Reid Ranch

We took our biannual trip to Reid Ranch for Daniel's family reunion.  We were so busy there visiting and having fun that we hardly got any pictures.  So I am just posting the few pictures we actually took.

Ainsley's favorite thing by far was riding the ponies.  Lucky for her when we arrived - there was no one waiting in line, so she got to ride over and over again.  She got to pick whichever pony she wanted and kept switching til she rode them all.

This employee above was the nicest guy.  He talked to Ainsley the whole time, asking her questions and just engaging her in real conversation.  And when Ainsley wanted to ride a full size horse, he found her a real gentle one and walked her around on it.  That is definitely going the extra mile.

Piper on the other hand - didn't dig the pony riding so much.  She tolerated it one time around and then that was enough.

Lucky for all of us - Reid ranch has a small lake.  They have canoes, row boats and paddle boats that you can sign up to do and you can also fish on it.  When we were there two years ago, Daniel didn't catch one fish.  Our brother-in-law Keith did and the picture of him and his large fish adorn the cafeteria wall at Reid Ranch.  Daniel wanted to get up on that wall sooo bad.

He spent a good amount of time fishing.  He took anybody that wanted to go.  He often asked the kids and I if we wanted to go for a boat ride because that meant of course that he could get some fishing out of it.  He even took our poor 4 year old nephew at the crack of dawn.  But I think Isaak totally loved it.  The best part was - they actually caught some fish.

I think that pole is about 3 times as big as he is.

And guess what?  Dan's picture finally adorns that cafeteria wall!  What a pretty trout!!   (we'll ignore the blood dripping out from between Daniel's fingers, poor fishy)

More Fun in Idaho

I know it's been 2 months but I'm still behind in posts.  These are other pictures of fun times in Idaho.

Brielle and I had an awesome "girls night out".  We rented a tandum kayak for an hour and a half and went up a beautiful river (flat water only).  The water was crystal clear and we saw fish, birds and several families of Canadian Geese with lots of babies.

We then went out to dinner, walked around town, rented a video to take home (which turned out to be really good - "Dan in real life" was the title.  Steve Carrell was the main character.  Great show if you're looking for something entertaining and yet thought provoking.) We ended up the evening at Ice Cream Ally for some great shakes!

Meanwhile... the guys had all 6 children.  What were they doing?  Why the zip line of course!

Here's MacGregor:

Chase:

A cute Daddy daughter moment:

Ainsley:

These two?  Oh no, not a chance!!  But they did have fun playing on the swings and trampoline

Brock:  I know... it's not the most flattering picture, but he sure was having fun!

And what's this?  My baby?  You men put my baby on there?  What were you thinking?

We also got to spend an evening at the hot springs.  It closed much earlier than we had expected so our time was short but very enjoyable!!!

It may have been summer but the mornings sure are cool.  Brielle opens all the windows and the house is full of cool fresh mountain air.  This causes the kids to bundle together under blankets for movie time.

Here's Piper wearing every available necklace in the house.  These necklaces get thrown at the winter carnival parade.  Brielle has been there for at least 4 carnivals and has collected quite a stash of necklaces.  Piper was fascinated by them and wore them most of the week.

Her other favorite thing was riding the horse.  If you come to Idaho, you have to ride!!

Our last day there we had a little birthday celebration for MacGregor.  He opened a few little gifts and we ate ice cream sundays.  It's hard to always be away for your birthday, which happens to MacGregor every other year, but he goes with the flow and enjoys it.

We had an awesome time in Idaho and the kids are already asking when our next trip will be!

Wizard of Op

The kids and I read a really fun book tonight.  It was called the Wizard of Op.  It's an old book, almost as old as I am (printed in 1975).  In fact we found an old library card in the back with stamps dating back to 1986.  It's a black and white book with a goofy story line that leads you to stare at lots of black and white pictures made of lines and squares.  Your brain is totally seeing things that aren't there...  like "furbillies" on the corners of black squares with white intersections.  You see color on black and white pages.  You see movement and multiple dimensions.  Anyway - we had a lot of fun with it and I encourage all of you to look it up at your local libraries.

I also found that someone had posted the whole book on line.  You can read the funny story but the black and white pictures don't really work as they are supposed to on the computer screen, but if your library doesn't have it - then definitely take a gander at the site  www.coleo.com/Maurice/Story/

Black and White

Dan and I don't get our picture taken very often, let alone our picture together.  And since this will someday be printed into a family scrapbook, I decided to include these.  I thought they came out pretty well.

This was our Anniversary.  We went out to dinner and ate at the Greenfield Inn.  It was a very nice restaurant with very good food.  We ate outside on their covered patio.  I got pork and Dan got lamb.  I also had a yellow pea soup.  It was very tasty.  For dessert I got a chocolate mousse but it was WAY too rich and much too dense.  It was like eating fudge that hadn't hardened yet.  I like my mousse light and whipped.  The best part was that we use a gift card and didn't have to spend a dime on dinner.

And So It Began...

First Day of School 2008.

Have you ever seen a kid so happy to start school?  Ok, ok so he wasn't smiling about that, but at least he was smiling!

Chase started 5th grade and has Miss Spangler.  He is once again a safety patrol. (a big honor)

MacGregor started 3rd grade with Mrs. Przystup.  Chase had her in 3rd grade as well.  We really like her and MacGregor is about as sweet as they come so I know she will love him too.  

