Part 2

To continue with the catch up post:

Leif wanted me to put a picture of the kitties in this post.  We have 2 sweet kittens that are so much fun and Leif and Heidi play with them all the time.

Hailey ended up qualifying for state in the 100m dash and the triple jump!  It was so exciting!

She ended up getting 8th out of 18 in the triple jump.  The day of state she broke her personal record by 2 feet! She and her coach were so amazed.  :)

Peaceful sunsets and sunrises over the reservoir.  I'm always finding pictures like these on my phone.

The kids enjoy the beauty here as much as I do.  Sometimes we talk about if we should buy a house and move to Mountain Home, but for now we love the farms, reservoir and relative isolation of living here.  With the bridge out, the drive to Mountain Home is 45 minutes instead of half an hour but that's okay.  It's kinda funny.  Here, so many people have lived on remote ranches that they think Grand View and Bruneau are really close to town and are almost too populated!  I think it's just right.  Except for the bugs.  Too many bugs!  :)

Heidi found a baby killdeer that was lost from its nest.   She is my animal lover.

Lily and the other exchange students prepared food from their countries of China, South Korea and Thailand for our combined YM/YW activity.  They also shared power points and talked about their countries.  It was so delicious and informative!

Taylor right before getting braces on.

His teeth weren't really that crooked but he had an underbite that was grinding his lower teeth down. The dentist said he needed braces or he'd have lots of problems down the road. Right now Taylor has the mechanism you have to turn with a key every night. It gets in the way when he eats and makes him slobber so he's all ready counting down the days to getting them off!      

Time for a catchup post!

I apologize to my two readers, Grandma Clayton and Grandpa Pearson, for being so neglectful of this little blog!  We really are still alive!  Of course, I saw you yesterday, Grandma Clayton, at Roaring Springs for Reagan's 10th birthday.......thank you SO much for coming and making him that cute soccer ball cake!  :)

Anyways, I will post some random photos from the last 2 months to share with you some of the activities we've been doing----

I never finished posting about our trip to Oregon- whoops.  But here is a family picture from the morning we left.  Pacific City was a really nice place to stay.  Next time I think we want to be a little closer to Newport though.  By the way, our exchange student Lily is now back in Thailand but we have a new one- Chan, a South Korean boy!  

Taylor and Reagan are doing pigs for fair this year.  They've all ready grown a lot since this picture!  We had trouble this year with them having pink eye, which wasn't any fun but we got to experience wrestling them down while our very helpful friends gave them injections. Wrestling pigs is always crazy and not to be missed!

Torsten, Hailey and Taylor traveled to CSI in Twin Falls with their FFA team for a leadership convention.  During the talent show portion of the convention, Torsten accompanied 2 singers on the piano and Taylor and Hailey performed an acapella clogging duet.  They all did outstanding!  Hailey was chosen as the Riimrock FFA Vice President for next year.

Leif on the new rug at the library......did I ever mention I was hired last fall to do children's programming at the library in Grand View? I do elementary, preschool and teen programs and weekly outreach to the elementary school.  Currently I do Summer Reading activities once a week for the whole family.  Anyways, I applied for a small grant for a rug because our programs are held in a room that doesn't have carpeting.  

Oh and I clean the library once a week too.  Leif and the girls help me out.  It's so cute-- Leif knows where all the cleaning stuff is and he helps out by mopping, vacuuming, wiping tables and sweeping cobwebs off the exterior.

Reagan received Student of the Month.  This was his most favorite teacher ever-Mrs Lisle.  Her family just moved to a remote ranch in Nevada so we are so glad we got to have her for at least one year.  Reagan's school in Bruneau was so small that the classes are combined.  He was in a 4/5th grade class.  Even when combined there were only 13 kids in his class!  

In fact, here is his entire school on the last day of school. They had a big water fight and water games.  Lots of fun! I think there were quite a few kids missing but it still gives you an idea of the size.

This is Heidi doing her 4-H presentation for county oral demonstrations.  She did such a good job this year!  Last year she was really nervous but this year she said it was so fun she wanted to do it again.  I think wearing a silly headband helped! Ha ha :)

Here is Reagan doing his pig presentation.  He did a great job too!

Torsten is working as a laborer on the bridge construction job by our house.  It's a hot hard job and he comes home filthy and tired every day.  And I do mean filthy!

Look at this arm!  He washed his hands to eat lunch. Good thing.