Early Father's Day

Since Rebecca and I are going to be in Israel on Father's Day, we decided to celebrate it early. The festivities started yesterday morning. For breakfast Rebecca made apple fritter donuts, bacon, and eggs. Her apple fritters are really good. We have done the recipe a few times now and every time it has turned out as good or better than store bought apple fritters. It is a Cooks Country recipe, but it can also be found on the Our Best Bites website.

After breakfast we went out fishing. There is a stocked pond a couple miles from our house and the Idaho fish and game people were doing a free fishing day where they supplied all the equipment. Usually in Idaho kids do not need a fishing license, but we don't have any fishing gear, so we have never gone. There were lots of people there to show the kids how to do it and they had a fun time. We probably spent an hour there without catching anything. But then we heard that people were catching fish at the bottom without the bobber on. So we took ours off and almost immediately Ethan caught one. He reeled it in all on his own and then carried it up to the stand where they helped him get it all strung up. No one else caught anything, but they were still all happy to be there. It was Ethan's lucky day because he also was the first name drawn in the raffle and so he got to pick whatever prize he wanted. He picked out his own fishing pole and although I don't know much about poles, it looked like it was a pretty good quality one (not a kids pole). The other kids were again pretty happy for him even though they didn't win anything.

We came home for lunch and had the trout that Ethan caught. Then we just hung around the house for the rest of the day. For dinner I picked Chinese food. I really like trying to make some of my favorite recipes from Taiwan, but I never seem to do a good job with it. This time I made some beef noodle soup (the soup turned out pretty good, but the noodles didn't turn out at all) and three kinds of steamed buns (plain steamed, steamed then fried, and steamed with taro in the middle). They tasted pretty good too, but my water ran out on the last batch, so they got burnt. Rebecca added some asparagus. It was fun to have the Chinese dishes, but I decided it wasn't worth it. I spent hours in the kitchen making these things and it never seems to turn out like I hope. Hopefully I will remember this next year and just pick another one of my favorites like lasagna - there is nothing better than Rebecca's lasagna!

Here are a couple pictures of the food, but I forgot the camera for the fishing trip.

In Ground Trampoline

Once they finished grading on our lot I decided it was time to put in our trampoline. Rebecca and I picked out a spot in the back corner of our yard, furthest away from the street that we could get it and closest to the neighbors that we could get it. We figured that as an older couple they would probably appreciate the noise of children a lot since their home is probably so quiet.

The hardest part was definitely digging the hole. It took several weeks and I tried to just do a little every day with a few really big days of digging. Digging was bad, but I had to wheel all the dirt up the little hill to our front yard. With the wheel barrow full I had to get a running start to make it to the top of the hill and sometimes, at the end of a long day, I wouldn't make it and I would come rolling backward down. So this hole is about 3 feet deep and 38 feet in circumference. In the middle I dug an extra 2 feet down just for a hole for the water to collect in if we get heavy rain or for Nathanael to do extra big jumps (he warned me that he would hit the bottom on it).

After the hole was all dug I figured I needed some type of wall so the dirt wouldn't wear away over time. I looked at a lot of options. I don't know if I did the best thing, but what I did was a metal wire fence with metal fence posts to hold it in place. Then a pond tarp on the outside of that. Then I filled in the space between the pond tarp and the dirt wall with more dirt. Then we put the trampoline in and I leveled off the ground on all sides of it.

Here are a few pictures of the work:

Activity Days Model

On Wednesday Julia had a Activity Days stake activity. It was a day long event with girls from all 12 wards in our stake. Sounds like they did some activities, listened to some talks, and had a lunch. The focus was on inner beauty. Julia said she had a great time and was really excited to share the things she learned. She was also especially really excited for the event because a couple days earlier the leader from our ward asked if Julia would represent our ward in modeling modest clothes with fun accessories. In fact, she just asked Julia to wear the same outfit she had on for Sunday. Here it is: Of note she, was wearing a necklace she borrowed from Rebecca who got it from her mom and a belt that she got from her Great Grandma Swift. She really likes that belt and wears it often.

Library Fun Run

On Wednesday our library put on a fun run to kick off their summer reading program. I thought that was neat since you don't often see those two things (exercise and reading) going together. I thought that there was going to be a crowd and we would have trouble parking, but even though we were maybe just 1 minute early we were the first ones there. I think there ended up being only about 20 people that did the run counting our 7. A couple of the runners looked like the library staff just corralled them out of the library to do it and then there were also two adults that looked like they had been preparing and training for this run all year. Our family did beat one of those adults, so that felt good.

