Parents visiting and an actual video

This is what James has been up to.  He is now walking all over the place and loves to laugh.  I finally got the video to upload and have had a bugger of a time with it.  Blogger has got to do something about that feature, but maybe it is the fact I usually have longer videos.

In preparation for this summer we also purchased this from Cabelas recently.  Seeing as our other tent was scavenged out of a dumpster (literally) and has a broken zipper, duct tapped floor, is way to small, and has always had mold stains all over it, I think it was about time.  After a lot of looking I found one that fit the required criteria such as; can be set up in <10minutes, has a divider(at least so James cant see whats going on on the other side of the tent.....I will convince him it was a bear), could be bought with Cabelas points and no cash out of pocket, no mold stains, and big enough for our family.

The rents were here this weekend and we had a great time.  Of course I was given the duties of breakfast, a duty my father normally had growing up.

James has the job of being adorable.

Brenda had to go to church to confess she loves me...and yes that is a sin.

Dad took care of James.

 

James's favorite pastime is playing with the pans.

Here is the latest family photo.

This is a bit out of order, but here is James on mothers day after we got home from church.  Notice the carnation for his mom.

We had a chance to go to the Cataldo Mission with my parents this weekend.  It is the oldest standing building in Idaho and was built in 1862.  Pretty cool place and a great day for a picnic.

After the picnic we went for a ride on the trail.  This is a 72 mile paved trail going from Plummer ID to Mullan.  A co-worker of mine recently has resigned and had the duties of oversight of the trail and now I guess it is my responsibility.  You may be thinking to yourself, why would an environmental company be in charge of a recreational trail.  Well years ago it used to be a railroad and they used mine tailing's and waste rock to build it, so essentially it is a trail of contamination.  Here is the part where I am thankful for the good old days since their neglect of the environment has provided me with employment and will continue to do so for a very long time.  I am not saying the contamination is good, but if someone has to clean up the world and make it a better place, it may as well be me.

I never get tired of this view out the back porch.  My parents also loved the view and drinking coffee out here in the morning.  We had a great time with them and I think this is 2 straight years we have gotten my mother on a bicycle after a 20 some year dry spell.  I somehow neglected to take pictures of it, but that could be because James way crying for about 7 miles of the bike trip and no one was really smiling at that point.

James is 1

So the big day was yesterday.  Yes it seems like it has been more than a year, but the little guy turned one yesterday and we took some time to have a summer outdoor party to celebrate James turning one.  He has really started to walk in the last week and regularly walk 8-10 steps and sometimes even farther to toys and people he wants to be near.  Of course the Birthday time is something Brenda really wanted to get into, but I put what I felt was an appropriate amount of water on that fire and kept the Birthday chaos to a minimum.  It is not like he is going to remember it anyway.

Thankfully we had a good friend Marcus there to take picture with his 18....yes 18megapixel camera.  When will the insanity end.

Of course kids have themed birthdays all the time and we decided to make it low key and want with western.  I had a list of chores to do for the party and the last thing on that list was to have a good ATTITUDE.  So here I am doing what I was told to do.  You may be thinking, Beer, at a 1yr olds party?  Well, that is just how we roll and I thought it would be fine to exercise my liberty.

Not sure if you notice, but we are on the back porch here and last week I worked like a dog everyday to build a pergola on the porch.  made the design from scratch and there was a lot of frustration along the way, but finally got it done and up.  I mumbled multiple times during the work that I will not quit my day job and become a carpenter.  Brenda was very supportive and helped out every time I asked her to hold this or give her opinion on how it should look.

Here is Noelle trying on Brenda's hat.  We have 1/2 a wine barrel with a pump/fountain on the porch with some fish in it that she was mesmerized with.  So much so that she actually fell into it later on in the day.  Maybe having 1/2 full tubs of water with kiddos around isn't such a good idea.  Thankfully no one drowned.

