Four Generations

My grandma has been in the care center for quite a while, she fell and broke her hip. She hasn't been doing so well, so I flew down with Emma yesterday to see her. She is still so spunky. I sure hope that is how I am, personality to the end. I was rubbing her feet and she said, what's that down there? Jokingly I said "it's just a bug" and she said "well then get it off of there." We had such a great visit. At first Emma was just scared of her, but she warmed up pretty quickly. Emma insisted on feeding her a goldfish cracker. Since my grandma doesn't eat much, we thought it great that Emma could get her to eat one cracker. She bit into it and said "this thing is damn hard" she made us laugh. She always has the CNA's on edge because they will think that she is asleep and then when they are close she will psst at them really loud and scare them half to death. Then she just chuckles at herself. (Now you all know why I have an obsession with scaring people. My mom did it, her mom did it...) When I went to leave I said "I love you grandma. You are such a good grandma." She responded with "I don't know how good I am." I said "you are great. " and she said "great, great, great, great, great." and then gave a huge smile. I love her and was so glad to get a picture of her with Emma and my mom. I was so glad I got to come and see her.

We figured out while I was there that she has 9 children, 43 grandchildren, 123 great grandchildren...and counting and 20 great, great grandchildren...and counting. What a legacy.

UPPER HOLLAND LAKE

My most recent backpacking trip took place this past Wednesday and Thursday to Upper Holland Lake just outside the Bob Marshall Wilderness Area. The "Bob" is well known for being very remote and full of grizzly bears. I was lucky enough to get invited the Sunday before by someone in our ward who was going in with some of his family as part of a family reunion. Thanks to the Rowley family for letting me meet up with them and come along.

We started our hike at Holland Lake (seen here) and climbed over 2,000 feet in elevation in about 7 miles. After taking on switchback after switchback we came out on the face of this mountain where I was able to take this picture. Below me is about a 200' drop nearly straight down. This is about a 1/3 of the way to Upper Holland Lake.

This picture shows where an avalanche came down over the winter. The brush managed to survive but the trees were uprooted, snapped, and thrown up the other side of the draw where the trail was. It was amazing to see the power that avalanche had. It would have been awesome to see and hear it when it happened.

Our first look at Upper Holland Lake.

Looking out on the lake from our camp.

Before we walked out Thursday, we took a quick 2 mile hike up to Gordon Pass where the Bob Marshall begins. So this is proof I made it.

The next trip is late August back to Heart Lake. I have a friend, Brett Harrison, who lives in Vegas now, coming up for a few days. I'm just planning on some fishing trips close by until then. We are going to be in Utah the middle of August where I'm hoping to do a good day hike if anyone is interested. Hope to see some of you in a couple of weeks.

RJA

Lewis and Clark Caverns

We stopped at the Lewis and Clark Caverns on the way home from Paradise Valley. It was tons of fun. While we were waiting for out tour to start, there was a ranger who had toads and snakes for the kids to play with and hold. The ranger was warning the kids that if they touch the frog and then touched their mouth, they would get a sick feeling in their stomach because of the poisons the toad emitted out of it's skin. The kids wanted to touch...why not, toxic substances are fun to play with right? I totally would have wanted to touch it if I was a kid.
Max was so pleased with himself.
After washing our hands, we started our hike to the cave opening.

It was only 95 degrees, but us cold blooded folk who lived through a -30 winter were quite hot by the time we got to the top. The shade of the cave was totally welcomed. The cave stays a constant 50 degrees all year long. It felt wonderful.

waiting to go in.

Crappy picture of me, but this is at the mouth of the cave.

Inside the cave
It was lit up and there were stairs and hand rails, very accessible, but not to natural. I really would love to be a spelunker and repel into a cave.

Does this look like a root beer mug?

The guide was always pointing out formations and getting the kids imaginations going. It was great.

Samwise was in charge of the camera...He took all the great pictures.

Emma loved it. Especially when they turned out all the lights and it was completely black.

When it was so dark, not a speck of light, the guide said "raise your hand if you want the lights back on." Caleb thought that was so funny. I loved the dark. I wanted to stay like that for a while and feel the stillness.

"Chicken"?

