Summer Highlights

I am finally finding some time to post! I know...I know...it has been awhile. Nevertheless, here are some highlights of our summer.

AUGUST

The Shoshone Falls were beautiful this summer. We spent one evening having a picnic there, going on a short hike, and looking at the falls. The kids also had fun being monkeys in the trees. They insisted on me taking their pictures. Libby was a little more cautious and opted not to participate.

Another fun highlight of August was having our friends, the Hickmans, come to visit. They moved from Twin Falls a couple years ago and hadn't been back since. It was so fun to spend time with them. The kids had a blast and we laughed and laughed. Besides boating on the river, swimming, hosting a barbeque with lots of friends, we took the opportunity to go to the temple open house with them.

The Twin Falls Temple Open House was a big part of our summer. Tony worked security several times, we helped put on foot-coverings with the young single adult branch, and I served cookies in the hosting center the last day of tours. We also took our family through many times as we took other family members and friends through. It is absolutely beautiful and how fortunate we are to have a temple here. Besides taking our children through for the first time, I really enjoyed the tour Tony and I had from President Clarke of BYU-Idaho on the day we did foot-coverings for the VIP tour. It was the first time either of us had been inside and I was in awe of everything. It was equally touching to have Cache with us at the dedication services.

JULY

Thank goodness for swimming lessons! Our kids love the water and two weeks of wet fun is just what they needed in the middle of July. Here is a photo of Shelby jumping off the diving board. She is fearless!

Another annual event early in July is the Traveller Family 4th of July. As always, we had a blast and with a little bit of luck, our team took 1st and the trophy for this year. I'm not sure who was more excited, me or our kids. It has been a long time coming!

Our biggest adventure of July was travelling to the Oregon Coast for the Ragnar Series Northwest Passage Relay Race. I will do a separate post of that, but it was also a wonderful summer experience.

JUNE

We traveled to Utah the end of June to spend time with the Hobbs family. Everyone was in town from far away places and we had a great time with everyone. As part of the fun, we tried a photo shoot of all the grandkids. It didn't turn out quite how we envisioned, but the kids looked darling. Here are a couple snap shots I took of my kids.

June was also filled with lots of baseball games and two cuddly bunnies. Cache and Cooper really enjoyed playing ball this year. I think their new bat bags might have had something to do with that. It is always more fun when you look the part. We also found the perfect pet and they cared for these rabbits perfectly! It provided great entertainment and taught them a lot about responsibility. Unfortunately, they very suddenly died in August from unknown causes. I think we will try them again in the spring. The kids sure loved them!

Thanks to several invitations from friends, we also enjoyed the benefits of Bass Lake. Thanks to all who invited us! We had a blast!

In the middle of June, I ventured to Lake Tahoe again with six other friends and family members to run the Lake Tahoe Relay. It was so much fun last summer, I decided to do it again. Thanks Kari, Jodi, Brenda, Tammy, Jenna, and Lisa for a great run and a great time!

Last, but not least, Shelby started the summer off with her first dance recital. Tony surprised her with roses in her favorite color, pink, of course! She was darling and performed so well.

Happy Father's Day!

I just wanted to take a minute and honor my Dad for Father's Day. I am off to Lake Tahoe in a few minutes and in cleaning off my memory stick, I came across this great photo of him and Shelby. The boys brought these glasses back from Moab and Shelby thought she looked just like Grandpa with them on. It is obvious from the photo what a great Grandpa he is! We love you Grandpa Hobbs!

Cooper's 7th Birthday

I know this post is over a month late, but I did want to post pictures of Cooper's 7th birthday. We made a sign that said he "Rocked at age 7!" and got him a huge guitar balloon. He thought that was awesome. I actually can't wait for him to learn the guitar. He is such a music lover! We ate cake down at Northwest because Tony couldn't break free from the blazer. At the time I wasn't too happy about it, but it worked out fine and Cooper was thrilled just to have his family around him and eat a cookie dough cake from Cold Stone. His highlight had to be his new mountain bike...now he can outride Cache! Cache was a little envious at first, but has been a great sport about Cooper having something better than him. (It's about time though, Cooper always gets the left overs from Cache.) All in all, I think Cooper had a good birthday! We love you and everything you are!

MOAB

Here are a few highlights from the adventure to Moab at the beginning of May. As you can see, the blazer changed quite a bit! In my opinion, I think it turned out great! Don't let me fool you though...it still needs a few minor adjustments and the final paint job will take place this winter. In the shortness of time, it only got primed!

This trip definitely was a long time in the making and the boys (Tony, Cache, & Cooper) had a blast! It was worth every minute without Tony while he rebuilt the blazer just to hear the thrill in their voices when I talked to them on the phone and see the smile on their faces when they returned home!

Just a note to my wonderful husband...I'm glad you are passionate about this! It brings so much fun and excitement to our family and the boys love it nearly as much as you do! Thanks for spending your time creating something you can do with us and doing it so well! I love you!

Where Is Tony?

For those of you who haven't seen Tony at recent family events, I thought I'd better show evidence of his "justified" disappearance. Over the past six months, Tony has gotten very serious about rebuilding his 1972 Chevy Blazer. He has researched doing this for years, but has recently made decisions about what he wanted the outcome to be and gotten the motivation to tackle the project. In order to fund this massive undertaking, he had to sell his blue blazer pictured below. I think he'd admit that it was a fair trade-off though! We are under a deadline to get the new blazer done. The boys are heading to Moab the first part of May, so there is still quite a bit to do before it's first showing. Nevertheless, here are a few photos of the rebuilding process...

New transfer case (That was expensive!)

New roll cage (I feel better knowing my boys are protected!)

New cage over the motor (Tony feels better knowing this is protected!)

Rear panels that have been shorted and narrowed!

An overall look!

I plan on posting before and after pictures of it when it is all done. For now, there are just a few final things to do to the body and cage before it is taken apart and off to be painted. Then it is time to put it all back together! As fun as this has been for Tony and the boys, I am anxious for it to be done. My honey-do-list is nearly a mile long! I can wait though...only 4 more weeks!

Happy Birthday Shelby!

Shelby celebrated her 4th birthday last month on February 25th. She actually had a whole week of fun starting with taking birthday treats to preschool, then having a "Littlest Pet Shop" party with her sister and six close friends, followed by a trip to Utah and celebrating with the Hobbs family, and finally having dinner and cake with the Traveller bunch at home! Shelby loved all the attention...thanks to everyone for making it so special!

A Special Treat!

During the week of Valentine's Day, the kids and I had a "Be Nice to Daddy Day" for Tony. (See sign on mantel.) This is an idea that started with my mother-in-law, but I love it! On this particular day, who ever is being honored, is spoiled rotten! For this day, we centered everything around Tony! I think it cheered him up...although, the next day, after Tony reprimanded Cache for doing something wrong, Cache whispered to me, "Mom, I don't think the "Be Nice to Dad Day" worked. I guess Cache expected Tony to have changed into "Mr. Nice Dad." I assured Cache that our idea did work, but that Tony still had to play the role of the responsible father and discipline his son.

On Valentine's Day, I got my own special treat! I was busy at the computer doing PTA stuff, when the kids came in and told me they had a surprise for me. They led me out into the living room with my eyes closed and then sat me on the sofa. They then told me to open my eyes and I saw what you see pictured above...they had formed a band! I was then privileged to listen to a couple Jack Johnson songs with the help of Cache's ipod nano and Cooper's idog. Each of the kids played a special part and definitely melted my heart!