Flashback Friday

It seems that Jon's family has a little reunion around the 24th of July each year. His mom always does a cousin camp, which is a lot of fun for the kids. They do hikes, paintings, stories, talents, crafts, movies, and usually have a theme--bugs, outdoors, stars, China, etc. This year at the reunion, they made a sort of slip-n-slide for the kids--plastic sheets with a "real" slip-n-slide at the bottom. I found this pictures from five years ago of the exact same thing. Wow--the kids sure have grown up!!A big long line of cousins, with Uncle Tim helping out.
Kendall is in front--leading the train.Kristen is crouching behind Uncle Tim and Jarren is standing up behind her, in his speedo swim diaper. :)
2011--Jenna had NO interest in sliding and getting wet.
Jarren, helping a cousin down the slide. They played on there for probably close to 2 hours!
Kristen. :)
Kendall holding onto a cousin's hands, while another cousin slides next to them. He got the "older" ones to participate.

Flashback Friday (or whatever day it is--haha)

The kids have been begging for another dog. Nope--sorry; won't happen. I do not mind at all helping out friends and neighbors with their dogs, in exchange for them watching Toby for us. But to have another dog (or two) permanently? Not going to happen.

Anyway...all this made me think back to when we got Toby. We got him in April of 2003--about 6 weeks before Jarren was born. Yeah, crazy, right? A puppy and a newborn?? He used to be so much lighter in color. He's pretty dark and old now. :) We were looking for a shih tzu puppy for the kids, but they were so expensive!! Back then, we would look in the classifieds in the newspaper (not online) and I'd check every day. One Saturday, I found an ad and they were $175 each, or something like that. Cheap. I decided to be respectful and not call until 8 am and by the time I called, all 9 puppies were spoken for. She told me that if anyone changed their minds, they'd put me on a list and call me back. She asked if we had any preference on a male or female. I told her we just wanted a pet for our kids and it didn't matter. She called me back a few minutes later and told me that she really wanted our kids to have a pet--her cousin (or some relation) was going to take one, but she was convinced to have her wait for the next litter. So....we went and got our puppy. The kids wanted to name him Speckles, but we talked them into Toby. So....Toby Speckles became his name.

It's so funny to me how dogs have personalities. He's a mama's boy--always following me around. He is also a homebody. He loves to get in the car, but when we get to where we're going, he just wants to go home. He loves to sit on the couch and look outside, keeping an eye on things. He used to be soooo hyper but has mellowed a lot over the years. He doesn't ever seem content until the whole family is home. When we got back from our trip, I went and picked him up early the next morning , and he had to run into everyone's rooms to check and make sure they were there. He's a funny dog...

Jenna Update

I took Jenna in for another dermatologist appointment on July 13. Her fungus still hasn't cleared up. They told me to do the full course of oral medication and then give it a few weeks to see if it worked. After 5 weeks, it still wasn't gone. It wasn't worse, but it wasn't much better. They decided to double her dose of oral meds and then to have me continue to wash her hair with the medicated shampoo and to rub some anti-fungal drops onto the sores. She has lost a few more pieces (along with hair) and it does seem to be loosening, but it's still there. Sooooo frustrating!!! They also sent me to the hospital to have blood work done on her to make sure her liver is okay. They asked me if she has some underlying health problem. There are none that I know of. They told me they'd call if I needed to know anything and I haven't heard a word, so I'm assuming the tests were all normal. Poor girl...I hope it goes away soon!

Family Vacation 2011

Whew! We had a very fun (and tiring) vacation this month. Kendall had scout camp and we picked him up on the last day, just before they came home and headed to West Yellowstone. We stayed there for 2 nights at Yellowstone Lodge. On the third day, we made our way to Gros Ventre--a campground about 20 minutes north of Jackson Hole. We camped there for 4 nights with my parents and younger brother and sister. Another brother and his family were there for one night. Then we headed to Jon's parents' house for a family reunion, staying at my parents' house for one night.

