On a clear day...

you can't see forever (from our deck) but you can usually see wheat fields, mountains and blue sky.  Clearly, (no pun intended) it is not a clear day.  There are fires in areas all directions from Lewiston and since we are in a valley, the smoke comes, settles in a stays.  This is at least the 2nd time this last month that we have been socked in like this, although this time is definitely worse.  Any view of the Lewiston Hill was completely covered by smoke, and you can kind of tell from the pictures that even the trees in our yard are blurred by a smoky haze!  It is eerie and a little bit otherworldly!!!

The worst part is all the acres of land that is burning!  I heard about 3 fires, one north, one west and one south of us, but central Washington is also on fire and who knows where else in the region!!  

Maybe some cooler weather is on its way...We can only hope!

Trying to get back in the saddle

My word, it has been a long time, and I have been a slacker.  At this point it seems like its easier to let the whole blog thing go, but there is still a part of me that wants to keep things going, and maybe even step it up a notch.

Fall is falling and the weather is delightfully cooler than the end of August.  The mornings are brisk.  This is a familiar refrain "Can we close up the house?"  I am loving the cross breeze through the living room/kitchen, even if it means putting on a jacket.  Too soon we'll be keeping the doors and windows closed for good.  I say we go with the breeze for as long as we can.

School has started.  I documented the first day of school this year.  Not a usual thing I do, mostly because I don't think about it until its too late!  I did have to get a pix of Amber's outfit since she is so full of school spirit, and I made her shorts for her under a bit of a time crunch due to circumstances beyond my control! GO BENGALS!!! 

Amber, dressed as a Sr. Leader is ready to orient the lowly Sophomores 

Kristin was already bored with 9th Grade before it even started, but Trev was ready to take 7th Grade by storm.  

With the start of school also comes the start of Fall Sports, Homecoming Hall plans, football games and so much more, but let's take a little walk down memory lane, and recall a bit of summer.

Camping in the backyard

The boys came to town to hang out with us while mom and dad went on a fantastic European vacation.    We probably had more fun than they did!  (At least a different kind of fun.)

One night, Trev, T1 and Kristin broke in the new tent by having a backyard camp out.  T1 had a great time so they did it a second night, but didn't have as much fun until Aunt Amber came to sleep with them.  (The shadowy branches were just a little too scary!!)  Here's a funny thing.  The morning after the first camp out, Ash and Brandon called to skype with the boys early in the morning.  The house was really quiet, I hadn't heard a sound, so I assumed they were all still sound asleep in the tent.  We skyped for a bit, but they had to go do something fun like hike up a mountain in Switzerland, or eat gelato in Italy, so we signed off.  Unbeknownst to me, the campers were all downstairs watching a movie because the sun woke them up at 5 am!!!  They slept in a little later the second time, but not much! 

At any rate, T1 loved it, and we know Brandon is glad that we introduced him to camping out.  What a great family activity!  :)

Team Tinsel vs. Team Frosty

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and now we are back to our regular lives. Our little gingerbread couple welcome you to our remembrance of Christmas 2011!
Meet the Gingerbread House Decorating Teams.

Team Tinsel
Team Frosty
Gingerbread house decorating became more like Gingerbread house landscaping. Yes, the houses did get a little candy and frosting, but check out the yards of these little cottages.
Team Tinsel's yard contained the requisite pink flamingo in the yard. Also a bench to rest your weary self on, and a lovely swing.

Team Frosty's yard ended up with a mini swimming pool with a floating chair, and a log pile ready to be worked by a hefty lumberjack. The axe is sharp and ready to make the chips fly! You may also notice the wood pile is in front of an outdoor fireplace. Charming!



Chelsie and Kristin were in charge of the Christmas Eve Cinnamon rolls. Delish!

Here is the group all dressed in their new jammies/yoga pants/shorts/thermal underwear for the annual Christmas Eve slumber party.

The marshmallow guns came out of the gun safe for a little friendly competition. Eye protection was a must and luckily there was furniture to use as a shield when necessary. I'm still finding hard marshmallows upstairs!


Chelsie and Dallin are standing in the freshly painted laundry room. A Christmas present to me from them! I love it!

And finally, because there is already plenty going on, Amber's Chemistry project was due right before Christmas break. With a lot of help from Dad, she crafted a very nice model of a Carbon atom.

