Wow, it's been so long since I posted on here that blogger has changed how you do it. That's sad. I apologize for not posting in several months, and rest assured that I have popped on all the time to read everyone's blogs, even though I rarely comment lately. I love seeing what everyone is up to but don't often have the time to write things myself.
To cover all the things we've done since I last posted would be an insanely long post. So I'll just do a few!
In April our ward's cubscouts did their annual Pinewood Derby. We were smart this year and bought some weights, but not enough and had to glue on some change. Oren thought that was pretty funny, and his car weighed in at exactly the 5 oz. limit.
It was a little boring for some watching cars race over and over and over.
Here we are at the line up! This was a very fancy track with a computer hooked up that calculated each car's mph, and declared the winner down to 100th of a second!
Nathan can't wait until next year when he gets to do a car too! Daddy was able to come this time, which the boys loved, and we even had Grandma and Grandpa rooting for our scout.
The boys have been busy in school with various things. One thing all the 4th graders had to do this year was an Idaho History project. Oren chose to a map of the Oregon Trail. Since there is a state park dedicated to part of the Oregon Trail in Idaho and he had to plan and do a family hike as part of his scout requirements, we killed 2 birds with one stone. We drove the 90 minutes or so (with another 1/2 hour spent at Best Buy before starting out exchanging our broken car dvd player yet again...) and checked out the visitor's center to learn about the trail.
This photo was a complete accident while I was trying to get a shot of the Snake River. I have no idea how I did it, but I thought it was neat nonetheless.
This was the view we had on our hike up to the wagon ruts. The trail was nearly a mile one way, but it was paved and easy to walk.
Then we got to the wagon ruts and hiked around on them for a while. The boys thought it was really neat that they were walking where pioneers walked. Maybe even some of our ancestors made this journey!
The boys Aunt Tera (the legs in the back) was very happy to be hiking back to the car. She came with us for an extra pair of eyes and hands since I didn't know what the trail conditions would be like and was a little hesitant with it being just myself and all 4 boys. Alone. In the middle of nowhere. They were all a little tired at this point!
Nathan, trying to hide in some bushes. He didn't realize I have a lot of zoom power on my camera! :-)
This is one of my favorite shots of the whole day. We drove a little further up the road to Register Rock, where we got to see what is basically a huge rock with lots of names scratched into it by pioneers who camped in the area.
What I hadn't realized was that they were standing right on the edge of a drop down to this little creek. Let's just say that I was very glad Daniel stayed right by Oren for once!
There were some large rocks around the site without names on them, so they climbed up on one and I was able to get some nice group shots of them. This is the best of the lot, and the one that went into frames for Grandmas! Grandma W has hers, and Grandma D will have one as soon as I can get it in the mail!
Our other activities have involved getting the walls of Oren and Nathan's room finished, although that's as far as the decorating has gotten for them. We're still working on the fence, which is going extremely slowly with Mark not having time to dig the 2 remaining holes, or install the panels. My hands can only handle so long with the post-hole digger, or the rock breaker/lever thing, before deciding not to function for 2-3 days at a time. We're also having a time deciding what to plant in our front garden bed, or what trees to put in around the driveway.
Which is the fun part about owning our own home. We get to plant stuff! And paint stuff! And put holes in walls! The hard part is that while Mark is in school, I am in charge of the kids and the house and the yard. All by myself. He helps when he has the time, but with 300 evergreen plants ranging across 9 zones to memorize in less than 8 weeks, that time is few and far between. And I am only one person who can only do so much! All these grand plans for everything and I am having to learn patience, something I am not good at.
But I'm learning. And he's learning. And the kids are learning. And that's really what it's all about in the end!
