Take two

Well here we go for part two. There is going to be a lot more pics in this post because I did not take them all. I downloaded pics from my brothers and sisters camera so I have a few....hundred.

The day my in-laws and wife's sister's family left, my brother and his family arrived. We thought it might be good to go around Tubbs hill, yet again. You will see a lot of redundancy with the events we chose, but why mess with what works.
Here are Delaney and Joey. These two kids pose for pictures without having to be asked. They are seemingly perfect angels and right before we left for the hike Joel asked them if they knew the number one rule of hiking. Being the great parent I am, I said it was staying away from the edge and staying close to an adult. I of course was wrong!?!? Delaney informed me that the number one rule of hiking is "not complaining that my knees hurt or my legs are tired". Can it get any cuter than that. True to the number one rule ...neither of them complained once.

Kids love throwing rocks, and so do adults.

Yet another pose that they just did without really having to be asked.

Then Grandma and Grandpa showed up and they started to play with the paddle boats my dad had made. We eventually moved it to the inflatable pool...instead of in the fish barrel.

Delaney loved to chase the chickens and we chased them so much that I asked if she would rather just go in the coop. She will try anything, and I mean anything, so in she went. This ended up being tons of fun for her and was the first thing she always asked to do about 5 seconds after saying good morning...every morning. Usually I made her wait until she was out of her PJ's before putting her in there.

Here she caught one. We did have fun asking her to catch them and then see how far she could throw them. That is hours of fun and she loved it. Very brave girl.

My brother is an avid fly fisherman and ties a lot of flies. Here is one he tied when he was here.

And this is where he got the material. You guessed it, we snagged a couple of feathers from this guy and tied up some flies.

Here is evidence that my sister-in-law can run...who would have thought?

We also got a chance to go up to Mt. Spokane. This was the first day of the season that you could drive to the top, so needless to say it was cool up there. My guests were freezing at those temps as they came from 95 degree weather.

Here we are as a family on the top.

My dad and nephew

That night my parents brought us to a cowboy supper show. Brenda and I did it last year with them and it was cool, but the kids loved it even more and we all had such a good time. Thanks mom and dad.

The kids loved the cowboys and cowgirls.

Sunday we went to Manito Park to view the flowers and then to Downtown Spokane.

The rose garden was in bloom and the smell up there was amazing.

Here is Brenda near a few of the bushes.

Here is my brothers family

Again...we went on the carousel.

Then we went on the gondola over the Spokane falls. That was fun, but the cabins of the gondola were fairly hot and I had to take my shirt off. I also had to rock the cabin once or twice

As I said....hot. I mean it had to be 90 in there. In Spokane the weather this year is cool and as I write this wile heat grips 90 percent of the country...Spokane is 75-80 and sunny.

and of course we went on the Radio Flyer wagon for a slide down the handle.

Then of course we went in the fountain again.

Monday we went to the beach in Coeur d'Alene. My dad was nice enough to rent a sailboat and although the wind was very light all day, we all had a great time out on it. The kids thought it was cool and I always like to screw around on boats.

Here we are heading out....notice the flat water. The oar was used more than we wanted it to be.

Then the next day I was able to round up 5 bikes and two kid trailers and off we went to the "route of the Hiawatha". This is a old railroad grade converted to bike trail. It runs like 15 miles all downhill, over 7 bridges, and through 10 tunnels. At the beginning of the route you go through a 2 mile tunnel which crosses the MT ID boarder underground.

Here is one of the views from the trail.

Here is my sister and sister-in-law on the tandem bike.

And two kids in the carrier. James was alone in the other and besides having dirt all over his face....he was fine.

Here we all next to the waterfall.

And the whole family....after 3 takes.

Check out those bridges, they are amazing.

And Brenda and I outside of one of the tunnels.

We loved hanging out in the backyard and are really liking the house this summer. Here was a rainbow which disappeared and reappeared 3 times this night.

Wednesday, Joel and I went fishing in ID. We had a great time and caught a lot fish. Mine were not that big, but we had a great time.

Here is the big dog of the trip.

Joey loved hanging out with the baby.

Well all said and done we had 18 guests over 2 weeks and a great summer. With the weather warming up a bit it really only feels like the beginning of summer....which I guess is the case up here.

Here is my niece chasing the chickens...this is her first time in the coop and she got a bit more aggressive after getting to know them.

I some good pics already for the next post and another video that cannot be missed....stay tuned.

Family....So this is why we bought a 5 bedroom house

I have decided to divide the families into a 2 part series even though they ran together and there was seemingly no division between the two. First Dan and Sarah came with their two girls Maggie and Abby. They were here for 2 days and then headed out to see Brenda parents.

We went for a hike around Tubbs hill with Dan and Sarah and the girls. This is a great hike and not all that far so it is great for kids
Then they taught James to play some sort of patty cake (not sure if this is right). He has a what the heck look on his face here, but he looked like he liked it.

