Silverwood 2011

During the school year the three biggest kids were able to earn free tickets to Silverwood, an amusement park just north of Coeur d'alene.  So I got to take them!  We had SO MUCH FUN!!!  The kids had never been to an amusement park before and they loved it!  Silverwood has a water park as well and we brought our suits, but it was too cold.  We still had lots of fun, and still got wet.  The log ride was Stephen and Annie's favorite ride. 

They both thought it was way cool to drive a car.

Oh, and see that rollercoaster in the background of the picture of Annie driving?  That is called the Corkscrew.  You can only see a little bit of it in the picture.  It has a nice big drop and it goes upside down twice does a couple other crazy rollercoaster things.  Stephen and Ellen were dying to try it out.  Annie was not, so she and I waited for them.  They had fun!  A little later in the day Ellen started asking if she could go on the rollercoaster again.  Stephen said he had had enough, so I said I would go!  YIKES!  Ellen wanted to sit in the front car, but I talked her into sitting in the middle.  As soon as we started going I closed my eyes and kept them shut tight.  Ellen was so funny!  She kept her eyes open the whole time (I'll take her word for it) and just talked to me here and there.  Towards the end she said, "It's ok, Mom, we're almost done."  I was so surprised to find out she liked rollercoasters so much! 

There was only one ride she tried that she didn't like.  The ferris wheel.

She liked it at first, but then they ended up sitting at the very top for a while and she did not like that.

While Ellen and I went on the rollercoaster Stephen and Annie went on the log ride again.  When we were done with those two rides we decided it was time to get some ice cream.  The menu options were kid's cone, one scoop, or two scoop.  Ellen, Stephen and I all ordered one scoop.  Annie was the last one to order and she went for a kid's cone.  Look at how much ice cream we got! 

The carousel is right by the entrance so that was the first and almost the last thing we did. 

We ended our time there by going on our three favorite rides one more time.  First we went on the Tilt-a-whirl.  Then the log ride.  Then, last of all, the raft ride.  When we got off the log ride, I looked at my watch and realized that we still had time to go on it one more time.  We were soaked and cold, but we had to do it again.  We ran all the way around and got right on a raft.  No line.  We got off and there was still time to go just one more time.  It was great!  We drove home dripping wet and very happy. 

Hiking on Moscow Mountain

 James has been working a lot of overtime lately, but was miraculously able to have the Saturday before Memorial Day off.  Normally he has every Saturday off, but these last couple of months have been really, really busy. 

So we took advantage of our time together and went up to Moscow Mountain to do some walking around and have a little picnic.  It was beautiful!

We walked in a mile or two, then ate our lunch.  After lunch we were planning to go back along the same road.  It's a logging road that is only open to logging trucks, but you can walk and bike on it all you want.  But the kids discovered this little stream and just kept following it so we just kept following them.

 They had so much fun watching all the little waterfalls and seeing where the stream would take us.  They were having such a good time that they forgot to fight with each other.  It was amazing!  They were happy and helping each other.  They didn't want anyone to miss anything.  And it didn't seem like anything could bother them.  They all got their feet wet, sometimes on purpose and sometimes not.  But they didn't mind at all. 

The blur at the top of the picture on the right is Naomi jumping over the stream.

 We followed the stream for probably a mile, until it came to another road and we  stopped to take a little break.  The kids were starting to feel a little tired and unsure about the hike back to the van.  So Daddy broke out some candy.  Pretty soon everyone was ready to go again! 

We followed the new road back to the main road and were able to see some wonderful views.

It was so nice to be together as a family and not have any worries or stress.  It was just what we needed!

        

Annie is 9

Annie is NINE years old now! 

12 things we love about Annie at age 9:

1.  She writes lots and lots of poems.
2.  Annie has a unique way of jumping up as high as she can.  When her class plays Simon Says they often say, "Simon Says, do an Annie Jump!"
3.  She loves her long hair.
4.  She is an awesome reader and loves reading about magical places and characters.  Some of her favorite books are the Secrets of Droon series, The Sisters Grimm series, and The Princess Academy.
5.  Annie decorated her own cake!  I made most of the flowers out of Starburst candies and Stephen drew the pictures of fairies for her, but she put everything on the cake and did a wonderful job!



