bye, bye tows.

on sunday river and i dropped flower off at church. kris mentioned in the parking lot that there were cows on simplot hill! not an everyday sight to be sure. river and i drove by and she was oohing and ahhing. she couldn't believe how close we were. we parked for a minute and she talked to them.
apparently there was concern enough for the police to be involved. they were parked just outside of the photo.
i finally said it was time to go and to say bye bye to the cows and she said, "bye bye tows". it was so clear and she chanted it the rest of the way home. and i smiled the whole time. i love her little voice!
just before home i stopped to get gas and took the van through the car wash. she was stunned to say the least.
this was her face for the full five minutes we were in the car wash. cracks me up. she was totally frozen.
when we got home river was so clingy to me the rest of the afternoon. i think just being in the church parking lot put the fear of nursery into her. poor thing. after kg and flower got home we watched the smurf's together and river insisted on sitting right on me the whole time. literally, on my face, covering it with her blanket, for almost an hour. flower couldn't stop laughing about it and grabbed my phone to take some photos.
and i loved it.

i love that little stink pot. i love it when she's clingy to me because it's not the norm. she's usually go go go but lately if i'm sitting down, she comes to snuggle. she also won't leave my side at work which makes it very difficult. unfortunately changes are going to be made soon in that area. :(

meridian speedway!

i've been wanting to go to the races all summer and my dad finally invited us to go last saturday the 7th. i wasn't going to go because i didn't want to spend the money, and kg had to work. but then my friend jamie posted on facebook that is was 'facebook fan' free night! all you had to do was post about it in your status, print it off and that was your ticket. so awesome. i proceeded to open accounts for my parents just for that purpose so we all got in for free. we saved $62 between the lot of us. it makes it that much more entertaining. everything is better when it's free.

as you can see by the sunshine in this photo, the weather was perfect!
kas and flower would get so excited and scream for their car to win. we each picked a car at the beginning of each race. sandee kept track. i bombed and mom won.
ahhhh.

i'm glad we went! i really needed the night out because i had been moping all week. i took the girls and it was a lot of fun.

*on facebook i told jamie i'd hopefully see her there. turns out my dad unknowingly ended up sitting right above her! it was fun to see you jamie!

c.j. strike camping

on sunday afternoon we picked up the girls from kg's parents and headed out of town. we kicked off august by going on a camping trip as a family. this is the first time we've gone camping somewhere other than the cabin property and stayed in a tent instead of the bus. it was our first time at c.j. strike and it was beautiful. we had a great spot between two trees, right by the water. there was only one other tent in the tent area and only one other group pretty far away in the rv area. being sunday night we were hoping it would be quiet and we weren't disappointed.

setting up camp.

peek-a-boo. can you spot river's head? she kept yelling 'mamma!'

nice, empty campground!

mmm, lollipops

this was our view as we lay inside the tent.

it was so beautiful outside that we didn't need the rain tarp,therefore we got to gaze at the trees, and eventually stars, all night. lovely.

we sat and enjoyed our awesome view.

then flower and i played 3 games of hi ho cherry-o
flower won 2 out of 3

the pretty sunset made us orange. :)

river and kg played catch with the velcro paddles.

we roasted marshmallows

and the girls made s'mores

i roasted some fresh pineapple that was delicious!

after we put the girls to bed kg and i sat around the campfire and did crossword puzzles.
i loved it.

on monday morning we took a nice long walk at the dam.

i think this photo is so cool. it's our shadows at the top, looking over onto the dam.
can you tell who's whom?

i found this photo online since i didn't get a photo of the whole thing.
we were standing on the top looking over onto the cement where the white
water is coming together.
water wasn't pouring through when we were there, obviously.
amazing views

then we surfed on our feet down that hill of rocks.
river was not impressed. :)

we sat at the bottom for quite awhile throwing rocks in the reservoir.

we really enjoyed it trying to aim at various things or making the biggest splash.

then we went back to the tent and all fell asleep for a nice long nap. there's nothing like napping together as family with the sound of water and the leaves of trees in the background. after the naps the girls played in the water. we also played catch some more and by 2:00 we were ready for naps again so we packed it up and headed for home so the girls would sleep in the car.
i loved every second of our quiet time alone together as a family. i love my little family.