ARGH!!

I seriously NEED to get in here and update our blog! I miss doing this and miss having everything documented! So many things have happened. I WILL be back and soon, there is a lot to share. In the mean time we are looking forward to a visit from Royce's dad Mike and his wife Ann. They will arrive late tonight and then the fun times begin with some hiking, showing them around our sweet little valley and simply enjoying time together. Here's to a wonderful 4th of July week and many celebrations with people we love! God Bless our country and all the men and women that serve to preserve our freedom!

Way to long

It has been WAY to long since I have posted a blog! That is life these days so full so busy and yes sometimes so overwhelming that I just don't get the time to get on here and do what I love to do..BLOG!!
We have had a ton of things happen over the course of the last year. I will follow this with a bunch of photos and quick descriptions of what we have all been up to! Here's to a better year of blogging and keeping this more up-dated and a much more frequent basis.

Time keeps on ticking

We have had a few weeks of nothing but busy-ness! It seems time just keeps ticking and we keep racing to catch up or rather keep up. This post is a bit lengthy and there are several pictures to enjoy along the way. I caught a nice picture of Royce one evening while he was grilling up some yummy dinner for us. He is such a wonderful man.

This picture is a bit old, it is the first day of school for Janelle and Malia back in September! Janelle is in 5th grade this year and Malia is in 3rd. It is amazing to me that they are getting so big so quickly. Time, it is ticking to quickly!

Getting on the bus, the two girls really like their bus driver and like to ride the bus to school.

It has gotten a bit chilly in the morning, but the girls look forward to being able to ride their bikes to school hopefully sometime this fall and definitely this next spring. It is about a 4 and a half mile ride from our house to school, however the incredible bike paths we have make it a very easy and safe ride.

Elise turned 20 on the 3rd of October. It is ridiculous how fast 20 years has gone by! We celebrated by hanging out and watching general conference, enjoying the spirit of the messages and the joy of being together as a family.

We made a fabulous steak dinner with fresh green beans that were super yummy, everyone commented on the excellent dinner.

I made her an almond scented 4 layer cake with fresh raspberries and raspberry filling between each layer. It was delicious and turned out really pretty. Elise was surprised and truly enjoyed it.

Happy Birthday dear Elise! We love you and are so thankful you belong to our family!

We had a dusting of snow over conference week-end as well. This is Mt. Baldy with the first snowfall of the season, it is almost gone now but wont be for long, we are due to have a pretty hard winter with lots of snow we are told. At some point this season we all hope to be able to ski or snowboard this mountain as a family.

Over looking part of Sun Valley in our neighborhood, it is always a breath taking view when we get to the top of this little hill that over looks this part of our little town. There is not a day that goes by that one of us doesn't comment on what a beautiful place we live in, we all love our home and town. Malia said it perfectly the other day when I drove them to school, she said "we are so lucky to live here." Yes Malia we truly are!

The trailing of the sheep was last week-end. It was a three day event with a lot of fun things to see and do. We chose to go to the parade after the festival art fair. Here are some Peruvian dancers that were striking in their beautiful costumes.

Here comes one of the sheep herders wagons, they are really cool!

Here is a side view of it.

The Boise bagpipers were amazing, love those bagpipes and truly appreciate the talent it takes to play one.

Here come the sheep! All 1,500 of them!

That's a lot of sheep...and they smell!

Zachariah had his 15th birthday on October 9th. Again it amazes me on how quickly time has flown by. He asked for a banana cake, we have never made one but found a recipe and it turned out really good. Getting ready to make a wish!

Then we really surprised him with his first snowboard, boots and bindings! We had to be creative on hiding this gift for over a week.

He couldn't get the boots on quick enough and later we took note to him wearing them while we watched Soul Surfer together.

Here is one very happy 15 year old!!

On Wednesday we didn't have any clients booked at the office so we escaped to the hot spring for some much needed relaxation and De-stressing time. The morning was frosty and really your perfect fall morning, the hot spring was very inviting and very refreshing to enjoy.

On our way back into town, we enjoyed some of the pretty fall colors that are so abundant here.

Solitude. Thank you dear father in heaven for all thy glory, all thy creations and for the blessing of being able to live here in Sun Valley.

