Reading List

I decided my comments on the reading list we too cumbersome, so I'll start doing a "review" of whatever I read in a post and maybe linking it. "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was good. It's a thriller-ish story set in Sweden. I'd read another by that author and I don't usually read the murder thriller genre.

Flowers from Laney and Lotsa Jam

Laney and Charles went to Costco together today and Laney decided to buy me flowers. Here's a shot of what she picked out. The disposable camera really didn't do the bouquet justice. The flowers are acid green, acid yellow, purple, bright blue, and fuschia. It is really something to behold. But my little girl picked them out and I just love them.

I took my berries over to Mom's this afternoon and made jam. I think/hope it turned out pretty well. I ended up with 19 jars of jam. We stayed for dinner and Matt and Michelle came over with the kids. Looking at all the kids running around in the yard (even Kenna was "running" out there) makes us all somewhat fear the next few years. That's a lot of kids... We had a thunderstorm during the last part of dinner and all had to make a run for it inside. Laney was just done in tonight and Charles put her to bed without a fuss. She's out. The last couple nights she's been staying up until 9 or 10 (even though we put her to bed at 8).

Wild Water

Saturday we went on a white water rafting trip in Montana on the Clark Fork river. The kids stayed with Dana and we took our nephew Sean. Mom and Dad, Matt, 'Chelle, Nick, Sunny (Nick's girlfriend), Nickie (Sunny's sister), Joe (Sunny's brother in law), Aunt Lynda, Ian, Ethan (Ian's friend), Liz, Charlynne (Liz's friend), Travis (Liz's friend), Mary Jo (Mom's friend and the family chiropracter), Antigone (Mary Jo's daughter) and Jan (friend) also went. It was as big group.

Here's a shot of Sean and Charles

We drove about 55 miles into Montana to the Lozeau exit and they took us down to the river in a bus. We had a really fun time. Charles, Lynda and I rode with the boys in the only boat that didn't self bail. We got the "baptism" boat.

Our guide was Pete, who was quite an interesting character. Pete, who sports a mohawk, taught English last year in Russia and came back with a girlfriend/fiance who was our photographer. He was in the Moscow Idaho shooting a couple years ago (guy in a tower killed several people and a few policemen) and has four bullet hole scars from being shot. He's a nice guy. The picture of Pete above only shows half of him, but I was working with a disposable waterproof camera.

We were strong paddlers (so strong we sort of missed a few of the bigger rapid holes). We did a couple rescues when Mary Jo's boat dumped (twice). Sean had a really good time.This shot shows him jumping on the water slide made of overturned boats during lunch.

He was wiped on the way back though. We stopped at the $50,000 Silver Dollar bar for snacks on the way back and then at the Enaville SnakePit for dinner (it's been in business for over a hundred years and is on the north fork of the Cd'A river. It's got "ambiance" in its own way.)

This picture is of Ian after he fell off the boat "riding the bull".

Berry Picking

We went berry picking at Green Bluff today with Dana and her family. It was really fun and I can't believe how good strawberries taste when they are just picked. The babies were going crazy stuffing strawberries (and straw, sticks, unripe berries, leaves) into their mouths as fast as they could. I'm planning to make jam but will need to make non freezer jam in order to get it home, so uh Mom? help?

Laney did ok with it all, but she got bored fast. She ended up picking rocks and leaves at the road. After picking our berries we went for lunch at another farm. I was initially disappointed that the cherries weren't on, but in retrospect I think strawberries were a lot more fun for the kids.

Fireworks

It was a long weekend and we're all still a little tired! I finally pried the computer out of Charles hands (he went to a beer tasting--yes a beer tasting). We went up to Sandpoint Thursday afternoon and from the looks of our cars you'd think we were leaving for weeks. I felt like I took load after load after load down to the cars. Uncle (Uncle Phillip, my mom's brother) lives outside of Sandpoint. He's pretty close to the lake (Pend Oreille, pronounced ponderay) and has a little pond stocked with fish on his land. We had a big family dinner on Thursday. Friday all the girls went shopping and the guys stayed home and taught the kids to fish. Charles also worked on his "ground food". We traditionally cook in iron dutch ovens when we camp, which either Nick or Ian named ground food years ago. We brought a giant hunk of rib eye for dinner and Charles carved it up into steaks. The rib eyes caused a grease fire and when Joe and his family came up the road they were sure that the house was on fire there was so much smoke pouring from the porch!

