I had a little help planting the pots on the patio this year.
Her mama helped, too, and also enjoyed snapping a few pictures with my camera.
The one photo I still need to get it the finished product.
Everyone needs a little help like this once in a while.
Free Time is good for a lot of things.
Fort picnics.
Swings.
Slides.
Reading books...and yes, he is reading the book.
And more swings.
I live very close to the Snake River Canyon. In fact, there's nothing between my back patio and the canyon but a couple of fences, Evil Knievel's jump and a bunch of cows.
Fairly recently the city has developed a walking trail along the canyon rim for the enjoyment of anybody who wants to walk there, so since I had my whole brood, minus PB home for Mother's Day, we decided to make use of it.
So we walked one way.
And some of us ran.
And we took in some of the sights at that end. This is an area called Pillar Falls. It's further down river from Shoshone Falls that I've shown you before. You can see that the canyon...and in truth a lot of the area around where I live is very rugged and wild...kind of like my boys, lol.
Then we turned and walked the other direction toward the Perrine Bridge.
The Perrine Bridge was named for an early businessman in the area here.
The trail will actually take you right under the bridge where you can hear the cars going over.
And then you can look back the other way at the bridge. It's a pretty walk I'd never taken before. Amazing what you can find in your own town.
I just love it when we drive long distances and I can get unfettered photo taking opportunities.
I love it when I can take those opportunities with my phone, of all things.
Every spring it seems we accumulate a large pile of prunings that go on top of the Christmas tree out in the pasture. In days gone by when we had all the kids at home, one of the first real signs of spring was burning this pile...and roasting hot dogs on it for our dinner.
We don't have anyone home now who is up for that so mostly is just needs to be done to get it out of the way.
When LS Boy was home over Easter weekend, he and DH took it upon themselves to burn the pile so they could move the snowmobile trailer to the back 40. One person shuffles the pile with a pitchfork to get everything burnt and the other mans the hose to make sure the fire doesn't move somewhere it's not supposed to....like the neighbor's pasture, or the hay stack. You can also see that Ollie doesn't like the process much, but he likes being with people so badly that he's willing to tolerate the scary fire, and the scary hose just to be outside with people.
Poor dog.
It's really amazing what one can find when one decides to really deep clean one's bathroom.....where one said one looked extensively for a certain item....that turned up in the cleaning process.
Isn't it?
While we were at the missionary homecoming last week, I took advantage of the opportunity to have DH take a photo of me and my sisters. Others in my family are less cooperative when it comes to picture taking, but my sisters are usually up for it.
Here we are. Yeah, I'm the one going grey. But it reflects my status as the oldest sister, right?
I miss my sisters. I live 3 hours away from one and 4 from the other. It's close enough to get to these milestone days for each other, but not close enough to be together often.
We are close, and when we get together, we talk and laugh and wish we were physically closer to each other. We all have busy families and even though we email each other every day just to check in, it's not the same as being in the same place at the same time. That's why we look so forward to the yearly girl's days we have at the cabin.
But look at the picture. I was struck by the fact that we automatically put our arms around each other, getting close....because we love each other, and that's a special thing.
Love you guys!
So this past Super Tuesday something happened here in Idaho for the very first time. Idaho held its first Republican caucus and DH and I went and participated. We had no idea what to expect. We were supposed to go to the cross-town high school where they were expecting 200-300 people to show up. When more than 1800 came, the organizers were a little flumoxed by the whole thing.
It took a really long time to get us all checked in, and checked to see if we were registered voters. It involved Disney-esque rat maze lines that went on for over an hour.
We finally got our office You Are a Registered Voter hand stamp (hard to see, but it says "hello!") and got into the gym, where it was standing room only.
Then we listened to how the whole process was going to work, which we already knew because we can read and it was in the paper and online. Then we got to listen to representatives from each nominee speak for 5 minutes each. After standing in line for nearly 2 hours to get to this point, I was honestly just a little annoyed at that part of it, because really, who's going to change their mind at the last minute based on a 5 minute blurb?
The rules were that one candidate had to receive over 50% of the vote for us to be done. Fortunately, that happened with the first vote and 3 1/2 hours after we started, we got to go home, having participated in the first ever Idaho caucus. We can truly say we did our bit and participated in the political process....and that, my friends, is what America is all about, and the biggest reason I became an American citizen.
Sometimes you just have to make a statement.
And you know what's really funny?
Seeing my DH wear them to look at something. :)
