Please check it all out!

Well I have just posted the heck out of this blog. I really needed to catch up. I was way behind and we have so much going on in August. There is a total of 10 new posts not counting this one. Please go all the way back to look at all the cool posts. It took me all day.

The Charming Caleb

Caleb will be 2 on September 7th and he is being
a really good big brother. I sure had fun with him this
past week. Here he is wearing daddy's Police boots.

Caleb and Grammy at the play ground

Caleb playing the game "where is Caleb" He thinks this means he is hiding from me.


I said to him, "show me your teeth"

Our beautiful new Granddaughter Ella

Tara took these two top pictures of Ella in her very first photo shoot at 5 days old. These two are my favorites. Tara you are amazing and boy don't Isaac and Tiffany do good work! She is so adorable.

I was able to stay for a few days, and this picture was taken just before I left. I had a hard time fighting back the tears.
It was hard to leave this precious baby girl and my charming grandson Caleb.

I could not resist this wonderful photo opt. Isaac works so hard at the academy during the day. He was just so exhausted.
Baby Ella, looks like a picture out of a storybook.

Beginning of our trip to the North country!

Our plane from Seattle to Spokane
Mt. Rainier I believe!

Coeur D Alene Lake and Hotel,
at the edge of Coeur D Alene, Idaho

Biking the Hiawatha Trail

We did it. We planned well and when we
went to our nieces wedding
in Idaho, we looked for things to do up
in Idaho that we could also make
it our anniversary trip.
We wanted to be adventureous and when
we found the Hiawatha trail, we knew we
had to do it.







Here is Todd on his rented mountain bike, and
a very friendly chipmunk. He climb all the way

up to the top of my front tire.
I wish I would have had something
to give him. He was so cute.







Here is the beginning of one of the bridges,
and the vastness of the mountains here.
It was just so beautiful andthe forest was
so thick!

Tunnels and Bridges

The big Taft Tunnel is just shy of two miles long. It is where you start the Hiawatha experience. It is very dark, extremely cold (40 degrees) at all times and very very wet!
Water runs through both sides, so you have to stay in the middle. you have a headlight on your bike, but it takes some degree of skill to get through this long tunnel even with a headlight. I couldn't wait to get through it the first time. After biking 15 miles, you are shuttled back up to the other end of this same tunnel and must bike back through it to get to your car. I kept thinking of so many lifes analogies when I was in this tunnel. There are several other tunnels that you have to ride through on the trail.











There are probably about 7 tunnels and around 7 or 8 trestle bridges. They are all very high up but so beautiful. This one in the picture is one that we rode across later on. It was just so beautiful here, I did not want it to end. We decided it was one of our very best dates.

watching the Beavers

The best thing about where we stayed
Montana at Mangold's, was that right off the deck outside of our room were
two or three beavers that we watched for the longest
time each evening. They would appear
at sunset and really go at their beaver business.
They weren't even afraid of us and could
care less if we were watching, filming and laughing at them.

This is the pool where they would swim. Along the bank opposite our side, was where they lived. They would come in and out of these little tunnels and then their mounds were along the banks also connected by the tunnels. We felt so cool being able to observe animals in their true wild settings. Mangold's said there would be beavers and there were!

Scenes from Northern Idaho

We drove through a good
portion of northern Idaho,
eastern Washington, and the
very western part of Montana.
We slept in all three states. It
was not as cool up there as we
thought it would be. Most every
day we were gone, it was up in
the 90's. We were sure expecting
cooler temperatures. All these
pictures were taken in Idaho.

Mauri's wedding place

It was at the top of this
butte, where the ceremony
took place. Mauri looked
very pretty and was wearing
a brouch in her hair, that was
her great great grandmother's.
there were endless wheat fields
and natural grassland. Also this
part of the country, (northwest
Idaho) has clumps of pine trees
at the edges of the wheatfield's.
it is so sweeping!

Our nieces wedding celebration!

We are so happy for Marcus and Mauri
and little Miles. (What an adorable child)
They are really special people.
It was so much fun to see all
of Todd's sister Paige's family again,
and spend time with all of them.
Mauri Olson is Todd's niece, and lives in
Moscow, Idaho. Mauri and
Marcus were married
on August 22
on the top of a big grassy
Butte in Moscow, Idaho.
Latter in the afternoon, we all went out
to the Red Barn Farms, over in Washington,
for a wonderful
night of entertainment and good food
and great company.
It was unusual to see a marimba
band, playing music from Zimbabwe.
It was unusual to see older women
playing the music, but it was very entertaining.

Finding a Temple

On our last day of our trip, we had some time after
returning to Spokane before we had to be at the airport.
We decided the best way to spend the time was finding
and driving to the Spokane Temple. We had never seen
in real life, one of the smaller Temples. It does not matter
where you go, but if you are able to see a LDS Temple it
just does something special with your heart. There is such a
great feeling, and the spirit is truly there.

visiting Logan!

Kendra on the bridge over the Logan River.












Kendra and Sterling showed us all around
the USU campus and we even went to get
the famous Aggie Blue mint ice cream.











Me in the back of a canoe on Bear Lake. it was
sure nice there. The perfect Temperature.











Ty enjoyed swimming in the lake, as the water was so clean.
This lake is a natural lake, not man made, on the Utah, Idaho border, and my first visit here.