Red Fish

 

If you follow me on Instagram this is all old news, sorry

 

We are now at the tail end of July and time for our annual Red Fish Lake camping trip. The kids look forward to this all year. We had to stop at the Shoshone snack bar for lunch and an ice cream yummo!

 

Playing at the lake one day the clouds chased us away, and it was rainy the rest of the day and evening.  That stinks when camping.

But the last two days were sunny and beautiful!

 

I have to get a picture of the kids in this spot every year!

 

And we need a silly picture with the cousins too!

Memorial Weekend

As soon as the kids got home from school on the last day and they showed me their report cards which always kills me...
Brody is officially a third grader!
Braiden is officially a sixth grader!
We loaded up and left for Challis, the kids have been looking forward to this for months!
We met up with all of my family 19 of us there!! My Dad had to stay home and work so we missed him, Joslyn kept asking where grandpa was. :( It was the last day of school for all of the kids so it was a PARTY!
I love my family we have a great time together and the kids all get along SO well with each other! James and Joslyn had a minor disagreement on how to say "pillow" and it was quite funny actually
James: Piddow
Joslyn: no! Piwwow
James: no! Piddow
Joslyn: no! Piwwow
So funny! In their own little minds, they were the one that was right.
We did all of the fun Challis things, went to the Hot Springs, fished in the pond, bike rides, fires, and this time we discovered a fun park!
I got started on Hudson's scrapbook and made a little dent in his first year book:

Look at that baby! Don't you just want to kiss his little face! mmmmm!

I am loving Project Life! Even my nieces were pretty interested in what I was doing, they were enthralled with the corner rounder. :) So I had great little helpers, they rounded a lot of corners for me and even picked out some filler cards! I still have a LOT of journaling to do which is a daunting task, well because that was 5 years ago!!

Last Sunday night everyone else went on a walk up to the fish pond Hudson, Joslyn and I stayed behind because Joslyn was having a little fit (read: royal melt down) so she was in time out. Huddo and I were sitting by the fire.  After little miss calmed down a little she needed to go potty so I took her in the house and Hudson stayed out by the fire.  Just as Joslyn was finishing up I heard Hudson SCREAMING outside!! I ran to the door and he was yelling "it's hot, it's hot, it's hot!" He had tipped forward in his camp chair and caught himself on the fire ring and burned the palms of his hands.  :( I immediately put them under cold running water for a while then wet a towel and filled it with ice so he could hold it between his hands.  My poor little boy was in so much pain it just broke my heart! Soon everyone returned from their walk and mom and Kristy ran up to the drug store to find something that might help.  Nate had to go home late Saturday night so he could be to church on Sunday so he was not there but Christopher and Casey gave Hudson a blessing. I was so grateful to have them there! Mom and Kristy came back with some burn cream, gauze, etc. The burn cream had some Lidocaine in it so it helped take some of the pain away.  He still needed to have the ice on it though and he kept the ice for the rest of the night, we kept him loaded up with Tylenol and Ibuprofen, and after a few hours he was feeling a little better!

My poor boy! Between the two of us we almost used up a box of Kleenex.

The sweetest thing though, Scott had recently discovered the boys' collection on Ninja turtles and decided he needed a few of his own, so he bought 3 or 4 and took them to the cabin so he could show the boys.  Well after Hudson got burned he felt so bad for him that he let Hudson pick one of HIS turtles.  (makes me tear up) It really helped to lift Hudson's mood!!

I am grateful that Heavenly Father was watching over my boy because it could have been much worse! I am grateful for my two brothers who are worthy priesthood holders, who gave my boy a blessing, I know it helped him! And I am grateful for my family who rallied around us and helped make him feel better.

I thought the night was going to be rough but he did great, I set my phone every three hours to give him more medicine so other than that he slept like a log! The next morning he was ready to play, didn't even need the ice anymore.

Kristy and I took the kids to the park

Who needs a slide when you have a skateboard ramp?

Happy to see a smiling face!

After that we went home and packed up some of our stuff and hit up the hot springs one last time and headed for home. I was a fun trip...for the most part.

We now have a serious first aid kit in the works for up there! Good thing!

one fish, two fish, RED FISH, blue fish

We were home from Coeur D'Alene for less than 10 days before we packed up again and left for Red Fish Lake. They were an eventful 10 days too, filled with laundry, laundry and more laundry. Meal planning, grocery shopping, and repacking. Sick people, taking 3 of the 4 kids to the Dr, all manner of icky nasty things. Wanna hear about it? Nate and Braiden caught the flu, fever, chills, sore throat..in the middle of summer!! You know something is terribly wrong when a person is wearing sweats and a hoodie sweatshirt wrapped up in a quilt and it is 95 degrees outside!!! Braiden, the poor boy, was delusional from his fever and having bad dreams, scary! Hudson got impetigo, and Joslyn, poor sis. : / Well she woke up one morning with a massive blister on her finger and for the life of me I could not figure out what would have caused it, so we decided to keep her home from church.  The next day the blister more than doubled in size (from her knuckle to the tip of her finger...basically everywhere the fingernail wasn't was a solid blister.)  So we took her in, as soon as the nurse saw it she knew what it was and I never in a million years would have guessed that it was staph infection.  WHAT the heck, where on earth could she have gotten that?? Anywhere really I suppose.  It is still a mystery. The good thing was that it wasn't the Staph that is resistant to antibiotics.  So a nice big round of hefty antibiotics and Hudson and Joslyn were good as new. Miraculously Brody and I came out of all of it unscathed and everyone was better or on their way to getting better just in time for Rad Fish...I mean Red Fish.

