September 2020

 

First day of school for these kiddos.  Maden is in 5th grade, Clark in Kindergarten and Annie in 2nd grade at Summit Hills Elementary.  Molly started Kindergarten at Discovery Elementary.  

We took Ryder to see a Model Home, he loved the little playhouse under the stairs, and I love the look of the outside of this house!

September 5 - Blake and Jared went hunting in the river bottoms in Firth, Blake made friends with some horses.  Then we went to the Eastern Idaho State Fair - really just to the fairgrounds. It was eerily empty, and the food that was there wasn't our favorite. Such a strange year! Hallie loves to do whatever Grandpa is doing, and we got a good laugh at Molly's new mask.

September 7 - Labor Day - We started out the day going to Yellowstone Bear World.  It's always fun to see the bears and other animals.

We had fun taking photos with the bears, and some of us had fun on the rides! We went to Texas Roadhouse after Bear World.

Then, this is what we came home to! The wind had started while we were at Texas Roadhouse, and had caused havoc.  The north wind blew a lot of trees over all over the area, but these branches came down on a power line. most people in the area was without power over night, but ours was out for 3 days! 

September 8 - Some of the damage to the trees.

September 9 - And the clean up begins.  We really appreciate all of Randy's hard work!

September 10 - Still working! It was a huge job, and we didn't have as much damage as a lot of people.  There were many loads of trees taken to the dump!

September 11 & 12 - We went to the Parade of Homes in Idaho Falls.  There was a lot of houses, some great and some weird.  Look at the floor that Molly and Ryder were standing on, that was a weird one!

September 16 - We've had a lot of smoke in the air, coming from the fires in California, Oregon and Washington.  It turned the sun red!

September 19 - Everyone came down to celebrate Blake, and to clean up the shed, there was four wheeler rides, painting, "holding Hallie" and games.

We had Ice Cream Sandwich Cake and sang "popcorn popping", oh I mean "happy birthday" to Blake.

September 21 - Ryder came to celebrate on Blake's actual birthday and sang again on the rest of the Ice Cream Sandwich cake.

September 22 - Blake and I took a drive up past Palisades to see the fall colors, it was awesome!

September 23 - Yay! They're working on Randy's house!  Hallie kept begging to have this mask on, which I think is so funny, because she wouldn't have anything to do with a mask in April.

September 26 - Everyone is helping put things away in Brian's garage after he and Randy got home from their big hunting trip.

In the basement of their new house!

September 28, 29 & 30 - Spud harvest! Jared drove truck for Bart again this year. It's always fun to go see the harvest. Courtney and Ryder were there at the same time as Grandpa, Grandma and Michelle and her boys.  They hadn't seen each other
since March! Then Nikelle and Molly and Hallie came too! Thanks for the spuds, Bart! They are so good!

August 2020

August 1 - Celebrating Courtney!

August 3 - Beautiful sunrise!

August 4 - Ryder caught a little fish! Not sure he was really thrilled.

August 5 - Blake shot an arrow right into another arrow.  That doesn't happen very often.

August 8 - Jared came down to work on his trailer, when he got done, they took a little family four wheeler ride.  Hallie loves the four wheeler!

August 10 - Blake and Brian went over to the Castle Rock Archery Range.  It's a great 3D range.  They also did a little fishing.

August 11 - They dug the hole for Randy and Courtney's new house!

August 18 - Putting in the Cement Forms

August 19 - Cement is poured! Ryder was very worried about this "bridge", but got brave enough to walk on it with his Daddy.

August 21 - Jared and Randy are checking out the basement.  It's all so exciting, but it would be more exciting if things would happen faster!

August 15 - New Family Picture for Brian's family!

The bottom picture was the original that we took without Celia, the top is the one that my sister Tricia doctored up to include Celia! She's a magician!

August 17 - Ryder got to come hang out with me. He played a little basketball game of his own while we watched the Jazz on TV.  Then we had to vacuum up some crumbs, and he was very brave and did it himself.

August 19 - We had Ryder, then Molly and Hallie came too. Ryder and Molly learned how to shoot the arrows really well.

We made a date with Maden to go to Olive Garden, Ryder got to come along too.  They had a good lunch, then we went for ice cream at Reed's Dairy, we saw the animals and Maden got to meet some of Blake's relatives and have a family history lesson.

August 21 - See the smoky sky and the red sun? The kids had a fun day playing in the shed on the 4 wheelers.  Even Hallie got to play on them.  Then they had a little ride.  Hallie was in heaven!

August 22 - I drove with my parents to my sister, Lynne's in Woodruff, Utah.  We went to be part of Baby Paul's blessing and to attend Jackie and Mike's Open House. The top left picture is a 4 generation, with Lynne, Michelle, Mom and Dad and baby Paul.   It was a good day.  We stayed in Randolph in some tiny little cabins. I wish I had taken a picture of the outside.  It was tiny, but it was nice and pretty close to Lynne's house.

