Random Shots

Just a few random shots from a trip downtown today.

Lucky

Lucky

Really...crazy lucky.

For so many, many reasons.

Here are just a few that I have been reminded of this week....

1 - That I have a great family....One that will travel the long distances between Australia and the United States to visit us.



2 - That I have children who "GET" how lucky they are and who want to make a difference in the lives of other children who are less fortunate than themselves. (More on this one later)

3 - That despite the fact I am a summer girl I never tire of seeing the constantly changing seasons and enjoying all the fun that goes with them.



4 - That my 40 year old body can still hang together after a bit of exercise....and ...

5 - That I have a nice neighbor who took me for my first ride on my road bike and didn't mind that I slowed him down like a rock.



6 - That there are so many exciting things on the horizon for my family and for me. Even though we are headed toward the end of 2009...( I know...where did it go?)...2010 is going to be GREAT! :-)

Fall is in the air

September spoiled me a little.
Lovely Fall weather in the mid 70's was just too good to last.
And sure enough the last week has seen temps starting to dip down to freezing.
Usually I spend all of October in denial about summer being over.
I've decided that I like my weather in the extremes.
I love summer and I love lots of snow in winter....but I'm not a real fan of anything in between.
I have to say though one of the greatest things about this time of year is all the fruit and pumpkin picking that we can do here.



Today I took the kids on a CVA planned field trip to Walter's Fruit Ranch at Green Bluff. They got to ride the "Fruit Loop Express"...(which I think was more in reference to the guy driving us around on the tractor trailer than the fruit itself....he was a little out there!)



They got to pick apples and a pumpkin, saw apple cider being made and tasted it. Delish...( but a little gross to look at)
...and they tasted apple butter which was a lot like apple sauce with cinnamon in it.



Next week my brother Pete will be in town and we have lots of fun things lined up for him.
A wander through the corn maze, pumpkin carving, a trip to the IMax.
We are going to send him home exhausted :-)

My Poor Blog

Neglected....

That's what it is.

My poor blog!

Well, it has been neglected for good reason. Living life is getting in the way of my writing about it :-)
We have been getting through plenty of schoolwork. And I'm not going to bore you with details about math or spelling but I wanted to share some of the fun stuff we have been doing this month.
We have just finished an in depth study of the Vikings. To compliment all we have been reading about them we also...



Made viking bread.
Tasted great straight out of the oven and then quickly turned to concrete!
Those Viking were hardy folk!



We made viking weapons to add to the boys collection of medieval weaponry.



For art Ciara and Max had to design and build a viking longboat out of vegetables....and it had to float.
After a few design modifications both made something pretty cool that worked.



Jack made a viking person that he quickly decided was actually more like Matt than a Viking so it became a portrait of Dad.
Obviously Matt has some kind of vision issue that we need to check up on!



More on the creative front...



we did some painting
and...



We made cookie dough and then everyone got to add their own secret ingredients to see who could make the tastiest cookie.
Jack's had sour patch candy, sprinkles and Hershey's kisses that definitely had an...um...unusual taste to them.
Ciara went for the more conventional choc chip variety and Max created a banana cookie that was surprisingly popular.



We also joined some friends for a field trip to a hands-on kids science exhibition called " Mobius Labs".



So much fun....
and what a great way to see science in action



So I think I have a pretty good excuse as to why I haven't been blogging.
Throw on top of that working, remodelling and exercise and you'll understand why my house looks like a tornado hit it.
Hmmmm...house cleaning. That might have to be this weekends project!

County Fair

Friday we took a field trip to the County Fair with our homeschool group. Lots to see and do.
First off a visit to see the animals. The kids were nervous about turning their backs on these huge bulls. This was as close as I could get them to stand to the bulls and then they gave me a 2 second window to snap this picture before they took off.



The boys were a lot braver around the mechanical bull



Looking like true cowboys...



The sheep were a little less intimidating...



As were the horses...



Of course there is the obligatory silly picture...(really Mum... do we have to???...this is SO embarrassing)



A few rides....



And a fake tattoo rounded out the day beautifully.



What a fun way to spend a Friday!

