It's been ages since I've posted! We've been pretty busy this summer. We all went up to Stanley to visit mom and dad and had lots of fun. We had a great mouse escapade. Field mice kept getting into the trailer, so we bought some traps and got about 5 mice. Mom had found 2 drowned in the dogs water bowl (severe drought up there) before we got there. Noel caulked under their trailer to prevent the mice getting in and that seemed to fix the problem. We did some fishing and swimming but the lake is pretty deep. You walk out about 5 steps and you're up to your neck. McKenna didn't swim in this one........ don't blame her. The water was pretty cold, too.
I was pretty sad to see the damage up there, though. The pine bark beetle has damaged about half the trees and so there's tons of dead trees up there. They've just started letting the logging companies go in and take out the dead trees.

So we also went and stayed at a cabin in Garden Valley with our friends Patty and Joe and their 2 kids Joey and Christy. It was a pretty nice spot, basically on a jutting piece of land between two rivers that connected a bit farther down. So if you wanted the colder faster water to do some fishing in, you walked a hundred yards or so one way, and if you wanted to wade the shallows and ride a tube down the river, you walked the other way. Once we managed to keep the kids away from the drop off that's right outside the cabin, it was a pretty relaxed time. The kids LOVED wading in that river and wanted to ride our backs down on the tubes... we'd go almost to where it connected to the larger, main river and then haul our tubes back up to do it again. Mucho fun, gotta say. We'll probably do it again next year and maybe make a tradition of it if we can swing it.

Patty and I then went and stayed in Cascade in a motel for a few days and did a bunch of stuff. Mom was in the RV park during that time, so we had some meals with her and did the flea market and a lunch with her also... then Patty and I went to McCall the next day and did a craft fair, lunch, and some window shopping. The craft fair was really fun, but smaller than we thought. Patty got some homemade soap that smelled fantastic. You could tell the lady was really talented. I purchased a shell necklace that had dried flowers in it was an acrylic or laquer of some sort over it... Anyway, we had a great time.

Then I was up in Cascade again to stay with mom for a week with McKenna. I made a few pairs of earrings and we did a lot of reading. McKenna went to the playground every day to swing, and they were good swings, not like the plastic swings that most are made out of now. We had a surly neighbor who came over to scream at me and mom about the dogs barking, but everytime they barked, we'd bring them in so I don't see what his problem was. Anyway, he was an ass and we got a formal notice from the park saying if we couldn't shut the dogs up we'd have to leave the park. So we drove to McCall for a 'correction' collar for Heather, the scottie, since she was the big barker. Mom was on the verge of tears and was REALLY upset that she was doing this to her baby. But the collar, once it was positioned properly, did it's job and she hardly barks now. Mom takes it off when they're in the trailer and at night.

Noel and I are selling our Saturn and Chevy and with the money we make off those two are going to put it towards a 2004 Chevy Trailblazer, extended version with 3 rows of seats. (I personally don't think we need the third row, but he wants to be prepared for visitors that fly out and some more kids coming our way.... ANYWHO, I'm just going with it. So we listed the truck already and we'll see if we get some nibbles. The trailblazer is nice. We test drove one and I feel a bit loose and rattley in it but I imagine it's because I'm used to the 'snugness' of the Saturn.

McKenna can say phrases now..... 'I want up/down/out' and of course food items and stuff. She's getting very voluble and I'm glad to hear her stringing sentences together. Can't wait to see family in December!