Good Intentions

As of last weekend summer was "unofficially over".  The last week of August was the first week of school and I have blogged about none of it.  Not even the last day of Kindergarten, where I failed to notice that school got out early that day and a classmates mother had to pick HT up from the bus stop.  My good intentions to write about it all have been lost in the busyness of summer, what with swim lessons,

VBS,

vacation,

"Wook at me, I'm doing nuffing!"

a wedding,

anniversaries and house hunting our days are full and night time comes too soon and some days not soon enough.  Not that there wasn't anything to say, just not the time to do it justice or so I have thought.  I know that some of you have missed my posting and I'm pretty sure some of you have forgotten all about me.  You, like me, probably like to read something of substance, or be entertained, to have a chuckle or at least something to make you think or to smile, in pictures or in words.  That being said, if my stated objective in blogging is to keep an online scrapbook of sorts, I am failing miserably. And as you can see I have lots of pictures to share.

We have said good bye to friends who moved away, visited with old friends home for a weekend.

We have been to the zoo, the aquarium and countless parks.

Dipped our toes in the ocean and ran through sprinklers in the back yard.

Played pee wee baseball and watched how the big boys play.

Watched the fireworks on Independence Day and set off a few of our own.

We have traveled near and far to visit relatives and friends and I would be remiss not to thank them for their hospitality and generosity.

We truly enjoyed our time with each and every one of you and left wanting and wishing for a little more time.

And just so you know this post has taken me the better part of today to compose and edit all these photos.  No wonder I don't blog much.  Then again, maybe if I did a little more regularly one post wouldn't be so time consuming or so painful (painful for me anyway, I hope it wasn't too painful for you).

Squirrel!

I've been distracted, and this blog has been one of the casualties of the "squirrel" chasing, just in case you hadn't noticed.  Distracted in a good way, distracted by life, the good, the bad and the busy ugly.  And as one blogging friend put it, "There is no time for blogging, for delving into the world beyond our IRL. Time is too fleeting.  This glorious summer shall soon pass, and I want to surround myself in it.  My cup runneth over. "  You should go read her post it is very well written and echoes my sentiments exactly.

Yeah.

I would however like to express my gratitude for my faith, family and friends, those things which sustain me.

So where do I start, how about Easter, we all like Easter don't we. Despite the ear infections, pink eye and generally feeling like crap we made a last minute decision to drive to the beach in WA state to visit some of my brothers.  The love and care received made the whole trip worth the agony of the 1200 +/- mile drive.  And I wouldn't have traded that for the whole world.

Lava Hot Springs

Yes I know what day today is and that summer has said goodbye and that autumn is in her glory but I'm not done remembering.

So, way back at the end of July we took a little trip to Lava Hot Springs, ID.  It was really lovely and the kids had a fabulous time.

We spent some time by the pools, all of them, the hot spring pools, the olympic pool and the toddler friendly one in Pocatello with the "splash zone".

 This slide had nothing on the next one, which Papa bravely went down.

EM wanted to go on the big slide, but refused to get on the little one.

And since Papa went down the big one, HT decided he would go down the "curly" one.

Especially after he discovered that it didn't dump him into the pool.

We even took a short trip down the river on a raft. (This is not a picture of us on our raft, just a picture I took of some random strangers enjoying the ride, because my camera is not water proof.)

We stayed at a lovely little place called the Alpaca Inn.  It had a wonderful little grassy area where the  kids could play.  The room was small for four people, but it was clean.

The Inn is a side business to the owners main occupation, which is raising, breeding, shearing and selling the wool of these strangely lovely creatures.  They very graciously let us visit their farm to see the alpacas.

Not to be confused with a Llama.

We played mini golf on a course that had seen better days and was infested with wasps.  EM got stung twice.  Glad to know he is not allergic.

Intent on finding a driving range we spent several hours driving all over the country side and finally found this place.  My first thought upon seeing it was "if you build it, they will come".  It really is out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by farmland, abandoned barns and scrub brush.

 The gardens surrounding the hot springs were really lovely and in full bloom.