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!!

Coeur D'alene

Last week we drove up to Coeur D'alene for the ISDA Annual Convention.  I've never been to this part of our state, it was beautiful!! It was quite the drive (9 hours) whew! It makes me wonder how on earth we made that drive to Omaha (16 hours) in one day!!! We were crazy! We had a ton of fun while we were there.

Brody fell out of bed the first night and smacked his eye on the night stand on the way down.  I guess that wasn't so fun.  He wouldn't share a bed with Hudson the rest of the trip, because he claimed that Hudson "kicked him out of bed." Poor kid what a rude awakening!

We ate at "Hudson's Hamburgers" famous for their burgers and pie...and that's all they serve is burgers...and pie. They were good burgers though.

On the boardwalk.

Room with a view.  This lake is HUGE!!  We stayed at The Coeur D'alene, a fancy schmancy resort where people look at you funny because you brought your kids.

One of the nights while we were there we went on a pirate dinner cruise. It was fun...and hot.

They gave all the kids some pirate gear.

And put on a show.

Darn it, I didn't have time to get all of the kids in for a picture here.

We switched hotels for the second half of the trip and went to one with a Triple Play attached.  Indoor water park, go carts, mini golf, bumper boats, bowling, lazer tag, rock wall etc. The older kids were in heaven for two days, Joslyn was completely done in by Fri night, too many late nights, too hot, too many people, crappy food. So we called er quits..me and her anyway.  Nate and the boys kept on playing until they all came back in tears because they had to be done. 

The kids were so good in the car, how did we ever travel without and DVD player??

The Baby Shower

It was definitely a group effort I could not have done it without my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law.  Cara did all the invitations and decorating.  Terril made the main dish Natalie made most of the food, and I provided the venue, making your house and yard "party worthy" is a job.

The cutest idea for a baby shower. It was a book shower to start a little book collection for baby girl. Up above: book marks as a party favor.


Book plates to fill out and place inside the book. "You'll love this book because..." "Love..."

Cute little mama to be...

ADORABLE baby quilt made by Terril.

Can't wait to snuggle this baby come September.

backSPLASHIN'

We have a back splash! (the more I look at that word to weirder it gets) We finally found some back splash tile that we liked and that was reasonably priced.  Perfect timing too, I was to host a baby shower at my house for my sister in law.  Nothing like a party to finish up little projects. I'm thinking that I need to host one more often!

Here it is:

A few things about it:

It is busy.
It takes on a whole different look once it is ALL up on the wall.
It once again takes on a whole new look once you grout it.
Non-sanded grout is a PAIN. Pain is an understatement.
It's going to look great in the bathrooms against the black tops only going about 4 in up.
Hopefully I can post pics of that soon... hmmm what other party can I host?
It only took 2 late nights to get it done.
I am SO happy it is done. I have the best hubby.
AND
My kitchen does NOT look like this right now. : /

Grandma Camp

Grandma Mickelsen invited all the grandkids to Grandma Camp for 3 days packed with fun!

Missing the two oldest grandkids :( Regan and Ethan.

I don't think I can begin to name all the things they did, here's a few.

Cloud Dough

Basically it's flour and baby oil...super messy and fun!

They also made color burning pinecones, spoon bugs and ice cream sandwiches. Grandma taught them a little sewing too and they all made a drawstring bag.

Aunt Andrea flooded her yard and the kids played in the water for hours! I had to take Hudson home because he was running a fever and not feeling too great.

Maggie came and showed them how to paint and brought a few other cool things like these magic airplanes and racing bears. Thank You Maggie!!!

Hot Rocks! Just like the name sounds hot rocks colored with crayons...watch the wax melt. A great way to use up your crayon pieces. 

Hudson's rock is red...his FAVORITE color!

We also made slime/gak but my hands were covered in slime so...no pics.

I was not there as much as I thought as I was going to be (sorry mom) With Hudson feeling under the weather, then I had a dentist appointment, and I couldn't miss my pilates class...heaven forbid. I missed out on a lot of fun and excitement.  I heard they also had fun with glow sticks, stories bubbles and lots of good food.  Mom brought out trays and trays of snacks for the kids. My kids' favorite meal was breakfast the last morning.  Sausage on a stick dipped in pancake batter and fried, the breakfast version of a corn dog.  mmmm sorry I missed it! Thanks mom for all your hard work and for providing memories that will not soon be forgotten. ♥

The Fourth

I absolutely love the Rupert Foruth of July festivities, they start on June 30 (our Anniversary) with a breakfast in the morning and fireworks that evening. Then you can usually find us at the square every night before the fourth enjoying all of the food booths and entertainment.  It is a busy busy week for us because Nate is involved in the Kiwanis club and is usually helping with their food booth in one way or another.

Here we are at the parade:

Two cuties eating snacks.

Brody, Joslyn, Hudson and Jake watching the parade.

Braiden was on the Pioneer Equipment float:

"Hi!"

Nate's brother Cob pulling a handcart for the Rupert West Stake. Kiley and Hailey dressed up as little pioneer children.

After the parade we went to my mom and dad's for a picnic.  I saw this cute jello on Our Best Bites and decided to try it out.  It turned out so cute and patriotic, a tad time consuming but cute still the same.

After mom and dad's Nate's aunt Louanne had a picnic at her house.  They planned all these fun carnival games and crafts for the kids.  They had a blast!

Ashley and Joslyn went from innocently playing with the ducks.

To getting all in, fully clothed, up to their necks.

Diving out.  Silly girls!

Grandpa Kurt doing the Mento's & Diet Coke fountain.

Cute little hula girl!

After that we ran home changed clothes and were off once again to watch fireworks! What a fun, fun day & week!

That's The Game

Baseball season has come to an end for this year. We had fun! Hudson loved his games and they were so fun to watch.  He loved wearing his team shirt, I practically had to sneak it into the washing machine.  It was fun for him to finally be able to do something instead of just sitting on the side lines.

Go Hudson Go!!

Here's Brody..

He will be graduating from T-ball to machine pitch next year. Braiden will be graduating from machine pitch to live pitch next year!