Two and a half short days in the Emerald City

Which was really more gray than emerald! Chelsie said it started raining the day we came over and it was gray and a little rainy at times the rest of the weekend!
Oh well, it was fun to finally get to spend a little time with Dallin and Chelsie in their apartment.

We spent part of Saturday at the zoo. Even though it was pretty cold and a little drizzly at times, we felt like a lot of the animals obliged us, and we saw quite a few.

Here are a few pictures for you, Talmage!




I think my favorite part was all the bronze statues they had after many of the exhibits, and my obliging family who cheerfully posed for me each time I asked!

The future dentist among us, was enthralled with large incisors, molars, you name it.
Here is a shout out to our High School mascot!

The rainforest was very cool, (okay, really warm and humid, my camera lens kept fogging up, but you know what I mean!) anyway, the entrance was filled with beautiful orchids. I thought of you, Alli.This guy cracked us up! We thought of a few people he reminded us of, but they will remain nameless!

After we got back to the apartment, we were all ready to stay inside for a while. Or in other words, we wanted to stay warm and dry. We played boggle and bang. Then went to the cabana at the apartment building and made good use of the pool and ping pong tables. Scratch seemed to be the theme at the pool table, but a good time was had by all.




Saturday night rounded out with home made pizza, a movie and apple crisp (made by Amber. Yum!)

We got to meet a few people in their ward when we went to Sacrament Meeting, then after dropping off the kids at the apt, headed to Redmond for one of the farewell talk of one of Dallin's cousins. It was fun to see a few family members we met at the wedding and meet a few more new ones! I'm pretty sure we have just scratched the surface of his family.

The weekend went much too fast, and we were back home before we knew it. Riding in the new Traverse is pretty darn nice. Did it make the trip go faster though? Not sure about that!

Thanks for letting us crash your pad this weekend Chelsie and Dallin! It was great fun!

15 end of the summer party pictures

The frost is on the pumpkins, the clocks are set to standard time and the days are growing shorter. It seems a perfect time to revisit our end of the summer party with a post. It seems like forever ago that we had everyone home, not necessarily at the same time, but within a week of each other.

Having everyone home at the same time is really a mom/grandma's dream come true, and with everyone growing up, a few getting married, and another off to college, its getting harder and harder to accomplish.

So, here in no particular order are 15 pictures that relive the Peay/Dance/Alli/
Lewiston Rietz end of the summer, all be at home party.

Trev, Kristin, Amber and Ashley show their stuff on the wake board. Ashley is especially impressive.


Talmage and Tanner get jet ski driving lessons from Grandpa.


Tanner makes a fine "Winnie the Pooh" as he tried to get every last crumb of his treats.

Talmage had more fun keeping the slip and slide in good working order than actually slipping and sliding. We give high marks to Grandpa for finding a Toy Story slip and slide.
Brandon and Ashley took an opportunity to spend a few minutes alone while they were here. Along with a few bike rides, they took a jet ski ride or two.
The requisite bocce ball game was played, as was a touch football game in the park. Nothing beats boys v girls in bocce ball!


We really couldn't get enough pictures of Tanner and Talmage. Tanner seemed an especially popular subject. Actually, we couldn't get enough of them period. We really hated to see them go home.

And finally, a few random river pictures.





Well, if you've been keeping count, I exceeded my 15 picture statement, but really, can you blame me? How can I be expected to limit it when there was so much fun to record and talk about? :-)

Here are a few closing thoughts -
As the mama of the group, I loved this last part of summer. Here are a few more reasons why.
- Alli came home for just a few days as a surprise. She spent a lot of time in the car just to spend a little time with Ashley, Brandon and boys. It was wonderful to have her here.

-Dallin is the newest member of the family, and I was so happy he got to spend some time with the Peays so he could get to know them better. Brandon finally got a worthy bike riding partner when Dallin got here! Yay for that. And, both of them were so handy to have around when I needed just a few items from the store.

-Talmage was a good sport to go to the river so many times. He really didn't want to go after the first day, but didn't complain when we dragged him along. I really felt kind of bad for him when he would say, "I want to go home."

It is exciting to think our family will keep growing, as everyone gets married and has kids. I can't think of anything I'd rather do than spend a few days together playing, eating and just enjoying each other!

I love you guys!!!