Summer Picnic

I love working at home! It makes so many more things possible during the summer.

The weather was really good today so we decided to take our lunch to the park.

Apparently, this is Kenneth's serious picture taking face??

I had to snap the pictures I could while he was occupied with other things.

But look at how blue the sky is in the background!

After lunch we just laid on the blanket for a while and chatted.

Kenneth then wanted me to roll him up like a burrito. This is something that we use to do when he was little and he loved it......he still does!

He still cracks me up!

After an hour we headed back home and I was able to get right back to work.

Technology truly is a blessing that allows me to spend more time with my family while still getting my work done!

Final Game of the Season

I always find some of the warm up exercises entertaining :)

Kenneth throwing the ball in...

The entire team one final time.

The ride home proved to be umm....interesting.

The start of the ride was great. We were just chatting away and having a good time. Then all of the sudden a smell started to over power me and it was horrendous!

I asked what happened and Kenneth and Josh both denied doing anything. Then I realized they had both taken their shoes off. It was HORRIBLE!!

The next thing I know it was getting stronger and I finally figured out that Josh had put his feet on the console next to me and Kenneth had his feet on my seat near the headrest. They thought it was pretty funny.

I rolled their windows down and locked them. We rode almost the entire way home like this....

After about 45 minutes we were finally approaching our off-ramp. Their coach passed us and got a good laugh after seeing feet hanging out of both sides of the vehicle.

Another Soccer Game

Yep, more pictures of another soccer game. 

Today I got to use a different camera and I can't believe what a difference it makes! Kenneth is in the center of the screen approaching the ball.

Kenneth played mid-fielder today and was running a lot more than he usually does.

He did really well chasing that ball! His friend Josh is the player on the left side.

I still don't understand how they can hit the ball so hard with their heads and it not hurt! He was lined up just right for this header. He is in the center - #26.

Kenneth played keeper for the second half of the game. I love this shot of him....I think he has grown a few more inches again!

Giving it all he has!

His kicking has really improved this year and he has picked up a lot more distance.

Playing in the Rain

 This was the view as we pulled in for the soccer game tonight. Those clouds certainly did not look like they were up to any good....

As the game went on, the rain just came down harder and harder. I ended up staying in the vehicle the entire time. So did most of the parents.

The refs finally called the game after a little more than an hour. The cold rain was coming down sideways at this point. I grabbed a fuzzy blanket out of the back and laid it over the seat. I am sure glad I did.....Kenneth was drenched from head to toe. He took his shoes off and had to dump the water out of them and then he started to wring out his socks....totally disgusting!

I guess he didn't want me to miss out on the fun, so he wrapped his arms around me and tried to transfer as much water as possible.

Even after a really rough game (I stopped keeping track of the score when the other team had scored 10 times and we were still at zero) with horrible weather, he is still smiling. 

Love that kid!!

Soccer Game

Kenneth played mid-fielder for this game. That means a whole lot of running for him.

The sky in the background was so deceiving! We sat through rain and cold weather during this game.

It was fun to see Kenneth out on the field instead of in front of the goal. 

The team did really well! They worked hard and the game ended 1-1.

Soccer Injury

Kenneth came home from soccer practice with a gross looking injury Tuesday evening.... The picture doesn't even come close to showing how bad it looked.

While trying to block another player from getting into the goal Kenneth hit the ground really hard on his knee. The area under his knee immediately filled with fluid. His coach checked him out and made sure he didn't run anymore during practice. After he got home the pain started to set in. He got some ice and pain meds and just took it easy. It took a couple of days for the fluid to go down. Now it looks like he just scraped it pretty hard. He said that it still hurts, but he still insisted he was fine to go to practice the next day - crazy kid!

First Soccer Game of the Season

Soccer season is in full swing around here. Kenneth is playing keeper again this year (he is the one in the bright green shirt). He played the entire second half of the game tonight. He has missed several practices with his team over the last 2 weeks because of drivers ed. 

The blurry white thing on the left side is the ball. Isn't the background view amazing? It was really pretty.

Nice Stop!!!

Do you see the ball way up in the sky? It almost looks like it is sitting on top of the mountain.

The boys seem to be working together as a team really well. We really like his coach too!

Mike had been in Caldwell all week for training. He was able to meet us at the game since they played an hour south of home.

First Ride of the Year

We actually had a good weather day......and couldn't wait any longer to get the 4 wheelers out!

Behind our subdivision there is a little track that some neighbors made for their kids to ride bikes on. They don't care if we use it, so we geared up and headed out....

Mike and Kenneth

Mike and Mindy

Mike catching some air....

***safety warning - ALWAYS wear a helmet***

Kenneth looking pretty good coming off a jump.....

Kenneth making Mom a little nervous with a much bigger jump.....

