Hanging out in Idaho Part 2

Here we resume the tale of our Idaho trip.

It was white glove, so we helped M and M clean out their

apartments. We were done with Mandy's and 

hard at work on Mia's, when Emma

and Evan and the boys arrived. Hurrah!

I do believe Mandy was getting ready for her recital here

The Dad and The Henry

Gabe and Mia playing with sidewalk chalk.

Getting ready. Is that dress not magnificent?!

On to the recital. I am sorry these are so yellow.

That is just how the lighting was in the recital hall. 

Also, I confess, I did not try to do any editing.

These are the befores

This is Sister Skinner, Mandy's friend 

and accompanist extraordinaire.

These are the after pictures.

Mandy with Brother Klein

Mandy and Mary

Beautiful Mandy and the lovely Chelsea enjoying the aftermath of the wildly successful recital. It was really awesome! 







And here they are again in a more, uh, natural state.

Fabulous, am I right?

Here are the marvelous Haggen Sisters

I confess, they are my favorite.

I also love that they are all barefoot.

Add in the rest of the family

and it looks like a party.

Except for our Sam, who is working at scout

 camp and missed the whole party.

Mandy and Kayla, who performed 

a horn/voice duet that made my

hair stand on end. I was pretty proud of myself for not bawling my head off. I came close a couple of times and sucked it up and held it together. Oof!                                  

Close up! Look at the eyes on these girls!

I think the above picture might be my favorite.

Beautiful Mandy and her horn

Please ignore the fact that I look bald where

 my hair is grey. Gah! 

I just ran out of time for coloring it. Gross!

After the recital we went to the nature park and had a picnic.

Gabe had a good time climbing.

Note to self: never smile with your mouth shut. So not attractive!

Poor Kerry was stuck grilling with pine tree sticks because I forgot utensils. Haha. He did a great job with it

The Gabe, being a cutie

t

Classic Dad

Also classic

And then I saw this. My heart just about

 exploded with the cuteness and sweetness.

Gabe really liked feeding bread to the ducks.

I have no idea what we are doing here. 

What are you showing to me?

Do you remember Emma? Evan?

And then we were tired and it was time to head back to Tetonia.

The skies were glorious and I had to take a couple of pictures. Gorgeous! 

Dad was driving like a maniac, going super fast. I told him he better slow down because it was dusk and something might jump out in front of us. He slowed down a lot. Not a quarter of a mile later this guy crossed the road right in front of us. He stood in the ditch for a bit so we could enjoy him. Very thoughtful!

He is fuzzy because it was quite dark at this point and I had to zoom.

 I don't even care. It was just so cool to see him.

This brings us to the end of today's portion of  our journey. 

More fun and frolics are to be had.

To see more, tune in next time. 

Until then,

Love you!

Idaho Visit Part 1

Hello, The Family!

Here I am at home, once again, after our swell

soiree out in the lovely land of Idaho. 

(I so do love alliteration.)

As you all know, I am having a bit of a fuzzy-brain

problem. So. Here are a bunch of real nice pictures

of our trip out to see you. It is fair to say that I 

have little idea of where most of these pictures

were taken. It was pretty. I had fun. Etc...

We stopped to see Sammy on our way.

It was really funny. Dad and I parked in the

parking lot and headed for the dining lodge. As we strolled

up we heard a booming Sam voice say, "Hey! Is

that my mom? What are my parents doing here?"

We stayed and visited during his lunch break. It was so

good to see him and he was equally glad to see us.

I sure love that boy! We brought him some snacks

and quarters for the laundry. 

He is getting to be way too grown up.

Look at that cute face!

All too soon it was time for him to get back to 

work, so we hugged and headed out.

We were famished and stopped at a Perkins

 for lunch. The weirdest thing happened there.

When I was a trying-to-be-cool teenager in the 1980s I 

listened to a very alternative band called Bronski Beat.

I never heard any of their music on the radio. Ever.

Until I was in a Perkins restaurant, in northern Minnesota,

in 2014. And oddly, there it was: Bronski Beat, wailing 

out, "Can you tell me why?"

Bizarre!

We stopped to sleep in the gracious 

(I use that word very loosely) 

accommodations of ye olde Walmart parking lot. We put

the air mattress in the back of Wayne-Daryl, pulled the shades,

and got comfy. We even had my wind up alarm clock from home.

Surprisingly cozy!

Next morning we breakfasted on McDonald's, and resumed

driving. This wayside rest was one of our first stops. We

got out and walked the paths several times to give my

back some respite from sitting. After a while Dad went to

read the visitor info, and I grabbed my camera to take

some pictures. I was bopping along until I saw this:

and stopped dead in my tracks. 

Yikes!!!

And then I resumed, because we had already walked

all over without seeing any snakes. 

Ugh! Blech! Shudder!

Snakes freak me out.

Then we drove a looooooong time.

And it must have been boring.

Or I slept?

I don't know. What I do know is that there are no pictures.

Oh wait! We stopped at a really great little place in Bozeman

for lunch and had a gorgeous salad, brick oven pizza, 

and some super delicious beverages. It was such a hipster

place and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Haha!

And then we were past Bozeman and into the pretty

part of the drive. This is one of many stops.

The Mom/Dad selfie.

We were alone. What else could we do?

Wayne-Daryl wanted a pic with the pretty scenery too.

Before we knew it we had phone service and a pile 

of texts from all the people.

We tried to surprise Mandy and Mia, to no avail.

They were in the library studying like good girls.

 (finals week for those who don't know) 

 We ended up having to text M and M, got excitedly 

together, and the fun began! We visited for a while and 

then headed out to Kayla and Kerry's house.

And that concludes today's portion of our vacation

story. Join us next time and see what further

fun Ross and Kim enjoy on their journey!

Until next time....

Love,

The Mom

Today In The Gardens

It was such a lovely summer morning I thought we should have a quick tour.

Blame Grandpa K.

He was all about the tour.

As you know, we have had quite a bit of rain,

so everything is doing pretty well.

I love how vivid the colors are in this grouping.

My cucumbers, lettuce, swiss chard (thought I'd try it), and

Nasturtiums are flourishing, although the cukes are taking over.

I love this old garden sign.

The tomatoes are coming.

A rogue daisy.

Cosmos

Zinnias

The green beans

And darn this broccoli. I give up. It always bolts before it gets big

enough to harvest. I don't think I will plant it again.

Yum!

Gigantor Anaheim Pepper

Bean blossom

They are so pretty!

Dad's Black Raspberries

Notice all the apples on the tree? Look up. There are tons.

Feeling patriotic

The front bed

I love this colored yarrow.

And this bunny

My hydrangeas are getting bigger and blooming

Chairs just waiting for bodies to fill them

So there's a peek at the yard at home.

Can't wait to see you all here.

Love you tons!

Mom