New Baby

Our good friends Brad and Char just had a new baby so we got to see what a newborn was like again.   Good to see them all healthy and doing well. 

Morgan was really pleased to hold baby Zane.  She keeps asking when we get to go see him again.  With a cousin on the way in a couple weeks there should be more baby opportunities for her in the near future. 

Lane thought it was really cool as well.   I think he might have been a little more excited by the gun Brad let him borrow for deer hunting thou.

Snow Dance

We went up the mountain and picked up our passes for the ski season since we saw a good bit of white stuff up there and just wanted to get a little hype going for winter.  The kids were ready to start skiing right now.  They were really concerned that no lifts were running yet....  The weatherman says colder than normal and wetter than normal so maybe we'll have a good ski year. Hopefully their smiles are still this big at the end of the year.

Birthdays

Birthday time again! #9 and #7. Grandma came to help out and made the special requested cakes.  They were both very approving of them.  Logan wanted a cake with a toy boat getting towed and Morgan wanted cupcakes with filing....they were not disappointed.

They got spoiled again....

American Girl dolls are becoming more and more interesting for this little girl.

And legos never disappoint...

The next weekend we did our annual getaway to the SilverMountain indoor water-park.  Its starting to get hard to keep up with the kids in a place like this.

Lane and I spent a bit more time this go around on the wave ride.

Youth Duck Hunt

I happened to pick up a paper while waiting to be seating at a restaurant not long ago and found an article about a youth waterfowl hunt.  It was scheduled for the time that I was going to be gone archery hunting but that wasn't going to pan out this year so I thought maybe we should give this a try.  It was put on by the Idaho Fish and Game.

First step was to do some target practicing the week before the hunt.

He got some good coaching and managed to break a lot of clay's

The morning of the main event.  Their were 10 guides and 20 kids along with parents.  They've done this before and had it all well laid out even at 5:00 in the morning.

Heading out through the darkness.  It was something to behold as 10 light up duck boats roared up the river in the pitch black night.

Here's our duck  hunter...and some dead ducks next to him.  Looks like he's having some success.  I think the blue waders helped him out

The setup.

picking up decoys

Lane and his new friend with their ducks.  Lane managed to get six, his friend got three, which was a great job for their first duck hunt.  I think they brought in the most or second to it for all the groups.  Of course now he wants to duck hunt on the weekends but it seems like we have so many things that are clawing for our time now that this might be the only duck hunt this year.

Back to School

Back to school....not much else to say other than they are growing!  The thing I notice the most is how much space they are taking up in their beds when I tell them goodnight.

This is the Buddy Bench dedicated to Jeannie that they put up on the playground.

Schweitzer Camp!

I signed the kids up for a week of day camp up at Schweitzer Mountain at the end of summer. It was a big hit!  I gave Lane a little go-pro style camera so he could show me what it was like.  It was very entertaining to review the pictures and video he took.

I wish I could eat my lunch here every day.

Each day had some amount of pool activity it sounds like.

Rock climbing was a favorite of Lanes.

He even got a picture from the top.  You can see the monkey jumpers in the background.  They were entertaining as well.  It was a bungee thing they got strapped into and then bounced on big inflated mattresses.

Selfie riding the chair....don't drop the camera!

Heading down!

And as luck would have it the eclipse was the week of their camp.  They had a big thing planned for this at the top of the mountain and the kids said they even made it on TV.  News crews I guess had set up at the top to take in the festivities.  The kids said there was thousands of people....

Morgan sporting her viewing platform.  They also said each day they had not so healthy snack that they wouldn't be allowed to have at school.  On eclipse day they all got Moon pies.  Not sure exactly what they are but they sounded sugary by their description.

Wrapping up summer

Don't let a hornet sting you near the eye!  They claimed a nest just fell out of the tree but they were explaining this while holding big sticks.

The kids spent some time here with some of our Canadian friends.  I even took a turn at wake surfing.  Really cool but I still like my fishing boat.

This was another spot we spent several evenings at.  Lane and Logan are out giving the paddle boards a work out.

Making new friends!

Anybody that has been out with us or follows this blog should know by now this is our favorite spot.  My boys getting a few more fish as summer comes to a close.

Finish it off with a great sunset and a water spray show.

Well, we actually had to come out again and close out summer eating on the lake.

The progress on the castle that has been in progress since we moved here 9 years ago.  Either a masons dream or nightmare, not sure which.

No fishing today but anybody that can read a fish graph knows that is a lot of fish down there!

And we heard it was going to be a rough winter so we bought a new car that can spin 4 tires instead of 2.......

Lake Roosevelt

We did our annual lake Roosevelt Trip first part of August with Jeannie's family.  This is always a time we look forward to.  We had great weather and the first days were clear but we did get a bit of smoke later in the week.  Seems like it has been hard to get a smoke free week here the last 3-4 years.

It's a good place for those that enjoy the water! 

Putting the bbq instead our bug shelter was not the greatest idea... especially cooking ribs. Maybe this is where all the smoke came from. 

I did coax a few into fishing...

Had plenty of good action for trout and I think all the cousins that went got to catch some fish. 

Logan skimming along on a boogie board they tied onto the back of the zodiac.  Several of the little kids got in on this entertaining activity. 

Jumping off cliffs ous a new thing now that the kids are getting older.  Lane is about to hit the water in this picture. 

 Some of the jumpers and spectators. 

I believe this is Lane getting ready to knee board.  It gives a bit of a view of our beach we layed claim to for the week. 

The boats are getting more of a workout as the kids get older and more into the water sports. 

I think the water was just fine for all sorts of water towing activities. 

We did get some more fishing in....

All the cousins

Grandpa's new boat seemed to work just fine for wakeboarding.