A funny thing happened on the first day of school.  A new family moved into our ward 2 weeks ago.  It turned out that they are just a few streets away and would attend the same elementary school.  They also had a 3rd grader who ended up getting Mrs. Przystup.  We did several things with this family the last 2 weeks of summer - went to the park, cub scouts, saw a movie, attended church so MacGregor had already gotten to know Nick.  Well Mrs. Przystup seated him next to MacGregor and told Maco that she knew Chase was always such a good helper and friend that she knew MacGregor would be too.  So she told MacGregor that she was seating him next to a brand new boy and would Maco help him out etc...  MacGregor said he almost told her that he already knew Nick but then decided not too.   Jokes on her I guess - but nice for Nick to be seated next to the only kid he knows in school.

And Yes - Can you believe it?  Ainsley started school this year too.  She is in afternoon Kindergarten with Mrs. Pypiak.  

Ainsley has gone through a real rough spell this summer being separated from family.  She hasn't wanted to go to friends houses to play or primary in different wards (0n vacation)...  I was really worried about her starting Kindergarten and not wanting to go or crying and throwing a fit etc...  Well also in the new family that moved in was a little five year old girl.  Ainsley and Courtney hit it off so well in Primary and at the park.  She was my saving grace.  Courtney ended up in Ainsley's class at school and now Ainsley isn't afraid to go.  She gets excited now and has a buddy to walk in with and help her be brave.  

I was thinking about this recently - the tender mercies of the Lord.  This was definitely one of them.  I felt that their kids ended up in our kids classes for a reason.  Nick was having a really hard time the first day of school - but I think having MacGregor in his class and even sitting right next to him has eased his anxiety.  Ainsley was having a horrible time and none of the kids she already knows were going to be in her class (they were all in the morning classes) so having Courtney be in her class was such a blessing!!!  I know the Lord looks out for us - even in these little ways.  I feel blessed.

The Big Reveal

If any of you watch the channel HGTV (of which I am a regular) you know they have a show called "The Big Reveal".  Also - any show you remotely get into - you 

just HAVE to stay to the end because you want to see the end results.  I have been waiting to post these because I wanted to have a good result.  We are just about there.  We still have some touch up painting and some work in the bathroom - (mirror, shower curtain, art work, towels etc...) Plus we still need to hang shelves in all the closets - th

e priority being the toy closet. 

We brought down the living room couches about a week and half ago after Daniel got his new Audio Visual equipment set up.  My parents are giving us their family room sofa and love seat to use while they are in Africa so we'll put those up in the living ro

om.  Just two days ago we started bringing down the boxes of completely mixed up toys and now we are in the sorting stage.

Ok so here's the BIG REVEAL - we just love it and can't wait to be all moved in!!

BEFORE:

This is now in the toy room.  The big cut out corner is now an electrical closet and the toy closet.

After:  The two doors to the closets.

Before:  The rest of the playroom.  The water valve you see here on the edge of the picture is now covered by a steel door.  

After:  If you were standing at that desk looking the toward the camera view point - you would now see this:  Next to the steel door over the water main there is a small closet.  The little door in the wall is the access to the storage under the stairs.  This room has two entrances, both pocket doors.  One is to the right of the bottom of the basement stairs.  The other is behind the basement stairs - seen here.

Before:  This is standing right behind the basement stairs looking thru the door into the playroom (seen above).  To the left (under the stairs is our old fridge) - to the right is a wall of kitchen cabinets for storage and a small sink and countertop.

After:

Before:  After walking down the stairs and turning to the left.  If you turned around and looked behind you would have seen this.  Where you are standing is now the family room.  The back corner on the right with the little upper window is now the sewing room  If you look straight back - that area became the bathroom.

After:  Here you can see the bathroom door.

The bathroom:  In the little closet is the sewage ejector pump.  They had to dig down about 3 feet thru the concrete foundation of the house to insert the pump.  What they thought would take a couple of hours took 2 or 3 days because instead of dirt they ran into granite and had to get a jack hammer to remove the rock.  They built a wooden cover over the pump so when you open the closet it appears that the floor of the closet is about  2 1/2 feet high.  I will hang 2 shelves in the upper space for linens.  

It has a stand up shower...

And a small vanity.  Still need to touch up paint and add mirror and accessories.  But it is really nice to have a potty downstairs and to have the extra shower for company.  When we had Taffy's family here this spring it was kinda tight on shower space but now we got room - so come on back!!!

Across from the kitchen cabinets is the sewing room.  I have double pocket doors so that I can have a big opening.  I wanted the room to feel open and allow me to hear, see and interact with my kids while they were playing.  But yet I needed some doors to shut when we might have little visitors over.  This room still needs some trim painting.  I can't wait to move all my stuff in here and get started sewing again.  I haven't done anything since school got out for the summer.  Now that I have 3 of them in school for at least part of the day, I hope to get started on some new projects.!!!

Before:  when you walked down the basement steps you would see this.  

Now when you look down the stairs you see this.  The door is to my food storage closet (which also needs shelves).  You can see above where they chalked in red the outline for the food storage closet.

Before:  We left the freezer and current shelves right where they were.  This picture shows the wall they are on further to the left.  The door is to the steps to the outside bilco doors.  This is the area we left for unfinished storage.  You can see where they stopped framing.  That is now...

...this wall.  The door closest is the food storage door that you see from the top of the stairs.  The other door is to the unfinished area.

Before:  This is the area again to the left of the bottom of the stairs that became the family room and sewing room.  This pretty pole is now framed out into a column.

After:  They also moved the wall back 18 inches on the left side of the stairs and cut out a triangular opening.  This has made a HUGE difference in the feeling of openness downstairs.

The sewing room is thru the window.  Daniel thought I was a little "hokie" wanting a window in that wall, but if and when I am working on a project in the sewing room I want to be able to hear and be part of the conversation or movie going on in the other room.  Plus it will be a great asset when my boys start to bring their "friends who are girls" over.  You never know when mom might be peeking thru that window.   :)