Lately

This was a little while ago, but I thought the pictures were too cute not to post. After dinner one night, Gwen was complaining that her leg hurt. We really laid it on thick and put her on the couch with books and a heating pad and she was as happy as a clam.



The globe willow in our backyard gets a little out of control. Here's Richie, taming the wild beast.


We were too cheap to buy professional team pictures for Miles' Tball team, so this is me sneaking a group photo. :)


Richie's mom got a killer deal on strawberries and shared the wealth with us. I spent a few hours on Saturday making healthy for you, strawberry freezer jam. Yummmmmmm.



Some of Richie's family decided we should have an outing and go see the new Monsters movie. $6 for a theater experience would have been wasted on Gwen, so Miles and I got to have our own Mommy/Son date. It was so much fun! Man, what a cute kid he is.


Thanks again Pinterest. I saw this idea and when we had a boring Monday, we whipped this together. It's just an old shower curtain, a bottle of cheap shaving cream, and the sprinkler. So much fun! They played while I hung clothes on the line and did a little weeding. Perfection.

Oh, Idaho

We had the opportunity this last weekend to head to Lava Hot Springs with Richie's family. It's been a year since we've been in Idaho and I don't know if we realized how much we missed it until we saw that first, beautiful potato field. :) I think I might have shed a few tears. The further north you drive up I-15 there are less billboards about liposuction, breast augmentation, and new furniture; There are less buildings,less mountains, less lanes, less traffic and less people. However the further north up I-15 you drive, there are more green fields, more space, and way more beautiful sunsets than in Utah. It was like I could feel my head clearing.
Lava Hot Springs is actually a town, a very small town, that has actual hot springs. People probably used to come and sit in the warm river and "heal" themselves with the mineral water. Now, it's mostly just a giant pool, or pools I should say, with water slides. I imagine the town of about 500 people makes most of it's revenue from tourists. We stayed in 2 old houses that have been renovated to rent out to visitors. We got there Thursday night and left Saturday afternoon. It was a blast! Beautiful weather, a relaxed itinerary, plenty of time at the pool, and wonderful people to be with.


On Friday, Richie's family drove home but we decided to make our way to Rexburg, about 2 hours north of Lava Hot Springs, to visit our old home and old friends. We spent some time just driving through town saying things like "Remember this?" and "Remember that?" and "That's new! When did they put that in?" We love our new home, but I think there was still a physical hurt when we drove past 244 W 1st south #8. Is that possible? Our wonderful friends (more like family) the Christensen's let us stay at their home Saturday night. It was like we hadn't missed a beat. Richie went fishing with Michael, we stayed up late and laughed until our faces hurt, and ate obscene amounts of cookies. The next day we went to church with Paul and Lahni and I got the biggest kick out of everyone calling me Lahni's daughter-in-law and asking if Miles and Gwen were her grandchildren. After a while, I stopped explaining and just said "Yes!" It was hard to leave Rexburg, even Miles kept wailing, "I wanna live in Rexburg, Idaho!!"
(Can't believe these are the only pictures I got!)

The thing that helped soften the blow was knowing that my parents were waiting for us at home in Riverton. My mom participated in the Logan Art Festival this last week (Go Mom!) and then made a pit-stop at our house to break up the trip. It was really only enough time to say "hi" and "bye", but I'll take it!

T-Ball

A guy in our ward let us know he was volunteer coaching a little league T-Ball team this summer and wanted to know if we wanted to join. We hadn't really thought about putting Miles into stuff like this yet, but we figured we knew the coach and that he wouldn't be berating the little kids or anything (always a plus), and a lot of little boys Miles' age from the ward would be playing. We thought it would be a good opportunity to make some friends.
Miles has never swung a bat, caught a ball inside of a mitt, or run bases. Dad threw the ball around with him outside and we checked out a book from the library about baseball to read and get familiar with the idea. Come game day, I was so relieved to find out that the entire affair was VERY low key. It was a blast to watch the ALL the kids run after the ball and watch them completely miss the bases and keep running. Miles had so much fun and keeps asking when he get to play baseball again. He even sleeps with his little bat and little mitt. :) But if you asked him what the best part of the game was, he'd probably tell you it was getting slurpees at the end. He's saw an ad for a slurpee on a billboard about 3 months ago, and has asked for one almost every day since. We finally caved.