Summer goes!!!!

Wow! Summer goes fast! Time, I mean. I looked and saw that the last post was from 4th of July and thought "What happened?". Summer happened, that's what. After the 4th there was a scramble at work to get as much done as I could. Because we were on vacation from July 16 - 24th! Yeah- a nice big chunk right in the middle of the month. It's ok, though I planned for it. But the week before we left I was feeling like a headless chicken.

Then getting back this week meant Monday and Tuesday on the road doing classes, so I really wasn't 'back' until Wednesday. (unless you count the 5:45 AM trip to pick up computers for my Twin Falls trip on Monday). Wednesday still felt like a hamster on a a wheel, but getting better.

Our vacation. We went camping in three places. First to the Augustus Peterson Reunion in St. Charles, ID. We went to Bear Lake twice with the kids. Bear Lake is great because you can walk out for over 60 yards from shore before you have to swim. It starts out very shallow. Then we packed up the tent and sleeping bags and headed to Island Park, ID (Henry's Fork of the Snake River/ Henry's Lake). We met up with my in-laws there. We camped at Lower Flat Rock Campground- it is across the highway from Mack's Inn. We camped for five days then we packed up and headed back to Nampa. One night at home then we headed to Owyhee Reservoir for a church overnighter. We went to Camp Hycliff. It was an interesting drive, Tammy drove and does not like driving close to rocks (we were right against a high cliff) or close to water (we were along the Owyhee river the last part of our drive). It was nice. Grass to camp on, lots of trees for shade and a water slide for the kids.

Here are a few pictures from the Island Park section of our trip.

July 2010

A fun time had by all.  It's good to be home.

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Happy Birthday America! What a great day to celebrate the Red, White, & Blue. This spring we watched America, the story of US on the History channel with the kids. It was a great way to have them learn a little more about US history at home. You can watch episodes online if you're interested. It's not as dry as you might think and they have some good re-enactments.

I hope that everyone has a great 4th of July. This is America. It doesn't matter if you watched fireworks on the 3rd or the 4th you can be American just the same.




Here are the words to the National Anthem... All verses!
Have a great 4th of July!


O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

...Can you see

Hard to believe that the 4th of July is here already. The on true month of summer vacation is here (the only month without a school day). The 4th makes me think of cook outs, hot dogs, fireworks and heat.

I remember many 4ths of July going to my grandma's house in the south part of town off of South Powerline and celebrating 4th of July and my uncle Randy's birthday (it's on the 4th as well). We would have a cook out on her patio in the shade. Great Uncles and Aunts would come to enjoy the company. Uncle Danny would pull out the GOOD* fireworks that he had purchased in Wyoming while visiting his college friends. Cort and I had just mowed her lawn so it looked great!

We would shoot bottle rockets out of actual glass bottles. (I know- soda actually came in glass bottles!) It was great because we were on the edge of town and there was plenty of room that no neighbors complained. Then of course the smoke bombs came out and the tossed them into the grass and watched the smoke snake around in the grass- then rising to the surface. Red, blue, orange, puke yellow. It was good fun. Then of course if we had a little green army man, who could make the ultimate sacrifice. He could join the space program and go up on a bottle rocket. Never to return.

Now I get to share these same types of memories with my kids. I haven't made any trips to WY, but I still know where to get the good fireworks!

Happy 4th of July!


*GOOD means illegal!