Headless

The kids and sqeezed a couple hours of beach time out of the last day of summer break. The water already seemed cooler than the last time we were there. Fall has a tendancy to jump out of nowhere around these parts. One day it's 95 degrees, and the next it's 77 and down to 42 at night.

Morgan spent a lot of time working on this sand creation, and insisted I needed a picture of it for my blog.

I came up with the brilliant idea of trying out the self-timer on my camera for the first time.

The first attempt looked great, except I managed to cut off my head!

The kids were very good sports (as usual). It only took three tries!

First Day of School

Wow. Another school year has begun. We've now got a 2nd grader, a 6th grader and an 8th grader. How did that happen?!! Eleven more years and we'll have an empty nest.

Some days that sounds appealing.......

Mostly, it just makes me sad.

Flip Flops

As in, my stomach flip flops! Why do I torture myself with these rides that make me squeal?!!



Someone told me recently (thanks, Teenie--you're so smart!) that as you age, the fluid in your ear thickens, and so you feel off balance easier. Fascinating, no?! Doesn't make carnival rides any easier to bear, but at least I understand why!

THIS particular ride is meant for little kids, but I can barely stand it. That's all it is is a big motorized swing. I spend the entire ride trying to fold myself into the fetal position.

Finally, I got smart and sat back to watch my girls go on the spinny rides!

Horsie Ride

After a couple of hours in the waterpark side of Silverwood, we moved over to the amusement park side. While Glenn took our wet towels and swimsuits out to the car, the kids and rode on the Carousel. This was the only ride all day that didn't have a line. For that reason, we rode twice.

Self-portrait.

Nicole is the horse lover, but she wasn't too excited about riding twice. These horses just don't compare to the real thing, I guess.

Our yearly trip to Silverwood usually takes place in late June or early July, but this year, it happened in August. Never again. Attendance has been around four to five thousand people in year's past, but this year it was over 8,500. We're not accustomed to waiting in long lines. We'd didn't like it much. But we still had fun, of course!

We started out our day with a photo op with Garfield. Not sure why Silverwood is associated with Garfield, but who can resist a photo with a huge stuffed animal?

Looking back, I see I went crazy with Silverwood posts last year, so if you missed it they can be found here, here, here, here, and here! I'll try not to bore you with so many posts about it this year, but I can't make any promises!

Saying Goodbye

The fair flew by this year. Too soon, it was time for the girls to sell their animals. They've always been sad about this stage of the process, but more so this year it seemed.

This was Nicole's first year with a lamb, of course. At times during the summer, she was so annoyed with him. He would often bleat pitifully when he heard us outside because he was lonely, but he had the not-so-endearing habit of head butting whomever came to visit! Apparently, this may be an inherited trait, because not all lambs are as prone to head butting as he was, and the breeder said he got rid of their ram who also had this wonderful tendancy.

Despite his faults, he was still an adorable fuzzy creature. Nicole managed to hold back the tears while she was in the sale ring, but did let a few fall in the privacy of our camp trailer. (Yes, we bring our camper to the fairgrounds. We only live 6 miles away, but it's so nice to have a quiet place to go to and the air conditioning was a wonderful retreat!)

Then it was Ellea's turn. This was her fourth pig. Over the years, she has come more to terms with the reality of selling the animal at the end of the project. This pig, however, was her favorite out of all the pigs she's had, I think. She was really not looking forward to selling her.

She cried.

Her sister, sitting next to me in the stands, cried with her.

Her friend, a fellow pig 4-Her, stood outside the ring watching and cried.

There were a lot of tears.

Ellea says she will not be eating pork. We'll see.....

Ta Da.....

Here is Jasper with one happy 13 year old girl!

Poxleitner News

Big news around the Poxleitner household-- we bought Nicole a new horse yesterday! We still have her 23 year old horse, but he's not doing very well, sadly. We thought we should start looking for a replacement. We have read and considered hundred of ads for horses. There were lots that had potential, but there was always something not quite right about them.

We tried one out in Pullman the other day and decided he was the one!! He's a beautiful bay gelding who is only 7 years old. He's incredibly well trained with amazing manners. We're leaving him with the owner for a couple of weeks so Nicole can go up and get a few lessons from her. She uses lots of leg pressure, and subtle cues to communicate with him. She has agreed to help Nicole learn how to ride him the way he's been trained.

