Craters of the Moon

We finally had a chance to get away for a while two weeks ago. Summer was seemingly not busy and yet we never could get away, so we finally knuckled down and made a long weekend for the family. We took the RV. The boys have missed it and kept reminiscing about "the old days" when we were on our trip and traveling in it all over. So even though it was more expensive, we determined it was important to take the tank.




Craters of the Moon is a national park in southeast Idaho, a little less than 300 miles from us. It is a little different than expected and was filled with lava beds which now look more like just a lot of black rock! We were able to see long dormant splatter cones and climb some other small mountains (small as in they were not very tall from our starting point, but rose over 6000 ft in elevation).



We all went spelunking as well. The caves were actually lave tubes that had long since just become home to more rocks and little else. Because there is no water or much vegetation aside from sagebrush in this national park, there was also no birds or other wildlife to be seen. The only insect we really had to deal with were flies.







We took Scoobi with us. It was our first time taking her on such a long voyage, let alone a trip that spanned more than a couple of hours. She did quite good, although she did get out of her harness once when we were off exploring caves and such. Our camping neighbors helped to call her back to the RV, where she ended up just laying (unleashed) right by the door and waiting for us. She really is a good girl.




So that was our minor vacation this year. It has already begun snowing here in Idaho. Odd for it to happen in October, let alone early October, but the snowboarders and skiers in the house are excited about it. We are looking forward to making more memories and just enjoying the time we have with the kids. God knows time flies and they are growing up fast!

Another Year Goes By

All right - we got to Idaho and got settled in and the posts trickled down to nothing fairly quickly. Those of you that know me well are not surprised by this - at all!

So - Let's talk about Christmas and then maybe have a short recap of 2007. We put intentional focus this year on a few major gifts for the whole family. Specifically :





We were able to get a Foosball table, an Air Hockey table and we replaced the boys TV in the front room with a 53" Sony (they had ripped the jacks off the old Toshiba while changing between dvd, vcr, playstation and gamecube - this TV has PLENTY of inputs). All 3 were used but in very good condition. All 3 were given to them a bit early (hard to hide) as we acquired them.

I took the Friday before Christmas off from work and took Zach and Alex up the mountain to play (David decided last year that he was doing it for me and really didn't want to anymore - so he stayed home with his mother). The snow was awesome - it was only their second day open and I was able to find several stashes of powder to play in! Alex was having a confidence crisis so I stayed with him on the easy trails, while Zach hung out with Steve, Caleb, and Jordan. Friday night Steph and I went out to pick up a few last minute stocking stuffers, then we all played XBOX til 2am. Saturday we slept in! I got a check from a client in Fredericksburg around lunchtime (thanks Don!) and found the TV at the same time. Steve went with me to check it out and make the buy (thanks Steve!). Sunday I went back up the mountain with Zach to play some more. Zach was having a fantastic day and voluntarily took on his nemesis - War Eagle. He did awesome! We had a great time and then came home - changed and showered - and then went over to Steve's to install his home theater that he was surprising his family with.

On Christmas Eve we again slept in. I tried fixing my laptop (the screen backlight died) by swapping out the whole display assembly (I had a spare - don't ask) but after 2.5 hours the labor was in vain. We spent family time together throughout the day and capped it off with dinner out and then a viewing of A Christmas Story - a family tradition. We sent the kids to bed and Steph and I began wrapping gifts and filling stockings while A Christmas Vacation played on the big screen.




We finally finished and headed to bed shortly after 2:30am only to have an excited little boy wake us at quarter til 9. I wanted to sleep - I really did, but my children have my heart. So we headed downstairs for the boys to unwrap their gifts.


Alex REALLY wanted a beanbag to sit and read in


Zach has been begging for a R/C Jeep


David chose a dramatic audio New Testament as what he wanted

We received cash from Steph's family and my grandparents - which went towards the big three gifts (Thanks Bob & Marilyn,Dan and Joyce & Jack!) My parents sent some gifts as well.



Nerf wars!


an alarm clock that projects the time on the ceiling


Scoobi had chewed up Zach's camo hat


Still collecting Star Wars figures


The R/C Jeep climbs pretty well


For reading in his beanbag

In case you are wondering, Steph and I weren't left out. I took Steph shopping to pick out what she wanted - she chose some nice clothes and a leather jacket. I ordered a Mountain Hardwear Down Parka to keep me warm on the slopes (thanks Martin!). Here's a pic of Steph and I in the back yard wearing our new coats. Notice the bit of snow!


We tried to go to see a movie on Christmas afternoon, but it was sold out. Damian and his family came over for a lovely Christmas dinner - we had tons of food and will be eating leftovers for a week!


Steph made cookies and buckeyes to give to friends

All in all we had a fantastic Christmas. Thanks again to family who sent money and gifts - it is very appreciated!

As far as a recap of 2007 ....

It has been a wonderful year for us. We all have our health (Steph has been symptom free for a few years now!). My job is going quite well. We've really worked on our friendships with a few families. The boys are still being homeschooled (Steph is AWESOME!) and it's going well (when the boys don't have attitudes about it). We did a few camping trips, we vacationed in the NW and on the coast. We were given a truck (Thanks Steve!) and sold our van. Truly God has been good to us!

