Giant Red Cedars

Ty needed to take some photos of some landscapes and trees for a project. The boys and I decided to follow along for the fun and it ended up being a blast. Good thing we brought coats and hats because we ran into a little bit of snow. Up past Elk River lives the largest tree in Idaho, a giant red cedar. It was pretty big. Ty took pictures of the walkway, and design of the park. Who knew that Landscape Architects design stuff for National Parks. I didn't, but they all are. Way cool. I can totally see Ty designing and building some of these preservations someday.

Heading down the path. Just starting.

Rare picture of just me and Paycen! I guess his feet were cold and I was the next best (Ty was holding the camera who is obviously the first best)


Sorry, I guess it's a western red cedar...


This is it! The Giant Red Cedar!

A more distant shot of the tree. It's no redwood, but it is the biggest tree that I've ever seen!

Ty promised it would be 2 hours at the most. Well our little excursion took us all day. Well worth it. It has been hard getting out of the house lately. We live in the Pacific time zone and we are unfortunately right on the boundary line. That means with the time change, it starts to get dark at 3:30 and it finally dark at like 4:15. So depressing, but hey...Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up, and we are all excited for the holidays.

My Little Rock Climber

I've been wanting to share this post, well since the 4th of July, sorry more apologies. We went to a little parade in Lewiston for the 4th and they had a rock climbing wall free for the kids. I was looking at the kids climbing and thought "Oh dang, Kaden's too small to climb." But I built up the courage and asked the national guard volunteer if he could climb. He was so nice and found the smallest harness and cinched it to the smallest it could go and it fit! I'm so glad I asked because that's all we did for the next 2 hours was watch Kaden climb and how his face would light up when he made it to the top.

Getting fitted with his harness!

Looking up at how high he has to go! No fear this kid.

Getting started!

Almost there!

Finally coming down! Kaden is so little he barely made it down. The guard member almost had to go get him the first time but then Kaden bounced a little and his weight slowly brought him down.

This lady in the background of our video kept saying Wow, over and over. And really, that's all we said to was Wow! It was so much fun!!

Silverwood Theme Park

Long Time my friends! Sorry...but I found some cute pictures of our trip to Silverwood this year. My work took all the employees and their families to the biggest theme park in the Pacific Northwest aka Silverwood. Not quite as big as Lagoon to give those a reference point from my neck of the woods, but still a fabulous place to have fun!

Kaden, cousin Jacob and Catherine riding the giant swing. We took my sister Michelle and DJ and their kids with us to Silverwood. So glad we did so we could take turns watching the kids while the other couple was off riding the big stuff!!

Kaden cheesing it for us on the helicopter ride. The best part of the theme park was being able to say YES to whatever the kids wanted. "Mom can I ride the helicopter?" "Yes Kaden you can!" It was so much fun!!

Kaden and cousin Jacob on the frog hopper

Kaden and cousin Catherine on the plane. By far the favorite among the kids!

Even little Paycen could ride most of the rides! He felt so grown up!!

All the kids!! Paycen in front, then Jacob, Kaden, Catherine and Ashlynn from left to right.

Paycen being a good listener "Put your hands up Paycen! Reach for the stars!"

Silverwood also has a really fun water park called Boulder Beach. I wish we would've spent most of our time there. The kids loved it. Ty's friend Josh met us at Silverwood and helped show us all the cool places. The kid splash pad was by far the best!

Kaden coming down the slide. I think he did this slide 20 times. I went up with him once thinking I wouldn't get that wet but I swear all the kids targeted me. Their were water guns and dumping buckets while you were climbing up the ladders and I got hosed. I got drenched by this huge bucket and I started screaming. This little girl looked at me like "why is this lady screaming, it's just water". so funny!

I don't know how Paycen does it but he finds the dirt. We were eating lunch and he walks over to this tree and back to us. He must have tripped and landed in the only pile of fresh dirt that ringed around the tree. He got a wet wipe bath, but then we headed to the water park and all was better!

I think we will go again next summer and spend most of the day at the water park. Kaden still talks about sliding down the slides all by himself months later. We had a blast! I was so surprised by the hospital funding this event for our yearly work party! Man I'm starting to love this place!!

Heebee Jeebee's

Ticks are bloodsucking arachnid parasites known to carry and transmit diseases.

*Warning this post will give you the creepy crawlies and heebee jeebee's.

I was getting the heebee jeebee's just looking up images of ticks on the Internet. There were some really gross ones but I thought that this drawing (picture shown above) wasn't too disgusting but enough so everyone can get the point.