I didn't have my "real" camera with me when we bought him, so we took pics with Glenn's phone. Sadly, I don't have the pictures right now. Soon, I promise!

Idaho County Fair Parade, 2012

The kids' 4-H club had a float in the Idaho County Fair parade on the last day of the fair. I'm sure they were tempted to just watch the parade, rather than ride on the float so they could catch candy, but I pushed for riding the float.


It's fun to throw candy, too!! (This is Morgan using his throwing arm!)

The girls on the far right. Ellea's throwing us a treat.

Idaho County Fair, 2012

We branched out this year. For the past few years, both girls have taken a pig project. This year, Nicole convinced her dad to let her take a lamb. Well, there's more to the story than that..... It's complicated. If you aren't familiar with our crazy problems related to our 4-H animals this year, you'll to need to catch up.

Ellea and her piggie, "Victorious."

Nicole and her lamb, "Chase."

Open Class

We went crazy this year entering open class exhibits in the fair. Someone told me that when they were a kid they entered anything and everything they could think of because they pay you for all the ribbons you win. I thought, why not?! So the kids and I ended up entering a total of 23 items!

Photos, artwork, crafts the kids made at school, a houseplant, fruit leather my mom and I made, sugar snap peas from our garden and baby blankets the kids sewed with their Aunt Nancy all made it to the fair. It was such fun walking around afterwards checking out our ribbons. We received about 20 ribbons!

For years we've talked about entering a project in the "Creature Feature" category. Kids take plant materials and create something. We finally did it this year, and it was fun. Morgan made two entries and Ellea made one. Apparently, Nicole is too old for these sorts of things, so she's holding the fruit leather!

Kisses for Zoey

Our first official Idaho County Fair event was Morgan's dog show. This was his second year taking our mutt dog, Zoey as a cloverbud 4-Her. A cloverbud is anyone younger than 8 years old (as of January 1st). They don't compete for blue, red and white ribbons, just participation ribbons. Next year he's a full-blown 4-Her and will likely take a pig.



Zoey is a very good sport and very cooperative. Especially considering how little practice she had. They did very well.


Morgan was happy with her performance as well. She was rewarded with a kiss on her head for all her hard work! Good job Morgan, and Zoey!

(photos by Nicole)

Busy Week

Phew! What a week it's been at the Idaho County Fair! Dog show for Morgan on Wednesday, fitting and showing of a pig and a lamb on Thursday, Quality showing of a pig and a lamb on Friday. Today is the parade and the animal sale. There will likely be tears from one or two little girls sellling their animals. Ellea's more attached to this pig that any of the last three she's had. Nicole sometimes dislikes her lamb, but mostly he's good and lambs are inherently cute, so she'll feel bad too, I think!!

Pictures next week...

Redneck Volleyball

Glenn got the idea to put up a volleyball court at the beach on the Selway. He swam across the river to get the upright poles, and used tie-down straps that were in the back of his pickup for the "net."

It was a lot of work, but it was well received! That's Glenn in the green shorts going after the ball!

And Nicole with her arms in the air. Fun times!

Swords and 'Staches

We had our yearly August trip to the Selway last week. Morgan got to hang out with his two favorite camping buddies.

He was thrilled with the fun stuff he picked out at the dollar store for him and his friends.

They were too cute in their stick-on mustaches! It was very hard for them to do the serious face...

The smiley face was much easier!

Morgan also got them each a sword. They ran around all weekend with their foam sword stuck down the back of their shirts! You never know when you might get in a sword fight!

The Fair has Arrived!

Today is the first day of the Idaho County Fair!! Morgan will show his dog in the morning, and the girls will take their pig and sheep, respectively, to weigh-in tomorrow evening. The girls will show their animals on Thursday and Friday and sell them on Saturday.


We've been getting them out to practice over the past couple of weeks.

Nicole is getting head butted less and less often!

Usually we get a photo of the girls with their animals. It was tricky to get the pig and the lamb side-by-side!

