End of Summer / Fair Week

Fair season is here.  Which means Robyn and John are in town for a week, and the kids get to spend time with their long-lost cousins.  This picture was taken only minutes after we all arrived at grandma and grandpa's house.  Kayleigh was SCREAMING with excitement when she saw Angie standing in the driveway.  (We arrived within 5 minutes of each other actually). 

These girls were in-separable the entire week!  I've never seen my Angie love and play with anybody as well as she does with Kayleigh.  They spent a lot of time pretending together.  They made mud in grandpa's buckets and called it "soup."  I think they spent HOURS outside just pretending together.  I started to notice a "poopy" smell every time Angie came inside.  At first I thought she was holding it in too much because she was having so much fun, and then having little accidents in her pants.  But after giving her a bath and sending her back out....she came back AGAIN smelling like an outhouse.  I asked Robyn if she thought the girls stunk.  Turns out those buckets had some nasty old mud (and possible some septic nastiness as well) that smelled like a sewer.  And the MUD was making the girls stink.  One more bath for the pair of them and then we told them "NO MORE SOUP!"

The girls also managed to get into a bit of trouble together too.  One afternoon, I realized they had been playing in a room with the door shut, for just a little too long.  When I went in to see what all the silence was about, I found the girls looking like this!

They had gotten into my make-up, and decided to give each other make-overs. Robyn was actually gone for this one.  She was over at John's mom and dad's house.....let me just say.  I was pretty furious....and also laughing at the same time.  They ruined my eye-shadow, my mascara, and my new bottle lf lip gloss.  If make-up were cheap it'd be one thing....but it SOO isn't!  I wanted to rage, and spank, and punish.  But I didn't.  They were just being little girls, and having so much fun together.  I washed their faces, threw away my make-up and sent the picture to Robyn. 

 

We also left the kids at grandma and grandpa's house for a couple of the week-days so they could get some more time with their cousins.  And that meant Parker and I had an evening without kids.  We went to the temple, and it was a very nice evening.  This picture below was taken with grandpa's phone while we were away.  Apparently Garrett stood with that golf club in his hands for several minutes.  This is a pretty big deal, since Garrett is still not walking.

When Parker and I made it back for the weekend, we spent lots of time visiting and catching up with family.  Jayne spent the week there too, so Saije got to spend time with her cousins as well.  The girl is actually starting to keep up pretty well!  The first weekend there, Robyn and I stayed up till 3:00 in the morning talking.  I felt like a teenage girl again.  I had so much fun with her!  As a mommy, you just don't always get the adult chat time that you need.  The kids fell asleep, and we just kept on talking.  Paul even woke up around 1:00 and spent the rest of the time talking with us.  I just love Robyn! When Parker and I first got married, we used to spend so much time hanging out with her and John.  I remember how emotionally distraught I was when they moved to Las Vegas.  I cried and cried the day they left.  Robyn is a sister and a friend, and I really enjoy spending time with her.

 

We spent time riding the 4 wheelers:

and Parker and Caleb brought their bows to shoot:

 

Angie bonked her head on the corner!  This girl just doesn't realize she has to look forward when she's running!  The bump was pretty nasty for a couple of days!

We also spent some time over at the Turner's house and the kids got to spend some time with Ethan and Maddie as well.

 

We had a water-fight in the back yard:

And we watched a movie outside with the projector screen!  Angie and Kayleigh played in the dark outside the entire time, and hardly even watched the movie.  Those girls just couldn't resist not playing together, even if it was dark outside. 

I got a video of Garrett trying to walk.  He was doing really well at that point!  And now he's afraid to take a step again.  Now when I stand him up, he'll just stand there and laugh at me, or he'll sit down and crawl.  And if you keep at it long enough, he'll just make his whole body go limp so that you can't even stand him up anymore.

On our last day in Burley, we went over to the fair.  Our plan was to attend the rodeo.  But I really didn't want to try to sit in a crowded stadium with Garrett.  He's so difficult at church, I wasn't gonna even risk it with endless stairs and benches covered with food, soda, and sunflower seeds.  Ultimately we decided to NOT go to the rodeo.  We walked the fair until it was dark, and then we packed up our stuff and went home.  

 

The following week was the Twin Falls County Fair which takes place at the fairgrounds here in Filer.  The difference between these two fairs is of course SIZE.  I still find it humorous at how BIG OF A DEAL those small-town county fairs are.  The Cassia County fair in Burley is like a huge week-long community get together.  And it's free.  Honestly you spend enough money on fair food, that I don't think admission is necessary.  Twin Falls county fair is a lot bigger, and admission is NOT free.  As a result, our family only attends for one day instead of every evening like we do in Burley.  This year, I thought it would be fun if Parker and Caleb went to see the monster trucks.

