Western Idaho Fair

My kids love entering stuff in the fair. There is something satisfying about seeing their artwork displayed for everyone to see. This is the third year we have trotted their artwork down to the fair and this year I decided to enter a couple of baked goods as well. We dropped everything off on Tuesday the 16th to be judged and then the waiting began. We had to wait EIGHT whole days until we had time to go to the fair to see if we won any prizes. We headed to the baked goods section first as it was closest to the entrance. After a long search we found my brownies and bread. I was floored to find out I had won a blue ribbon for both of them. I wasn't expecting to win but it was kind of fun.

Then we walked over to the youth area and went on another search. We had four adults and the kids searching high and low so it only took us three or four minutes to find the photos Ethan had entered. This was his first year entering photos and he was pleased with how he did.


2nd Place
3rd Place


And his cactus received an honorable mention.



Then we wandered over to the art exhibit and the first thing we saw was Libby's drawing of an echinacea with a blue ribbon on it.
She was so excited as she has only "won" participation ribbons before. We found her second drawing with a red ribbon. We kept looking and finally found Ethan's drawing of an Australian Pelican with a blue ribbon hanging from it. We were all a little giddy and beaming by that point. It's fun to enter but sometimes it's really fun to win too.

From that point we had ourselves a tractor pulling, cow milking, corn playing, ride riding, ice cream eating good ol' time.

Watering the Lawn

Our lawn is not the best lawn. It has dry patches that I just can't seem to keep watered. It seems my only option is to stand over the dry spot holding the hose to water said sections. And then I discovered the perfect solution.


Sam was more than happy to hold the hose. I put him on a dry spot, handed him the hose, and he stood there like a happy lawn statue. Once he soaked one place I just picked him up and moved him to the next dry spot. It worked better than a sprinkler.

Strutting His Stuff

Here is the evidence Sam can walk. Not that anyone has seen him do it in real life because crawling is still his preferred mode of transport.

My Baby Turned One

As many of you are aware, Sam's birthday was over three weeks ago. So I probably should have done a post then but we have been busy. Really, really busy. So I am doing a better-late-than-never post.


Mmm...cake. And yes I forgot the candle. Sam didn't seem to mind.


Cake face."Look, it's a box! Who cares what's inside - I have a box!"


I love this picture of his Grandpa and cousin.

Sam had a great birthday. He had no idea what was going on but he got toys, cake, and ice cream. It was all he ever knew he wanted.

Vacations Abound

I could do three different blog posts about all our recent trips but I am tired, my house is a mess, and laundry is piling up as we speak. Bear in mind that these trips all happened one weekend after another. So here goes:

Trip #1 - Grandma Wood's Memorial

Three weeks ago we went up to Michael's Grandma Wood's cabin above Crouch to say goodbye. We had a nice memorial service and most of the family chose to stay a day or two to catch up with one another and have fun. That's what I want when I pass. A short sweet service and everyone enjoying being together.

There was a lot of playing with aunts, cousins, uncles, second cousins, great uncles...you name it, we had it.
It was a wonderful trip although there were moments like this. Vacation schedules and sand throwing will get you every time.

Trip #2 - Kennelly Creek with my Family

This was a trip I've been looking forward to for a long time. I haven't seen my brother and his family for about five years. They moved to Montana this winter and were able to come for a visit this summer. All my siblings got our families together and went camping. We even had a few extra. I think the final count was 17 adults, 15 kids, 5 dogs and 4 horses. How can that not be fun? Next to the campsite was a rocky mountain that was made just for kids to climb. Most of the kids were part goat while most of the adults were part sloth. The adults heaved themselves up the mountain while the kids bounded. There was also horseback riding and a creek that was too cold for anyone to put more than a toe in.

I started with Libby begging me to take her to climb the rocks, and then everyone decided to come. This is us before heading out:

This is the group that made it halfway up:

This is the group that made it very nearly to the top (I thought it was the top, but we didn't go quite far enough. My bad). Notice there aren't any adults left, unless you count my nephew but he's still a kid to me. I tell you those kids were smokin' us.
The view from the top. Michael took this one because, as the manly one in this relationship (FYI, he added this sentence while editing), he made it all the way to the tippy top:


The female gene is very dominant in my family. This means there was a lot of hair up there with us. All the girls kept busy putting hair in tiny braids. We were a stylish group.

Grace loves the horses. Loves, loves, loves the horses. We spent a lot of time just looking at and petting the horses. She also spent a lot of time conning grown ups into letting her ride with them.

This is my attempt at getting a picture of all the grandkids. Have you ever tried to get a dozen kids to look at the camera all at once when they wanted to be ricocheting off trees and throwing rocks? Well, I tried and failed. This is what I got. These are almost all of the grandchildren (we are missing one to school and one to a mission).
And these are my brothers. They may be heavily outnumbered by women but they still have gads of testosterone coursing through their blood.

Trip #3 - McCall with Michael's family
Our last trip was to McCall. We went for long bike rides, a nature hike (otherwise known as the mosquito death march) and went swimming in Payette Lake. I've only ever driven through McCall so it was a fun experience for me.
All but one of the Hobson grandbabies. I think Nick had already gone to bed when this was taken. The kids had a blast bouncing around on the bunk beds.
What kid doesn't want to play with a pile of bears? Grace was napping so she missed the excursion into town.This is where I leave you. A picture of everyone enjoying their ice cream. What a glorious summer treat.