Jumping for Joy

The fun never ends in our little photo sessions.  The kids are well-trained to keep thinking of great poses and photo ops!  I love this one.

And then they decided we should get a shot of them all jumping up in the air.  I thought that was a great idea. How hard can it be to snap a picture with them all jumping?  Harder than I imagined....

We tried several times and in every shot, Morgan is up off the ground when the girls are landing...

...or Morgan is just starting to jump and they're off the ground.

I don't know if he can't jump as high because he's young, but we just couldn't get them all jumping at the same time!

But we sure had fun trying!

Brother and Sisters

After a couple serious photos of the kids, the fun began....

Kisses for the little brother.

Oh my.

Piggy-back rides.

And general silliness.

Love those kiddos.  And their willingness to take lots of pictures!

Beautiful Views

Glenn took us for a four-wheeler ride last Sunday to the top of the Butte which is right out our back door.

The view is pretty spectacular.

We truly live in beautiful country.

And we have nice looking kids.

But they're growing up too fast!  Nicole was saying last night she didn't think she should be turning 15 at her next birthday.  I agree (Aack!!!  15?), so I think we'll just make her stop growing now.

Helicopter Video

Here's a video of the helicopter logging, in case you're interested in such things.  I think it's pretty cool that they can lay down the logs and fly away so quickly.  The pilot releases the hook that the logs are hanging from.  Someone is out in the woods wrapping bundles of logs with wire cables called chokers. The pilot hovers over them long enough so they can attach the choker to the long cable hanging down and away they go.  

Another couple guys are here at the landing and they run over and unwrap the bundle so the loaders can put them in a nice stack ready to load on a log truck.  Pretty slick.  Not the safest job in the world, though!

Duct Tape

This week is Red Ribbon Week which is an anti-drug campaign at the elementary and junior high school.  They have dress up days every day.  Today was duct tape day for Morgan.  He had high hopes of making a tie and a vest.  He told me this at 7:30 last night.  He was lucky to get a tie!

'Copter

Glenn took each of us girls to check out his helicopter logging job this summer.  Morgan didn't get a turn because it would have required him to drive along a very wind-y road and he doesn't do well with that sort of thing.

This helicopter looked pretty huge to me, but supposedly it's one of the smaller logging helicopters.  They strip everything out of the inside so it can handle the weight of the logs.

It was super cool to see the helicopter in action, but I also greatly enjoyed the lunch in the local diner out in the middle of nowhere that we went to.  The hamburger was delicious and homemade potato chips?  Yum!!!

Firewood

Last weekend was Glenn's birthday.  He and I went out to dinner on Saturday and  it was left up to him what we would do on Sunday.  What does he pick?  Going to get firewood.  Not what I would choose on my birthday weekend, but that's one of the many ways we are different!

I will say that it was a gorgeous mild fall day and where he took us has a fabulous view.

Ellea had a friend over that day and the kids were good help in loading the pickups.  Glenn's sister, Nancy and her hubby also came along.

A bird's-eye view of Grangeville Idaho.

Scarves

I found these cute chevron scarves recently for a bargain price and bought three of them.  My girls liked them, too, apparently, because we ended up going to church yesterday looking all coordinated.

And, no, Nicole is not taller than me (yet), both girls are sitting on the railing on the deck!

Silverwood, 2013

Back in August, we made our annual trip to our local theme park near Coeur d'Alene.  Silverwood has a reading program that allows the kids to earn free Admission to the park.  They have to keep track of 10 extra hours of reading (aside from homework reading).  It's a great deal, and of course, Glenn and I have to buy our tickets, so it's not really free, but it forces us to make the time to go and make fun memories.  And this year, niece Shari joined us, so that made it extra special.

Every year, the girls insist on riding this spinny ride.  Every year, the rest of us pass.

This year, for the first time, a few of us decided to try out the "Corkscrew," which is a short roller coaster ride that goes upside down, and well, corkscrews.  Not once, but twice.  You can't tell, but we're in the second car.  Me and Ellea in the front, Glenn and Shari in the back.

I'm not usually a fan of roller coasters, but I had been on this one years ago and knew it was a brief ride.  If I'm going to be scared, I want to get it over with and be done with it!

