Around the House in June

Darryl figured it up one afternoon. It was a statistic that shocked us a little. In the last 2 1/2 years (Jan. 2008 until June of 2010) Darryl has spent a total of 4 months at home. It's the nature of his work. (You can look through the archives of this blog and see the many places we have lived and worked in that time) Is it any wonder it seems like we don't get anything done around the house? I was home for around 12 months of that time because of Cody being in school, but still.... we are away a lot! Well, things have changed this summer. We came home the first of June and it looks like we will be here for a few months so we are playing catch-up with the house and yard.
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(Once again the dates on some of the pictures are incorrect.)

We asked Jesse and Kelly to come over one evening for a Top Secret Project. When they arrived we informed Jesse we needed her to climb the ladder to the top of the dome and trim the Cats claw plant out of the skylight. She did it. I don't think she liked being 25 ft. in the air, but she did a great job non the less.

It took Darryl a solid week to get the yard mowed and trimmed......

...then he took on the trees, shrubs and flowerbeds that were over grown and out of control.

It now looks like someone is living here again and not going wild.

He was very excited when his favorite Black Irises bloomed. We haven't seen the irises bloom for years since we have been gone during the first of summer.

The peony bush was beautiful and smelled wonderful.

Another look at his favorite black Iris.

This really is a very beautiful and peaceful place to live. If you enjoy snow. Remember we have snow and cold about 7 months out of the year here. Probably why we are gone a lot. ;-)

I don't know what we would do without our good neighbors and our kids who take such good care of our place while we are gone.

Idaho in the summer is truly one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Y'all have a pleasant day.

Zoo Days

Back in June Darryl and I had our 5 oldest grandchildren stay with us for 3 days. What fun we had! We decorated craft boxes with sea shells that Grandma brought back from Mexico. We watched movies and ate popcorn. The Grandchildren were big helpers when it came to working with Grandpa around the yard and grandpa took them to Wingers for a reward. On Friday, June 18th, Grandpa decided we needed to visit the zoo!

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We looked closely and this is what we saw....Aunt Sandy's favorite animal....the Penguins!

They climbed on the fences to see what was in the pens.

And they liked playing on the Larger than life pets and toys..

The petting zoo was a big hit. They took the curry combs and brushes and groomed all of the goats and kids!

We went down to the Lions, tigers and bears display where the zoo volunteer tried in vain to mis-inform my grandchildren about the desperate plight of the polar bears. Grandma made sure they had correct information before we left. Here Preston plays with a bear skull.

Then we were off to see the big cats.....!

...where tigress easily gave all 5 of them a ride.

The king of the beasts and his mate take it easy in the shade.

"I won't tell you kids again. Get down off of the Lion's cage before he tries to get you. I don't want you to get hurt!"

This is where grandma should sympathize, but instead I think he got one of those "What did I tell you?" looks.

We were moving pretty slow when we left the zoo, and grandpa got us some pizza before we headed home.

Lydia was too tired to even finish her dinner.

It was a wonderful 3 days!

Independence Day Celebration!

Since the 4th of July was on a Sunday, our little town of Menan celebrated our National Birthday on Monday, July 5th. We started the morning with a 5K fun Run. Darryl and Cali ran with friends Don Mickelsen, Julie and Doug Griffith, And the Schaat Family, Rob (Tamar's Husband), Nathan, Tamar and Sonja.It was the largest turnout ever for the 5k.

Darryl finished in 31:47. Just over a minute slower than he ran on Saturday.

After the pancake breakfast and cleaning up we came back to the park for fun and entertainment.

I was the first one up to sing in the entertainment portion.

Darryl, Gideon, Cali, Travis, Jesse and Kelly were all there for the fun and food!

About 1:45 we went out to watch the parade.

The crowd was the largest I had ever seen. Probably because all the other towns had celebrated on Saturday and Sunday.

The parade started off with the truck handing out chocolate milk to all of the spectators.

And Gideon loves chocolate milk!

I learned that Idaho Falls Fire Department has bagpipers...

Gideon loved waving his flag, especially at all of the fire trucks that went by.

These kids were advertisement for a the college newspaper. All of their outfits are made out of newspaper.

And this is truly a first. In all of my years of parade attending and participation, this is the first ever Tupperware float I have ever seen!

So.... I said, "Hey Travis", And he looked.....

"Uh, ... Travis dear, Since you are not covered up and protected from the cold north wind yet, could you please take a picture of us for the blog? Pretty please?"

This is about 9:30 p.m. Yes, It was that chilly! Thank you Travis for taking the picture. And I hope you all had a wonderful Independence Day Celebration too!

Yay Darryl!!

I can't tell you how proud I am of my husband. Five days ago he ran his first 5k race ever and with minimal training and no running experience he finished in 30:44. Fast enough to take third place in the men's 50-59 age group. Congratulations Honey!

The Liberty 5K

We interupt this regularly scheduled blogging and Zoo report to give you the latest information on the running escapades of Darryl and Cali. BTW, the date on the picture is still wrong. It should be July 3, 2010. I took the battery out and canceled the date.

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Three weeks ago, after our daughters finished running the Teton Dam Marathon, Cali asked Darryl if he would run the marathon with her next year and he said he would. Well, that did it. A week later she asked him if he would run the Liberty 5K in Rexburg on the 4th of July weekend. We don't know why, but he said yes. Now keep in mind that I have been married to this man for 34 years, and except for a short time in the early 80's and a couple of weeks in 2006, I have never known him to run more than a few hundred yards at a time. and then only a few times.

Darryl started training on Saturday June 26th when he ran 2 miles before stopping and exclaiming, and I quote, "my legs turned to jelly and thought I was going to die". On Monday he ran a mile before his asthma kicked in. The fact that it's hay cutting season here didn't help. I bought him an inhaler on Thursday and he ran another mile before his lungs were burning and it was even worse. I was beginning to think that he might not be able to do this. So this morning after breakfast he drank an energy drink, took a shot from his inhaler and then off to the races we went.

It was very cold this morning, 45 degrees. They lined up and....

....they're off!

Just past the 2 mile mark Darryl was still going strong... sort of....,
Cali was doing great at two miles!
At the finish Darryl was looking a little tired, but happy with his accomplishment!
And Cali was looking great as she crossed the finish line a couple of minutes behind Darryl.
The girls were so proud of their Dad.
Gideon wanted to wear Cali's race number

..and then took off for the course.
Soon he made Cali moved the number to his leg so he could be like Grandpa, and then they would race. It was a great day and I am so proud of Darryl. He will be 56 yrs. old on August 4th and he ran his first 5K and did it in 30 minutes!
Way to go sweetheart! Great Job Cali!
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On a side note, go to http://7galsintraining.blogspot.com/ and check out Skye's results from her 10K Hawaiian Run!