We entered the cave way up high, and then came out clear down below where we entered. It was so cool to see how far we had come down into the earth. It was a great trip and I can't wait to go again.

Caleb and Max ran ahead, so they didn't get to be in the family picture. When Noah saw this picture he said,"that's how our family should be." RUDE! What would we do without Caleb and Max to crack us up? He was just kidding, but it made me think just how grateful I am for each and everyone of my kids.

Paradise Valley, Montana

I took the kids to Katri's for a much needed weekend getaway! They had a blast.
We slept in the blue teepee, Max's favorite color just happend to be blue so he was in heaven. There were horses in the field next to her house that were really nice, and they let the kids pet them and feed them all they wanted. Againg Max was in heaven.

This was just funny, Ryan called and all chaos broke loose, Emma neede to be changed, the kids were all squealing and Mara was bawling that she wanted to talk to her daddy. I threw Sam the phone, got control and turned around to see this.

Noah, Max and Caleb all slept in this sleeping bed, and Mara, Emma and I slept in another sleeping bed (two bags zipped together)

The kids played at the river and on the "island" and had a grand old time. They were so good while I was in class.

Mudfights

Muscle men

Lovely Ladies

Rafting!

I went down on Wednesday and Ryan came on Friday. He fished a little and then we headed home on Saturday. It was tons of fun!

Puppy update.

This picture was not easy...six kids and six puppies. Kinda funny!

Two puppies went to new homes last night. Caleb was quite sad because our favorite one,

the only one that had brown on her, got chosen. She went to a great home though.Both people came and took the dogs without paying for them, It was kind of funny, I know I told them that we wanted $50 for them, but they just left without paying, and I didn't have enough guts to say anything about it. I did ask the one people if Ryan had told them how much and they say "no he didn't say anything about price" instead of saying well, it's $50 bucks, I just said "okay" and off they went. I am gutless I know, but it really doesn't matter that much to me, otherwise I would have been more agressive.

There are four more puppies left:

"Hicky"

and "Panda" They are the boys...

"Princess"
She has a strip across her backside that is in the shape of a tiarra
Hence the name
and...

"Milly"
Someone please take her...I can't stand how cute she is and
she may make be buckle under pressure.

Their Scottish of Course!

I had a few home visits that I had to do today, so I took Emma with me and left Sam in charge. When I left they were playing with play dough that I had just made and cleaning up the kitchen from making quills and ink. We got these books called "Story of the World" and my kids have been fascinated with all the fun projects in it. It is a history of all the civilizations of the world in chronological order and each "lesson" has a project in it. They were making quills and ink because they read about the monks. Then when I pulled up...The sight was amazing I will never forget seeing all the kids outside dressed up like Scottish warriors. They had read about the Scottish/English wars and had themselves all dressed up and painted. I was so impressed with Sam and his creativity. It was so cute and I was so glad that they had had a great day! When I got inside, I found a "MENU" they had a restaurant for lunch and on the bottom of the really cute menu was the en caption: "Free toy with every meal" They crack me up!

HEART LAKE, MONTANA (Ryan's 1st post)

Hey everyone! I finally have something worthy of posting on the family's blog. It only took 2 years but I'm pretty excited about this one. Friday afternoon Sam and I left with the scouts from our ward for an overnight backpacking trip. Even though Sam is still 11 the scoutmaster said to bring Sam since I was already going to be there. I thought it would be good for him also, because in August I am taking he and Noah on a longer backpacking trip into the Uintah Mountains with some of my friends from our old neighborhood in Farmington.

The trailhead to Heart Lake is about 80 miles from our house in the Scapegoat Wilderness area -good grizzly bear country. The trail to the lake is about 3.7 miles with 1,000 feet elevation gain. A good hike to measure how Sam will do and also a good indicator of where his fat, out-of-shape father sits. We made it to the lake in about two hours, not bad for Sam's first trip carrying his own gear and our food. Because he was carrying all the food I nicknamed him "Bear Bait" for the trip. He thought that was pretty cool!