Ticks are gross and really give me the heebee jeebee's as you might have figured out. Since my hair is getting longer, I think I'm a more susceptible target for them. Should I just chop it? We'll see...

Ty and I have been camping and hiking a lot since moving here to Moscow. We always do a tick check afterwards but we missed one. Monica and I drove to Spokane for a conference and we stayed at my sister Michelle's house for the night. Before dropping off to bed we went to the park to let the kids play. While playing I felt a pinch on the back of my neck. I reached back thinking "darn mosquitos" and I grabbed something hard. I pulled my hand forward and blood was dripping off my fingers (literally dripping). I panic and make the girls look at my neck. To my surprise there wasn't a nice little poke from a mosquito but a chunk of skin missing where a tick had gotten me. Yuk!! There was blood everywhere. We then find another bite mark a little higher in my hair line. It was the original bite mark where my tick had been embedded for maybe days drinking blood from my brain stem. NASTY!!

Now I'm the Dirty Tick Girl!

I showered, I promise. How did we miss him? Ty was freaking out saying "You mean I was sleeping next to a tick?" Thanks honey, the tick was eating my brain stem not yours. I could've died. I laugh because Ty said "Oh you don't really need your brain stem." Oh ya... that's like the only thing you really need. I had to google signs and symptoms of Lyme disease and rocky mountain fever and instantly felt weakness and achyness. (I'm a closet hypochondriac)

Any way, I'm better now and I didn't get Lyme disease or Rocky mountain fever, but I still have the heebee jeebee's. I can't even go outside without feeling the creepy crawlies. Yuk!

Paycen's Hair Cut

I'm back! YAY!! From a leave of absence. I was feeling completely disconnected from the world. "Never Again" I say! Sorry for taking so long. I have been reading all of your blogs without commenting because I was ashamed I hadn't written anything of my own. But here I go. Some cute pictures of Paycen and a really funny story. Well now it is funny, but it wasn't at the time.

I took Paycen to get his hair cut at Great Clips. The first time we had a really good experience. This lady was a record breaker. She cut Paycee's hair in 7-8 min and left him smiling with a sucker in both hands. Fabulous!! It was no hassle, no tears and only $7 bucks.

So I take him there again. This time of course with a different gal. She started cutting and talked to me about how much she hates cutting hair and how she prefers doing just color. WHAT? Why are you working at Great Clips? Then she just kept cutting shorter and shorter trying to match the side that she just finished with. After 30 min Paycen started getting wiggly...go figure. I ask her if he can have a sucker. She grabs the basket and picks out a sucker of HER choice. Paycen is screaming "Me Choose...Me Choose!" she looks at him and tells him "No! Just take this one!" Heaven forbid girl, just let my little man choose his own sucker! She obviously doesn't have any kids. More wiggling and tears and a sucker with hair on it she asks me to hold him down. She said "Mom, could you just hold your kid's head still?" Another WHAT? from me. Excuse me? She wanted me to traumatize him even more. She slams down her scissors and storms to another room to get her manager and an angel walked in. It was the gal that cut his hair the first time. She looked and Paycen and then back to the butcher and said "What did you do? You butched him." She started crying and said "he was wiggling" and the manager said "well he's been here for 40min." She grabbed her scissors and fixed it as best she could but she needed to go a lot shorter than I wanted. I left and hour and 10 min later and $7 lighter. What a crazy afternoon!

Here are a few pictures of Paycen before and after.

Okay so the pictures don't do the bad haircut justice. But he had really long hair before we cut it. Yikes, I'm turning into a hippie!! jk. Anyway, sorry for my absence. I miss everyone and hope you guys will fill like you are still a part of our lives even when we live so far away.

Rounding the Corner

"Rounding the corner" is a popular phrase in the Labor and Delivery world. It simply means the baby has been pushed under the pubic bone and delivery will be soon. In a multiparous woman the doctor better have his/her gloves on. I can't believe I've been in Moscow for almost 2 months now. What have I done since I've been here? To tell you the ugly honest truth it hasn't been pretty. I've been living with the very secretive and never talked about D word. depression... But all is well! I feel like I'm "rounding the corner". I'm almost there, to a life I used to know without numbness, dread, fatigue and insomnia. Today I actually cleaned my house and I decided to show what my little house and life is like here in the claustrophobic town in the Palouse Valley.