Aug 25 - Ryder was so excited that he got to go inside Grandpa Chin Chopper's house after almost 6 months.  He was even more excited to play air hockey with Grandpa!

August 26 - This big guy gets to go to Kindergarten! How is that even possible?

We had a little backyard pizza dinner with my parents, Michelle and her family and my nephew Adam Taylor so he could introduce us to Kayla Harris.  It was a fun little party, and good to see Adam again.

July 2020

 I loved watching Molly and Ryder play T-Ball, it was so entertaining! But, watching Hallie was just as entertaining!

July 4th! It was different than any other! No parade, or organized fireworks.  Some of us started the day off on the boat.  Then they came to our house, Brian brought his little 4 wheeler and Hallie thought it was solely for her entertainment.

Nikelle bought a a Slip & Slide, it was great entertainment for the little kids and Jared and Nikelle.

Then we did some funny bubble blowing and an obstacle course.  

Then, there was some basketball playing, some light sword games and fireworks. It was a good day.  Then, the fireworks started in all the land, they were all over the skies, everywhere.  Far better than the organized ones of the past.

Flowers! The Lillies were gorgeous! 

More T-Ball for Ryder in Blackfoot.  He can really run fast around the bases now!

Little Miss Hallie got very tired.  She was staying here with me, it was just her and I, so I told her to go find me a ball in the toy box, she started to play with the toys, then suddenly, she was snoring softly.  She slept there for about 1/2 hour. 

July 11 - Blake, Brian, Maden, Annie, Clark, Randy and Ryder went on a little 4Wheeler trip near Mackay.  They said it was a fun little ride.

Somebody threw a ball on the roof, so the kids all had to try to climb the ladder. The boys were not very willing to go very high.

But, then there's Annie, she tried and tried till she reached the top.  She said she was scared, but she kept trying.

July 12 - Cindy and Ken came! They brought some games and toys for our house.  There's some bow and arrows, a ring toss game and a ring/hook game.

July 13 - Cindy and Ken got to go experience the Archery Range. Cindy lost some arrows, but that's what happens sometimes.  Ryder and Clark had fun with their pretend bows.

We had a fun little activity, I had frozen some blocks of ice with treasures inside, the kids had to chisel the ice away to get their prizes.  Some of them needed some help, so Blake, Cindy and Nikelle came to their rescue.

Then, they had fun on the swings and the trike.  I fixed spaghetti for dinner, as I was getting the noodles out of the pantry a whole box fell to the floor.  Annie and Molly came running to my rescue and picked them all up.

We all went to watch Ryder play T-Ball.  It was quite the cheering section.

July 14 - We played some games, the kids rolled dice and the numbers told them what to to do.  There was a hot lava course, frisbee throwing, swinging, running around the house two times (I was so surprised that the kids were waiting to get the number that had them run around the house)  jumping up and down, jumping on one foot, stacking cheerios on a pipe cleaner, touching flowers, carrying water in a frisbee to a bucket,  drawing with sidewalk chalk, and blowing bubbles.  Hallie liked eating the cheerios.  After we were done, Maden told me that the games were fantastic.  We had fun spectators, then Brian and Randy took the kids on the 4Wheelers.

We had a birthday cake for all the birthdays that we hadn't had a party.  Celia was out of town, but we celebrated Brian, Ken, Molly, Cindy, and we included Courtney because her birthday was coming up soon.

We took the customary family picture since Cindy and Ken were here.  We will have to try to photoshop Celia in later.  So, here are our 2020 pictures, much better than only mask pictures. 

Blake and I and our Grandkids!

The 4 kids!

The 4 kids & Blake and I.

Blake & Diana

Ken & Cindy

Celia, Brian, Maden (10), Annie (7) & Clark (5) (photo taken on Aug.15)

Courtney, Randy & Ryder (5).

Nikelle, Jared, Brody Bear, Molly (5), Hallie (17 months).

July 16 - More fun at the Archery Range, trying to put the ring on the hook, and of course a great game of Egyptian.  So glad Cindy and Ken could come!

July 25 - Another 4Wheeling trip, these are the only pictures that I have! You'll have to ask Brian and Jared what they are all about.

After the 4wheeling, we went to Texas Roadhouse, then some went fishing.  The kids all liked it, and Molly thought the worms were very intriguing. 

Then Brian and his kids came to our house, they made up games walking on the railroad ties, and getting across the swings without touching the ground.  Brian even had to try it.  Once again, Annie would not give up until she conquered the challenge.

July 31 - Jared and Nikelle put up a tent in our backyard and had Ryder come for a sleepover in the tent.  They thought it was great fun.  Grandpa was trying out the bed and Hallie really thought she was going to be part of the sleepover in the tent.  It was not easy to get her out of there and into her crib in the house.