Summer 2011
This summer we had one full week of summer break before Brock's June 6th birthday. This was a biggie for him--five years old! Kindergarten age! He requested pizza for dinner, an earth cake for his cake, and trains for his presents (as usual).
This is Zeke being a complete and utter spaz. He loves positive reactions from his siblings and he definitely got it this time!
Our friends the Johnsons came to play during one of the first days of the summer. It was so fun to have them over. Here are five of the six Johnson kids and five of the Wilsons. Stone was at Stake Aaronic Priesthood Camp.
We were out working in the yard one day when Abbie started delivering typed invitations to a picnic on the lawn. Cute little invitations. Here's the big event, complete with china dishes and flower-shaped peanut butter sandwiches.
Here are Stone and Zeke and a couple of their friends, Alex Lawrence and Talon Hintze, taking a dip in the pond one summer evening.
At Dad's office! Gregg's assistant, Selina, kept asking Mack to smile for the picture, telling him to "show your teeth!" This is what she got. This was Mack's first real exam. So cute!!
New baby chicks!
I mentioned to Gregg one day that I thought the sight of newly baled hay scattered out in the fields was so pretty. So he went out and took a bunch of pictures for me.
Running through the sprinklers!
Abbie loves to take Mack with her when she collects eggs and feeds her animals. Mack loves collecting the eggs. I love this image I often see of the two of them, hand in hand, headed out to the barn.
My sister Emmi and her family came and stayed with us on their way from Seattle down to Utah. It was so fun to see them! The kids loved spending time with their cousins, Reid, Gideon, and cute little Caleb. Zeke developed a sweet little relationship with Gideon. He sweetly looked after him and Gideon followed him around. One evening we also had Carmie and my brother Derek and his family over for a barbecue. It was fun to get everyone together!
Here we are at our annual trip to Roaring Springs Waterpark. Actually, the older kids got to go several times throughout the summer when they were invited by friends. This was our only family day, though.
We spent our summer vacation in northern Idaho. Gregg found us a cabin right on Hayden Lake which is near Coeur d'Alene. It was beautiful and it was perfect to be right on the lake--so much fun for the kids. It was a nine hour drive. On the way up we drove through Weiser, where I was raised, and even though we just drove through on Highway 95, it was still fun to see it. The new highway passes right past the elementary school I attended for fourth through sixth grades.

The kids handled nine hours remarkably well, and once we got there and unpacked, they wasted no time in getting their swimming suits on and hitting the lake. The cabin came with a paddle boat and a row boat, so we played around on those a little, too.
Zeke fished a little and then decided his favorite job was pulling in the fish with the net. He kept that job throughout the week.
Ella's favorite thing was jumping off the dock.
The first full day was Sunday. We went to Sacrament Meeting at the local Hayden Ward then relaxed at our cabin the rest of the day. In the evening we did some fishing. Here are Gregg and Zeke with one of our biggest catches. All in all, we probably caught 50 fish off the dock throughout the week. Almost all of them were cute, colorful, little perch. Ella pulled in one bass, and Gregg caught a couple catfish. It was perfect fishing conditions for the little ones because it was such fun to reel fish in as quickly as they cast out.
Every so often a little dead fish would surface and float to the beach. Brock thought this was the coolest and began collecting them. He spent hours playing with the dead fish at the edge of the lake, and he'd carry them around like a hand of cards. After a few days I made him get rid of them for obvious reasons
Mack had his own collection, too--of pine cones. A little less stinky.
Monday was the Fourth of July. We went into Coeur d'Alene, walked around the docks by the lake, watched the parade, and got slushies at the carnival.
Back at the cabin that evening, we took family pictures on the dock.
That's the cabin in the background.
The next day we rented waverunners for the day. Everyone had a blast ripping around on the lake. Brock wasn't interested in the waverunners until Gregg told him he'd take him out on the lake to find dead fish. They took the net and snagged a nice, ugly, dead catfish. But in the process they tipped the waverunner! Back at the cabin in safety, Brock was pretty excited to tell his siblings about their adventure.
Brock patiently scouring the beach for dead fish. He actually caught a live fish with the net. But dead ones are so much more fun.
Ever since we got to the cabin Ella had been begging me to jump into the lake with her. Finally, I did it, along with everyone else.
Before we leave town on a vacation, we go to Hastings and rent as many movies as our membership will allow. Gregg also buys tons upon tons of treats. Then, when we're not out playing, we snuggle up in the cabin and watch movies and eat stuff we wouldn't normally.
On Wednesday we went to Silverwood Theme Park. We started our day there with the train ride which included a train robbery.
I got schnookered into going on this ride because the little kids needed big people with them. They should have required swimming suits.
Mack loved this train roller-coaster. We went on it about a million times. Look how in third picture we are angels.
On the carousel.
All tuckered. Notice Mack on his little blow-up bed in the background. Brock slept in the room with Stone and Zeke, which was kind of fun for him to be grouped in with the big boys. Having Mack sleep with Abbie was brilliant.
The next day was my birthday. Here I am with a few presents next to me and all my favorite presents around me. Aren't they all stunning?

