Back to School

I love this time of year. The feeling in the air is refreshing, a new start, the beginning of a new adventure. Mike is back in school full swing, including FOOTBALL. (The first big football game is tonight). The scheduling begins. Not only is Mike back to teaching, but he is still working for the Forest Service on the weekends. His days and nights are busy but he still makes time for his family, that's what I love about him. Madi starts pre-school next week and dance begins the following week. She's excited to say the least. For those of you not in school but are looking for a little something to encourage better writing skills and habits...take a look here. There is no cost, so there's nothing to lose only so much to gain.

Clean-up

We are in the process of cleaning up a couple of trees Mike and Damian cut down a few weeks ago. This is one of the trees. It was a good thing they cut this tree when the did. It would have come down sooner rather than later and could have landed right on top of the cabin. It was rotten in the center up about eight (8) feet. I don't know if the ants caused the decay or if the ants came in after.

We tried to put Gabe to work, but it was hard for him to manage with gloves.

So he plaid hockey with a birdie and badminton racket.

We hauled the logs around in a sled behind the 4-wheeler.

The twigs we started burning, there just isn't a practical way to store it for building fires later.

The small branches were cut up and stacked by the fire pit. They make great coals for cooking.

The small logs were stacked in the wood shed to be used later to heat the cabin.

The large logs we piled to be hauled away later for a friend to use to heat their house.

There's so much more work to be done and I'm not good at hard labor.

Operation Life Saver

A couple of weeks ago my dad gave me tickets for Operation Life Saver. My dad participates every year and thought it would be fun for the kids to ride the train. So last Friday we went to Blackfoot to catch the 10:00 train. I was worried we were going to be late and possibly miss the train. We rushed to the back of the line at 9:50, boarded the train at 10:30 and left the station at 11:05. Trains don't operate on schedules apparently. The OLS train arrived in Blackfoot on time, but apparently had to wait for two freight trains to pass through, one of which was having problems.

It was cold and the kids were tired of standing in line. Once we boarded the train and got situated, we waited. Madi got board, but I think it was because of the long wait. Gabe had a fun time. Madi looked through the activity book they received after boarding. She answered all of the train safety questions correctly.

I was surprised how much room there was on the train. We were in the last passenger car. Every seat was taken on the train, but it didn't seem the least bit crowded. I think it would be a great way to travel with children. There was something about the train that put kids to sleep. Over half the kids looked a little droopy eyed.

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Hogle Zoo

Last weekend we made a last minute and quick trip to Utah. We stopped by Cabelas for a few hours. The kids love to look at the fish, animals, airplane, and Madi likes to push the button to make the man talk. We never seem to buy much, if anything at all. I guess you could call it cheap entertainment. Madi always wants to eat at the Cabelas cafeteria, but never eats the hot dog she orders. I don't blame her, the hot dogs are nasty. Unfortunately she won't order anything else. Luckily, Gabe picks up the slack and will finish it off for her.

We then went to the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point for a few hours. The kids had a great time digging up dinosaur bones and making sand castles at the sand/water table. What stands out in their memory is the cracked dinosaur egg, computer games and the huge shark. Next time we venture there, we will make it a point to see the movie after strolling the museum.

Next, we went to visit Grandma and Grandpa Great Johnson. We were there for a couple hours as well. It was nice to visit. Mike really enjoys hearing his Grandpa tell stories of WWII. He's trying to gather as much information as he can to compile a book of stories. It is proving to be difficult. Grandpa doesn't share war stories with everyone. I can only imagine how difficult some of those memories are to recall.

The next day we spent several hours at Hogle Zoo. We saw the three-day old baby giraffe and many other new arrivals. We rode the zoo train and Madi and I took a spin on the carousel.

It was a fun filled trip and we came back exhausted.

Photo Shoot

Curtis is now in Arizona. It will be three months before we see him again and we will certainly miss him. Friday night we had a photo shoot in the back yard, I wanted to make sure he left with some family pictures in hand.

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