The kids and I like to visit cemeteries.  We like to find the oldest graves, and think about the people buried there and piece some of their lives together when we can.  There's a small cemetery a few miles away that Eric and I discovered one night a few weeks ago, and I decided to take the kids there to explore.  One of the graves we saw belonged to Archie and Minnie Betts, who happened to have only one death date on their headstone.  Was it a mistake?  Could they have died the same day, and so young?  I had to find out!
While we were at the cemetery Birch told me he had to go to the bathroom.  I happened to find an outhouse in the corner, and went over to check it out with Birch behind me.  When I opened the door and peered in to make sure it had toilet paper, Birch said, "Is there a dead body in there?"  😅
When I came home I did some searching, and eventually found an obituary for one of the Betts's daughters.  It mentioned that Archie and Minnie were in a boating accident in August of 1930, and perished, leaving 3 or 4 daughters behind.  Really sad.

 Aspen has been sketching a ton lately and here is Duchess from Aristocats.  I love this drawing!  She is really talented.  She has a wall in her room that's her sketch gallery.  I'll have to post a photo of that next time!

 Mom came out to visit last week.  We went to the Idaho History Museum after picking her up at the airport, and then hung around downtown for a bit.  The museum was really well done and the gift shop was full of all kinds of fun things; I grabbed some Christmas gifts for Eric while I was there.  And may have spent way too much time inside!

 Mom and me

 Eric did an insane 30 mile mountain bike ride with his friends Brando and Cody recently.  Isn't this a great photo?  Love this shot of the foothills.  Anyway I was impressed they made the entire 30 miles, especially in the heat!

 We did a good mix of relaxing and playing while Mom was here.  Well, except for Mom, who cleaned and organized and worked the whole time.  I don't think Eric or I washed a single plate while she was here.  She mended, did crafts with the kids, and the list goes on.

 We did get out to the park a few times when the weather wasn't so hot.

 The second weekend Mom was here Eric and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary by heading to the Sawtooths for a night.  We drove out on Friday and after a faaaabulous lunch at Redd in Stanley (I had a croissant sandwich that was so crusty good), we started hiking to Alice lake around 3:00.

 The parking lot was packed! with cars, and we did see a lot of people coming back on our way up, but only met one other small group heading up.  The trail was wonderful; every .5 mile or so the view and terrain changed.  First we hiked between trees and lots of shade.

 During the hike we had to cross the river several times.  Most of these crossings took us over logs, but some had large rocks we could maneuver our way across on.  I was wearing my tennies so I tried to keep my shoes dry as much as I could.

 We hit a clearing with sweeping views; look at how clear that water is!! It was like that the whole time.  Really something.

 After the clearing we headed up a climb that eventually took us on gravel, which wasn't a big deal heading up but wasn't so fun going downhill on the next day.

 We hit a vista; we could see the White Clouds between the Sawtooths.

 We hit the lake after about 5.5 miles, and it was spectacular.  Water you could see through until the depth was too deep; amazing views of the mountains.  A small lake.

 My favorite thing was the flora; there were ground covers all over the place sprouting tiny flowers.  Add tiny streams everywhere with white rocks and the whole area had a fairy like appearance.

 We found a spot of soft ground and set up the tent.  It was already getting chilly for me (the low for that night was 33.  What!  Didn't find that out until it was too late).  I didn't want to put my coat on until I absolutely had to though, so this is my "how am I going to stay warm without my coat" face.

 After our last camping trip in June with freezing temps and no sleep for me, Eric bought me this purple Big Agnes bag.  Can you see how much fluffier it is than Eric's?  It's huge!  I mean in thickness.  Its actually shorter than my other bag, and down instead of synthetic.  I was really hoping for a miracle that I could sleep that night.

 We had dinner around 6:30, (I had my coat on at this point), and once the sun went behind the mountains it was too cold to be outside.  I don't remember what time I went inside the tent but it was early. 

 Eric and I played some cards, then read for a bit, then listened to some podcasts.  Eric realized he had several holes in his sleeping pad; too many to patch up.  To make things worse, his sleeping bag has basically zero insulation on the bottom, because it was made to slide around the pad, almost as one piece.  So not only did he not have insulation from a pad, but also none from his bag.   I suggested we turn back and sleep in the Jeep, but Eric said it was ok he'd be fine.  Well funny enough we both stayed warm (I was sweating during the night!), but because of the shape of the tent and it being so small, we just couldn't get comfortable.   We went to sleep around 3:00 and woke up around 7:00.  Another sleepless night in the mountains!  I think it was worth it though, because of the view I had the next morning:

 Doesn't it look like something from a storybook?

 After breakfast we headed out, around 9:00.

 On the hike back we passed a large haul of people, and chatted with a few.  After we made it to the trailhead we dipped our feet in Lake Pettit (which felt Amazing!), and then went to a pizzeria for lunch.  It was great and we were so grateful the kids were at home safe and having a great time with their Nana. 

 Because we're crazy, we took Mom and the kids to a drive-in movie about 40 minutes away that same day.  I obviously hadn't thought this through.  The movie started at 10:00, and ran until midnight.  Then we had a 40 minute ride home, which put us in bed at 1:00.  Add to that that Eric had a 7:00 meeting the next morning, and we had church at 9:00!  Sometimes I just want to be a fun mom, at whatever expense. 

 We watched the new Lion King, which was fabulous from what I could hear.  We had the car flipped around and the kids could hear the speakers because they were in the car, but we adults couldn't hear much from where we were sitting.  Next time we'll know!  But a lot of the dialogue was the same as the original movie; I'd still like to see it again though with the sound ha!

 One of Roo's sketches that she gave to her dad for his office.

 Oaks is in swim lessons right now, and the day we showed up for class he found out one of his best friends from school was in his class (Andrew, standing).  Fun surprise!

 We're watching our friends' dog right now, Rowdy.  And Rowdy he is!  More than he used to be.  He's been barking anytime he hears a dog outside, and then Jones joins in.  Rowdy has to bark like mad at any large dog he sees, and with all the large dogs that are around our backyard, it's been hard letting him out to use the bathroom.  I usually end up chasing him around the yard while he darts from one side to the other, asserting to the other dogs his superiority.  Anyway Roo and I had a fun time taking him and Jones on a walk yesterday.  I love the joy on her face; she really loves Jones so much.

One of O's creations at the Eagle library.