Idaho

I had to go back to Idaho this past week to finish some design work I've been doing there. I took Chloe with me. We left on her birthday which didn't exactly make it a very eventful day to sit in the car for 5 1/2 hours. Poor girl. I tried to make it up to her by taking her to get her first mani/pedi at a salon in Idaho. She LOVES to get her nails painted at home, so all of the attention and professional paint job thrilled her!

Aunt Laura let us call her home our hotel and while I worked around the clock she took amazing care of Chloe. Chloe had a blast playing with Hazel. On our drive back she kept telling me to turn around and go back to Hazel's house.

Aunt Laura baked a delicious strawberry banana cake and she and Aunt Karin threw a party at the park for Chloe with her cousins. Isn't it fun having girl cousins to get just as excited about the mermaid doll as she is? That wouldn't have happened with the big brothers. Thanks for making her birthday special.

Of course the week was full of decorating for me. I worked on the clubhouse, and 2 other homes. My legs and arms are covered in bruises from moving furniture and I made a special trip to visit my Idaho bishop, a facial plastic surgeon, for stitches. When I had some painters lift the bed for me to roll the rug under, it detatched from the footboard and it came down smashing me in the face and cutting open my nose. My boys who have all been playing in rough and tumble football games last week look far less beat up than their interior decorating mom!

If you want to see more of the interior design of this project, go to my interiors redefined blog linked on my sidebar.

Friday Knight Lights

To say football is a big deal in our new town would be an understatement. The whole town turns out for the Friday night varsity game. As the scoreboard pictured below shows, it was a successful evening for our team who beat their opponents 44 to 7. Carter, #50, is a sophomore but has been able to be in on the special teams and a few other plays for the varsity. Last night he made a key tackle and it was a thrill to hear his name announced over the loud speaker.

I love this shot of the opposing team's bleachers because it shows the surrounding farmland setting for our school's football field. Our first game was last weekend and I found it amusing when the road behind those bleachers filled up with a long line of bailer tractors heading home from the fields, lights flashing and horns honking.

Of course, if you're not quite old enough to suit up in a football uniform or cheerleading outfit, the second best place to be is hanging out with cousins on the sidelines.

Satruday mornings are filled with Grid Kids. Corbin plays on the 5th/6th grade team with Larry as the offensive coordinator.

Here Larry passes on a little last minute coaching before the game, and the big brothers make some final uniform adjustments.

Corbin takes a few final warm-up passes.

Finally, the moment arrives and the teams take the turf.

Unfortunately, this Grid Kid game didn't turn out quite as well as last night's varsity game. They lost by 1 touchdown. Corbin did complete a touchdown pass and made an awesome interception. Chase is playing QB for the 8th grade team and his first game will be in a couple of weeks. He's loving practice and is anxious for his first game.

If anyone is interested in following the Knights Varisty Football, they do broadcast live over the internet. Go to http://www.royalwednet.edu/ and click on the Royal Knight Sports link toward the bottom left corner of the page. Our bishop and another good friend are the commentators.

A Royal Afternoon

I can't believe it's almost been a month since we moved out of our Meridian house.
We are now here in Washington, working hard to get settled in. I finally got my washer/dryer hooked up and yesterday they came with the internet stuff. The real neccessities of life have arrived. Today there were just too many saws sawing, compressors compressing, and sawdust flying for Chloe and I to stay around the house. So, we went exploring.

This is a view that looks like the view in almost every direction you look. Our closest neighbors have a produce stand that we decided to visit.

There were at least 2 doz. different peppers, all kinds of melons...

...in a variety of shapes!

Chloe was intrigued with all of the fruit and zeroed in on the dark purple plums.

In addition to all of this fresh produce, they have a pretty pasture of wildflowers to explore.

Just behind our house there are acres of corn fields to play in.

We eventually made our way to the orchards. Look at these beautiful pears that fill the branches of the trees.

Yummy Honey Crisp Apples are in abundant supply, too.

It truly was a Royal treat to spend the afternoon exploring the countryside with my little Princess!

Moving On

Sorting. Boxing. Packing. Loading. Throwing away. Crying. This isn't my idea of a good time. Hitting the road in just a couple of days. Wish me luck!

Chase's QB camp

We took Carter down to Utah for EFY and Corbin and Chase were able to attend a one day football camp put on by former BYU players. They had a lot of fun. My mom, who is an amazing digital scrapbooker, put this page and the page of Corbin together with some of the pictures I took of the boys. It's awesome having these keepsakes for them to remember their experience. Thanks, mom.

Corbin at NXT LEVEL

10 Favorite Americans

Today's 10 on Tuesday.
I asked each member of my family to participate in this and the following is a spontaneous list of our who and why.

Definition of American from 1941 immigration text:
What is an American? An American is a man who is greater in his soul than in his class, creed, political party, or the section in which he lives. To be an American, a man must have an American soul and believe in the spiritual realities upon which America rests and out of which America was born. America was created to unite mankind by those passions which lift and not by the passions which spearate and debase...The man sho seeks to divide men from men, group from group, and interest from interest in this great Union is striking at its very heart.

Katie said,
1. Gordon B. Hinckley for being an inspirational leader full of optimism, hope, and encouragement.

2. Condoleezza Rice for her example of dedication and hard work. She rose from poverty and challenging circumstances to become accomplished-- and for being resilient and strong.

Larry said,

3. George Washington for being an amazing military leader, farmer, humble, first president of the United States, and an all around good guy.

4. Marcus Lutrell because he fought for freedom and kicked butt.

Chloe said,

5. Walt Disney for bringing princesses to her life.

Carter said,
6. Joseph Smith because he was very brave and obedient.

Chase said,
7. John Naismith the guy who invented basketball because he was so awesome.

Corbin said,

8. Ronald Reagan because he was the President of United States. He was an actor. He was an athlete. I did a history report on him and he stood for freedom.

Caleb said,
9. George W. Bush because he was a really good President.

10. Pat Tillman because he gave up his NFL career to fight in the war for freedom.

There you have it. It was fun having the brainstorming session with my family.