boys loved the house and her kids and we had such a fun time - thanks Heather!  We can't wait to come visit again.

And here's what you will see on a road trip in Idaho:

Potato Fields...

Potato Trucks...

and the one picture I did get at Heather's house - the most awesome vintage couch (Heather is a thrifter) that I just could not stop staring at.  I'm thinking my staring at the couch may be a large part of the reason why I didn't take pictures of anything else at the house...