Some highlights: in Yellowstone, we did a lot of driving. We saw lots of bison (some walking down the road or sitting right next to the mud volcano), lots of elk, some baby deer, pronghorn, a baby black bear, and a mama grizzly with two cubs (off in the distance). We also saw the Upper and Lower Falls, the mud volcano, Mammoth Hot Springs, Fishing Bridge, the river, the lake, and many other pretty things.

In Grand Teton, we did a lot of hiking. Jon and the boys did a hike up a hill across the road from the campground that ended up being a lot longer and harder than they thought--about 6 miles. We girls went to town--shopping. :) The next day, we left the girls with my parents and brother and took my sister and the boys hiking through Cascade Canyon. That has got to be one of my favorite hikes! You go around Jenny Lake, up to Inspiration Point and then through a canyon between two of the peaks. There, we saw a moose, marmots, picas, fat chipmunks, etc. There are rock slides, caves, ponds, rivers, streams, trees, and more. Sooooo pretty!!! My goal is to make it to Lake Solitude and around through Paintbrush Canyon--do the whole loop. It's about 16 miles--we only made it about 4 up and 4 back--8 total. The last day, we took all of the kids to Colter Bay and hiked around Heron Pond, Swan Lake, and Half Moon Bay. It was more of a walk, than a hike but you'd have thought we were torturing Kristen. She was NOT happy to be there. We arranged to do that because they have showers at Colter Bay and we made the kids clean up after we were done. It sure was a fun trip!!

Poor Kendall--he'd been camping for a week already for his scout camp and then had another 8 days with us. He was sooo ready to come home!! His camp was good, but kind of hard too. He celebrated his 13th birthday there and then later that day, a scout drowned while scuba diving. Kendall was on the beach when it happened. Another scout at a different camp was struck and killed by lightning that same day too. That night, they had a huge storm come up and it was pretty crazy. I was so worried about him and was so relieved to have him back with us.

Yellowstone/Tetons July 2011

Yellowstone/Teton July 2011

Flashback Friday

We're going to Jackson Hole and Yellowstone on a family vacation later this month and we haven't been up there since 2005, which means that Jenna's never been. Here are some pics from our last trip there.A picture of Jon, Kendall (7), Kristen (5), and Jarren (2) at a lake near the Tetons. Kendall was into fishing, but didn't catch anything. Jarren loved the water. And Kristen liked hiking--for about 5 minutes. Then she was tired.
A waterfall in Yellowstone Nat'l Park. It was very cool (I mean both meanings--pretty/neat AND cold). I was a little nervous because at that time, Jarren wasn't super loud, like he is now. He was pretty quiet and very, very busy--always getting into this or that and running wherever he went.Hiding in a little cave on the trail back up from the waterfall. We are sooo excited!! It will be a very fun vacation!!

Happy (unofficial) 13th Birthday, Kendall!!!

This is another "strange" year for celebrating Kendall's birthday, mainly because we won't be with him. He's at scout camp ALL WEEK LONG. He left at 6:30 am today and we'll be picking him up on Saturday morning, on our way to our week-long family vacation. Two weeks away for him!

Since he won't be here (his real birthday is on July 13--and his 13th birthday, no less), we decided to celebrate last night. He wanted grilled steak (yes, Jon was out grilling in a thunderstorm), mashed potatoes and gravy, with peas. He also wanted an interesting cake--strawberry pudding poked. I made a strawberry cake from a mix and then when it came out of the oven, poked holes all over it with the end of a wooden spoon. I made a vanilla pudding mixture, which he wanted flavored with strawberry syrup, and poured over it while it was still warm. Then we put it in the fridge and topped it with fresh strawberries before serving.His gifts were also interesting. Since a cell phone, new iPod, and xBox were totally out of the question, we decided to give him a trip. So...he opened a few little things--iTunes gift card, new clothes, new blanket for his bed (his other one ripped), scuba goggles (camp is at a lake), and new earphones. Then we had him put together a puzzle which told that he gets a trip to Monterrey and Half Moon Bay, CA in October for a pelagic (looking for sea birds on a boat) trip. We had sky miles and Jon got an unexpected bonus from work, so it won't cost much at all. I think he had a good day. He sure was behaving super, super good!!HAPPY 13th BIRTHDAY, KENDALL!!!