  So I took it upon myself to buy the tickets, and then we all went to the fair on Wednesday after work.  We took 2 cars so that I could take the little ones home as soon as they ran out of gas.  I figured it wouldn't take long.  Boy was I wrong.  Parker and Caleb went straight over to the monster truck show, and I took Angie and Garrett to see all of the animals.

I took a lot of pictures of Angie with the animals, because I just could not get over how much she loved them!  She had no fear!  She would stick her hand inside the fence to pet the goats and horses.  And even when they would "baaa" at her, she jumped a little and kept on petting them.  I really think she may be my little 4H girl.  She even liked looking at the pigs!  (Which were much to noisy and stinky in my opinion).

Angie just LOVES horses.  She has a tv show that she watches on Netflix called "Horseland."  and she really wants to learn to ride horses.  So being at the fair was very exciting for her.  Our favorites were the "Draft Horses"  which are some of THE BIGGEST things I have EVER SEEN!  I mean I was shocked how big these horses were!  Angie still wasn't intimidated by their size.  She wanted to pet them, and made me tell her the name of each animal.

We spent almost 2 hours looking at animals.  The monster truck show ended and Angie still wanted to keep walking around.  We never did meet up with daddy and Caleb.  After spending about 20 minutes trying to get ahold of Parker, I decided we'd better just leave.   The fair is so crazy, especially around the carnival.  Those stupid carnies try to entice your kids into playing their stupid games. It's really irritating actually.  I have a hard enough time keeping track of my children at the fair....I don't need any extra help from carnies trying to lure them away.  I found that the craziness of the fair is mostly in the carnival area.  We found if we stick to the back where the animals and tractor displays were, there was far less people and noise to deal with.  Angie discovered a pink tractor, and her first instinct was to climb under that rope and get onto the tractor.  I had to reach in and pull her back.  How could a pink tractor be for display only?!  She was pretty upset.

In the "Ag building" I found a swimming pool full of beans and tractors for the kids to play in for a while.  I'm pretty sure Garrett ate a bunch of the beans.  He just couldn't resist.  But he never choked, and I figured they will digest after a day or two.  (I know....clearly he is my 3rd child and not my 1st.  Because the fact that my baby is sitting in a pool where several other children have sat with dirty hands and feet and eating those beans.....doesn't seem to bother me in the slightest bit).

 

This year we didn't buy any fair food (although I seriously wanted an elephant ear), and of course didn't ride any rides.  We always take a trip to Lagoon a few weeks after the fair, and the kids get to go on as many rides as they want. 

 

The fair marks the end of summer.  School starts the day after Labor day (which is the last day of the fair).  I have been having this urge to just "get out" and soak in the last ounces of summer that are left before we get back to the school routine. 

I have been having this strong urge to take my kids out to play at the park, or out to dinner.

Yesterday we took the family to IHOP for dinner (kids eat free) and I just can't help but feel like it's all coming to an end.  I've also had this serious urge to get some canning done.  This is a little difficult right now, because nobody has peaches!  Our tree didn't produce any this year (and neither did my parents, or Parker's parents).  I heard of a fruit stand in Twin Falls that was selling cases for $10.00 but when I got there yesterday to buy them, they were already sold out. 

 

I'll get it done though.  Maybe I can find some by Monday (since I'm off work for Labor day).  This week we also took Caleb to school to meet his teacher, and find his classroom.  I can't believe my boy is in 2nd grade!  I still feel like he just started kindergarten!

 

Goodbye summer!

Hell's Canyon

Our summer "vacation" this year was the trip to Hell's Canyon.  Last year we couldn't go, because Garrett had just been born, and so we were all-too excited to spend an extended weekend away from home to do some camping and water skiing.  Parker was very excited to get to do some fishing as well.  He doesn't get out much to do that anymore.  

Our first day brought on a crazy rain/thunder storm.  With those high canyon and mountain walls on either side of the reservoir, the thunder echoed louder than anything I've ever heard before.  It really was quite spectacular.....except for that fact that it was POURING RAIN and we were in a tent.  Anna and Alex let us wait out the rain in their camper.  By the time it had stopped, we had a river running through our camp.  But it dried up soon enough.  

This year at hell's canyon was a little different, because we didn't quite have as much heat to deal with.  In past years, we've dealt with temperatures in the upper 90's and it really does get difficult to have any fun once it gets that hot.  Thank goodness we didn't have the heat this year, but we did have some winds and so the water wasn't always glassy/flat like we wanted it to be.  I only skied 3 times this trip, and two were on the same day.  Oh well.  I got nice water when I did. 

 

Another challenge that hell's canyon brings, is that every year there are MORE KIDS!  This year we had 11 grandchildren, the youngest of which was my Garrett.  He actually did very well and was able to take his morning naps in our tent before it was too hot.  And most afternoons, he fell asleep on the boat.

