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.  

Track

Hailey is doing softball AND track this year. Luckily her softball coach encouraged her to do both!  She's realized she really enjoys it and she is placing well in the 100m and 200m and doing pretty decent at the triple jump and long jump.  Her goal is to make it to state this year in the 200m.

FFA Convention

The older three kids performed at the Idaho state FFA convention last week held at the College of Southern Idaho and they did an awesome job!  I was very proud of them.  :) Taylor and Hailey did an acapella clogging duet and Torsten accompanied a singing duet.  They were the entertainment before the beginning of the Thursday session.  It was so fun to be back in CSI's performing arts auditorium watching the kids on stage!  It made me nostalgic for our days of living in Twin Falls, when we spent lots of time in that building.

Oregon! (Part 1)

 Spring break we went to Oregon.  We've only traveled to the coast in autumn so it was fun to do this trip in the spring.  The scenery was amazing. On the way, we passed daffodil farms in full bloom that looked like they could be postcard pictures. Wow!!

Of course, we stopped at Multonomah Falls on the way.

Georgeous as always!!!  By the way, the top bridge was broken and closed to tourists because a large chunk of the cliff broke off a few weeks previous and hit the bridge.  That would have been scary. You can't really tell in my picture though. 

Reagan posing in the hollow tree with Tessa and Zane.  Did I mention we went on this trip with friends from Bruneau who also have 6 kids?  Between us we had 13 kids because Lily our exchange student came too.  :) You won't believe how much we had to stop for bathroom breaks! But we finally, finally made it to the coast.

I realized I rarely have Joel's picture on my blog!  So here he is, in case you wondered about his existence.  :)

We found a hurt bird our first morning and Leif was worried about it. We told him,"It will be okay.  It will just stay here and die a slow and agonizing death because it can't fly to get food OR it'll might get eaten by dog. But that's how life is sometimes for birds.  Kinda sad."  I actually did say something pretty similar to that and I realize in some ways I am much more open with my youngest child than I was with my oldest. Which is strange because in other ways I baby Leif much more.  But when it comes to some of the harsher realities, like, there is NO Santa Claus, Leif, even if your preschool teacher told you that, and no tooth fairy but here's a dollar because your Mama knows losing teeth and birthdays are the main source of income for small children, and yes, we are going to eat our 4-H pig you pampered all summer, it will be delicious, well, it's just all out in the open.   Oh boy, it is after midnight and I am beginning to digress to strange ramblings......

So back to the lovely Oregon scenery.

This rock, or haystack as they call it, was so pretty!!! We stayed in Pacific City by Cape  Kiwanda and the beach was a block away from the house.  Perfect!

Cape kiwanda had some fun tide pools,

And a climbing wall.  Somebody carved it out of the soft cliff- how nice of them!  Reagan and others tried to climb as high as they could.

I'll finish this post up soon.  Better get to bed. I get strange when it's late at night.   Zzzzzzzz.......

Hailey went out on her first group date last night and took the perfect person as her "date"--Taylor!  Aren't brothers the best? :) Torsten took Hailey's friend as his date.  

Last night I started to get sentimental as I realized that soon this 3some will be splitting up when Torsten leaves home.  Currently they go every where together, sing the national anthem at all the ball games together, dance at stake and school dances together, attend music camp together, etc.  I realized the other day that this year I had 4 kids at the highschool: Taylor a Freshman, Hailey a sophomore, Lily, our exchange student a junior, and Torsten a senior! It's been a busy full year with all my kids at home.  Changes and new adventures are on the horizon.......deep breath......

(Torsten in his normal state)

Today, Leif came home from preschool and proudly showed me the little watering can he chose from the preschool "store".  He was sooo happy about it.  "Mom, now we can plant the garden!!!!"

  We cleaned the garden spot up last week and I guess he is excited to plant something.  I love it!  :)

Monopoly

There has been a game of Monopoly being played in this house for DAYS.  Rather than go bankrupt we just have a complicated debt register and often the rich guys decide to "donate" money to their poor tenants.  We have the Idaho version, so during one game I owned Sun Valley, Hell's Canyon and ISU.  So fun!