Island Park 2012

Mike's birthday was last week and since he is always up for an adventure, I thought this would be a great birthday surprise.

We were able to load up some borrowed snow machines and head to Island Park for some fun. As you can tell from the picture, we don't have any snow at home to ride on!

We got to the hotel in Island Park Friday afternoon and were able to play around in the snow for a bit before it got dark. We ate dinner at Trouthunter - which was AMAZING!!!

Then we just spent the evening together hanging out - just the 3 of us. Kenneth and I both fell asleep by 10pm! (I know we are such party animals)

When we woke up the next morning, this was the view out our back door. Plenty of snow and right on the river. It was beautiful.

By the time we got ready to go it was already snowing, but a nice soft snow. It was a hazy day, but the fog wasn't too bad.

We headed out from the hotel and rode down to Mesa Falls. You can only access this area by snow machine in the winter time. It was a gorgeous ride and we had a ton of fun. This was Kenneth's first time on a full size machine and he had no problems. He loved it.

We only saw one other group the whole way to the falls. We had the trail all to our selves. We made it to Upper Mesa Falls and went right down to the walkway. Most of the walkway trail had snow almost to the top handrail. To get down to the bottom platform that looks out over the falls you have to go down lots of steps. The problem was so much snow. It was basically sliding (not walking) to the bottom of the stairs. It was easy going down, but a little harder trying to come back up.

This picture is of us sitting on a bench. The back rest of the bench was only sticking out of the ground about 4 inches. The rest of it was buried in snow.

Mike and Kenneth took a short break from the trail and went and played in the powder a little bit. My machine had started to overheat so we just turned it off to cool down and I took pictures as they played around me.

This is Upper Mesa Falls.

We headed back to the hotel. Lots more people were out riding on our way back. It had been snowing the whole time we were gone and was starting to get a little foggy. We ate lunch and by then the snow was really coming down. Since my machine was having problems, I stayed at the hotel and just relaxed while Mike and Kenneth went and played for a little while. They came back about an hour later and said that due to the storm, they had very little visibility. We loaded up the trailer and headed back home.

We had a fabulous time!!

I think Mike will remember this birthday surprise for a long time.

A big THANK YOU to my boss for making the arrangements! We truly appreciate it!

First Football Game of the Season

Kenneth's team had their first game tonight. It was interesting.

Here they are coming onto the field. He is number 41.

They got some good warm up time in. I thought it was so funny that every time I snapped a picture he was facing the opposite direction of everyone else on his line.

During the 4th qtr. they needed a kicker since the normal kicker was hurt. The coach looked at Kenneth and said .... he plays soccer...he can kick!

Umm....Yeah......drop kicking a soccer ball is very different!!

Kenneth jumped on the chance to do it, even though he really didn't know what he was doing. Let's just say, he needs a lot more practice if he wants to be a kicker in the future :)

This was right after the kick.

Going into the 4th qtr. the score was 32 to 0. We were zero...that's right a big ole goose egg.

The coaches finally started putting some different boys in that hadn't had a chance to play the entire game (including Kenneth). They scored 4 touchdowns in the 4th qtr!!!

I hope the coaches realize that they have some talented boys and they deserve more time on the field.

Here he is on the sidelines, cheering his team on.

I realized that sitting on a hard bleacher for 3 hours was not my idea of fun.

I also found out that since he is playing high school ball now, parents get to pay to watch their kids play!

However, watching Kenneth play for a total of 90 seconds during the entire game was worth the whole wait!

Family Reunion Part 1

Last Thursday we headed out to the middle of nowhere Wyoming for Mike's family reunion.

We were able to meet up with Pam and Delbert and have lunch with them in Jackson Hole.

We went through about 25 miles of road construction near Togwotee Pass. Since we were driving so slow we were able to check out lots of cool looking construction vehicles.

Notice the legs hanging out from underneath the tilted cab?? Not where I would want to be. These trucks were HUGE!!

We have never driven through Togwotee pass - it was beautiful!

The elevation is around 9500 feet at the top - so we were able to see snow in July. I am still a little baffled why there was still snow when it was about 70 degrees outside.....hmmm...

It was a long drive, but we pulled into camp around 6pm.

It was 97 degrees outside (which is really HOT for us Idahoans!)

This is what our campground looked like.....

Yep...it was flooded!

Luckily, there were enough campsites that we were able to just shift to a spot on higher ground.

Soccer

Another season of soccer has begun. Well actually practices began in early February. At least there is no snow on the ground now :)

This was Kenneth's second game this year. I missed the first game while in Salt Lake with the young women.

He played goalie for the second half of the game - that is why he is wearing the neon green jersey. He seems to enjoy that position and does really good at it!

This last week, his coach was able to have an experienced player come and work with the three boys that play goalie. Kenneth was excited and said he learned tons.