Spring Break 2011

We kept ourselves busy for Spring Break this year. On Saturday Tiffani and I went to Aberdeen for a few days. Tiffani got some "puppy" loves from Hank since we left our dogs home with Les.
I love how Hank is hanging on to Tiffani in this picture. :)



Tiffani made bread bowls (from scratch) for the first time and potato soup (from Bear Creek) for dinner one night. It was so-o-o yummy!

Tiffani and I came home Tuesday night. On Thursday we left here at 8am and took Tessa out to Ron & Judy's. We weren't able to take Simba to our favorite "foster family" for him, so he came with us. We got to Lewiston mid afternoon and joined Brianna on campus. Kelley was giving a tour that afternoon so we were going to just hang out at the SUB and then eat dinner there. We couldn't take Simba inside so I sat outside - in the wind! - and read my book with Simba attached to me, while the rest went in and played pool and other stuff. So after 2 hours of that, they all came out and we went to the park until it was time for dinner (limited serving times). Simba stayed in the car while we ate.

Just a few of the "rapid fire" shots of the girls on the swing... If you could see all 34 pictures in a row, you would see the outside bars swaying in!!

Brianna was pretty insistent on getting Simba on the slide. I don't know if he liked it, but he didn't complain either.

Simba - It was still pretty windy!
After we ate dinner, we loaded Tiffani's stuff into Brianna's car and then went up to Colton. T, B & K stayed at the SUB before heading to the dorm. Friday Les and I went down to Lewiston, got Brianna's car and got the tires changed on it and then headed to the campus again. We met the girls there, Brianna was giving a tour and then they fed us lunch again. (They have to use the money on their cards or they loose it at the end of the semester.) Then we thought we'd go play mini golf so went to the dorms to park and then walked to Bumpers.

I know - an odd picture, but it gets me every time how Brianna & Tiffani walk in-step with each other without even thinking about it...

This is the concussion causing bounce house... If you don't know, just know that Brianna IS Les's daughter and you'll know enough! ;)

Inside the fun center. Too bad it wasn't Elmo, huh Brianna?

Well we didn't end up playing golf. The center had a huge roll up door that was open and looked out towards the River and we all decided that we should be outside enjoying the beautiful day instead of playing indoor mini golf.

Brianna's head is blocking the shot I was going for - it(the rivers joining) should have been framed between their heads!! Tiffani would have caught it that way, she's good at that! A little side tracked there - Anyway, the Clearwater River is on our right and the Snake is in front of us. The rivers meet there and it is called, in Nez Perce, Tsceminicum, which means "Meeting of the Waters".

This sculpture at the meeting of the rivers is in front of an outdoor Lewis and Clark Center. This east facing side shows the wildlife and legends of the Clearwater River and its tributaries. The front is a symbolic Earth Mother.

The west facing wall are those of the Snake River. The very top and left on the picture is a coyote, the central "Trickster" character of Native American legend.
The wall is much more interesting to look at in person. There's a lot to see!

As we were walking around campus Thursday night Les asked about the canoe that was there when we toured it before Brianna went there. No one seemed to know where it went. We found it at the Lewis and Clark Center. LCSC students made this dugout canoe in the 1970's.

We didn't see/hear the barge coming soon enough to actually see it go under the train draw bridge, but it was pretty neat to see it coming by.

Sisters :) We were standing on a dock when the barge went by so those big swells are from it. And silly me decides to take a picture while swaying back and forth!

Sisters - yep even Tiffani claims Kelley as a sister. :) They are a lot alike except for that whole height thing. :)

After posing for that picture they decided they wanted to take a flying leap off the 'box' they were standing on...
the beginningthe middlethe end...

We continued our walk around to the Snake River side of the greenbelt. The "blue bridge" that connects Idaho and Washington.

A cool canoe sculpture.

After our walk we went to the dorm for a bit and hung out in their basement, playing cribbage, ping pong and foosball. Then we went apartment hunting/viewing with Brianna & Kelley before getting dinner (at Panda Express - enough campus food) and then heading for our respective sleeping quarters. Saturday Brianna had to work, so we stayed up in Colton and all the girls came up later. They played Just Dance on the Wii & ate pizza (well we all did that!). Sunday, it was back to Lewiston for breakfast and then we headed back home again.

It was a great Spring Break. Though I do question the "Spring" part. It was so beautiful Friday - the car said 75 degrees at 6:00 that evening. But later that night (10ish maybe) we had thunder, lightening, loud pelting rain on the windows. And then Saturday afternoon/evening it hailed, snowed and then hailed again! Spring WILL come. I have faith!

