flooding the yard

our friends have flood irrigation and flooded their yard for a game of kickball

such a fun, wet, weird feeling on your feet kind of evening.

the fair

fresh and ready to ride some rides!

it's such a bummer, because eli loves rides and rollercoasters, but like his mama, he gets sick now. i think this will be his last wristband for the fair:( but he did have a blast on this ride:) he and anna are on the bottom left, eli is waiving. love that kid.

the older they get, the more i worry that they will grow apart. they have their rough patches, but they are still good friends who care deeply about each other. i'm so very thankful for that.

lyla's first upside-down ride. she loved it. oh, and i'm SO proud of her! i asked the operator to stop the ride early (they were the only ones on it) because i thought she was crying...turns out, she was laughing. love that crazy girl

ready to shut the fair down. sweaty, beyond tired and full of memories.

i love us

totality

we drove to ola, idaho for the total solar eclipse. we all agreed that it was one of the most amazing, inspiring, surreal experiences we've had. before the eclipse i wondered why people travel the world following these events. could it really be that cool? YES. a big huge yes. my dad took these amazing pictures.

the news had built the even up so much that it scared people away. we almost didn't go because they were calling for traffic jams that could last days. adam threw his back out and could hardly walk, so between traffic and pain we almost missed it. but i just felt sick at the thought of being 30 minutes away from totality and not seeing the full effect. so that morning we woke up and took a look at google traffic, NO traffic. roads were completely clear. so we called my parents and persuaded them to drive to horseshoe bend, but we got there and still found no traffic. so we kept driving as long as we could so we could get the most time in totality. we came to ola and decided to stay there. i think we had one of the best spots, 2.5 minutes of totality, and a day we will never forget.

looked like a sunset in the middle of the day

you can't see anything in these things, unless its the sun:)

our camp

gimpy adam:(

the shadows it made were wild, there were little nubs between each finger.

right before, see how weird the light is?

this picture fascinates me. see that sunspot under my chin? it's shaped like a crescent because even though you can't tell, the sun was in eclipse here. our creator is truly amazing.

this picture is a little blurry because it's a snapshot of a video. but i love it and had to have it in here:)

mcccll with mom and dad

the house we stayed behind us, such a pretty spot!

charlie's garden with grandma and papa

cool digs...

no lylas were hurt in the making of this photo:)

burgdorf hot springs, ahhhhh 

scavenging...

blurry but fun..

this and that…

a visit to the capitol building

this is the first time my kids have had ALL of their first cousins in one place.

laying on the capitol floor is always a must

river spears…

happy trails, camp family, we love having you here♥

lucky peak

we spent a few days on lucky peak and the boat. summer in boise means lots of time in the water.

fishin…

this raft is just the best…

this was a nasty wipeout, but nothing broken. hailey got the worst of it though…

this girl, she is everything i ever hoped for in a daughter. she is kind, sweet, funny, sassy and tenderhearted. more than i could ever ask for.

i picked up a wakeboard and we gave it a shot…

fun day on the water