Lifes changes

Looks like the wheels of change are starting to turn once again. Our house is up on the market. Here's the post so Mom can see the pics.

http://www.century21.com/realestatelistings/Rupert-ID-83350-294E735LaneNorth-36410913

Is blogging really worth it.

I don't know about this blogging. I just don't seem to be able to keep on top of it. One of these days hopefully life will slow down a bit.

We have been working a bunch on getting the house back together. The carpet got installed and everything is painted. We just need to get some base boards in and we should be back up and running.

Cody had a puppy and he is way cute. We finally decided to name him Pooka. We hesitated to name him because we are not sure that he is going to stay a part of our family. We have enough animals running around at the moment. He is quite playful and enjoys being held.

Nessa went and had her first professional haircut. I had enough with trying to cut her hair on our own. There was only one place in the area that cuts hair and it's in the middle of nowhere. They did a great job though.

Conference weekend came around and we had a huge list of things that needed to be done around the house. That was a perfect reason to get away so we could actually listen to conference. Natalie had a big concert at ISU Friday night so a classmate of hers watched the kids while I went to the concert. When the concert got over we drove from Pocatello up to Idaho Falls and spent the night at the rest area. It's nice to have the beds made and just jump in and sleep for a while. We made a mad dash to the store to grab some stuff and took this picture of us parked next to a Walmart truck. I think we might be just a hair longer than him.

We had a lot of fun playing in the sand and listening to Conference. It was nice to get away all the things that needed done at home. Unfortunatly they didn't get caught up while we were gone. The kids had fun playing on the dunes and dad got to do a little riding. Mom even had a little bit of fun.....oh wait who are we kidding we were in sand.

Life keeps us busy. Natalie is swamped with school. She really overdid it this semester. She made it to midterms so we're halfway there. The kids are enjoying school, but don't like that it gets dark early and they don't get to spend time out in the yard after school. Before you know it spring will be here again. Bring on the snow.

Summer has ended.....Life goes on.

Once again I am going to try and do a quick update of what we have been up to. Things have been super busy. Keagan had a birthday. He is excited to be 3 now. We have been working on getting the kids room fixed up. Hopefully we will have it all wrapped up soon. Cody had a puppy last Tuesday. He is a chub though. She is a good mom though and keep a close eye on him. She doesn't like it when we

haul him off too far. Nessa is still trying to figure out who the new friend is and why it doesn't go no where. His eyes still aren't opened. Being the only pup he definitely gets plenty to eat.

Wrapping up the Summer

So I am falling way behind on this blogging project. I was even reminded by my Mom that I neglected to document our family outing up to Island Park and Yellowstone. I am once again trying to play catch up.

Our family did have great trip up to the company cabin in Island Park this year. We had the whole Ashby clan show up minus Brandon & Katelyn. It as a lot of fun. We saw Yellowstone and a couple of cool sites around the Island Park area. Family gatherings make me realize truely how much we miss out on not living closer to family. We do miss the frequent interaction with family. The cabin worked out great because we all fit in with room to spare and we didn't all need to pack tons of camping gear. It was a really fun trip and great to see everyone. It's always an adventure to figure out what we are going to do from year to year.

This year we took the Varsity Scouts to Featherville, Idaho for their super activity. One of our youngmen's families have property and offered to let us stay there. We hung out at the hot pots, went hiking, saw a ghost town, did some fishing, and had a great time. At the last minute the other leader and I decided to take our trailer so we didn't have to sleep on the ground. It was a nice upgrade to the usual campouts. The boys were a bit jealous that they still had to sleep out on the ground.

As usual our anual trip to Ibapah ended up being the same weekend that I got home from scout camp. This year it was a great deal easier than last year because I wasn't returning from a 50 mile hike, but we didn't get as much sleep as we probably should have. We had a great time anyway as did the people in Ibapah. This picture was taken around 4am. These people really know how to party.

The following weekend the band came up and had the annual party in our backyard for our ward. The weather was remarkable good this year and we had a great turn out. There was good fun, great intertainment, and lots of friends. A new one for this year is that we decided to head directly down to Thousand Lake after the dance got over at 10pm. We only made to to Tremonton before we were exhausted, but it spilt the ride up a bit.

Our Thousand Lake trip came and went quicker than ever this year. It seems like we look forward to it all year long and then the week comes and goes so quickly. The trailer was a nice change this year. When we stopped on the way down we were able to jump in the back and sleep for a couple hours with the beds already set up. It also made it a lot easier to set things up when we got down there and pack up to come home.

We had a great week of camping with family. It was fun to have Gary & Annette's family come down and stay this year. We rode on some great trails this year and got a raft fixed up.

On the way home from Thousand Lake we had a chance to stop in and see Grandma Ashby. We don't tend to get down this way too often and it was fun to see her.

After our crazy month of July and not being home any of the weekends we decided to tear the kids bedroom apart and attempt to get it most of the way wrapped up before they started school. We didn't get it all done before school started, but we are getting pretty close. We will have to post some pics of where we are now.

This month the Varsity Scouts decided that they wanted to go canoeing down the snake river and then campout on the the lawn of one of our old ward members at the bank of the river. He had a fun slide and swing that go out into the river. We had a fun and hope to make this a tradition. There are really a lot of fun things that we can do quite close to home.

Last but not least I forgot to write that Natalie finally got her wish and found another puppy. Her name is Nessa and is an angel. She is fun to watch and gets along well with Cody and the kids. She is still trying to adjust to everyone going back to school and work.

We always seem to find something to keep ourselves busy with. I have already noticed that I have misplaced some pictures from a family reunion that we went to. It is just so hard to keep track of every which way we have been going lately. Life is good though and we are blessed to have great family and friends.

