Meet Farmer Joe

We went to Wheeler farm with Daddy for the first time. (First time this year for the farm and first time with Daddy ever)

We fed sheep. We fed ducks. We saw lots of baby animals. We played in the tree house. We got licked by a cow. Pretty much covered all there is to do there.

Eva decided that she was "Farmer Joe" and that I was her boy. She greeted all of "her" animals in as low a voice as she could muster. (Wish I had it on video cause it's hilarious.) Quickly after deciding this she told me to hand over my sunglasses as boys don't wear them but grown up farmers might. (Makes sense to me!)

Her lips are pursed because she's attempting to talk in the "Farmer Joe" voice. Gotta love it!

Pictures from the Ranch

THE CHAMBERLAIN FAMILY

The two that made this reunion possible, Goompa and Nana:All 15 grand kids. GAME DAY

Eva trying to suck a Skittle up through the straw:

Naiya and Jace... also suckin' skittles:

THE TALENT SHOW AND MY TALENTED FAMILY Naiya had planned to sing the theme song from Milo and Otis, but when all eyes were on her she quickly (but beautifully) belted out the alphabet. :)Look at Eva workin' the crowd in this one!! ;)

THE HOT SPRINGS

Daddy and his girls:

Nudie Patooties:


So... This has to be the least amount of pictures I've taken during a ranch trip (except maybe the one we took this spring when we got rained out the whole time). I promise to do lots more exciting things next year... like finally hiking Greylock (hopefully).

A Good Day...

We started the day off by walking to the nearby park. We played. We lunched. We pushed the stroller with yet another flat tire home. Thankfully the girls are big enough to walk the whole way back from the park now.

The girls napped. BOTH of them. At roughly the SAME time.

The afternoon was:

Painting (These Squeeze Um's are the BEST!)

Balloons to keep us company in the car
Home Made LemonadeA Pizza Picnic
Movie Night with my hubby

Our 4th of July

"Parade" in my parent's neighborhood: The girls 1st running race at the starting line:

Naiya's Prize (2nd Place, Wa-Hoo!):

Eva getting some help with the crab walk (For each race she waited until everyone was done before she would even start. That's my Eva... she'll get to it when she's good and ready! :) :

Eva's Prize (She was much happier about it than she appears):

Pony Rides:

Swimming with Pa:

Goompa's Water Slide:

Aunt Chelsy & Uncle Todd's Trampoline (Love Eva in this pic!):

Of course there were BBQ's (2 to be exact) and Fireworks to cap it off. And that's all just ONE day of the weekend. Yeah, the girls weren't in bed until 11:30. We are still trying to recoup! :)

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Yup I just referenced a nursery rhyme in the title to this post.... am I the mother of toddlers or what?!

After a week at the ranch, a half a day home and another week at teacher training, everyone is home now. (Well not RIGHT now, Jared is a work.) The Chamberlain family reunion was fantastic. The toe didn't slow me down too much, but it did keep me closer to the lodge than in previous years which means I spent more time with the family. This was nice. I also had a nap almost every day with my two tired girls.... also nice. It really was a great trip.

Here's the one pic that I have so far (because I stole it from Dave). I'll post more when I have a minute to download.

Thanks to all the older girls for working so hard on getting every one's shirts made and organizing the game day!!

The teacher training was good. It was A LOT of work (especially the nightly memorization). I do feel like I learned more than I did in previous years and I feel better equipped to use this knowledge next year. I had a chance to swim almost every night which was great for my foot. I also went on the fossil hike they do each week. Not the best choice for my foot, but it was wonderful to get out, and the view was gorgeous. Unfortunately I didn't take a single picture that week so you'll just have to imagine it. ;)

It's good to be home and have my family back. Thanks to my mom and dad for working so hard to keep the girls safe and happy this week. They had a blast. As you can imagine, I've got loads of things to catch up on after 2 weeks of being out of civilization; so this quick summary will have to do for now. More stories and pictures to come!

Better

The toe is feeling better. The silly shoe I'm supposed to wear makes it hurt more. (That and falling down my parent's stairs only to land on the bad foot.) I bought a bunch of extra strength Tylenol with the quick dissolve tablets. Seems to be helping. YAY! (I still don't see hiking or running in my near future, but at least I can get around.)
The truck is packed and OVERFLOWING. Just the way I like it. (I'm more likely not to forget anything that way!)
Jared's alarm will be going off in 1 hour and we'll be off!! I'll try to check in next weekend, but don't count on it. It will be a busy 24 hours.
Either way, have a happy couple of weeks!!

Only me....

We've been getting ready for our family trip to the ranch. This year I feel especially crazed getting ready because I know that when I get back I have less than 24 hours to wash and repack everything. We get back on Saturday late at night and Sunday afternoon I will be leaving for a week of teacher training while the girls stay with my parents. Not to mention that the Sunday I have for washing/repacking is also Father's Day. Yikes!
After running around like crazy with the girls this last week and having Jared come home late trying to get work done before we go, the girls needed a little attention. Jared didn't get home until 7:45 so I decided (since they had both had a nap) that it wouldn't hurt to let them stay up a little late a play with mom and dad. Naiya wanted to race around the living room. Racing to her consists of running in circles around the love seat until she decides the race is finished and announces "I won, let's race again!" We took turns, Jared chased them for a little while, but then he was done. He'd been working long days and was exhausted. I took my cue and started chasing the girls. I almost caught Naiya so I roared at her to tease her. That is when the child kicked it into over-drive. She doubled her speed in 2 seconds and there was no catching her.... but still, I tried. I tried right up until I ran into the edge of the other sofa with my toe. It hurt. I looked down and my little piggy was pointing out. It used to point in.
Anyway... the girls indeed got to stay up late (like till 11!) while mommy got x-rays at the after-hours clinic to find out that I fractured my toe. FRACTURED! I have to wear one of those post-op shoes. I'm supposed to be using crutches. So much for hiking/biking/running/pretty much anything active at the ranch. *sigh* At least it didn't happen a week ago when I still had all this stuff to do. Now I just have to finish packing which shouldn't be too hard. Worse yet would have been having it happen at the ranch and having to drive 2 hours back to Boise to deal with it. Fun stuff! At least I have two cute little doctors to "help" me out! :)