Our cute little rental with included blue picket fence. A color I would never have chosen, but hey! We have a fence. Plus, look at our lack of snow. Yup it's February and the weather here is great!!


Cute little nine-nineteen


Walking through our front door you are welcomed by beautiful hard wood floors (which my boys slip on every day) and our living room


I had to show off my plant. I had to leave it behind the first move, but the second and final move it survived the front seat of my car. Slowly I've been nourishing it back to health. I can't believe what a difference some humidity makes in the life of plants.


I even felt motivated by Valentine's Day to put up my LOVE letters. Not much, but oh it put some sunshine in my soul today.


Dining room. I don't like how my living room and dining room are one big room, but compared to what we saw while hunting for a place to stay I'll take it. Paycen sits on the furthest chair to the left and he constantly touches my chair. I not only have to wash his face and hands but I have to clean off my leather chair after meals as well.


Small view of our kitchen. I just wanted to show off my very favorite appliance. The Dishwasher!! After 6 1/2 years of marriage, 2 kids and many moves we have our first dishwasher!! I will never go back (hopefully) to washing dishes by hand. What a heaven sent blessing!!

Another view of our kitchen.

I had to show off the retro carpet in our bedroom. The only room in the whole house that is carpeted. The owners of the house decided to put new hardwood floors through out the whole upstairs except the bedroom. Why? It's retched... and on my bookshelf you can barely see my beloved Edward on the top shelf. Thank you for understanding.

Here is probably my favorite room in the house. We have a magnificent basement with included toy room!! What? you can't see any toys? That's because this included toy room came with a gigantic closet. All the toys are in there!! hurray!! We had to buy 3 different carpet pieces from a carpet store so that's why the carpet doesn't really match, but it's way better than a cement floor. The boys spend almost every breathing moment in here playing. Like I said Best Room Ever!

Awful looking room, but a great assest. A cellar. We mostly store our boxes in here, but we have all our food storage in here to. It's not all unpacked but I love the space. No more storing food under our bed, and besides the washer and dryer.



Laundry Room is a little scary, but Ty has made himself a little work space. Here on his desk is a design he has created for his landscape architecture class. Going back to school has been quite the adjustment for both of us, but like I said we have finally started rounding the corner.

I am working as a LD nurse at the local hospital prn, but thankfully I have had plenty of shifts to pick up with a high prospect of becoming a scheduled employee. My schedule is crazy busy but I love it. Work is actually going pretty good. I love everyone I work with. Even the girl I talked about earlier that wronched me out for the pt that was going to "choke on her tongue". It's mostly because I've been working with my friend Monica more lately. Along with my dishwasher, she is heaven sent. Work is so close I get to walk every day. Walking sounds ominous but really it takes me 3-4 min to walk. Soooo nice.

School is really close for Ty as well and he walks or rides his bike. Our poor cars are being neglected, but we have saved so much money on gas. If you remember, Ty used to travel to Jackson WY to work everyday from Rexburg. He was the gas guzzler.

We have been ward hopping a lot and finally found one we liked. The first family ward we went to ended up being the wrong ward. Our house is right on the boundary. So then we start going to our real family ward. They seemed nice of course but we just got lost in the busyness of it all. The nursery had 30 kids (and it's only Feb) and the sunbeam class had 24 kids, and the CTR 5 (Kaden's class) has 20 kids. Let's just say the Primary was chaos. And after sitting by myself in Relief Society and girls who wouldn't give me the time of day for 3 weeks, we decided to go to the married student ward. What a breath of fresh air I tell you. Besides the girls who say like every other word, it's been a really good decision. The Primary has 10-12 kids and Kaden comes home singing the new songs he has learned and tells me about what he learned in class. Much better!!

So we are surviving and doing much better. We miss our home tremendously in Rexburg, but don't miss the -20 degree weather plus wind we have heard about. Much love and well wishes to those who read this whole post!!

Steph

Birthday Boy

I think Paycen had a great Birthday. He is such a little cheeser! We practiced all day blowing out candles and he performed perfectly by blowing out his official candles one by one. What a cutie!!

The original chocolate Birthday cake. Paycen ate 2 pieces.

Getting ready for the presents. He's sitting in the King Chair.

New train set. Kaden loves this one as well.

Chomper airplane from Grandma and Grandpa!

New church clothes. Actually I lied they are hand-me-downs from Kaden, but they are new to Paycen and he looked so cute for Sunday.

Cute Family photo of my 4-year-old Kaden and 2-year-old Paycen. I can't believe they are that old already.