Fun at the wedding reception

Forget the dancing, the food, the photo booth, the mints, and the family reunioning...

Payton just wanted to leap over the fence.

Clothed in his church pants, shoes, shirt, and tie.

And what a fine leap it was!

(The reception was delightful for the rest of us non-leapers...)

Thoughts on chicks leaving the nest

I'm missing my twelve year old boy. I miss munching on his cheeks to wake him up in the morning. I miss his little crooked teeth smile. I miss seeing him in the bathroom each morning "doing" his hair with that gu stuff he likes so much. I miss hearing the Disney Channel for about 5 hours of the day. (Did I really just say that???) I miss sneaking up behind him and smooching a kiss or two or ten from him. I miss that dang Wii being used each day and the sounds of Mario Kart coming from the living room.

*Sigh*

I have felt like an almost empty nester this summer. Each of the kids has been busy with activities, friends, camps, etc. that there have been many days when I've had several hours of alone time. That's weird. I'm not used to it. I don't know if I like it. I'm too young (I think) to be an almost empty nester. I'm not ready for Family Home Evening for empty nesters! I'm not ready to shop at certain retailers to get the senior citizen discount! I'm not, I'm not, I'm not!!!

Am I getting ahead of myself? Probably. Most certainly. All because of missing my 12 year old boy.

I think I'd be ok if it hadn't been for a call I received from the scout master's wife earlier this week. I was in the shower. She called Bill to relay the news. Payton had barfed. He had had one (or maybe four) too many smores before bed on Tuesday night. He found his way out of his tent and managed to find the scout master's tent to inform him of the disgusting news. Bless that man's heart. He was an angel to help clean up a barf fest in the dark. At 1:00 in the morning. Not even his own flesh and blood's puke. Using his own towel. Yeah, that man deserves a medal!

Oh, Pate got another fresh sleeping bag and pillow from home - delivered via another leader. I hope he learned his lesson. I hope he's at least trying the camp's food. I hope he's cleaned all the crud off of his face (or at least I hope it's cleaned off before I get to smooch on him Saturday...). I hope he misses me as much as I miss him...Nah, I really don't - that would be way WEIRD.

Anyway. I'm not ready for my children to be gone all the time. The oldest has already flown the coop and taken part of my heart with her. Nope, I'm not ready for all the stuff -or lack of it - that comes with an empty house. I'm definitely not ready for the end of an era of raising 4 children. Nope. So if you're reading this and you have a house full of young children in diapers, scattering toys about, throwing tantrums, or refusing to take a nap and you wish for them to grow up.

Don't worry - They Do.

And I don't think you'll be ready for it either.

The Ball's Went Over the Mountain

Remember the song about the bear going over the mountain? I loved it when I was a kid! Maybe it was because my family lived at the base of Maple Mountain and my dad owned a great pair of binoculars. There would be many days where I would use his binoculars to look up at that mountain to determine if I could see anything up close! Never really did see much but a bunch of bushes and trees, but I sort of felt like that bear...

Fast forward about 25 years and here I am with more great mountains around me. (Technically they're called foothills but I still consider them mountains.) The Boise foothills are gorgeous - for about 4 weeks of the year when they've been washed with spring rain and have had ample amounts of May sunshine they are a beautiful sight to behold. I'm sure my kids are sick to death of me saying,
"Just look at those foothills! They're so green!"
And,
"Someday we're going to climb up to the top of that mountain and see what's up there!"
Or,
"Just look at how the sun is hitting those hills. Wow."

Yeah, I'm sort of weird like that.

Bill has been telling me for awhile that he would accompany me up to the top. We just never had a good 4 hours to do it - you know, scout camping trips, fishing trips, and more scout camping trips taking place on a Friday night and Saturday morning. Grrr. This "bear" wasn't going over any mountains!

However, last Monday we found some time to actually accomplish this highly anticipated hike. Bill was off for the fourth of July vacation so we gently coerced the kids to join us. Wow. What a great morning of hiking, talking, amazing views, and good old family time. Now we know what's on the other side of that mountain - excellent views of the other side! Hah! That bear was right.

There's my "mountain" - to the right of Kourtni's head is where we were headed.

Bright and early on July 5, 2010

Notice how Kourtni is no where in sight - that's because she BOOKED it up that trail! Yeah, I thought for sure she was cougar bait! Yikes.

Once we caught up to Kourt (really the cows scared her and slowed her down) we tried to pick out the landmarks of Boise.

Had to go through a bit of forest to get to the top - saw lots of cattle. Weird but good for us since cougars might like beef more than human...

We made it to the top in about 2 1/2 hours. It was FREEZING up there and extremely windy. We took several pictures and kept moving to keep warm.

Pretty wildflowers on the way.

He's such a good sport to hike all that way! Say it with me, "Awwww..."

"This" is what's on the other side of my mountain! Isn't it gorgeous? Totally worth the hike.
And, yes, Griffy made it. He kept up the entire way - pretty good for a 13 year old dog!

Girls in the back singing Dragon Tales songs... they got sort of loopy on the way down.

Bill and Pate tried the rope swing at the end...

Good thing he didn't land in a cactus...

Griffy's not as young as he used to be - he gets by with a little help from his friends. Hah.

Sweet relief - now let's go get some pizza!

And that's what happened when the Ball's went over the mountain.

Wordless Wednesday - Posted on a Thursday...