brant and emily

we were blessed to spend time last weekend with some friends who are on furlough.  brant and emily came with their three boys for a fun filled weekend…unfortunately the stomach flu had other plans.  out of the 9 of us, only two (brant and eli) came out unscathed.  despite this, we actually had a really good time.  we talked a lot and were able to just chill out and enjoy our time together.  it wasn’t what we had planned, but it was a sweet time.

the kiddos munchin’ on spaghetti and meatballs…

emily entertained the boys with a bag of science experiments eli received as a party favor at a birthday party.  the loved it.

before the flu took full hold, we had a chance to take a hike.  it’s snake season…

this was another snake, an itty-bitty one, but he has a mouse in his mouth!  it was pretty cool…in a gross sort of way.

fierce warriors with their spears…

adam and brant took the boys fishing at the lake.  they didn’t catch anything, but they were able to meet up with our neighbor who gave them a ride on his boat.  adam said eli stayed on until the very last moment, just sitting there not wanting it to end.  i don’t blame him.

adam and brant took the boys fishing at the lake.  they didn’t catch anything, but they were able to meet up with our neighbor who gave them a ride on his boat.  adam said eli stayed on until the very last moment, just sitting there not wanting it to end.  I don’t blame him.

the girls table

the boyz table…

love this…

me and emily…it was nice to have another night owl in the house.  we stayed up talking way to late:) it was great having you guys!  looking forward to next time!

lyla the ninja puppy

happy mother’s day

we took advantage of the beautiful day with a bike ride downtown for dinner.  along the way beside the greenbelt was this mom ice sculpture….

i said, “okay, everybody PRETEND to lick it.” everybody pretended…except eli.  it was just too much for him to resist.

we had dinner at a fun little pizza place downtown.

lyla LOVES the trail along bike.  she’s so excited and said a lot of stuff like “i'm riding on my own bike…but not really, it’s you’re bike but i'm on my own bike.”

on the way back they cooled off in the fountain….lyla was showing me how wet she was.

 

drying off before the ride home…it was a fun, warm, beautiful, greenbelt kind of day. happy mother’s day mom!!!

first bmx

eli rode in his first bmx race last week.  he really liked it and had a great time.

eli and his good friend, trevor

lyla mostly ran the track, but she did play around with her bike a bit.

resting

last weekend i  headed up to a lodge on the lake in mccall for our church ladies retreat.  in short…

the worship ~ beautiful

the fellowship ~ unbeatable

the view ~ breathtaking

the teaching ~ encouraging

the time away ~ restful

the food ~ delicious 

this was our meeting room where most of our meetings took place.  it was a cozy old lodge with a view of the lake.

the ladies of cabin 6…

mini buns

we had our first attempt at hamburger bun making the other day.  lyla helped me kneed the dough and loved every millisecond.  i've decided that she’s either going to become a song writer or a chef…or a song writing chef.  she loves to cook and sings to herself all the time.  such a fun age.

we followed the recipe and divided up the dough as stated.  the balls of dough seemed little, but what did i know? this was my first time hamburger bun making:) so, we ended up with mini buns. luckily we hadn’t thrown the patties on the bbq yet.  the outcome was fun, look at these cutie patooties…they tasted okay, eli LOVED them and told me i'm “the best bread maker ever."  i'll take it.

snow melt adventure

each year the stream at military reserve flows with snow melt from the mountains above.  it’s usually to cool to play in, but with this crazy warm weather we were finally able to.  so we took a little hike, first on a trail and then down the stream…

eli loved tromping down the stream.  we  hiked downstream until the two steams merged and the water got a little deeper.

lyla liked it too…

this meadowy spot was sooooo pretty.  yeah! for green grass and leaves on the trees.

eli found a good jumping spot...