{Retro Post} Ladies' Retreat June 11-13

This year the annual Southern Idaho A/G Ladies' Retreat was held at Trinity Pines in McCall. I had never been at this campground before and thought it was just gorgeous. I took Scheri and Teresa with me in lieu of them going to Teen Camp and they both really enjoyed themselves which is a huge praise the Lord. Our speakers had a wonderful combination of humor, biblical insight and rich personal experience in their faith journey with the Lord.



This would be yours truly sticking my head through one of those picture-poser spots. We had actually hoped to do a rafting trip on the river. The campground does offer this service but we were told that right now the water is too cold and too high. Oh man! I don't disagree one bit with the 'too high' part because the scenic views of the river on the way up were absolutely breath-takingly gorgeous and WILD. Talk about white water! Just beautiful.
Here's Scheri (back row in the purple shirt) with a group of ladies getting ready to go on a zip-line.

I was very impressed with all the safety gear and precautions.


Believe me, this shot does not at all do justice to the height of this tree. After the ladder was a climb up the trunk at least two times more than shown here to a perch where she was attached to the zip line and off she went. I didn't get a still shot of that because I was trying to follow here with the video.
Below are Scheri and Teresa with their heads shining through.



Here's a couple shots of the lodge. It was just so pretty. We actually stayed in a room on the lower floor of the lodge, right next door to the meeting room so it couldn't possibly have been any handier.

{Retro Post} Rock Creek Trail

I had this great idea to go on a walking tour with the kids--for exercise and for something worthwhile to do on summer vacation. Over in Twin Falls they have built walking trails along the Snake River canyon wall and along the Rock Creek in a few places. We chose Rock Creek for our maiden voyage.

Every year I try to take a picture of all of my kids lined up in a row after James' birthday but before the next birthday because for a few days their birthdays are in such a neat row--especially the 4 older kids. So here's Caleb, 5; Steven, 6; James, 12; Teresa, 13; Scheri, 14; and Billy, 15. By the way, Billy is wearing his Boise Bronco hoodie which he bought with his report card money. He luvs the Broncos.

Sitting on a bench along the way. Some of the kids were getting pretty tired of walking.

{Retro Post} Abby's First Clothes

Here's Scheri holding the special sandals she made for her new little sister. She tied strips of this bright cloth onto the straps of ordinary sandals and made them look so cute and girly.

{Retro Post} Steven's Ear-tube Follow-up May 11

Here Caleb is looking pretty pleased with himself because HE is sitting in "the chair" and he knows it isn't actually his turn to see the doctor today
And here's Steven waiting for the doc

{Retro Post} Mother's Day May 9

I had this spur-of-the moment idea to get a picture of our family with me after church--on the stairs up to the balcony. Only problem was some of my kids had already walked home and Kevin was busy doing something else. But I still think these are cool pictures. On top are my parents; then Billy and Scheri; and on the bottom, Caleb, me, and Steven.

{Retro Post} James' 12th Birthday

James' 12th birthday party. He had 3 friends over in addition to his brothers and sisters. Two guests ended up spending the night. We had foam-sword fights, bubble-blowing, tiny little guns that shot tiny little airplanes, and a cake-decorating contest. James' presents were three Lego Star Wars building sets-so of course, several of the kids sat right down to put those together. For some reason, he wasn't quite as willing to share the monetary gifts!! It was pretty wild at times but I think James had a good time.
Billy, James with Steven on his back, Teresa with Caleb on her back.
James and Billy in the back; Scheri, Caleb, Steven and Teresa in frontBubble-blowing contest








Then we divided up the guests and had a cake-decorating contest. Of course, with two cans of frosting and about 4 tubes of decorative frosting there was a LOT of frosting left over just to eat.




Uh-oh--green tongues!! Red tongues!! Hopefully not contagious!

{Retro Post} Murtaugh Lake Trip

We took a little overnight trip out to Murtaugh Lake in our Motor Home and took the kids' friend, Griffin with us.
Here's Kevin over-seeing the burgers
Sorry, getting a still shot is next to impossible but here are Caleb and Steven with Kevin.
The next morning the older kids got to look at some BIG catfish that a neighbor-camper had caught.


Here's Sleeping Beauty--alias Teresa--still snoozing at nearly noon in the tent. Billy, James and Griffin had stayed in one tent and the girls in the other--so it was just Kevin and I and the little boys in the motor home.
Eating a yummy lunch before checking out of our camping spot.

It's really not a bad spot, is close by and and inexpensive way to have fun as a family.

{Retro Post} End of 2009/2010 School Year

Of course life goes on even when a family is adopting a new child. Unfortunately, blogging about everyday events doesn't seem to. (I know, I know, I really don't do that well even when I'm not working on an adoption. Smile.)

But a few days ago I down-loaded bunches of pictures from the last few months. I'll try to get started showing them here.


Caleb and Steven had a turn jumping at the annual Family Fun Night on May 20
Caleb and Steven with Mrs. Stimpson on the last day of preschool, May 21. Their main teacher was Miss Braun but I didn't get a picture with her. Boo hoo.


Billy brought home a lovely greenhouse he'd made at school and a beautiful pot of flowers.

James played trumpet in the 6th grade band. Their Spring Concert was on May 11.



Scheri did very well on the clarinet this year with the inspiration and motivation of her band teacher. The Junior High played a few numbers by themselves and then some in conjunction with the High School. It was sad because our brand new music teacher has been hired by another school for next year. Our school is not sure we'll even have a music program next year because of finances.

May 14 was Caleb and Steven's preschool program at the elementary gym, so I let them wear their suit jackets and dress pants. Caleb is always bummed because this set of church clothes doesn't include a tie. The group sang several really cute numbers--like a rendition of Old MacDonald that teaches the vowels. Then the whole class performed an adorable little skit of Chicken Little. Caleb and Steven were sons of Foxy Loxy.