Balance Rock State Park/Waterfalls

For a little activity, I had the kid's draw a picture of their favorite place in the world.

Ellie drew a make-believe land, James drew a picture of me holding out my arms to give him a hug, ;)  ;) ....and Lauren drew a picture of Barry and I and her(when she was a baby) at Balance Rock State Park. 

click here to see Lauren's memories. :)

I was quite surprised by her choice. I had no idea she liked the place so much.

We decided to visit it this weekend, since it's only about 20 minutes from our house now. We've only been there once since we lived in Rupert.

Isn't baby Lauren soo cute? :) I'm totally keeping this drawing.

See! Same as her picture.

Barry took these picture.

They all made it to the very top.

The climb down is quite steep. Ellie found a dead snake.

I took this from my comfy seat in the car. Totally, having an allergy attack, even with a double dose of allergy medicine.  ...There was also no way I could waddle up those rocks. 

Still having an allergy attack, my eyes were pretty much swelled up by this point, but this is Salmon Falls Creek Park. It's part of the State park and a pretty place. Barry and James took their maiden voyage in our canoe here, a few years ago.(see blog link)


I did see one of these beauties. My first time ever. It was hopping around the parking lot on my way to the bathroom. 
An American Goldfinch. 
To think, if I hadn't been visiting the restroom for the 50th time that day, I would have missed it. (and no, I didn't have my camera, and yes, this is a stock photo)

I wanted a picture of Lauren in the grass, like when she was little. She was happy to oblige.   (Barry had smeared sun-block on her face ....hence the shine.)

James has been working hard and saving his money. He was able to buy a new fishing pole, and got a chance to try it out. Sadly the container of worms he brought, didn't contain any worms. 
So we spent several minutes searching for grasshoppers. He found a couple and ended up catching two fish with them. :D
Emma was rotten, she usually loves our adventures .....not this day. She just wanted to go home. So we did.
I think my allergy medicine kicked in sometime in the middle of the night. Ugh!

We also drove over to see Shoshone Falls and Twin Falls Falls this weekend.

I've always wanted to go in that cool little old building with the orange roof.... Just not sure how I would get there. ;)

Happy to be held by Daddy!

That green building is the size of house Barry wants to build. :P

Twin Falls Falls. (The other falls is dammed up)

These next pics are from my phone over the last couple of weeks...

 Fun, running through the sprinklers on a hot hot day. Barry ordered a part for our riding lawn mower and took it all apart and got it put back together. It works! I think it's been broken for more than a year.  I am so proud of him! Mowing the lawn will be much faster for him now. :) He also took a day and cleaned out the shop, It looks so much better! He also bought some irrigation pipe and reworked our sprinklers so they will be more efficient and cover even more area. I just love it when he get stuff done. Makes my little heart so happy.

 James came in my room just randomly wearing one of his new creations. The red part is from a plastic bowl I left laying on the table. Crazy boy.

Our Motel in Yellowstone. A total Mom&Pop place. They gave us a bag of goodies for the kids to enjoy during our trip. Last year they gave each of the kids a stuffed animal. Which they still have. :)

 Our favorite restaurant in Yellowstone. Running Bear Pancake House. Yum!

 Yep, went to bed with my hair wet. Try not to be jealous of my beauty. This was after I brushed it down. There was no taming the beast I had created.

Lots of fun times at the Library this summer. James and Lauren are earning rewards for reading 5 days a week.  This is one of Emma's favorite places ...the puzzle tables.

Summer Days

Two Kitties on the trampoline.

 See the beautiful Sage. AND how well the fence is coming along....

I don't know what this one is, but I am allergic to it, and the Bachelor Buttons that I pulled up that were next to it. Holy Cow, made me sicker than sick in about 10 seconds.  The Bachelor Buttons didn't come back after I ruthlessly attacked them, ....but these did.  I guess I will let them live until they lose their blooms. Maybe

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 Pretty Columbine. Don't EVER plant columbine. ;) It grows better than watered weeds.

The kids each pick a flower to grow from seed each year. James picked the tall Wall Flower.(totally needs to be moved) Ellie picked the orange flowers, and Lauren the Lupine.  The orange is my favorite. Totally going to plant more of those.  Beautiful!

 
Emma tells her Kitty to sit. (He likes to come and lay in your shadow. Poor thing, wearing a fur coat in the summer.)

 She is soo pleased when we obeys.

South Hills

 For our adventure this week. We drove up to the South Hills. The only "mountains" we have around here. Barry is helping a coworker fix up her cabin roof.
So we all went with him to take some measurements and play!

 I heard James laughing his head off, and Ellie howling. I came around the corner of the cabin to find him pushing Ellie on a swing.(how nice) ....pushing her right into a pine tree branch.(not nice)
 They thought this was a pretty fun game.

 I spotted a Bull Moose on our drive. It was an awesome sight. We didn't get too close.

Our next stop was the Hummingbird feed station.
 Isn't this a pretty currant bush?
It was suppose to be the of the hummingbird you can sort of see in the back ground. Yeah.... My camera has a serious focus issue with hummingbirds. AND, I totally lack in my manual focusing skills. Oh well, it's a pretty bush, and they are delicious currants when they are ripe. We picked them here last year.

 The kids were fishing for minnows while I was trying to  take pictures of hummingbirds in the shade.