4X4 Food Drive

We love our Jeep!  Richard joined a 4x4 club here in Rexburg in hopes that we could go out with groups of people.  Fun, fun, fun!  Well today the 4x4 club hosted a food drive at Broulim's. We took a box of food  as well as the Jeep to help draw attention to this great cause!

  Don't let the blue skies and no snow fool you, it was COLD with the wind blowing like crazy!

 Yes, that is our Black Beauty "stacked" on the white pick up truck!  I was sitting in the van watching this happen thinking I'd be needing to call the insurance guy, but Richard kept it to tire on tire contact only! 

 Fun thing, we went back over in the evening and there was Kayla(far left), my favorite person from Chem101 last fall. We were lab partners and it was so fun to see her again.  That beautiful dog is hers!

A pretty good haul to help fight hunger. Richard tells me that even more food was donated after this photo was taken!

Once there was a snowman...

It snowed, it snowed!!  The kids got ready for school super fast and went out to play for a bit before they bus came.  Annalina made us a snowman!  Isn't it cute?

Once there was a snowman, Small, small, small

Horseshoe Lake and Cave Falls

Saturday was a busy day of Birthday parties and primary preparation and homework.  After the last child came home from partying, Richard and I took off in the Jeep to go find something fun!  Success!  We got to see Mesa Falls then we found a fun offroad trail and drove through some mud lakes.  I learned that navigation is a skill I am slowly acquiring!  We found a fun little campground on the Warm River and I believe we will try to go camping there sometime next year.  We were heading home when we saw a sign with "Cave Falls-19 Miles".  We decided it couldn't take that long and off we went(it added a couple hours to our trip).  There were turnoffs that we will have to go back to explore, but we made it to the Falls and it was incredibly beautiful!  I didn't have my camera and was so sad!  It was getting dark by this time so we headed back home.  It was supposed to snow the next morning but it didn't.  We went to church and then after I said something about going to find some snow. We took the littles so we could show them the beauty we found.  Our first stop was an offshoot of the main trail and it took us to Horseshoe Lake.  The Jeep handled the snow beautifully.  The kids loved it.  We got out at the Lake and took photos and played for a bit. Then it was back on the "road" to the falls.  We got there as the sun was setting and my camera did not do a great job with the low light level.  But I am posting some of the photos anyway, to show how beautiful it was!  And oh well, we will just have to go back in better light!  Joseph kept a close eye on the Jeep outside temperature gauge. It got down to 12 degrees! On the way back, it got dark and a fox ran across the road in front of us, which prompted the kids to sing the full "what does the fox say" song. Too fun!

I am grateful for the beauty that is so close to our home. I am also grateful for a second vehicle that has opened up so much more of the world to us!  We love our little Jeep!  Who knows, maybe as our need for the van decreases, we will end up with another one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back To Relay Ridge with Annalina

Richard and I took Annalina up to Relay Ridge the next weekend to show her the beautiful view, and it was beautiful, but very cold! Joseph did not want to join us, so Jacob kindly stayed at home with him. Annalina enjoyed looking at the rocks!  We had our sack lunch dinner at the top of the mountain and then headed back out.  The sunset was spectacular!

 

 

 

Checking out the relays!

 

Happy Halloween '13

There were some great deals on Halloween candy this year, like REALLY good deals, so I bought a ton of M&Ms and Snickers to give out. Halloween came and I counted out two bowls of candy, each with 100 pieces so I could see how many trick or treaters we got. I still had bags and bags left.  I thought this would at least get us started.  Annalina had a group of friends going out trick-or-treating and so she took Joseph out with her. Jacob was still off from work so he volunteered to pass out candy. Richard and I had a very relaxed evening! 

Candy, ready to go!  

Oh my goodness, we had SO much candy left over!  I think I will look into canning M&M's.

We had just 87 kids come by, and two of them were my own!  That may sound like a lot, but we had many more last year!

Joseph is the Ninja Turtle and Annalina is a star trek person!  The other two are our cute neighbors.

 My kids are so adorable!  This was their first year going out without Richard and I.  They got a late start, at about 6:45.  I told them they could stay out until 9 if they wanted to.  They were back in less than an hour.  I asked why they came home and they said they were done!  They had enough candy and had a good time and were just ready to be home!  They have done this before when we have taken them out.  They get to a point where they are just finished!  Great kids!

 

We carved our pumpkins the night before Halloween this year. They turned out great, as always!!

Joseph's pumpkin is on the left and Daddy's is on the right.

Annalina's pumpkin is on the ground and mine is on the chair, Richard added the squash and I thought it looked great!

This is Jacob's pumpkin!  Cute!