We set up camp with our new, cool (and expensive) NorthFace tent. (Ask Melanie what she thinks about the tent. I think it about ended our marriage. Thanks ladies for taking her on that expensive shopping trip to the outlet malls in Park City in June - I owe all of you dinner.) Unpacked our gear, ate a trail delicacy of freeze dried Chicken A-La-King w/ noodles, and then went fishing.

I was told, before we left, about the cutthroats in the lake but wasn't prepared for what I would catch. After about 10 minutes fishing with a fly rod and a yellow humpy I landed this nice 16" cutthroat, handed it to the boys (along with a sharp knife) to clean and get ready to cook.

I went back to where I caught the first one and within a few minutes landed a second one about the same size. I handed that one to Sam and fished for awhile longer. I have fly fished for years, mostly in small rivers and streams and hadn't caught anything of any real size. And I have never caught anything in a lake using a fly rod - so I was pretty excited. I was wet and really cold, but really excited. I fished Saturday morning too and caught a few more but the highlight of the trip was Sam catching his first fish - a beautiful 20" cutthroat.

He did it all on his own, fishing with a lure - casting, hooked it, landed it, and released it. He still is glowing with excitement - especially because it was bigger than what his dad caught. It doesn't matter to me (ok, maybe a little). I'm just hoping he's "hooked" and wants to fish more.

But what makes me more happy than seeing him catch a big fish was his attitude in comparison to some of the older scouts. Some of the boys broke camp first thing in the morning and kept asking (for hours) about when we were leaving. When I asked them what they would do if they were home, a few of them said "Play X-Box." What!?!?!?!?!?! Later Sam said to me, "Dad, I can't believe those guys would rather play X-Box than be here."

Thanks "Bear Bait"! You passed the test. Welcome to the club! Now we just need to convince your mother that we need that new, lightweight camp stove.

RJA

Rainy Days and Mondays...Didn't Get Us Down

I have to admit I kinda like the Carpenter's song..."Rainy days and Mondays" but yesterday, we didn't let it get us down. Ryan's mom had left us instructions on how to make PVC pipe bows, and although I wasn't excited about the prospect of making them, Sam convinced me that it needed to be done, so we headed off to Home Depot to get the stuff we needed. If you try making this, which I highly recommend, be sure to haul your whole crew into Home Depot and let them carry the 10 foot long PVC pipe and 4 foot long wooden dowels all through the isles as you pass tons of people who give you really crazy stares, it really adds to the fun of it all. I am serious. It was quite entertaining. I heard all sorts of crazy comments. Really does no one have six kids anymore, come on people! Here's the finished project. It was so fun to make and really inexpensive. Mara even needed in on the action. They work really well, and shoot really far. The kids have been playing with them ever since. Here's the instructions:

40" 1/2 " PVC pipe

3 16" wooden dowells

colored electrical tape

nylon twine

Decorate PVC pipe

Cut a notch in the end of the PVC and the end of the dowells

Tie a knot in the ends of the twine and stretch (Pull really hard)

Wa La

Bow and Arrow

Fireworks...makes me think!

We went to out great neighbor's house for a BBQ and fireworks display. It was great fun, great food and great company. The wind threatened to ruin our party, and we had to rescue Mara when her plate flew up right on to her lap. She tried so hard not to cry, but couldn't contain it. After quite a long pause with her fighting for control, she just let out a huge bawl. It was actually quite sweet, just how hard she tried not to lose it. We played volleyball in the pelting rain, and then everything cleared up and it was time for fireworks. Someone always brings glow necklaces and bracelets for the kids, and they love them. Emma loved the fireworks.

The little kids were playing a game during the fireworks display where they were pretending that the fireworks were bombs going off and they had to duck and cover when they went off and it really made me think just how grateful I am that I can look at fireworks and see them as a celebration of freedom. Many people in the world today know war. They view the sound of cannons, gunshot and "fireworks" as something to be really afraid of. It is not a happy sound to them, it is a sound that inflicts terror in their hearts. How humbled I felt to watch them "pretend" to duck and cover. How grateful I am that my children live in peace. That I have never know the terrors of war. That I can look at fireworks and be reminded of the freedom that I enjoy.

Hope your Fourth of July celebration reminded you of all that we hold sacred and dear.

Great Falls Parade-July 4th, 2009