a water fashion show

emma loves american girl dolls. she doesn't own a single one, but she loves them still the same. every visit to the library involves checking out a few ag magazines. so, i decided to get emma a subscription to american girl magazine. she said it was her favorite gift. (aaaahh...i did something right.) i will often find her in her "comfy" reading nook, immersed in ag magazines. she will often take the quizzes about, "what kind of friend are you," "how daring are you?" and other such stuff. she will also insist i take the quizzes too. it is pretty fun! anyhow, one magazine had some summer fun ideas to keep cool. one idea included having a "water fashion show." hence, the above photos. hunter was not so keen on the idea, but i finally convinced him to participate. each of the kids paraded in their costumes across the lawn through the sprinkler. then they would stop and pose for the camera. the fashion models included, john(a neighbor), emma, maren(a cousin) and hunter. they all seemed to have fun and they even stayed cool while doing it!!

another post about going somewhere in the great outdoors

lately my posts seem to all have the same feel. nature, nature and more nature. don't get me wrong i love being outdoors,but is anyone else bored? i certainly am! i feel like i need something more to do. unfortunately, since we live in a small town this is about it. not that i am complaining. i love, love, love moscow and will be sorry to leave. but, i do crave a little variety now and again.

having said that, here are some more pictures of another outdoor adventure here on the palouse. for the 4th we took our adventurous spirits north a bit to heyburn park on the south end of cda lake. we spent the day at rocky point(and yes, the name does accurately describe this place well) beach enjoying many a cherised pasttime....

eating cherries

swimming in dirty, rocky lake water
building in dirty rocky sand

canoeing with a wonderful 9 year-old daughter,
who doesn't do a lot of paddling, but instead does a lot of talking.
great company!practicing swimming with imaginary snake sticks


a lot of dog-watching, especially by william. he was excited to point and say, "da!"
we were excited to point and say, "dog!"

exploring the rocks and rocky sand at the beach.
learning that eating the rocky sand is a little icky.
spitting it out doesn't help because it still sticks to my tongue!

catching a water log to ride


after spending the day in the sun we came home and did some fireworks.
it was really fun....well, for most of us. can you tell who wasn't having the best time?

i bet you didn't guess that issy wasn't haven't such a great time. she was hiding inside the house with a blanket in this little space between some furniture. since she was a baby, she has not liked loud noises. anything from the vacuum, to a loud flushing toilet, to fireworks. so, here she sat all alone. i kept william outside as long as i could and finally the poor kid was done!! he was literally shaking and screaming from the loud noises and bright lights. i couldn't help but laugh!! poor kid!

ducks...

i took william to hordeman's pond today to feed the ducks. emma tagged a long as well. william was easily fascinated and it was enjoyable seeing his face concentrating on these little creatures.

as we fed and watched the ducks, william would constantly point and say, "da!"
it was darling.

william is getting better at crawling and playing in the grass. however, there are still moments when the prickly grass bothers him. this is one of them!! look how he is holding his foot up so it doesn't touch the grass!!

Dworshak Camping Trip

well, we took the plunge...a 3-day camping trip with all the kids, including our little 10mo. old squirt! while i was super excited to head our of town for a few days and bask in the outdoors, i was also a little apprehensive of how william would do camping. my fears we for naught however, because that kid did fabulous. he is a regular outdoorsman!!
it is amazing how much stuff you need for a camping trip and as you can see we were packed to the MAX! poor hunter was sitting in the back seat surrounded by so much stuff! if it was me back there, i would have been vomiting for sure!
we were originally going to head to winchester lake, which is not far from lewiston, id by lapawai, but then we found this remote campsite on dworshak lake and decided to try it instead. i am glad we did. we were all alone for 2 days before anyone showed up to camp.

our trip to dworshak quickly went wrong when ned announced he knew a short cut. however, it ended up be a VERY VERY long cut through the palouse hills. anyhow, what should have been a 1 1/2 hr. drive became a super long windy 3 hour drive. we were so glad to be to our destination!! (can you tell by the girls expressions?)

emma and i were the first to take out the canoe. we were super excited to check out the lake. we weren't able to get a photo since i am paranoid to take my camera out in the canoe for fear of dropping it in the lake, but we canoed out to a "floating toilet"(yes, it is exactly what you think) on a dock and we went aboard and then jumped off into the water and swam around. it was really fun, but a little smelly!! we decided to swim closer to the campground after that.

ned took issy out in the canoe one evening, while i put william to sleep and then we all took a dip in the lake. surprisingly, it was pretty warm!!
hunter and i taking a dip in the lake. if you look closely,
you can see the floating toilet in the upper right hand corner.
ned and issy taking a dip in the lake soon after we arrived.
issy was really into helping collect firewood for us to build our fires with. she worked non-stop sometimes to build her pile. we were very proud of her because she doesn't typically like to work hard!