Catch-Up

OK - I'm officially very bad at updating the blog here.It has been entirely too long. I know that. I just haven't been in a writing state of mind lately. Or maybe I just stay to busy. Truth of the matter is that most of the time I just don't think about it.

So where are things now. Well work is going excellent for me. I really love what it is that I do. I'm managing the domain portfolios of several large companies. I do troubleshooting for co-workers and a bit of training as well. Steph is homeschooling the boys and that is going well. She's been painting a lot lately and one of her paintings was selected to be in an art gallery last week! The kids are growing like weeds. David regularly steals my shoes to wear! He's almost as tall as me and wears slightly smaller shoes than me. Zach and Alex go back and forth on who is taller - it changes a couple of times a year.

We've been mountain biking a lot recently. Zach is an animal out there! David and Alex go most of the time as well. This past Saturday we did 7 miles of biking at the old military reserve. Then on Sunday we did 22 miles up around Bogus Basin and down the mountain from there. I'm still sore from that one! We enjoy it though!

Well that's enough for now. Like I said - just a bit of catching up!

John

Summertime

We have been very bad about getting updates here on our blog - to the point that very few people check it anymore. It's been several months and I'm sorry about that. There's a lot to tell.

First Zach turned 10. We held a party here for him and he had a water slide out back. They had a lot of fun!

In June, John took David for some one-on-one time at the Bruneau Sand Dunes. They went early and camped overnight. The largest public access telescope in the northwest was there, so they did some cool sky watching. A group from the church of kids his age were also there the following day and they joined together and climbed the sand dunes. It was a good father/son over-nighter. This is something John is trying to do with each of the boys every few months.


So then he took Zach for his over-nighter over 4th of July weekend. Boy was it hot out! They backpacked in to a hot spring up near Tamarack Resort and then went over to Tamarack to do some mountain biking the next day. On the way home, they stopped at another hot spring because the one they stayed at was very disappointing. This one was much better - but extremely hot and had quite a hike to get to it. Somewhere during this trip John got a bad case of Poison Ivy - yukk!




In July, John's biological dad passed away. It was very unexpected as he was still very young. We received a call on Friday morning that he'd had a heart attack and John jumped on a flight within 2 hours. He was able to say goodbye to Robby before he passed which was an immense blessing. The other 4 of us took off to Florida the following morning and we stayed for a week to attend the funeral and spend some much needed time with family. It was difficult and sad, but some really good growth came out of it. John was able to help Karen and his siblings through the arrangements and a sad first week. Some good photos of family can be seen below.
(L to R) Joy, Michelle, Karen, Trae & John

Extended Family

Robby


We took a day and went to Magic Kingdom while we were there too. It was a good break for us all and we had a lot of fun.



Schooling started back up in September. The boys are doing well. Alex is beginning to take off with his reading. Zach exploded with his literacy skills over the summer. David is now a 7th grader. He is enjoying the freedom we are permitting with some of his studies. Mom is enjoying that she is able to be a little less hands-on!

Will try to keep this up better in the future! LOL
Steph

Sawtooth Camping

Two weeks ago, we went camping in the Sawtooth Mountains. It is renown for it's remote location and spectacular beauty. The mountains in that region are unique in their rugged features from the rest of the surrounding mountains in Idaho. They generally stay snow-capped year round and are sharp, rocky peaks, thus the name, "sawtooth."

This was our first view of them from a lookout about 50 miles from our destination.

The camping area was a remote campground at Stanley Lake. It is approximately 10 miles from the small dot of civilization of Stanley, Idaho. On it's north shore, McGown Peak rises above it for what can only be described as picture perfect!

We went with another family from church. They have 3 boys ages 11, 13 & 15, and a daughter who is 8. They brought their canoe, raft and kayak so everyone could have an opportunity to go out on the lake. It was a lot of fun for our boys to have other boys to be "boys" with!

All of us except Jackie and their daughter went on a bike ride to go see Bridqal Veil Falls. Unfortunately, the mosquitos got too bad for any of us (save John & Steve) to make the entire trip. It was mushy and gravelly, plus sandy, dirty and log covered on the trail. So, most all of the boys will tell you it was great. John & Steve made it to the falls overlook but were not all that impressed from their viewpoint. They said I was probably glad to have not trudged on through the mosquito swarms or through the thigh high creek that was super cold from snow runoff.



To view all of our pictures of the trip, you can go to this web page HERE!



We did go to the Redfish Lake on the other side of Stanley and Mcgown Peak. The views fromthere were just as good and you can very easily see the second tallest of the "teeth", Mount Heyburn at 10, 229 feet in elevation.


By the way, it has been reaching into the hundreds here for our daily temps, so don't be totally fooled into thinking we have it cooler out here just because our taller mountains are snow capped! But I will say I was impressed to see that our heat index is actually LOWER here! I dare to say it again- humidity does matter!

Well, enjoy the pics!

Steph