After my birthday festivities, we headed back to Silverwood to go to the waterpark, Boulder Beach. The day before had been pretty hot and long, especially for those who weren't thrilled about going on rides. But the waterpark was a blast for everyone.

Brock isn't a fan of having water in his face, but he really wanted to try going down the orange slide in the kids' area. Finally, after gingerly approaching the slide for several minutes, he took a deep breath and, with a terrorized look on his face, plunged down. He loved it and went on it about a million times during the course of the day. Mack needs no convincing. He loves everything about water.
Getting some much-needed "nourishment."
After we were done at the waterpark, we went back into the main part of Silverwood to go on a few more rides and enjoy some treats. Abbie also went into a giftshop and bought me a pretty necklace for my birthday. She's a sweetheart.
On the final full day of our vacation we decided to bike the 15-mile-long "Route of the Hiawatha" in northern Idaho and Montana. It is an old railroad route that has been converted into a bike trail. The route travels through about ten tunnels, one of which is almost two mile long and requires a lamp on each bike or helmet. It is freezing and completely dark inside those long tunnels. The also traverses several really cool trestles, hundreds of feet in the air and overlooking the beautiful Bitterroot Range. We all headed out with our bikes and helmets, with the little boys in a carrier behind Gregg's bike. It is all downhill, but it is long. Poor Ella on her little pink bike had to pedal ten times faster than the rest of us to keep up. She cried for about 12 of the 15 miles. I stayed back behind with her trying to make it easier on her. I rode right behind her encouraging her, singing songs to her, and suggesting imaginative games to help her out like pretending she was a pioneer on her horse. She just sobbed louder with every good-hearted attempt to make her happy. Finally I just let her cry until we were towards the end and I was getting a little concerned about getting to the bottom in time to catch the shuttle back up to the top. I told her that if we didn't get to the end by 4:00 they would leave us and we would have to spend the night in the mountains. The tears dried up, the little legs started rotating grandly, and we made it the last mile or two tearless and at a good clip.

The experience, despite the tears, was really cool. It was fascinating to think of a big huge locomotive rumbling through the tunnels and over the trestles a hundred years ago.

Just starting out. All smiles!
You can see the first tunnel--the long one--in the background.
At the other end of the big tunnel.
The scenery was incredible.
These two had a ball. Snuggled in together with gatorade and flashlights, they were two little bugs in a rug.
Here you can see one of the trestles in the background. They were so tall; it was fascinating to think about them being built a hundred years ago.
This is a view looking down from the top of one of the trestles.
Taking a break on one of the trestles.
Dang those cute boys.
Little sweetheart. Took all of thirty seconds for her to fall asleep on the school bus shuttle that took us back up to our car.
Just a pretty picture of Abbie on a Sunday afternoon.
Right after we returned from our vacation we started swimming lessons. The kids always have fun during our two-week stint of this every summer. Brock took lessons for the first time this year. Like already mentioned, Brock hates water in his face, so I wondered how he'd do. His teacher was perfect with him. She was understanding, yet firm. Brock, bless his heart, would shiver violently--partly from cold, but mostly from fear. But he was completely obedient. By the end of the session he would actually put his face in the water voluntarily--with goggles on and for about 2 seconds. But he was so proud of himself, and I was proud of him, too! It was a huge improvement! I'm always very impressed with my kids when they tackle something they fear.

Here is Brock's teacher convincing him to put his head in the water.