Summer Fun..... ;-)

So things have been crazy busy & I haven't been doing too good of a job keeping up with blogging. I will just compile a bunch of pics and a brief explanation and call it good.

The boys and I went out on the Craters of the moon for the fathers and sons. We hiked down into a cave & watched the group do some repelling into the cave. Dinner was good and it was fun to do some exploring.

Corbin graduated from his preschool year.

The kids have been putting in some time at the parks lately and loving it. These pictures were taken at the park up at the Minidoka Dam while I was frolfing with the varsity scouts.

Natalie's friend got married in Pocatello. Natalie, her professer, and another friend played for the wedding. We were so busy trying to keep track of all that was going on we didn't even get any pictures of them. Corbin did have fun playing with Dr. Park.

Our weekends have been so busy that we haven't found much time to take our trailer out. We did manage to get away over the fourth of July and went camping near birch creek along the Utah border. We went and saw some old mines and took a scenic drive to get to Malta. There is a really good restrant in Malta that buys their potatoes from us.

We bought some fireworks for the kids on the way home. They had a blast shooting them off in the driveway. A couple of our neighbors had some pretty good displays going on as well. The town of Rupert did their fireworks on Wednesday. It was nice to be at home on the 4th.

Northward Ho!!

We finally made our trip to the coast over Memorial day weekend. It was a blast. We left on a Friday night and drove to Oregon. Saturday we got up and drove along the Columbia River towards the coast. Along the way we stopped at the Dalles dam and Cascade Locks. It was pretty amazing to see the large barges move up and down the river. We were hoping to see fish go through the ladders, but no such luck. The Multnomah Falls were amazing. We hiked up to the bridge in front of the falls. The kids really liked the mist that came off the falls. Saturday afternoon we drove to Portland and then on to

Tillamook for a tour of the cheese factory where Uncle Richard works. They have quite the tour. There are observation areas that allow people to watch the cheese making process. The kids enjoyed the cheese taste testing area the best. We spent the evening at Rich & Becky's house even though they were with their children in Moscow, ID. We appreciate their hospitality and the delicious ice cream that they left in the freezer. The kids enjoyed being able to get out of the yard and run to their hearts content. The yard was amazing. There are huge trees, running water, and grassy hills.

The next morning we drove to Cape Mears and saw the light house & Octopus tree. We also saw some people out on the beach collecting clams. The children were extremely dissappointed that we weren't going to go swimming in the ocean. The temperatures were a bit cold & the sun wasn't going to come out. We did go down the coast a ways to Liberty and let them walk in the surf & play in the sand. They had a great time. All of them were soaked & covered with sand by the time the afternoon was over. It took quite a bit to convince them that we needed to keep driving. Corbin assured me that it would be fine for him to just stay on the beach and the rest of us could continue our journey. We drove to Bend and spent the night at hotel. The next morning the kids got to go swimming in the hotel pool. They had a lot of fun. We drove to Boise and used a gift certificate that Natalie has had since November at the Olive Garden & drove the rest of the way home.

The trip was amazing. We loved to drive through the mountains along the coast. Everything was so green. The kids could have spent a month on the beach and already want to go back as long as they don't have to ride in the car. Next time we will need to make sure the Snyders are home so we can go up and visit with them. All in all it was a great trip.

Conference in Lava

We finally got a maiden voyage in for our trailer. For Conference weekend we decided to slip off to Lava Hot Springs and listen to conference over there. We can't get any reception at our house to watch conference, but we could at Lava.

It was amazing how much more you can get out of conference when there is nothing else to do. The trailer worked out great and we had a fun time together. We colored easter eggs & goofed off.

We enjoyed having Jacksons come up and see and go to the hot pots in between conference sessions on Saturday afternoon. We actually ran into one of Natalie's friends from school who happened to be at the hot pots at the same time that we were. It was a great time. We might have to do it again in October.

Spring Break?.....Who needs a break, we've been sitting around all winter?

Natalie has been out of school and we have been busy. The roof in the homestead house started to cave in this winter and we decided that it was time for it to come down. Getting it down was going to be the easy part.

We had to clear out a bunch of dead pines so we would have enough room for a generous neighbor with a loader to get in and knock the house down and pile it up so we can burn it. We might still need to clear some more of the pines out of the way before we burn the pile. I am a bit concearned with the fire spreading so we will make sure that we have ample space.

I pulled out a corner with the pickup just for the fun of it, but I quickly relized that the project was more than what I could tackle on my own.

Last night he came over with his loader and took the roof off, knocked the walls over, and started making a pile for us. It was pretty amazing how quickly the whole project went.

We will still have quite a bit to clean up to do and we are still not quite sure what we are going to do with the area, but it sure opens things up quite a bit.

Time for an update.

Last fall I finally accepted defeat and gave up on the camper trailer project that I had been working on for a number of years. My Grandpa had given me a 72' Rancho Camper that I mounted on a 20' flatbed trailer. It weighed a ton and needed some updating and repairs. During the summer while trying to get it ready for going camping the fridge lit a nest the birds had built in a vent on fire and left some damage to the fridge and roof. Natalie unloaded everything out of the camper that very night. There was no further discussion the lofty dream was over. We hauled the camper to the dump and moved on with our lives.

The past couple months I have been searching around for a practical way to meet our wants of a place to stay out of the weather and a way to haul our four wheelers around. In our seach I had explored toy haulers, fifth wheels, and tent trailers. We went to an RV show in Twin and found our new home away from home. Unfortunately the weather hasn't worked in our favor yet and we haven't had a chance to take it out. We did let the kids spend a night in it out in the yard. We joked that camping out in our yard was probably more remote than most of the places we would ever take the trailer and definately a lot less people. Hopefully April will bring us some better weather and some new adventures to talk about. We are also hoping that our little truck will pull our train.