Life as we know it.

Hopefully some day things will calm down and we post our happenings more regularly. Until then we will just play catch up every once in a while.

We spent months looking for a home to purchase. We tried to build in Tooele, but that didn't pan out either. Finally we were led to where we were supposed to be and things are looking up. In the meantime though we have moved from living in Tooele with Tom & Gwen to Midvale with my parents. They are going on a super vacation and we are going to house sit for them. We had planned on our house being done by the time they got back, but weather has pushed things back a bit and we will be here for about six weeks before the home will be complete.

Here are a couple pics though of the build process & the lot. We are super excited to have the home complete and to be in a place of our own.

There are also a couple of pictures of our trip to Cherry Creek. We went camping out there last month and had a blast. Ashby's & Jackson's came out and went riding with us. We sure enjoy getting out of town and camping.

Catching up.

The last few months have been a roller coaster. We are just holding on for the ride taking one day at a time. We have enjoyed being closer to family and being able to attend activities.

School has been a big adjustment for Natalie. She has learned a lot though and hopefully she will be wrapping things up in the next year or so.

Sara has adjusted well to her new school. The boys enjoy their daycare

and Friday's with Dad.I am loving my job & the Friday's that I get to spend with the family.

The housing situation is another story. The short and sweet of it is hopefully our home in Idaho will be sold someday. It has been a nightmare from the beginning.

We haven't been able to locate a home to buy so construction will start as soon as the house in Idaho is sold. Enough about that though.

We had a great trip to the children's museum in Salt Lake. The boys loved the helicopter the best and could have spent the whole day hanging out in the cockpit.

A couple weekends ago we took the trailer & four wheelers out to Terra to camp for the weekend. It was nice to get away for a while. The weather was great and we had a good time riding around. Hopefully the weather will clear up soon and we will be able to enjoy more camping soon.

The joys of moving

I really don't know what to write as far as posts lately. So much seems to be happening lately, but it's hard to tell the actual effects of the events that are transpiring.

I got a new job in Salt Lake, we moved to Tooele, and now we are living with Tom & Gwen until our home sells in Idaho. That's the short of it. Many small things have transpired to get us here, but here we are.

We had the family come up and help us haul all our stuff down to Tooele. We loaded up four trailers and trucks and moved everything down. We filled a storage unit, part of the milk barn, and Tom's basement. It is amazing how much junk a person can aquire in a few short years. I really need to get rid of more things.

It has been a big adjustment living back in civilization. We have enjoyed being closer to family. It has been a blast to spend time with Tom & Gwen. We haven't spent a lot of time with them one on one and it is fun to get to know them better.

Natalie has been getting everything lined up to go to the University of Utah. She really misses her friends at ISU and the great program that they had there. The program at the "U" is quite different and she is a bit nervous.

The boys are excited that they will get to hank out with Tammy, William, and Jackson during the day. We are excited that they will be in a better enviornment.

Life has turned upside down for us, but we know that this is where the Lord wants us and we pray that we will be able to find a play of our own to settle soon.

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.