Shari even talked Ellea into riding a second time since the line was so short.  They rode in the very back which they said was even more intense.

Phew!  My heart got to pumping just writing about it!

Boy Cousins

Typically, Morgan is odd-man-out when we go hang out with the Mangini cousins, but since Auntie Barbara brought her grandson with her from California, he actually had a boy to play with!  They played lots of wii videogames, and football and legos, you can't forget about the legos.  They're both crazy about Legos and Star Wars, so it was a good fit!

Girl Cousins

The Mangini girl cousins.  Love this picture I took while Auntie Barb was also taking a pic.  Don't know why, but I like it.

Love these girls.  They're thick as thieves when we get together.

And they have their silly moments, too!

Barrels

Nicole talked Ellea into trying out the barrel racing pattern on our ride last weekend.  She was afraid Jasper would try to go fast, but Jasper's just not that kind of horse.  He goes the speed you ask him to.

 Barrel number two.

And the home stretch!  They trotted!!  And she liked it so much she asked if we could trot (jog, really) on the way home!  You have no idea what a big deal this is!  And, she rode bareback with Nicole yesterday! Bareback!  Sorry no pic, I seem to have come down with another cold when I wasn't really over my last one.  So I was being lazy about getting the camera out.  I regret it.  I'll do better next time.

Stinkin' Cute

My dear Auntie Barbara reminded me that I hadn't posted these pics from our delightful visit to the Grizzly Bear center at WSU in Pullman when she was visiting.  The bears were super cool and fun to watch.  But they more than a tad odoriferous.  As in, ripe, rotting flesh, gag me, oh-my-gosh-does-that-ever-stink kind of odors.  It was bad.  Really, really bad.  You must believe me on this one.

It was so stinky that Barb's grandson, Dominic, spent the entire time breathing through his shirt.  The rest of us dealt with it, but there was no convincing him to uncover his face, even for a moment, for the sake of the photo.  And he was in a hurry to leave, too.  Imagine that.

I agree the stench was almost unbearable (ha!  no pun intended), but they were so stinkin' (pun intended!) cute.  Can a grizzly bear be cute? I know they can stink!  This one was thoroughly enjoying himself frolicking in this huge metal water tank (which may have been attributing to the odor--as was the 90 degree weather).

The chain-link fence made it tough to take good pictures, but was a good idea, don't you think?  There were actually two chain link fences a few feet apart.  They are grizzly bears, after all.

Three Riders, Two Horses

Sadly, our little pony, Joe, went to a new home recently where he will hopefully be ridden more than twice a year.  Of course, now that we're down to two horses, Ellea decided she could be talked into going for a ride with Nicole and I.  Nicole was willing to let her ride double with her on her darling horse.

They did great together and we had a fun time in the beautiful fall sunshine.  You can see the dogs are anxious to get going! ("Enough with the pictures.... let's go already!")

Humans and horses alike enjoyed an apple break.  Dakota was happy to help himself!  Nom, nom, nom!

And of course we needed a self-portrait on horseback!

Vandal Pride

Took the kids to Moscow recently for the U of I Homecoming.  One major highlight was the parade.  We were a few minutes late, so missed the Marching Band, but caught the tail end of them walking away!  How cool is that tuba?!

Crazy two big-wheeled bike.

A Kaufman Cousin driving his fraternity's float.

Horses!  Who doesn't love seeing horses in a parade?  This is the polo team.  How cool is that?  We didn't have horse polo when I went to school at U of I.

We even met up with my brother and his youngest.  They walked in the parade with the Chamber of Commerce and then came and took in the rest of the parade with us.  You may notice that one of my children is absent.  She's becoming a teenager and didn't want to be bothered with getting up early to drive to Moscow and spend the day.  So she sat at home by herself all day long.  Said it was rather boring.  Hopefully, next time she'll join in the fun!

And how super cool is this?  The city of Moscow went and painted one of their ambulances in vandal colors! I saw this same ambulance at the football game, so I'm sure the school paid for the paint job, but you gotta love some vandal pride on an emergency vehicle!