Going, going . . . !
Good boy!!
Convincing him to jump off the side.
Success!
Waiting his turn for the diving board. Oh, boy. Off the side was hard enough.
"You can do it, Brock!"
Under she goes with Brock trying desparately to keep his eyes out of the water.
"Motor boat, motor boat, go so slow. Motor boat, motor boat, go so fast. Motor boat, motor boat, step on the gas!"
Monkeys on the wall. He loved this after he got the hang of it.
Brock wasn't the only one in swimming lessons. Ella and Zeke were in the same class. They both did great. Zeke will move up to the lap class (highest class) next year. Ella is like Mack. Takes to the water like a fish.
Abbie did the lap class this year (in which they lap the pool doing different strokes and getting critiqued by the teacher.) She wanted to be done with swimming this year, but I made her do this one last year. I'm glad I did. She honed her strokes and did really well. Her diving was particularly good this year.
Trying (unsuccessfully) to get Mack to go in the toilet.
One summer afternoon when we needed to go up to Eagle to help my grandma Carmie with something, we decided to visit a park in Eagle and let the kids play around.
The kids were excited to find out that their cousins who had been living in New Jersey since they could remember were moving to Meridian! They have tons of fun with Braxton, Porter, and Hudson, and here they are headed down to the pond one summer afternoon when they came over.
The weekend of the 24th of July, we headed down to Utah for a Lindquist family reunion. My brother Rusty and his wife Joe'll were nice enough to host it at their house. We had a blast that first evening. It was their son Tyson's birthday and he was nice enough to party with all of us. We had a barbecue and then Rusty layed out a huge sheet of plastic, poured dishsoap on it, started the hose, and, presto! The best slip-n-slide ever!
Later that evening we went to a park nearby and launched water balloons. It was crazy how far they could fly!
Probably the coolest part of the reunion was the next day. My sister Kelsi and her husband Brian love mountain climbing and have all the gear to do it. So they took us up into Big Cottonwood Canyon and we rapelled down a cliff. Super fun!

The scariest part wasn't the rapelling. The scariest part was that we had about 500 children under 5 and were on a narrow neck of land between the cliff and a raging river. Many of you know my history in that area, and I was using all my energies to make sure none of the kids got swept downstream. I'm pretty sure we only ended up losing one or two.
Are you wondering if you're ever going to see any rapelling? Oh, yes you are. More than you probably have time for. Between my brother Rusty and Gregg, we have tons of pictures.

Here's Kelsi looking like a Rapelling Rockstar.
Here are Kelsi and Brian surveying the area.
Stone was the bravest because he was the first to go.

You can totally see the fear on everyone's faces when they are first getting ready to go. It is terrifying to take that first step over the edge.
Abbie was up next. She told me later that she was starting to cry, she was so scared. But she didn't let it show. She was impressively brave. Look at her fear mixed with a good-natured willingness to be cooperative in these pictures!
This sequence of pictures makes me laugh because, at the bottom, my dad kept calling to the person rapelling down to "Jump!" "Jump, Abbie!" "Jump out from the wall!"
"Jump, Abbie!"
"That-a-Girl!"
Here's another perspective of Abbie's journey down the cliff.
Gregg and I got to go down together. Here's my mountain man.
The last trip down the cliff was Brian who impressed us all by "Ozzy-ing" down the mountain. In layman's terms, that means going face forward down, instead of backwards like the rest of us.
The photographer.
And the ride home.

That evening we all attended the Rogers' Family Reunion, which is my mom's family. It was really fun to get re-acquainted with cousins and aunts and uncles. My grandparents had nine children, so in all, it was a big group!
One evening when Gregg was up at Scout Camp with Stone, I came outside after dark to close the chickens into their coop and other little nightly tasks. I had been standing outside in the backyard for a minute or so before I noticed a skunk just about 15 yards away from me snarfing down the catfood. It was completely undisturbed by my presence. I yelled and stomped and it just looked at me with a bored expression and then continued eating. It would only get upset when the cat would approach it and then it would just lift its tail (90 degrees, not an inch less) and hiss. It let me get close and take pictures and didn't leave until every last drop of catfood was gone.