6.   Annie is getting really good at making chocolate chip cookies.
7.  She takes such good care of Naomi and Ellen at bedtime.  She tells them stories and sings songs.  They love it!
8.  She really likes walking around in the woods and loves to explore.
9.  She is not easily persuaded by what others think she should do.  She knows what she wants to do and is not likely to change her mind.
10.  Annie loves big hugs!

11.   She is really enjoying playing the piano and is doing a great job!

12.  She still has a great imagination and is always using it!

We love you so much, Annie, and are so thankful that Heavenly Father sent you to our family!

Easter Eggs from Papa

Our next door neighbors, the Kleffner's, are so good to us.  They are our adopted grandparents here in Moscow, so we call them NanaJo and Papa.  Papa made some special easter eggs for the kids this year.  The only way the kids would eat them was if I took pictures first. 

It's Always Fun When Grandpa Comes

My Dad came for a quick visit last weekend.  It was so good to see him!  We went out to Vassar Meadows on Saturday to do a little shooting, eating, and having fun. 

Grandpa brought Anne a couple of early birthday presents.  A pink .22, some pink "ears", and Nana sent her a pink jacket.  She got some private shooting lessons from Grandpa and did great.  Doesn't she look so grown up?

Annie was kind enough to let the other girls have a try with her new gun.

Stephen didn't care to try out the pink rifle.  He wanted to try using the scope instead.

We brought lots of food with us, including marshmallows for roasting. 

There were millions of lady bugs hiding out.  This just shows one little clump of them.  There were bunches like this all over the place!

  It was pretty cloudy and even rained a time or two.  It was pretty exciting when the sun would come out!

We all had such a fun time.  Grandpa took lots of great pictures.  Thanks for sharing these Dad!

Naomi is 5!

Way back in February Naomi turned 5!  She loves being five and feeling a little more grown up!

12 things we love about Naomi at this age:
1.  Naomi taught herself to tie her own shoes.
2.  She loves doing hair, make-up (lip gloss), and nails for herself and other people.  She loves to "make them look fancy."
3.  Naomi is very sure that she has a loose tooth.  Right here.

4.  Naomi plays with her best friend Julia almost every day.

5.  She really wants to catch a fairy.  

6.  Naomi likes to create salads all by herself.  And they are usually pretty good!

7.  Naomi is very talkative and noisy at home, but hardly says a word when other people are around unless she is very comfortable with them.

8.  She loves to sing and learns primary songs really quick.

9.  Naomi still loves monkeys.

10.  Naomi loves to visit our neighbors, the Kleffener's. 

11.  She likes to draw really small pictures. 

12.  Naomi's favorite job to do around the house is to vacuum the stairs with the dust buster.  She does awesome work!

While looking for pictures of Naomi to add to this post, I found these and just had to include them.  This was at Easter time I think so Naomi would have been around 2 months old.  Uncle Ben was holding her and smiling and talking to her and she loved it and smiled and smiled. 

Then he laughed a big deep laugh and...

Her face was and still is very, very expressive. 

Watching Daddy Shave

The other day, as we were all getting ready to go our different directions, I was doing the girls' hair in the bathroom and James came in to shave.  Anne didn't pay any attention to what he was doing, she just kept brushing her hair.  Ellen was fascinated, though.  Her eyes didn't leave him.  She watched him spread shaving cream all over his face.  Then as he started contorting his face to try and reach all those hard to reach spots, Ellen's face mimicked James' face.  It was so funny!  When his eyebrows went up, Ellen's eyebrows went up.  When he tipped his head to one side, Ellen's head tipped a little to one side.  When he puffed out his cheeks, Ellen puffed out her cheeks.  She was so entranced and didn't pay any attention to what I was doing with her hair.  It was SO fun to watch!