 

 The kids look forward to this camping trip ALL year long, even as I write this they are saying, "aaaawwww, I want to go back!"

 

 

 

It is so nice, the kids just play, play, play in the sand all day.

 

This is the magic campfire. Cool huh?

 

My favorite picture spot...they've grown so much from last year, especially that little munchkin on the right.

 

All the Catmull cousins...Love these kids

 

So long for now, can't wait for next year!!

Well school is out, we officially have a 2nd grader and a 5th grader now, eyeyiyi! It is so nice to have a break from school, it was starting to get old. :/ We started our summer off with a bang, we picked up the kids from school on the last day and left to go camping.  We met up with some friends on the mountain and set up camp, unfortunately an uninvited guest decided to show up and ruin the party. RAIN. So when the going got tough, we got going. (really we had a temple cleaning assignment and then went to church.) Went back up after church and brought the good weather back with us because it was decent the rest of the time.

Brody and his buddy, Phoenix.

The kids rode their bikes up and down this hill the whole time we were there, when it wasn't raining anyway.

Hudson got this balance bike for Christmas it has been the best thing ever.  He is becoming quite the dare devil on it.  To him it is his motorcycle..notice the goggles. You can often find him riding around the neighborhood wearing a motorcycle helmet, goggles, gloves and boots.  It seems to give everyone a good chuckle.

What was amazing only 2 kids went flying over their handlebars, luckily no broken bones, just bumps and bruises.

I got out the pool on monday it was in the 90's

They had their fun and then the wind picked up and we packed everything inside, and then the wind picked up some more, and then some more. That evening the temp dropped 40 degrees in about an hour and we were battening down the hatches as a cold front rolled in. The next day was rainy and in the 50's, this morning my grass was frosty.  Heaven forbid we have warm temps for more than one day, we'd all melt around here.

Baseball season is here.  Baseball season is busy, busy, busy but good, good, good.  Braiden plays pitching machine on monday, wednesday. Brody plays boys t-ball and Hudson plays co-ed t-ball on tuesday, thursday. Nate and I usually have to divide and conquer the tues thurs games. It's fun and something to keep us busy.

Pitching machine is fun to watch because these little guys make some pretty good plays. Braiden is turning out to be a pretty good ball player, his skills have improved immensely!

Don't have pics of Brody and Hudson playing yet, But there is nothing cuter and more entertaining than to watch the little tikes play t-ball. One of their favorite parts of the baseball season is coming to the ball park with pockets full of change so they can frequent the snack bar!

Lets see, now lets talk books.  Just finished Crossed By: Ally Condie (Matched trilogy) it was Terrible with a capital T, I don't even want to bother with the 3rd book now.  Hate to say it. Had to make everything right in the world though, Edenbrooke by: Julianne Donaldson was fabulous, had a hard time putting it down.  19th Century England romance, it dosen't get any better.

Wish me luck, the Sawtooth Relay is on Saturday. Our start time is a much more respectable 5:45 a.m. (remember last year?) so I will be running my first leg at about 8:00 a.m. I am so so so not ready this year, but I have every intention of beating my last years times, we shall see ( I am running the same legs.) GOOOO Housewives of Heyburn!

Signing off for now, I have a ton to do before we leave in 24 hours, like making a pot of carb heavy potato soup!

More Summer Fun

Baseball {check}
Swimming lessons {check}
Impromptu trip to Challis {check}

My grandpa has a cabin in Challis and we decided to go up there for the weekend with mom, dad & Scott and Christopher and his kids. The place is a time capsule from the 70's it's great!!

1983

Here is a picture of me when I was about 3 years old, we spent Easter there one year as a family, looking through my photo album I've noticed one thing. The decor has not changed. One. Bit. 27 years later I return to find the same table cloth on the table and that same ole barstool...see.

OK so I messed up and used the gold barstool instead of the burnt orange barstool but you get the picture.

Happy Hudson 3 years old.

Joslyn is not interested in getting her picture taken.

Give her the baba and the bebe and she's much more willing.

Cuddles with Regan - I love having Regan around she is a great babysitter...now if only she lived a little bit closer to me.

One day Brody and Bella played together building fires ALL morning (not kidding) the little pyros. I loved watching them play together- friends and cousins.