It was a super cute little animal. When it lifted its tail you could see just how tiny its body was. It isn't cute anymore. Gregg saw to that. And its smell was with us for quite some time afterwards.
A slip-n-slide extravaganza Stone set up for the kids one summer afternoon.
I took the kids to the Discovery Center for one of our last free days of summer. They had a blast! Afterwards we picked up lunch and went to Julia Davis Park to eat it where we were eerily attacked by legions of geese, silently moving in the for kill. We packed up and ran for our lives, finishing our lunch in the car.
Of course the store's always the highlight.
This is what summer's all about.
Sprinkler soccer. Freezing.
Stone had football practice during the first couple weeks of summer. Then he had football workouts through July. He skipped a couple weeks of that when he sliced his thumb open when sawing on one of our trees down by the pond. Gregg stitched it up nicely (you could see the ligament moving around--it was really deep and really gross.) but it still took some time to heal. In August both boys started practices. This is Zeke's first year in tackle and he absolutely loves it. Both boys are really happy with me for insisting on a picture. Can you tell?
On Carmie's birthday we had a party for her. It just so happened that all of Gregg's family was in town that weekend for a get-together, so they all came, too!
With all of Gregg's family in town, we got together for family pictures, swam in Grandma and Grandpa's pool, and rode bikes on the Greenbelt in Boise. Here we are at the MK Nature Center after the bike ride.
We got family pictures taken while we were all together.
This is the by-the-pool shot that they've taken since they were teenagers! Gregg said he wasn't sure his body would crouch like that anymore.
At the Ward Campout. The waterslide is always the highlight. Here's Abs.
and Ella.
Look at this picture Gregg's mom took! Mack has no fear of water when we're at waterparks. But at Grandma and Grandpa's pool, he would always hover on the steps with Brock, who is much more tentative about water. Finally, I decided to get in with Mack and do some convincing. It only took about a half and hour of carrying him around the pool, slowly encouraging him to break increasingly away from me. Once he realized what it was like being in the pool with the water wings on on his own, there was no turning back. He loved it and showed no fear whatsoever. Even Brock got brave enough to swim around in the deep end and jump off the step, submerging his face in the process. That's a big deal for him!
Lovely produce from our garden. We were especially happy with our garden this year. We are learning every year!
The Optimist Football Program in our area kicks off its season with a jamboree on Boise State's blue football field. The teams hobnob with the Bronco players, get their pictures taken, and then play for a whopping 15 minutes. Zeke's number 82. Did I mention that he loves this football stuff? He had a couple great runs (he plays wide receiver and some running back) and a SWEET tackle at the end where he beelined for the guy, even though he was one of the farthest defenders away from him and took him out.

Zeke's walking towards the camera. (Can't tell who he is if you can't see the numbers!)

First day of school!! First day was August 25th, which still counts as summer in my book. Abbie started sixth grade and Zeke started 4th at Teed Elementary and Ella started 2nd grade (with Brock in kindergarten) at Hubbard next door. This was a crazy year for me. Stone started HIGH SCHOOL! HIgh School! That first day when I dropped him off I could tell he was good and nervous. As I was driving home I thought, "I feel like crying." I'm not a big cryer, so I was a little surprised by this realization. I went home, poured myself a bowl of cereal, and completely lost it. I sobbed for awhile. That little curly-headed Stone turning into big huge young man and starting high school just tore me apart.
And then, I lost it AGAIN later that evening when I thought about my little Brock starting kindergarten the next day. (He goes every other day, so he didn't start on the same day as the other kids.) Wow. That was really hard for me. But here he is, all smiles, ready to go.
I had to get one of Brock from behind. You can't see him behind his backpack!!
Over the summer I required that the kids do a reading challenge. They all met their goal and we had a fun trip to Barnes and Noble.
We know there are lots of snakes living on our property, but we hardly ever see them. One day, at the end of August, the kids found a decent-sized bull snake hanging out behind our house. They were quite intrigued, particularly Brock, and they hung out watching him for about an hour or so. During that whole time, Brock just yearned to pick him up. Finally, after touching him, poking him, and generally testing the waters, he did it! Brock named him "Long Toungue" and he has become Brock's great friend. The other kids have little desire to touch him, except maybe Ella and Mack. But Brock plays freely with him and loves every minute of it. He found a new home in a tank in our kitchen where Gregg introduced a mouse for him to enjoy. The mouse climbed all over the snake freely, except at night when the mouse cuddles up inside the curled-up snake and sleeps. We call it the "Millennial Tank," since the "lion" is laying down with the "lamb." We recently noticed that the snake is showing signs of molting, hence the lack of desire to eat. It's all very interesting, especially to Brock!
The snake will curl around his arm; Brock will put him around his neck. He handles the snake quite expertly, holding him behind the head and such. But the snake has still had many opportunities to bite him but hasn't done it. Brock likes to act like a wildlife expert, telling us that this is a "nonvenomous snake," but that he "sure can bite." Luckily he hasn't actually experienced that.