District Horse Show

Because Nicole received Reserve Champion in her riding class at the 4-H horse show this year, she was able to go to the District Horse Show in Lewiston. She was so excited!

She wasn't thrilled that helmets are required at the district horse show. I've been a bad mom and not made her wear one. She did well, but didn't come away with one of the fabulous rosette ribbons with a two foot tail that she was coveting. We reminded her that the other 10 riders in her class were also the grand and reserve champions from their county horse shows. She needed to be proud of herself for just being there.

Her poor horse is getting very skinny and struggling to do exactly what Nicole wants him to. Sadly, his age is catching up with him and he likely won't make it through the winter.

After the horse show, we gave pony rides to the cousins that came to cheer for Nicole!

And then, she loped around in the arena where they have their big rodeo in Lewiston!

Mooches

Our time with sweet Christina and her boys was far to short in Ellea's mind. She's been invited to move in (!), but she will only agree if I move with her. It's too bad they don't live in Keuterville! They have recently moved to Lewiston which is only an hour away, so hopefully they won't mind if we visit frequently!


She and Ben enjoyed some books together.

And the sweet boy gave his brother "mooches."

"E-ya" even got one!

Pure Joy

My favorite piece of equipment at the park when we went with Christina and her boys had to be the covered twisty slide. Ben's mom seemed surprised that he was willing to go down, but apparently sitting in Ellea's lap made him fearless!
Again, again!! he said after the first trip. And the second. And the third!! And then back to more swinging!!

I love that my "big-girl camera" has continuous shooting.

That way I don't miss any of the great expressions of pure joy!!

Mom and Me

Ellea and I wanted some "mom and me" time, so we went to visit one of our favorite people and her darling baby boys! Christina, Ben and Will couldn't have made us feel any more welcome (for inviting ourselves!!).


It's so much more fun to push a stroller with a live baby in it. Baby dolls just aren't cutting it as much anymore!

Baby Ben's favorite activity at the park was swinging. I think we'd still be there if he'd had his way!

Every Boy's Dream

Morgan's Godfather fulfilled his desire to have his very own BB gun for his birthday this year. He came to visit one day to give him his gift and spent a couple of hours teaching him how to shoot it (carefully!).

They had a lot of fun together shooting at a target and pop cans. Morgan was over the moon when he made contact with one of those pop cans!

Fire in the Sky

No 7th of July celebration would be complete without a fireworks display.



Turns out that Troy, Oregon (population, 30?) goes all out for their fireworks.

Dancing in the Street

We had fun at the street dance that was part of the big Troy, Oregon 7th of July celebration.


They had a great three-man band.

Ellea wanted to do the ten-step with her sister, but Nicole refused so she was stuck with mom!

And Morgan got to dance with his favorite girl!

Sea Legs

Our maiden voyage on the new raft was on the Grand Ronde River near Troy, Oregon. We weren't white water rafting, it was more of a float. But it was a great way to get our "sea legs" on our new boat and get the kids used to it. We had a lot of fun with it.


The focal point of this picture appears to be my white legs, but it's supposed to showcase the family preparing for their first trip on their new raft! (Nicole to my right, Ellea on my left. Glenn behind her and Morgan behind him with arms in air like he just won a race!)

Glenn makes rowing look like a piece of cake. Ellea discovered it's not as easy as it looks!

Happy 7th of July

We took off for a camping trip with friends on the weekend after the 4th of July to the little town of Troy, Oregon. We were expecting some rafting on the Grand Ronde River and some general relaxing around camp. Turned out that Troy, Idaho puts on a big event the Saturday after the 4th, so we couldn't help but join in on the 7th of July festivities!

One of the activities was a parade. The kids put together a float with Glenn's new raft. They waved American flags (that the organizers handed them) and threw candy (that the organizers provided), and squirted squirt guns (we did provide something!!). There's was the only float. The other entries were a couple bicycles, three horses and a handful of kids on foot. The parade looped around the block three times so we could extend the excitement! (Morgan is on the far left in black, Ellea is two to the right in gray (back to camera), and Nicole is two more to the right.)

Most of these kids have parents who went to school at the University of Idaho, so they're all pretty die hard Vandal fans, so that was the theme, of course!