It was just two and a half miles along a city trail that we had not been on before. We had the stroller which could seat three and we just did a nice slow jog. The kids did great and they were all really in to it. I was a little worried because right at the start Julia said her foot hurt, but then after a block or so, she just joined right in. Julia, Ethan, and Christian would do a rotation about every 50 yards for the third stroller seat and every once in a while Elliott would get out and run so two of them could sit down. Only two people finished before we did, one adult male who was all dressed for the race and one 10 year old. After the race they had some of the 100% juice freeze pops from Costco that I had been wanting to try and they gave out small prizes to everyone (e.g., t-shirts, frisbees). We then signed up for the summer reading program and did our usual library routine. Sorry, I thought I took some pictures, but I can't find them on here.

I am really glad that our kids just love to read. I never have. Not growing up especially and then it is hard for me to find the time to do it now. But Rebecca and I read some books together, every once in a while I might get through one on my own, and I get to read to the kids. And when I read to them I love seeing them get caught up in their imagination and get absorbed in the story. Plus they often learn lessons from the story that are subtle and seem to stick with them sometimes better than when we just try to directly tell them the same thing. Right now Christian is reading James and the Giant Peach, Ethan just started Mysterious Benedict Society, and Julia is reading Story of the World Volume II (more of a history textbook than a story). We just listened to Ramona and Beezus on audio yesterday, Rebecca just finished reading Treasure Island to them, and now they are all on The Wind and the Willows.

Hike the P

Like in Utah, a lot of the cities and schools in Idaho put giant letters on the mountainsides. Here in Pocatello there is a big P on the other side of town that we can see out our window. We also used to have an even bigger I on a hill near campus to represent ISU, but it was falling apart and so they took it down.  We are trying to do a hike a week as a family, so this week, on Thursday, we decide to hike to the P.

In preparation, I tried to find a trail guide online, but nothing was showing up. But I could clearly see a trail from our window, so then I just tried google maps and estimated that it might be 2 miles each way. We went right after lunch and it was hot. It felt pretty good being out in the sun, but none of us were used to that much heat. It was a pretty hike with good views of the city and the surrounding mountains, hills, and valleys. There were a few steep parts, but all very doable for the kids. Agnes even wanted to walk most of the way. At the top we dangled our feet over the P for a while, had some small snacks, and just enjoyed the view.





Overall it was a great hike. Unfortunately, when we got home we discovered a couple ticks. We have never had them over here by our house even though the kids play out in the brush all of the time, so maybe they are just over on that side of the town. Rebecca found one climbing in her hair and one climbing on Agnes's diaper. I found one climbing on my arm and then one in my clothes. We searched the kids carefully and did a special wash with their clothes, but today I found one more, and it was stuck in Elliott's head. I am guessing maybe it got on the towel and then today when he dried off it jumped back on him. I just didn't think to wash the towels. I was able to get it out no problem, but I still really hate those little bugs.

School is Out!

Christian, Ethan, and Julia had their last days of school this week. Christian's last day was on Tuesday and Julia and Ethan's last day was on Wednesday. It sounds like they all had a fun last day. Christian had a party and brought home lots of treats. He really liked his teacher a lot, but I think he was glad to be done with school. He had a couple friends that he said he would miss too, but he will actually see them at church throughout the summer since they are in our ward. In fact, I guess he will see his teacher at church too throughout the summer since she is the ward that meets right before we do. Ethan also had some party activities, but they mainly watched a movie - Ralph S. Mouse. I got to go to school with Julia for her last day. It was an exhausting day! We started off just in the classroom for the first 45 minutes while the teacher just let the kids go wild. She was opening up gifts that kids had given her while all of the students were running around the class. After that we got on the bus to go on Julia's field trip. We started at the skating rink which was a lot of fun. Julia has roller blades, but she hasn't used them all that much so she was taking it nice and slow. She could get around and only had a couple falls, but she was definitely very cautious. She still had a blast though and said she wants to go a lot more. I had a fun time too and I thought owning a rollerskating rink would be a pretty fun family business. It seems like the expenses would be the building and then upkeep of the equipment, but then you wouldn't really need many employees and there is no product that you have to keep in stock and try to sell before it gets old. Then you can also make a lot of money off the concessions. There was a Papa Murphy's next door and the pizza place bought their pizzas from there, heated them up, and sold them for over twice as much. After three hours of roller skating we found a park to eat lunch. Then it was off to bowling. Julia and I were on a lane with two other girls that she new, but then we got a boy to join us who couldn't find another group. He did not want to stay in his seat at all. Every time it was his turn I had to search around the whole bowling alley to find him. We were able to get through one game and barely start a second game. I think all the other lanes got through 3 games. Julia said she didn't like bowling very much up until she finally got a strike. Then she was all smiles. The bowling alley participates in free summer games for kids which we may take advantage of if we can figure out what we would like to do for shoes. I remember going bowling during the summers a lot when I was going up and I think my mom found some bowling shoes at the thrift store so we wouldn't have to rent shoes always. We will have to keep our eyes out for some cheap shoes as well. On the bus ride home both Julia and I fell asleep even though it was just 15 minutes to get back to her school. I am glad that I got to participate in that fun last day.