We finally got to meet Joe's baby, Sydney and she is very cute at 6 weeks old. Liz is seeming to do pretty well with the mothering thing and got lots of unsolicited advice all weekend from us all. Poor Liz!

Saturday we went to the parade. It was really long. I hadn't been to the Sandpoint parade in a long long time (like 20 years or more).

We went down to the lake that afternoon to swim and had a big fireworks blow out courtesy of Sunny and her "connections" (Sunny's grandma is a Colville tribe member). I put most of the photos in the slideshow... I'll try to post more about the weekend eventually, but I'm tired now. I cleaned house for my sister today and I'm just beat.

About that Quail

I didn't realize that I hadn't posted on the poultry drama. Monday evening I went over to Starbucks as an excuse to take the kids out of the house. Fresh air makes them less cranky for some reason. Laney told me on the way over that she wanted to go to Barack Obama's house in the city he lives in. She's going to wear a pony tail. She picked out a nice rock in the fountain on the way to Starbucks to give to President Obama. At Starbucks we were going through the usual routine when the barrista said that she had a baby in the back too and would the kids like to see it. A couple of bikers had picked up a quail chick on the Centennial trail and "saved" it. While looking for someone else to complete the "saving" process, they stopped for a coffee and ended up leaving the quail at Starbucks. So there it was, in a coffee cup. The barrista said that she wasn't sure what to do with it and I volunteered that my sister might take it, so I called Dana and she and the kids came down to Starbucks and got it. It went home with them and after it kept trying to fly out of the nest box they put a bantam chick in with it. The two cuddled up and were supremely happy. It's still hanging in there.

Thursday Already?

I decided to do a quickie post and was shocked that my last one was on Sunday. Yikes, what have I been doing? Monday is a blur. I think I went to Costco with the circus (my kids) and that took the bulk of my day and good humor. I couldn't find the milk anywhere and had to go through the drive through bev barn across the street. Tuesday we went to the Kroc center in the morning and I put all the kids in the daycare and worked out (1 hour and 20 minutes to myself). I met Mark Rakes (those not in the know--my high school boyfriend who is now married to one of my good friends Lisa) as I was on the way out and he was heading in. He's doing good but man! he's going super gray. We will not discuss the state of my own hair... Tuesday night we went to the park for Em's 3rd birthday and had a good time. Laney had such a great time that the next day she wanted to know if it was Emi's birthday again. The purple lip crap in the treat bag: not so great. Laney and another boy took turns throwing dirt on each other at the park and when a police officer came to ask about who was illegally parked on the street, a little girl took him aside to tell one of the other kids to play nice. That's what I call using the big guns!
Wednesday we ran errands and then went to the park in the afternoon where Laney had a wonderful time playing with two boys. The older one was the dragon and Laney and the younger boy were the prince and princess. Then I worked feverishly to get everyone fed and bathed so that Ian could babysit while I went to the movies. We saw "The Proposal" with Sandra Bullock. It was cute. I have to say that it is mighty convenient to live right next to the movie theater.
I didn't get any sleep last night and my children were beastly all day for various reasons. Mostly, it was just a typical day 5. It seems like we're all fine for the first 4 days that Charles is on the road but by day 5 the wheels start falling off. Today we went to the park and I took toys. I put a ball in the stroller with Kenna and Laney had a fit. She said that Kenna would throw it in the lake. Sure as God made green apples, we started around the lake and Kenna chucked the ball out of the stroller, down the embankment and in to the lake. So off I went climbing down the bank to retrieve the ball. Did I mention that there is a restaurant with a patio next to the lake and that everyone on it was watching me?? The kids in the park weren't nice today and we had to leave after Laney fought with a little boy. He taunted her as she left too and I had a repressed but strong desire to shout insults back at him. Doodie head. After a quick nap we got dressed and washed the snot off so we could walk over to dinner at Red Robin for Matt's birthday. It was fun, but there is something about that place that seems to set the kids off. All the noise? I walked over to Starbucks afterward and ran in to the Quail Girl barrista (on her day off) and gave her an update on the quail--it's doing well with its surrogate sibling the bantam chicken at Dana's.