Somebody's Playing Football...

...but it isn't this cutie.

Shh- don't tell Braxton that McKay got into his stuff.

Summer Fun Part II: Day Trips

Shoshone Falls

My brother and his family came up to Idaho a day before the reunion began and we went to Shoshone Falls, a few miles east of Twin Falls.

Keep in mind that this is the end of June and the Snake River usually only runs like this for one week in early April. It was such a rainy June that the water just kept coming.

I managed to get my family to hold still long enough for us to take a picture. Notice the wet smudges? The spray from the falls was getting us wet and it was cold!

I managed to get a cold and windy picture of my two oldest Alabama nieces. They're cute even when they're freezing!

Kilee found a forever friend in her Alabama cousin, Peyton. Those two were the best of playmates.

Shoshone Ice Caves

On another Saturday, Randy and I loaded up the kids and we went to Shoshone Ice Caves (north of Twin Falls).

We had a picnic in the little lean-to picnic area. I'm glad it was there because there were no trees.

Then we went on a tour of the caves with a bunch of other people.

First we had to walk through a lot of lava rock. The ice caves are inside lava rock which acts as a natural filter for the water.

The temperature of the cave hovers right around 30 degrees F and the water that seeps through the rock turns to ice. A pump is constantly pumping the water out of the caves because if they didn't, the whole thing would be full of ice! Sonia Henie, an olympic gold medalist, actually skated on this ice in the 1930s.

Yellowstone National Park

We took advantage of one of the free national park weekends and went to Yellowstone. After all, it's practically our back yard. We convinced Randy's brother and his family to play hookey with us. We had a great little trip because we went during the free weekend in July and didn't have to fight the secret service and presidential detail of last weekend.

The first thing we saw was an eagle's nest. There were cars pulled off the road and traffic backed up because all the tourists wanted to see it. Well, we drive over the Snake River on the way into St. Anthony and there's an eagle's nest over that bridge. All summer we've been watching the eagles and now their babies so this nest wasn't a big deal for us. We kept driving and I didn't take a picture.

I did take a picture of the elk. You'd think my kids had never seen an elk before. When we lived in Owyhee, a herd of elk came down the mountain and grazed around town every winter. My mom and dad live near an elk farm and we drive past it all the time. But here's the elk to prove there are elk in Yellowstone.

Oh-traffic jam. Here's a nice big buffalo. My kids had never seen one before so they about came undone. We were on the west side of the south loop and the bison were scarce on this side. I understand they are more numerous in other parts of the park.

We had a picnic lunch at Old Faithful while we waited for the next eruption. L to R is McKay, Maylee, Kilee, Gensen, Tanner, Alexie, Braxton.

Then we stood around and watched Old Faithful erupt. It's been 14 years since Randy and I have been there, but I'll be darned if it isn't the exact same show! I did note, though, that my tax dollars have been hard at work building board walks all around the site.

Tanner and Gensen made good use of the free time and picked me a bouquet of wild flowers. Do you think that's against the law?

This here is the site of my future cabin. I just have to convince the federal park system, congress, the president, the EPA to let me build here.

First Day of School

School started for us today. It feels really early in the year for school to be starting, but in just six short weeks, my kids get two weeks off for harvest. I'll let you know how that goes.

Braxton starts junior high today. A 7th grader. Monday we signed up for school and he got to sign up for classes like pre-algebra and band and Spanish. Yesterday we went to the school to pick up his schedule and pay fees (goodbye $52) and I found out he has junior high dances! Gulp!

Tanner is in 5th grade (goodbye $10). This is the oldest grade at the elementary school so he'll get to be big man on campus. He has a male teacher this year so that will be a new experience for us. His supply list includes a pen and he's pretty excited about using a pen. It's the little things, folks.

My toothless baby girl is in 2nd grade (goodbye $5). We went to the school on Wednesday to meet her teacher (Tanner's too) but she was nowhere to be found. She did, however, have all the names on the door. Kilee was pretty upset her name wasn't there. When we left, I asked the school secretary to please make sure Mrs. Fransen knew Kilee was in her class. I have visions of big alligator tears on the first day of school and that just won't do.

I really wanted to take my kids this morning, but the excitement of riding a bus was too much for them. The bus goes up the road and then comes back down and picks them up. (Our road is not a through-road so the bus has to turn around at the top.) They saw the bus go up and ran outside.

They are so cute standing there watching for the bus.

Off they go. My heart aches a little because they didn't want me to take them. Boo-Hoo!!! I guess there are alligator tears after all.

As for the baby of the family, he wants to know when his bus is coming for him.

Summer Fun Part I: Family Reunions

We got to hang out with both the Millington and Stocking families this summer. In fact, our summer started with the Stocking Reunion.

The Stocking reunion is just Randy's mom and dad and four brothers (no sisters). His oldest brother has some excellent Air Force contacts and managed to get this awesome cabin in Island Park for the reunion.

Two brothers were unable to be there. One just had surgery for a bleeding ulcer (poor timing for emergencies, Kyle). The other one only gets so much leave from his deployment to Iraq so his wife and kids came without him. However, the internet is a wonderful thing and we got the chance to talk to Daryl over Skype (it was evening for us and very early in the morning for him). He got to show us his gun, which he must have with him at all times, and the kids were ooing and ahhing.

We just spend a weekend hanging out with family and enjoyng the beauty of Island Park. We played some games, went fishing, and ate a lot of food.

One of my favorite parts of the reunion was how patient the older kids were with the younger ones. This is my favorite picture from the reuion. Here is my 17-year-old nephew, a senior in high school, allowing himself to be mauled by the little kids. What a trooper.

Towards the end of June my siblings descended upon the ole homestead for the Millington family reunion. This reunion always consists of family pictures. Pictures of the whole gang (35 of us), pictures of just the grandkids, pictures of the grandkids with the grandparents, pictures of each family, pictures of my siblings with our parents...you get the picture.

Saturday night was the traditional shooting.

This reunion also included church, target shooting, floating the river, four-wheeling, and, of course, food. One evening, Randy had the camera and snapped this great series of Dallas and his wife.

Sweet memories, for sure.

My Very Own Internet!

It's all mine! No sharing with my parents. Or Randy's parents. Or the hotel. It's in my name and has my computer attached to it! Do you know what this means????

It means I can update my blog. I can post all those things we've done this summer. I can catch all of you up on my very exciting life. It means I can answer your emails and get back to work.

Basically, it means I have my life back.

Stay tuned for my life.