Labor Day week-end fun

The elevation at the top of Mt. Baldy. We have been riding the gondola up and have enjoyed a few of our lunches up here, truly a spectacular place to spend some time, what an incredible place we live!

Had to stop and take a picture with the tractor, it is sitting outside the Kneadery restaurant here in town..one fabulous place to eat breakfast or lunch.


The view as your going up Mt. Baldy

The scout troop had a fund raiser at the Wagon days parade this year, Austin was having so much fun.

I was able to catch them making snow cones, they sold them in addition to hot dogs, bratwurst and hamburgers.

On Monday we drove north 60 miles to Stanley and went to red fish lake where we geared up for an 11/2 hr. trail ride on horse back.



We had an opportunity to get up close to the massive wagons that were in the parade.

The rear wheels are taller than Royce..he is 6'3"

Now that is a wagon train!
It takes a 20 mule team to drag them down Main Street for the parade

Malia and I ready to ride.

Royce all ready to get on the trail too

We got to see Sasha Cohen perform at the last Ice Show of the season here, she is truly so elegant. Sorry the pictures are blurry, our camera just doesn't capture the skaters as quickly as we wish it would.

She was truly beautiful to watch.

Austin and Zachariah really enjoyed the trail ride too, and the beauty that we were able to enjoy.

The Northern side of the Sawtooth Mountain range.

There we all are with the Sawtooth's behind us and a glimpse of red fish lake. We truly live in an incredibly stunning area.

Royce and the boys giving us a thumbs up as for what kind of day we all enjoyed, and a nice hardy Yeee Haw!

Royce and the girls with the Sawtooth Mountain Range in the distance, just priceless is all that I can think of.
This is how we celebrated Sherry's birthday this year. Usually we go camping and hiking, this year we did a lot of different things, got to see some amazing things and people and sleep in the comfort of our bed at home every night. We all were really excited to see the largest non motorized parade in the country and it is right here every year in our little town of Sun Valley. I must say we are so blessed to have one another and to have the time to be able to spend together. This is by far one of my most memorable birthdays I have had, I truly enjoyed the thought and care the family put into making my day so sweet, fun and one of the best!

Concerts, Girls Camp and visitors from California

A few weeks ago we got this phone call from a friend asking us what our plans were for that Sunday evening. With it being Sunday our plans were to be at home. He then asked us would we like to have some tickets to go see Jackie Evancho that evening up at the Sun Valley Pavilion. We later printed off our tickets and found ourselves that evening sitting with our mouths gaping open in aww as we listened to the incredible talent of this little 11 yr old girl with the voice of what seemed to be more like a 30's something type of quality and control.

The Sun Valley symphony is truly amazing to listen to, then throw in the talent of someone like Jackie and you have one incredible, magical evening.

Royce and I went out to girls camp this year for a one night visit. Royce was one of the priesthood men for our ward this year at girls camp. This is Teresa and I after the nights sleep and breakfast was cleaned up. Teresa is one of the sisters in our ward and a dear sweet friend. She is also the Young Women's president, she is so much fun and so incredibly talented.

We have made some really wonderful friends here whom I just love. Shauna (me) Melody and Teresa stop for a moment to capture the fun we have together. All these ladies make up the Young Women's presidency. These ladies are truly wonderful lovely ladies, I am so blessed to have such amazing friends.

Anderson reservoir, this is where girls camp was this year and it is also on the way to Boise from Sun Valley, we live in such a beautiful place.

Bull Trout? Never heard of them..we thought it was kinda funny how the sign reads in such a commanding way "Anglers you are in Bull Trout country"

Royce driving us to Boise for a continuing ed seminar, it was a great seminar, we learned so much and look forward to getting more certification to add more to the practice and our careers.

Bill and Mary Richards came to visit us. The visit was short but oh so sweet. Here they are with the girls at the outdoor Sun Valley Ice Rink.

The family took Bill over to the infamous "Big Chair" he of course had to sit in it and get a picture.

Bill and Mary had to leave early to get a leg up on their journey to Canada to see their daughter Deborah and her husband. It is so wonderful to have such sweet friends.