Catch Up: August

I just love to spend the summer months camping and boating with the Stucki family. Each time we go somewhere new, I find another reason to love Idaho (when not so many years ago, I couldn't stand it here!) I love having the family all together, being in the outdoors, and on the water, I love campfires and sleeping in our tent- I love it all! This summer we went out to Palisades and it was so lovey there! Brit and Jace brought their 4 wheelers, so we went for a little adventure on them and the kids loved going for rides.

We took the boat out and did some skiing- & let me tell you, my husband ROCKS at waterskiing! After a few years of not getting on skis, he did amazing & it was so fun to see him tearing up the water! Van and Avery made Ty paddle them to the shore to play in the sand, but it turned out to be disgusting silty mud! At first Van was grossed out by it, because he is very much like his mother, but his yucky daddy convinced him that it was awesome and he ended up with mud in everyplace imaginable!
Our ward had a Minute to Win It activity night & I had to try to get a cookie from my forehead into my mouth without using my hands. I felt like a major dork & I lost big-time... totally not my thing, but it was fun.
My latest cake creation for the same boy I made the Yoda cake for. It was his birthday and it was a midevil themed party. The boys flipped over this enormous cake and all the fun little candy details!

And the real highlight of my month (and my whole summer) was reaping the yummy rewards of my very first gardening attempt ever. It was a lot of work, a lot of fun and very yummy. I couldn't have done it without Julie who is pretty much the mighty gardening guru. I grew carrots, beans, peas, reaspberries, beets, spinach, zucchini, pumpkin, acorn and summer squash as well as lots and lots of weeds!

Catch Up: Vacay to Yosemite

The scenery was beautiful, the weather was perfect, the water was cold & the trip was amazing!

It was so great to go back to my favorite childhood destination & show my family that piece of my history. We made the trip West with the motorcycle group we used to ride with. When they left, we stayed for a few more nights to explore, hike, bike & swim before making our way back home again. When we arrived in the valley, we were unloading our packed-to-the-max car when a bear walked right through our camp-site... wow! At night, he would busy himself with "making our beds" which mostly meant throwing the sleeping bags & pillows around inside the tent until we made him lay down. Van loved every little bit of the trip!



Another thing that made this trip super awesome was that Van potty-trained himself while we were there. He kept saying "I want to point at that tree" (or rock or whatever else looked interesting. Then he would pull down his pants, point himself at said object & let it fly. By the time we got home, diapers were obsolete!

Catch Up: July

Of course, we kicked off the month with the usual 4th tradtions, like a hike, some water sliding fun, fireworks and ice cream sundaes! And as always, Van LOVED the fireworks, especially since he got to hold them this year! And it's always so much fun to have his cousins, Avery(4) and Dawson(3) in town for some crazy play at Grandma Julie's house. This particular day, they were a rock band in the front yard and I'm quite sure you could hear the "music" from at least 5 miles away! We drove down to Utah for a family reunion... get this: it's the very first ever reunion that Tyler & I have been to since we've been married... in over 5 years! While we were there, we went on a very cool hike up a canyon (it would be cool if I could remember the name of it.) At the top was an amazing waterfall that you would never even know was there if you turned back at an earlier part of the trail; like the ugly desert-looking part for example. We kept picking the most gigantic dandilion flowers you've ever seen for Van to blow as we walked. When he got bored and my mom got sore, she took him back down the trail, but Ty kept the pack on and people kept making silly comments like "Hey, you're missing a baby!"

Van bagged all month long for me to get his inflatable pool out so he could play in it. He begged and begged until I ran out of excuses & patience, so we called up his girly-friend and had a pool party. It wasn't the warmest day of the summer, but the kids had fun until thier

Of course, we kicked off the month with the usual 4th

Catch Up: June

The warmer weather of summer time always brings about wild afternoons in the pool with cousins at grandma's house and boating with the Stuckis. Van has always been a water baby & he is turning into a water boy so these are the moments when he is the most happy!


One of Tyler's co-workers in Burley invited us over to see her farm before Ty's job was finished there. Van loved seeing all her animals and tractors. She let us pick our own eggs out of her hen-house to take home and we got to pet all their bunnies. It was really interesting to see a glimpse of a life-style so different from our own and very kind of them to let us explore their farm.
Van often wakes up in the mornings and brings me this picture of Jesus. He likes to ask questions about Him & sometimes he'll make up cute little stories from things he remembers in the Scriptures. His innocent love for our Savior is such a special thing to witness. I am one lucky mom!
My biggest achievement of the year was running a 5K Fun Run with my local Weight Watchers group. I am not runner, I don't like running & I have never had any desire to run anywhere, for anything... EVER! But since Tyler had just finished training & competing in a 50 mile trail run relay with a few friends from his program (more on that in a minute), I was feeling a little sedentary. I figured I would put Van in his trailer & walk the course. I ended up running the entire thing in 35 minutes, without having trained a single bit for it! I was blown away and Tyler was shocked. Neither of us could believe that I was capable of what I had just done & it made me realize that my body can do so much more than I give it credit for. Since that day I have told myself many times, "If I can run a 5K, untrained, then surely I can do this!" And I can!
Tyler's race: (I can't find the 1 or 2 pictures I managed to take of him at his starting line!)
As I said before, it was a 50 mile race in the hills/mountains here in Poky. These are trails that Tyler has grown up riding his mountain bike & dirt bikes on, not nice little paved jogging paths! The race started at 7 am and he had the second leg of the race, so he started at about 9-ish... I think. It was cold and rainy and the runners comming down from the 1st leg did not have good things to report about the conditions of the trail, visibility & other runners still behind them. By the time Tyler's partner came down things were getting worse, but the storm was supposed to clear off so he hit the trail running anyways. The weather quickly took an aweful turn and I started to worry as more runners came down the hill with hypothermia and extremely disoriented. Others were getting lost or injured & all I could do was sit in my freezing car praying that he would make it down. About 1/2 way through his run they canceled the race but he was too far to turn around, so he finished his entire 16 mile stretch and wouldn't you know it, he actually made an impressive time despite the weather and in his opinion, lack of training! I was so relieved and very proud of him!

Catch Up: May

May was a fun & busy month. We went camping with the Stuckis up Scout Mountain here in Poky. The weather was wonderful, the food was delicious and we all had a great time. We went on our first geocatch hunt after dark and it was so exciting. I am looking forward to finding more!



Ty was working in Burly for 6 weeks after school got out as part of his training for Physical Therapy, so I spent Monday nights at Ross Park climbing with my dad. Van got on the ropes a few times to climb, but he preferred to just swing around!
My little bro became a daddy in the beginning of the month & I was able to go up to Boise and help them out for a few days. That meant having to leave Van which was (*gasp*) the first time I had ever left him anyone for more than a few hours. I freaked out a over it, but I don't think he cared one bit.

He plays so good on his own now, which I really love- but sometimes it makes me feel a little bit left out since he doesn't need me as much anymore and he can have so much fun without me. So I often stand at his bedroom door and quietly watch him. He loves working on his firetruck with his tools- he has been watching his daddy work on our cars & wants to be just like him! It makes my heart just melt!
Van loves to play on the Wii with me. I bought him a Diego game & I am quite impressed with how good he is at it already. His favorite is to do yoga with me- he tries so hard it is so cute to watch him do all the poses!