Road Trip Day Three: The Farm

Uncle Eldred's Farm in Starbuck, MN

This is where Eric's dad, Roger, grew up. Roger is the youngest of 7 siblings. Eldred is the oldest brother and is 80 years old and still farming crops. This is also where Eric spent many of his summers and developed his love for agriculture and helping famers.

Riding the ranger with Grandpa! Oh my! They rode and rode and rode, probably for two hours .... and again the next day!

Eldred and his son Darwin farm 1,900 acres by themselves! No help.

Needless to say he has a lot of cool tractors! Here is a short video of Hattie driving the track!

Road Trip Day Two

Billings, MT to Fargo, ND

Nothing but driving all day...and the promise of a pool @ the end.

We finally got to Fargo @ 9:40pm and the pool closed @ 10:30.

We went down this slide as many times as we could until 10:30 pm, had Taco Bell @ 11:00 pm, and then we all shared a king size bed.

Road Trip 2008

Day one: Pocatello to Billings, MT

First stop, a field of wild flowers in Island Park!

From there we continued onto Yellowstone, where we saw lots of animals. We saw bison, elk, a fox, an eagle, a black bear, & a grizzly bear.From Yellowstone we headed out the northeast entrance andover beartooth pass.At the bottom of the pass we found this beautifulcascade and stopped for a short hike.

Beartooth pass is only open from mid-june until mid-october. We were way above the tree line and it felt like we were on top of the world. It was beautiful!

The lakes on top were still frozen and we drove through areas of snow at least 10 feet high that had been cut out for us to drive through.

When we saw these mountain goats, we stopped for another short hike and to let the girls throw some snow balls before heading down off the pass.

The Big Race

Ok, so it was in the small town of Aberdeen, Idaho and there were only 19 runners. (This was their 2nd year to host the race.) But H1 (trying not to use real names) has been training and was excited for the "big race"

Whenever we run at home, we run with the girls in the running stroller. H1 always has to go put on her "running clothes" and we stop at the end of the block & she runs home. So the plan was for us to just run for fun as a family and then let H1 run to the finish line , the last 100 meters or so.

It was a little chilly before the race.

We started off running together, but Eric's competitive nature wouldn't let him run "slow" with me when he could obviously run faster. There were about 4 guys up in front of us, and Eric took off and caught them all pretty easily, while pushing the jogging stroller.

He says it was Hattie that urged him on saying

"Go faster Daddy!" "Pass him Daddy!" "We're in the front daddy"

So Eric was far enough ahead that as they came around the last corner he told Hattie to get ready to hop out & run. He stopped and got Hattie out & they ran in the last 100 meters together. So Hattie officially "Won the big race".

Here is H1 checking out her medal!

Oh yeah! Mommy did finish 4th overall and was the first female finisher. (There was a cross-country runner from Aberdeen that was pretty good that I ran with most of the race.)

I know this is not the greatest picture, but my thighs look thinner here!

We celebrated by eating a pancake breakfast served in the Aberdeen Park! What a great way to spend our morning as a family. We'll do it again next year!

In the Good Ole' Summer Time...

We had a fun day with friends, playing in the pool and the sand box, jumping on the trampoline and eating popsicles(and an ice cream cones).

We really didn't pose them for this picture. They were all just sitting there swinging and eating their popsicles. I had to grab my camera just to record this memory for later.

Finally...Summer in Idaho!

Actually I think it is only a high of 72 degrees today ....but we'll take it!

It's better than the 50 degree weather we've been having.

So, after 3-4 weeks of dreary cold fall-like weather,

we're pretending like it's 92 degrees out today. Atleast we have a nice solar-heated trampoline to warm up on!

Some more videos to watch...

Blowing Bubbles

Forward Rolls on the Trampoline

Quality Time

I asked "Daddy" to spend some quality time with the girls by giving them a bath.

I guess this is what quality time looks like.

H2 loves the water!

This Flower is No Pansy

Actually, it is a beautiful Pansy, but it's definitely not a wimpy plant. My dad brought it from Seattle in a suitcase on the airplane. It arrived at my house with no blooms and dad planted it in the rocks. There is has decided to bloom (Beautifully) where it was planted. Dad also planted some creeping flox in my rocks. I think he was inspired by his recent trip to the Buchart Gardens in Canada. Although mom says that she is married to Johnny Appleseed and that he plants things everywhere he goes. Thanks Dad! My yard is looking lovely!

Eric did a little landscaping to improve the home front.

Thanks Eric! These flowers are beautiful!

For the Grandparents

I really don't expect everybody to watch videos of my children, but this is a good way for the Grandparents to see how the girls are changing & growing.

Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

Forward Rolls

More Rolls....We do alot of these @ our house.

Hailey's Vocabulary

Hailey is almost 19 months and has a huge vocabulary. She'll repeat anything you ask her too. But some of her favorite and most common words and phrases are.... "Help me mommy" "Help Peas" "Hattie" "Water" "Puppy" "Kitty" "Kak, Kak" (duck)

She loves all animals and their sounds. Some people say second children are quieter because they have an older sibling to talk for them. Not Hailey. She talks as much if not more than Hattie did. And she only has one volume. Loud. She is very friendly and says "Hi" to everyone we pass in the store or on the street. She loves her sister Hattie & follows her everywhere. She is so adorable, but very onery and into everything. She is like a Kamikaze Pilot and we have to keep rescuing her from trouble.

Here is one more short video just for fun!