To celebrate school being out we decided that we would go on a long family hike the next day. We are thinking of making this a new family tradition for the day after school. We have our usual hike that we do that takes about an hour or two for the round trip. From the top of our usual hike we can see some radio towers off on a distant peak so we decided to hike to them. It was a long trip. There were a few ups and downs so it was somewhat difficult both ways. Agnes got carried the entire time, but everyone else did great. We left at 9 am and did our first break at 11 when we were about 2/3 of the way there. The last third was pretty steep and there was no real trail for us to follow, but we made it. At the top we took a break and had a picnic lunch. Then on the way back Agnes slept the entire way. She was super heavy while she was sleeping and I just can't imagine what it would be like to sleep while someone was carrying you. I wonder if you would have dreams about flying or floating or something like that. We finally got back at 3 o'clock and we were all exhausted.













On Friday we celebrated us all being off by doing a family temple trip up to Rexburg. We got up early so the kids could sleep in the car on the way there. I went first while Rebecca did breakfast with the kids once they woke up. Then, when Rebecca was in the temple I took the kids to BYU-Idaho again. This time I figured out how to turn the air hockey table on and the kids were super excited about that. After playing for about an hour we just walked around the campus. We walked through the library having a contest to see who could be the quietest, but a father walking around with 5 small kids on a college campus still got a few looks. As we were leaving the library we ran into one of the sister missionaries that served in our ward in Alaska. She had been home from her mission for exactly one year and she thought it was really cool to run into us on her year mark. When we got back to Pocatello we went to the Pizza Pie Cafe. Julia, Ethan, and Christian all got free buffet coupons from school for them and a sibling. So Rebecca and I were the only ones that had to pay and we still have some free coupons left over. It had been a long time since I had been to an all you could eat pizza place and it brought back some memories. It wasn't the best quality pizza, but it was fun to let everyone get whatever types they wanted. Rebecca and I ended up tying at 9 pieces each, which isn't all that much, but we were both stuffed. If it was a little better quality I think I could have gotten a few more pieces in, but when I was starting to feel full I just didn't have much motivation to keep going. The kids have been getting a lot of free coupons this year for their reading - in addition to Pizza Pie Cafe , we have also gotten a few for Texas Roadhouse, Burger King, Little Caesars, an frozen yogurt place, and a couple more.

Visitors

This last week we had a few visitors and we loved all of the company! Last Sunday Doranda and her family came by for a couple nights after her husband's brother's wedding in Salt Lake. It was nice to be able to catch up with them. We did a walk on Sunday and played a few games. Then on Monday we did a hike while Julia and Ethan were in school. It was the same hike that we have done a few times before just behind our house. When Julia and Ethan came home the kids all played for a little while and then we had a major family home evening. It was all of the regular things, but we also had a couple left over pinatas from Ethan's party that we never got to, a game of soccer in the basement, and a game of Ammon (one person has a sword and a sheep in the corner and everyone else tries to touch the sheep without getting whacked by the sword; if they get whacked, they have to start over at the back of the room; if someone gets to the sheep, then a new person gets to be Ammon). That night after the kids went to bed Doranda, Bob, Rebecca, and I played 13 skadoo (I just tried to look up how to spell that online, but I couldn't find any reference to the game, so I must be way off), and Doranda wiped us all out. They left early the next morning before anyone else was up. Julia had left a note for them on the door though.

Talitha and David (and Lucy) stopped by on Wednesday on their way to camping at Lava Hot Springs. They were in the area from Wednesday until this morning. I feel really bad for them because it was rainy the entire time they were here. And then today, right after they left, the weather was great. On Wednesday they just stopped by to say hi. We were going to go to their campsite on Thursday night, but it was just too rainy and wet. On Friday afternoon Nathanael and his family came and we got to do a few games with them and the kids watched a movie at night. And then on Saturday Talitha and David came back over to our house and Caleb came down from Rexburg (he forgot to bring Amery with him though). We had originally planned for all of us to go to the campsite on Saturday, but again it was just too rainy. So we played a few games (the boys won at Trivial Pursuit, but I think it took us 2 hours to get through it) at our house, roasted some hotdogs over David's portable grill, and then took advantage of a break in the rain in the afternoon to go to the park. We loved having everyone over and hope that they had a fun time. 

Just a couple weeks ago I was telling Rebecca that I think we have done more trips and had more visitors in the 5 months we have been in Pocatello than in our entire 5 years in Alaska. Now, with this most recent week that is definitely true.