will, ned and i went on a hike around the campground,
this is right before we left.

issy has really bad habit of picking her nose and eating it. i had just told her not to do that and so she is pouting. i made the mistake of saying that if she was going to do that, she'd better not do it where i can see.

as a result, this is what i got....she was hiding behind a stump picking her nose. maybe if we didn't laugh so hard and take photos of her indulging her bad habits, maybe she would quit!

here is a shot of ned and hunter in the canoe down at the lake.
we were able to tie up the canoe down below our campground for easy access.
it was really nice.
the sunset over the lake was beautiful.

william spent a lot of time in the backpack
since he seemed to enjoy eating the dirt/rocks on the ground.

here we are just hanging out around the campfire. ned tied william to a chair so we could feed him our yummy tin foil barbecue chicken/veggie dinner.

another shot of the lake during the day.

the beginning of some summer fun(ssf)

well, since we don't seem to be moving anytime soon....i decided we better just make the most of what will probably be our last summer in moscow, idaho. (tiny bit of sad, here)
i plan to take advantage of as much "palouse-area" fun we can and spend as much time with friends doing as many fun things as we can fit into the time we have left. ned continues to job-hunt. it is a slow process, but we continue to be optimistic and hopeful for the future. (a little bit of positive energy from friends and family is welcome)

some fun things we have been up to lately are as follows:

william loves water. even though it has been too cold for the swimming pool, we have had a few days with warm weather and were able to pull out the kiddie pool for william. he is fascinated by the hose and loves to drink the nasty moscow water(yuck). i added a few buckets of warm water, but only when his teeth began to chatter and his lips turned blue(jk).
i can't believe he is actully licking his lips. gross. 1 bad thing about moscow is their water! i never thought i would be someone who drank only bottled water, but there's a lesson learned, "never, say never."

it has been exciting to see emma and hunter receive more independence as they mature. because they are trustworthy, responsible kids, i feel i can give them more opportunities to do things with their friends without mom around so much. (it also helps that we live in a safe community, except for the shooting a few years ago..hmmm).
anyhow, they are able to ride their bikes to their friends houses, to the movies, the library, church for scouts, dollar store, swimming pool or park on their own or with friends. they love to be "grown-up" and it also gives them time away from the "baby-stuff" at home. this is the summer of more independent fun for the older two kids.
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every time we drive to spokane, i notice a sign for klemgard park located about 10mi. outside of pullman. i have always wanted to check it out, so this week we did. it was a wonderful park with big open spaces, playground, v-ball pits, horseshoes, pavilions, river and a really fun hike. after eating lunch and checking out the playground, we went on the hike. it has some fun bridges and streams, beautiful flowers and great trail covered with foliage( i love trails like that). as is common on the palouse, we climbed a small hill(only about 2mi. hike) and at the summit was...you guessed it, wheat fields. i just had to laugh out loud at that one. i thought we would at least be able to look down into a little valley or something. but no, it was just more rolling wheat fields. aahh, i will miss that when we move!! lolreaching the summit of wheat fields. beautiful, but funny!

issy said this is her "hiking" face.

emma is always looking for bugs and insects or creeping spaces when we go on hikes. here, she found a really small spider web with a spider on it. below, is a great little hideout under some trees.*********************************************************************

i took will with me to the dollar store the other day. while we were browsing in the toy aisle, he noticed this bat and ball and grabbed it and began playing with it. i let him hold it as we shopped some more but when we were checking out and i took it from him to put away, he became quite upset. he cried loudly and kept trying to grab the bat. so, i did what any mother would do with a crying baby in the check-out line, i bought him the bat. he cried when i handed it to the checker to scan, he cried when he dropped it in the car, he cried when i removed it from him to unbuckle his seatbelt...well, you get the idea. any time he wasn't holding the bat he would cry. it was quite entertaining. he mostly likes to chew on the bat or stick it in someone else's mouth for them to chew. strange kid??!!


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emma and her friend sidney enjoy doing lemonade stands in the summer. one afternoon last year, they made $10 selling lemonade. this year they have upgraded to lemonade, kool-aid, homemade cookies, gum balls and candies. they sit on the corner of 7th and lynn, if any of you locals want to check it out. today was their "Grand Opening." so far, it has been a slow start to the season. however, i am sure it will improve as the summer progresses. they also have a tip jar and homemade signs that they hang up on surrounding streets. it is quite the little business. they have talked about taking their store "on the road" this summer. so, if you see two cute 9 year-olds walking around moscow shouting, "lemonade for sale," don't hesitate to cough up 25cents, it is worth it!!