On a nature walk we spotted a baby deer in the cemetery.

See him under the lilac bush? The kids thought it was great.

One day we went to Challis hot springs for some swimming. The boys rode 4 wheelers all over and had a blast-while mom, Regan and I did some (ahem) decluttering :) We have our work cut out for us in that dept. We had a blast and we are excited to come back, it's nice to have a place to get away to even if it is a cluttered time capsule from the 70's.

A weekend stay at the Sun Valley Lodge for the ISDA Annual Conference  {check} I have one word. Awesome.

Annual Redfish Lake camping trip {check}

I love this picture...taken from our campground, we had a beautiful view.  It was a rainy and sometimes thunderstormy camping trip. Glad I wasn't tenting it or I would have been going home, party pooper- I know.

The sister-in-law tube ride was so MUCH FUN!!! The sun peeked out of the clouds for a few hours so we hopped onto the tube!

The boys got a turn!

Joslyn had fun playing in the sand.

We did have rain but we didn't have bear scares like last year so that was a plus.  The boys love love love coming to Redfish and are always so sad to leave. :(

Injured dog {double check} OH poor POOR Ivy!! So this wasn't in the plans but I took Ivy to my mom's while we were in Sun Valley so she could take care of her. I thought she would have fun with Atticus (mom's dog) and going out on the farm with my dad. Well she did have fun until my sheltered, not used to riding in the back of a pickup dog decided to jump OUT of the moving vehicle.  Mom and dad took her to the vet and found out that she broke her leg. She had to have surgery to put in a pin to hold the bone together. Oh and she is going to have puppies in about 10 days oh that poor miserable dog, can you imagine!!

A HUGE thank you goes out to my mom and neighbors who nursed our dog back to health while we were camping!!!

Back to school shopping {check} The kids are all geared up for school, we registered on Thurs. and they start in 1 week. Two kids in school all day- that will be weird, I will miss my helpers. Braiden got to pick up his football equipment last week and he starts practice on Tuesday we are so excited for football season!

WSWS

What She Wore Sunday

Sis had to get some back to school clothes too! :)

We have 1 week to squeeze every last drop of fun that's left in this summer vacation, so far we've done pretty good!

Hangin' With The Wildlife

{Redfish Lake 2010}

I learned something about myself this past week.  I am afraid of bears.

We took our yearly trip up to the beautiful Redfish lake.  We had a blast-well 95% of the time, the other 5% was spent hiding from bears in our camper.  Just kidding but I wanted to. We have been going up to Redfish for 10 years and have never heard of problems with bears until this year.  They had signs posted everywhere and bear traps set up.  Fun fun! One night after dinner we were sitting around the camp fire and a man came high-tailing it down the trail right by our campsite, he said "just to let you folks know, there is a bear about 10 min up that trail." I freaked-- NATE get the kids and get into the camper now!!! He calmly told me that we weren't going to sit in the camper for the rest of the night-that was just ridiculous, and that I needed to get ahold of myself so that I didn't scare the kids.  So I reluctantly stepped out of the camper and sat in my camp chair with one eye on the woods the entire time!

One morning Braiden stepped out to go...potty, and quickly came back in and said, "Uh-mom, I think that there has been a bear here." So I follow him out and he shows me this:

OK so I am NOT claiming that this is from a bear but I can tell you that it is NOT from a dog and it is NOT from a horse.....

What ever it was walked right down this trail

and left us a lovely present right by the tent pad. Boy am I glad I wasn't sleeping in a tent!!!

OK enough drama.

We spent the majority of our time playing on the beach and boating.

Joslyn was a happy camper

Well, most of the time...

Hudson LOVED the water even though it was ICY cold.  He loved jumping off the dock to me.  He had a blast! Every day he played hard-and then he would crash hard:

Taking a little power nap on the softest spot he could find.

One day we visited the Stanley Museum and had a little picnic there:

Aunt Tiffany and the boys.

Our Family

Aaron and Tiffany

One day we boated everyone to the other end of the lake and hiked up to the Lilly pond and waterfall.

While we were over there Uncle Mark showed everyone this:

He claims it is a bear track, I think he was just trying to freak me out! I'm sticking with 'dog print.'

Hangin' around the campfire telling jokes and stories, and making s'mores of course.

That is scary!

What happens when it is late and dark and your two year old is crawling on top of the picnic table???

A big gash in his chin.  It probably needed stitches  but that wasn't going to happen at 10:00 at night in the mountains. Luckily Dr. Shiloh was there with her bag of tricks and fixed him up with some steri-strips. 

Nate's uncle Mark whittled all of the boys a wooden knife, they love them.

Thanks Mark, that was a lot of work!!

Notice Braiden's face, he is less than thrilled-he loves his knife but he doesn't love going home, we had a great week yes we stayed up there for an entire week but he would have gladly stayed for another!

We can't wait for next year, but someone please let the bears know that next year they are not invited!