Summer Update

Life has been a little busy around here lately so there is lots to blog about. Here is a quick overview of what's been happening here.
Friends arriving out of the blue! A wonderful childhood friend flew all the way from Australia to surprise me for my birthday.



This was aided and abetted by all these terrific people I call neighbors AND friends . They were all so good at keeping her arrival a secret that I think they may have had some kind of CIA spy training at some point in their lives!



In the midst of all this excitement I turned 40. So far it feels a lot like 39 so I'm not sure what all the fuss is about.



And I was spoiled by some of my Aussie girlfriends who sent me some gorgeous jewelry! A beautiful necklace..( you can see on me here)...and earrings (which I am wearing too but are covered up by my low key hat).



This lingerie item that I am displaying was a gift from my ever thoughtful husband!



My friend Dana also turned 40...she is certainly aging a lot more gracefully than I am!



On the home front...the renos are nearly finished.



We won't be ready for the start of the school year...{boohoo}...but hopefully it will only take a week or 2 to finish off.



We undertook our annual pilgrimage to the local themepark where the kids spent the day enjoying the rides...



This one completely cracks me up!



And of course football season has started....



and so has soccer....



So that brings you up to date...phew!
I feel like I have a bit of a blog sweat up :-)

A Birthday, A Bike Ride and a Bonus

Yes...Monday was a busy day. And so I had no Macro Monday post but I have a good excuse.
It was Matt's birthday yesterday.....and not just ANY birthday. He turned 40. The big 4 - 0.
Anyone who knows me well will tell you I am not a very good birthday shopper and I had been wracking my brains for weeks trying to think of what to get him. Anything that he really wants he just goes ahead and buys for himself and so there was nothing that I could think of that he either needed or wanted.



Now I'm not the melancholy sort but it did strike me that as we get older there is one thing that really is priceless and whether we like to admit it or not is in a diminishing supply....TIME. Time with our spouse, our children, our family, our friends. So Matt and I agreed that for this year no fancy presents...making the most of our time together was the best gift we could give each other.



With that in mind we headed off yesterday on a bit of a bicycling adventure. We drove across to the Idaho/ Montana border and took on the Hiawatha Trail. It was an old railway line that has been coverted to a beautifully scenic bike trail.

The scenery was just breathtaking!





We covered about 14.5 miles of the trail. Across old railway bridges and through plenty of long, dark tunnels. And when I say dark I mean pitch black. You can't see your hand in front of your face when you are inside the tunnels so a bike light for each of us was a necessity. Inside the tunnels it was surprisingly cold...and more than a little creepy. All darkness, bare rock walls and the sound of running, dripping water. Still it provided plenty of incentive to pedal like crazy to get through to the other side!





We were lucky enough to see a moose and her baby grazing..( sorry no pics of that), but we did meet these cute little chipmunks who were looking to share some of the oreos the kids were eating.




If you look closely to the top right in that picture above you will see one of the old railway bridges we crossed...just spectacular!



And so that was the birthday and the bike ride....and now for the bonus....for me that is.
I feel very honored to have a received an award from 2 blogging friends...Michelle and Elizabeth. Thank you both so much. I always enjoy visiting your blogs and I'm sure other visitors to my corner of the blogosphere will enjoy a visit there too! Thanks again guys :-)

Triathlon Weekend - Part 1

Let me say at the outset...I did not even break a sweat this weekend. But everyone else around me seemed to.

This weekend was the Coeur d'Alene Triathlon on Saturday and on Sunday was the Youth Triathlon. So much triathloning going on I will have to blog about it in a 2 part series {sigh}


Congratulations firstly go to our neighbor and friend Ken who competed in his first Olympic length triathlon. He was one of 1,500 competitors and we decided to go and cheer him on. So glad we did...it was such a great atmosphere. And he made it to the finish line in one piece. I won't repeat his first words after crossing the finish line. My husband Matt thinks he may have been delirious :-) But suffice it to say Ken has inspired our neighborhood to dust off our running shoes and get out and train for next years triathlon. Well Done Ken! I'm sure Ken's wife Michelle will be blogging some more about the race so head on over to her blog to get the full race rundown.



Part 2 tomorrow - Kids Triathlon

Brotherly Love

These are the things that make parenting SO worthwhile. A spontaneous brother hug. My new favorite photo!