Here are the girls at the park in Coeur d'Alene.

Then it was home for a swim in the pool and a swing on the swing. I am very glad I put that up. There were no injuries the whole time family was here which is amazing to me.

Here are the cousins.

4 days after Dan and Sarah left, Paula and Kevin (Lindsey and Landon as well) came in and then Dan and Sarah came back up along with Jim and Sandra. If you are keeping track of numbers....that is 13 bodies staying at our house (ourselves included). I guess that is why we bought a big house and it was a great time.

Here are the cousins loving the pool. I convinced them to do belly flops and still...no one got hurt.

Dinner on the table with the family was well worth the effort of building the table.

Here is a pick of all the cousins. Kids nowadays have got to get tired of taking pictures. With digital photos there is so much more freedom to take bad pics that we generally took 3-4 pics at every location. Maybe they like it, but I know I got 736 pics from the past two weeks and that is more than I will ever need.

Then we went to the beach in Coeur d'Alene on the 5th. It was kind of cool in the water, but a lot of fun and very relaxing.

Here are the kids eating some pop-ice. Big hit after water balloons.

Our neighbor brought his horse over to give the kids a ride on.

Then Landon got a chance. halfway through his ride the horse started to neigh and echo the one back in the stall. Not a good sign. Then Rocky jumped to the side and leaped ...but Landon held on tight. Kevin ran over and got him off with lots of crying and all of us were thankful no one got hurt. Needless to say that was the end of the horse rides...maybe not my best idea as an afterthought.

James looks happy here, but with women giving you a sponge bath....who wouldn't be.

We also had a chance to got to downtown Spokane and rode on the Carousel. It may seem lame, but it actually goes fast and you can grab rings if you are on the outer horses and throw them into a hole to ring the bell. Still does not sound cool, but I assure you it is fun.

Jim and Sandra along with James at the falls.

James did not like the ride as much as we did.

This was a scene repeated throughout the vacation and Paula really liked hanging out with a baby again. It was kind of nice to have family out and hand off the duties of holding James.

So that was the Elenbaas Family...the day they left, my family arrived....to be continued.

The Calm before the Storm

Two weeks ago Brenda had a chance to go with her parents over to my parents for the weekend so I was left as a bachelor. That means it is time to go to the races. When you go to the races you never know what you are going to find....like this couple.
He thought it might be nice to match his wife's hair....isn't that cute.

And she is expecting! How exciting. I have never seen a shirt with an ultra sound on the front before...let a lone one where the baby is giving the "finger" to everyone. Yup that is right, this woman is waling around with a picture of a unborn baby flipping off the world. I am sure they are going to be great parents and there is yet another reason to use private education. We really have moved to the country up here in Washington.

But with such a nice night, I had no complaints.

The next day I went to the Ironman Triathlon in Coeur d'Alene just 20 min down the road. I had volunteered to drive my bike around the course carting any media personnel that needed a ride. It ended up I got a photographer from the local paper doing a story on a guy who lost 80lbs to do the race. He was slow, so it ended up being a very long day.

Here is the beginning of the race where there are 2800 participants.

And the transition area.

The lady on the left is the writer and the woman taking the photo is .....the photographer of course.

It was very cool riding without having to pay attention to stop signs or speed limits. Also a good time riding around with some world class athletes.

And of course riding a sweet bike.

I never ceases to amaze me the weirdos out there. When at the finish line where the first runner was coming in breaking the course record, you have this kid. It is about 80 degrees outside and he is in a hoodie and trying to hide his face...while reading the dudgeon masters guide to Dungeons and Dragons...he is going to be normal, or a serial killer.

This 62 yr old crashed at the finish of the bike. She ended up being ok and started to 26 mile run.

Then Dan and Sarah came, but that visit will all be covered at a later date. I figured this guy was getting a bit loud so he had to go. Last week Wednesday was his last day with us alive and now is in the freezer waiting for a special meal. He is looking at the axe like he does not trust it....he is wise to be fearful.

It all did not take that long and now we have another that may have to go to the woodshed shortly.

Life is quite nice here in Greenacres and we are really having a great time.

We went for a walk the other night about 5 min from our house and had a great view of the mountains. The flowers are amazing and the weather perfect.

Here is my lovely lady.

We live about 1 mile from the end of the water below....nice huh.

James was loving it.

He does not love the bills though...I mean really...should Internet really cost that much?

Then this Saturday I got a chance to ride for 6hrs up the St. Joes River and through some old railroad tunnels to Wallace then back home. It was amazing.

Snow covered peaks in the background.

And more.

Then Sunday we went to Steptoe Butte. 1000' above everything else.

What a view.

He did not like it as much as I did.

Brenda sometimes wears her glasses like this when her temples hurt, it is a nice look.

But more often she has them like this. Hottie.

Family AKA the "Storm" is going to be here the next week or two so the next update will be picture intensive as well.