How Quickly Time Flies

I realized that before Christmas totally took over my life and I begin the long reflection of the past year, I should probably catch up this blog - obviously I'm not so good at this yet.
In late September Michael and I made a decision that would forever change the lives of Laney and Grady. We hope that this change in their schooling would help them to excel in all areas of learning. We looked at several charter schools in the area were turned on to Idaho Virtual Academy by Michael's cousin's daughter, Kresta. She has used this public charter homeschool program her 4 children for the last 6 years! The kids have a regular teacher and I'm their learning coach - we move at their own pace - which is pretty rapid! And the best part is no homework!

Laney opening box after box of textbooks, workbooks and manipulatives

Grady at his desk looking over his math manipulatives.
IDVA Field Trip - Linder Farms - Hayride, cornmaze, pumpkin patch

We had fabulous weather for Halloween this year, not freezing as in years past. I LOVE this time of the year, the crisp air, the changing colors of the leaves.... Grady felt he was old enough to carve his own pumpkin this year - YIKES, but he did a great job!

There is a thing in our family about blood.

Every year we seem to have the same theme.

Zombie Prom Queen and Dracula

Where did summer go?

A Brave at heart... I had my 20 year high school reunion at the end of July. On our tour of Boise High, which in no way resembles the same school I attended, Laney couldn't help but beg for a BEAT BORAH t-shirt! Grady went with the more traditional BOISE... it made me laugh... and miss living in the East end of Boise. Even though Boise High has been remodeled they have done a remarkable job of preserving history and it could be seen in every hall... we had a great time with the weekend festivities.

Boise Hawks - first game ever! A good time was had by all -
we'll definitely put this on our list for next summer!

You know that summer comes to an end with a trip to the Western Idaho Fair. We got lucky and it wasn't a million degrees, but I think there were still a million people! Of course we had our share of rides, pronto pups, and elephant ears... oh and more rides!

Fourth of July

What a wonderful, relaxing weekend! It was fun to reflect on all we have to be thankful for - to live in this great country and be called an American.... BBQ's and salads, although no apple pie - too hot for baking today (nearly 100!). We had Michael's parents over for fireworks - the kids really did ask every 20 minutes beginning at 10am, what time the sun would go down to light off fireworks!

Laney's First Concert

A delayed birthday present! We had bought Laney tickets, on the floor, to see the Jonas Brothers (A Disney Channel Boy Band and stars of "Camp Rock") for her birthday last month. The big finally arrived last Friday and Laney was attending her first concert!

She was completely blown away when the concert started, the opening act was Jordan Sparks - an American Idol winner and then the big show began - she was totally star struck! She screamed, clapped, jumped up and down and sang along the entire time! It was so much fun to be able to see her so happy!

Dinner $18, Jonas Brother's tickets $180, Hearing Laney say it was the "best day of her life"...PRICELESS!

I love Idaho!

I'm blessed to not only have amazing friends, but generous friends. Some family friends loaned me their cabin in Sun Valley for a night... maybe they just did not want me sleeping in a tent in the rain again :) We (my friend Jodi and her two kids, and Laney and Grady) enjoyed the relaxing sounds of the river without a clock! The river was running so high that the hot springs were freezing cold, but it was beautiful scenery none the less - definitely recharged me for the week! It was a great time to reflect on why I love Idaho so much - all that our state has to offer - next time instead of the Camas Prairie route, we'll doing Galena Summit!

Father's Day

We've been helping Michael's parents with the latest adventure in their lives... a move to Boise! After 50 years of looking at the beautiful Snake River, they bought a home just 2 miles from us. This was the first Father's Day we had to drive less than 10 minutes to see them! Laney decided to snap a picture of the men in our life: Dale, Michael, Cody (Kayla's husband) and Grady. Michael got a new Weber grill and he fixed up a fabulous dinner of Flat Iron steak, shrimp and aspargus on the grill!

Summer Fun

Well, as predicted, I'm not very good at blogging. The final part of the school year just flew by - Grady graduated from pre-school, it has been a wonderful 2 years at TumbleTime Preschool and he is so ready and excited for kindergarten. Laney turned 8 and wrapped up 2nd grade, she had a fabulous teacher this year, Miss Hutchinson and is also excited about next school year - it will be fun to have both kids in school!

Summer officially begins on Sunday (Father's Day)... we've been pretty busy since school got out. Both kids are finally old enough, and certainly big enough, to not be carried and actually walk for more than 1 block - we took a walking tour of art in downtown Boise with our friends - we live in a great city and it was fun to explore!

We took our first family camping trip of the summer to Silver Creek Plunge - less than 50 miles from Boise - but it took 2 hours, 1 hour of that on a dirt road. The kids got to fish, but did not catch anything, maybe because they were bored after about 15 minutes! Our trip kind of got rained out and bugged out before the thunderstorm got too bad on Saturday night -getting home about 12:30am!