We spent a lot of time taking the kids to the beach so they could cool off and play in the sand.  The older kids also brought their bikes, which was really good.  They rode all over the campground on those things.  I even worked with Angie on learning how to ride her bike without training wheels.  She's close!  But it gets very tiring running along-side her.  I have no doubt she'll have it down for next summer.  She's growing so fast.

Caleb caught a bass with Alex's fishing pole!  In Parker's attempt to fillet the fish (with his pocket knife) .....lets just say it didn't get cut right and we ended up using the bass as catfish bait.  Alex and my dad were kinda disappointed.  The fishing in the reservoir was not so great this year.  Maybe I just don't have the patience for it anymore.  I remember coming to Hell's Canyon when I was a kid, and we got crappie and blue-gill biting our lines with almost every cast.  It wasn't like that this year.  So I didn't catch any fish.

One of the highlights of our trip was the drive to the Hells Canyon Dam.  The country becomes a lot more rugged as you get closer to the dam.

We also made a stop at the visitor's center, and I made a discovery that I've never realized in all my years coming here.  The REAL beauty of Hell's Canyon can only be seen from the hiking trails.  I picked up a trail map while I was there, and saw just HOW MANY hiking trails there are!  And a few of them, give you the spectacular canyon-rim view that you don't get to see from the campground.  Hell's Canyon is the deepest gorge in North America.  But it doesn't seem quite as spectacular from the road.  But I'm realizing that if you take some of the trails, there are views to be seen that you don't get from anywhere else.  

At the top of the dam is a set of stairs that takes you down to a little area at the base of the dam called "Deep Creek."  Apparently deep creek is also a trailhead, because once we were down there, a boat came right up to where we were fishing and dropped off a hiker with his backpack and poles.  He said he was spending 4 days exploring the trails at Hell's Canyon.  Below is a picture of Deep Creek.

I learned a few lessons from this trip to the dam.  First of all we went in the late afternoon/evening.  The stairs ARE A WORKOUT!  I had baby G on my back, and Parker had Angie in the backpack on HIS back.  Parker also had a backpack with snacks and water hanging from his front.  AND he was carrying his tackle box.  Caleb was able to walk himself, but the hike was still pretty tiring.  We made it to the bottom and found a patch of shade.



Then Parker and Caleb started fishing.

 



Pictured below was our little "patch of shade."  It really wasn't much.  But it was enough to give us a spot to let us cool down for a few minutes.

Eventually the sun went behind some clouds and it was a lot more comfortable.  Having a baby down there was....difficult to say the least.  The kid wanted to crawl.  But the ground was all boulders!  There was nothing flat or sturdy for him to climb on.  And Angie struggled getting around a bit too.

She eventually made her way down to the side of the creek, and entertained herself by dipping a feather into the water and then running it through her hair.  She completely soaked herself.  But it was actually good, because it was so hot.  

As far as the fishing goes, it was actually quite amazing.  Parker found a spot where he got a bite with every cast.  Trout.  And they were good!  We pulled in 3, threw back one, and lost another.  We were never able to revive the 3rd, and so we ended up keeping it. 

 



Unfortunately, we were not able to stay that long.  Baby G started to get fussy, and we still had to prepare ourselves for the difficult hike back up the stairs to the top of the dam.  It was not easy.  I felt bad for Parker. He just wanted to fish.  And just when things started getting good, we had to leave.  I reminded him that this is why "old men" fish.  It won't always be like this, and next time we won't bring the little ones.

 

Another reason we had to hurry back was because it was our night for dinner.  I had to get back to camp to start cooking.  Once we arrived, we found out that David was doing some pretty intense wake-boarding (with 2 boats following him just to watch) and he hurt himself pretty bad in a fall.  We're pretty sure he broke his ribs. 

With all those kids, and all the fun we had through the day, I always thought to myself that once we got the kids down to sleep that maybe we'd stay up and play some card games, or at least sit and talk for a while.  It really never happened.  By the time the kids were asleep, the rest of us were so tired, we never lasted more than another 30 minutes before going to bed ourselves.

The 4 days went by much too fast.  And then Sunday came, and it was time to pack-up and go back home.  

The kids made all kinds of arrangements about who would ride home with who.  We had Mycah in our car, and Caleb and Dejah rode with grandma and grandpa.  Apparently they were crazy and obnoxious the whole drive home, and my mom was ready for them to get out of the truck by the end of the drive.  Angie and Mycah watched a princess movie.  

I really enjoyed the time spent with my family.  It seems like there's never enough time to do all the things you want to.  But we made some good memories with our little family, and the kids are already telling each other how excited they are to come back next year.  Just yesterday I heard Caleb tell Angie that he was going to move to Hell's Canyon when he grew up.

Hah!