Another Misc. Update! :)

This adorable, large bird is about to make us crazy! Especially at 6:45 in the morning when he's tap, tap, tapping on the living room window like a woodpecker!! Seriously!! This morning is started at 6:45, he flies at the window tapping it a few times then goes and lands on the post, waits a minute or so and then does it again. This continues for about 5-10 minutes and then he leaves for about 20 minutes and comes back and starts all over again! I'm not sure why he is not dead yet or his beak is not broken yet. This went on for about 3 hours this morning. Then Tiffani heard him tapping but he wasn't at the side window. I went looking this morning and he was sitting on the little table on the front porch flying into the front window!! So he's also the culprit who has been messing up our table and the poor frog statue that sits there. This bird needs a new home! I hope he finds one before we start getting raspberries - right there below the side window.
This picture was taken after hearing this for 2 mornings in a row. He doesn't look one bit dazed by all of it, does he?
You can't tell too much on this picture, but this is the window that he's been attacking. All the white spots that might look like its snowing, is the birds' markings on the window.

Onto more important things!!! :)

We have this cool divider in the back of the trailblazer that has hooks on it to hold grocery bags. Now that Tiffani is using the trailblazer and we take my pickup shopping, Les made a grocery "rack" for the pickup. Works quite well AND he improved it by making it double sided for those big shopping trips. :)

So in this picture Simba is just sitting waiting for the neighbor dog, but as I was standing at the sink doing dishes, Simba was running up and down the fence line. Every once in awhile he'd stop in the middle and act like he was getting ready to charge - his front paws would be pawing at the ground like a bull getting ready to charge. It was so funny to watch. So I ran upstairs and all I see is the neighbor dog laying in the sun in the patio!Maybe Simba was trying to get him to play, I don't know!

This has become Simba's favorite corner to be in when he's outside. I guess he had to claim one, Tessa sits at attention in the middle of the back yard waiting for the neighbor dog across the walkway to come out and they each jump at the fence trying to see each other. AND she's claimed the other side of the yard and runs races along the fence with that neighbor dog. (There's only 8 dogs between us and the neighbors around us!)

And now to leave you with a few of my favorite people: Brianna and some of the kiddos I work with. (Brianna has worked with them, too, and so came visiting while she was home for spring break.) Next year is going to be really hard... At least one of these guys gets to move with me!



Our spring break up in Lewiston coming next...

Flying Over

About a week and a half ago, Les was invited to go for a plane ride with his friend Rudi, from work who needed to get some cross country fly time in on his plane. They went to Weiser and Ontario. Here's a few pictures from there flight.
This was the little 4 seater plane they took.

Looking out the front of the plane to the Boise airport. I particularly like the sign from the Ponderosa Aero Club posted right in front of Les... ;)

The runway as they were taking off.

The Flying Wye (where I84 and I184 meet)right in the middle of the window.

These two pictures show the intersection of Ustick & Maple Grove. Not one we frequent much & it took a bit to figure this out, but there is a Church there that I did my preschool practicum in while at BSU and also where the girls & I helped out with Vacation Bible School a few years. Kind of neat to check things out from this angle (from the safety of my stamp room!)

Les was trying to get a shot of Bogus - I think it's on the right side of the picture.

The Emmett Highway

A little closer to Emmett - the airport is about in the middle of the picture.

The top left of this picture is a dairy farm near Ron & Judy's. He was trying to find their house, but they were past it before he realized it.

This was coming into Weiser. (You can see a video of the landing on my facebook page)

Just a neat home on the river.

Rudi and a cool crop duster they saw in Weiser.

Coming into Ontario.

A second shot at New Plymouth on the way home. Still not close enough to get a good shot, but Ron & Judy's is out there somewhere!

A different view of the Flying Wye. This one is taken as they were coming back into the airport and looking west.

Craft Projects

I've been playing around with the Digital Scrapbooking program from SU! and made a project for a friend of mine who went in for surgery for cancer last week and for Mom.

The first one I made a few weeks ago when a friend shared this verse just after I had talked to Mom and she was having a hard time sleeping again. So I made this for Mom, but then had to wait a few weeks to print it because our printer died. Hopefully I will see her this coming weekend and can give it to her.

This next one I made for a friend who just found out she has breast cancer. I was wondering what I could do for her, when Helen shared this Psalm 23 interpretation on facebook and I knew exactly what I should give her. So I printed it up and added some ribbon and the flower. My friend loved it and took another picture down in her room and hung this up by her bed so she could see it everyday.

Now while we are all busy Tessa has her own project that she's been busy with. She got this rope about 2 months ago and one of those days I was home sick, she really went to town on it! I came out into the kitchen and and there were shreds of rope every where.

An Army of Monsters & A Road Trip

Tiffani got her first real paid order for cupcakes for a friends' daughter's birthday. Tiffany ordered the fur ball monsters. Tiffani baked them Thursday after school and decorated them Friday after school and then delivered them Saturday morning on the way out of town. Success! :) They are cute and fun, but it took her a long time to do all that fur frosting.





This weekend I was very sick, but we had planned to go to Aberdeen. Les took Tiffani anyway, to give Mom some company for a few days. I curled up in a ball and worked on getting well... But it gave Les the perfect opportunity to go skiing at Pomerelle. He's been wanting to take both girls there for a long time, show off his childhood ski spot. So Monday on the way back home they stopped & skied Pomerelle. Tiffani's text as they were leaving to finish the trek home said it was fantastic. They had a blast! This is just a shot on the way up the mountain. Tiffani can't wait until Brianna is home for a long winter weekend and they can all go together. :)