idaho adventures

Most of you know that Tim's mom passed away on June 30th. Becky had been in the hospital for the last 3 1/2 months. After nine procedures, all of which stemmed from her abdominal aeortic bypass, her body just gave out. Sad...because she was only 59, but happy....because she has been reunited with her mom who she missed so very much these last few years. We spent the last week in Idaho helping plan the services. Thankfully, there is only so much planning to be done, so we were able to spend most our time with Tim's family catching up and watching the 14 cousins go crazy! The kids went swimming, rode motorcycles, more swimming, bird shows, swimming again...with some rafting, visited the Boise temple (where we bumped into Natalie and her cute kiddos), and yes, more swimming. Tim's mom would have loved every minute of it...there was nothing she loved more than being with her grandkids.

We stopped at Hill Airforce Base on the way and checked out the planes/museum. I can't believe we have driven by that place so many times without stopping. Thanks to our personal tour guide, we spent a good 2 hours walking through the museum and learning all kinds of stuff.

yes...planes are for jumping!

Good thing that gun isn't loaded! That boy could lose a finger!

The sweet little man guiding us through offered to take a picture of our family. I had a good laugh when I looked at it....great picture minus the top 2/3 of Tim's face!

He offered to take another picture later....much better. And if you notice Jace's blue lipstick, you can thank a seriously blue tootsie roll pop for that!

While in Boise, we went to the Birds of Prey exhibit. The California Condors were huge!

I know....you are trying to figure out what in the world is on their faces....in the children's room, there were fake beaks, eyes, and claws for the kids to be birds of prey. Kenzie opted not to dress up or be part of the picture in any way.

Maddy and her cousin Jessie at the temple...they were like two peas in a pod.

Can you see Jace peeking through the other side of the fountain?

It was a good week full of good memories!

celebrating America!

Yes... I am officially crazy....crazy to be doing this at 2:00 in the morning instead of sleeping. I had to stay up to finish the laundry before we leave town tomorrow, so figured I may as well be productive. We had the whole fam over tonight for bbq, smores, dodgeball, fireworks....and surprisingly... a little dancing. It was one of those nights that just makes you love summer!

Papa and the kiddos waitin' for dinner

Tim perfected his hot wings up at camp...they were awesome!
You can tell just by looking at the picture of Brit eating one....YUM!

We played some dodgeball...that is now an Argyle family tradition. It is slowly becoming more and more dangerous, especially as the older boys have learned to throw the ball so hard it could take off some unsuspecting child's head :) We pulled out the poppers for the kids to throw, although I don't think there was much throwing going on. Notice the pic of Morgan above with Hunter popping one right in her ear.

Maddy was brave enough to pop one at a time in her hand.

Brit, being such a boy, popped the whole package in his hand at once!

We started up the fire and had smores...not just your average smores...we layered them up with peanut butter cups...Cause who doesn't a need a few extra calories? Ty just ate marshamallows...a dozen-ish...but really? Who was going to say no to that sweet face?

Tim started up some music in the garage...
Ry was air guitaring like his life depended on it! LOL!

Brit and Hunter couldn't be upstaged by a 6 year old so they broke out their gangster dance moves and put on a show...who knew the sprinkler move could look so good?

After tonight, Tim volunteered NOT to be the sparkler guy on the 24th...wonder why...

It was truly the perfect way to celebrate!
Can't wait to do it all over again for Pioneer Day!

late summer nights

So this first picture has nothing to do with the rest but it was one of those famous Jace moments...these actually happen less now (guess that means my baby is growing up, and I'm not sure how I feel about that..). We sent Jace back to bed at least half a dozen times. Finally, we gave up and told him he could bring up toilet paper for the bathrooms upstairs. When we came up for bed an hour later, this is what we found. A hall full of tp, although I was grateful that it was still on the rolls and not in the bathtub!

We celebrated Independence Day yesterday with our neighbors. We started out with a bbq and by the time the food was cleaned up, everyone was going home to grab jackets. Not only was it getting chilly, the wind was blowing up a storm. We played Bocce with the kids to pass some time until it was dark enough for fireworks.

Serious skills that one!

Don't ask what's up with the bandana....I truly have no idea!

Nice form Kenzie!

The dads had to step in to help decide a winner on this round.

Tim got the fire going so we could make smores. The night kept getting colder and pretty soon we were changing into pants and staying by the fire for warmth....in July people!

My kids connect fires with two things:
1. smores
2. skits
So, if there is a fire burning, someone will be acting out a skit they learned from Tim's summer camp. In this one, Maddy is a monkey, thus the hunched over hopping thing you see above.

See...I wasn't lying about the pants and jackets!
The wind kept blowing and we finally gave up on fireworks at 9:30. Not to worry, we are having a bbq with my family on Monday, and we're going to have our own little Stadium of Fire...in the road!

As we finished up the night, the sky lit up beautifully. I would have to say this is the best sunset we've had in the seven years we've lived here.

Happy Independence Day!