Decorating is my favorite part of throwing a party.....no...not really

Here is Noelle trying to get to the kickball game.

Cupcakes for desert and of course ice cream cups.

Here is a better view of the pergola.  Man was that a lot of work, but turned out well and I think we are going to be happy.  Brenda is happy it is done and I am happy I can return to working on my motorcycle.

James loving life.

Seriously, have you ever seen anything so cute.

Chris and Izumi with Noah.  I guess he is used to a wilder party life than a 1yr olds party.

Brenda and I with the kid.

Kickball was a lot of fun, even though a 3 yr old got pummeled in the head.  That was not the best part of the party, but it was inevitable when you start playing games and kids are running all over the place.

Finally I thought I would end with the birthday boy.  Both him and mom had a great time and that is always going to be my definition of a good day.

I guess morals and worldviews are all relative now.  When will Obama and the other idiots in government figure out that moral truths do not change and are the only constant over time?  They are supposed "scientific" and need the scientific laws to revert back to when managing the things of this Country, but when it comes to managing their own selves and thoughts they have demonstrated themselves to be relativistic, bumbling idiots swayed by every whim of self promotion and glorification.  Saying that you "gave it a lot of thought" does not make you conclusion any less wrong.  It merely proves the lengths as to which you have been infiltrated by the media and the lack of any character you posses.  I think there is old country song that says it best "you got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything, you got to be your own man not a puppet on a string, never compromise what's right and uphold you family name.  You got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything."

Soda Springs and Yellowstone

The theme for the month seems to be all about working out of town, so once again I was off to Soda Springs ID.  You may be asking yourself where is that???  Go 3 hours north of Salt Lake City and about 30 miles from the border with WY and there you go...smack dab in the middle of nowhere.  This town was an important town during the early settlement of America and is on the Oregon Trail, but nowadays it is a phosphate mining town.

This time I elected to drive instead of fly and got to bring the family with.  I was great to be able to see them at the end of the day and have dinner every night with them.  We stayed at the Enders Hotel and Museum...I guess that's a two for one.  The hotel is early 1900's and a historic icon for the area and probably most importantly, it is the only hotel in town that reviewers online did not say had bedbugs.  Of course with such an old building the rooms are very small, but we made due putting the pack and play half in the closet and covering the other half like you would a bird cage at night.

For some reason James loves phones and if he sees one he will moan and groan till he gets to hold it.  We will have to work on the whining since I usually loose my patience in about 3 seconds when there is whining involved.  My way or the highway is my parenting style.

Soda Springs was named  for the spring right out of town that has super pure water and it is carbonated.  They used to bottle it and send it all over the world.  Some people dink that high end carbonated water at restaurants for about $7/bottle....this was free and all you wanted.  Just add a little crystal light and it tasted great.  I never got how people can just drink plain carbonated water.

Another spring that was important to the settlers was Pioneer Spring.  I can never get enough crystal clear water flowing in a river.  This area was very scenic and a good place to spend a little time.

About 20 miles from the town is the town of Lava Hot Springs.  The hot springs are awesome there and range in temperature from the coolest being 103F and the hottest being 113F.  If you are ever in the area, I highly recommend stopping, James even had a good time.  I know kids are not supposed to get into hot tubs, but since the water was naturally hot, it can't be all bad right.

Another area of the hot springs.

The next day we headed out for home and on the way took a few days to check out Yellowstone.  We arrived on Saturday and it was sunny and warm...then it snowed 2" in 1hr....then sunny again.  Mountain weather at its best.

Bison in the field.  The baby bison are very fun to watch.  We saw one that could barely walk.

Here is Old faithful the day we arrived.  Brenda was changing James and missed the eruption, so we waited for another.

The colors in the geysers are amazing.

Then, before Old Faithful could erupt again, snow.

Tourists in the visitors center.  Notice the cowboy hat on backwards...Classic.

They could care less about the geyser, but loved to take pics of James....of course he was super cute so I understood.

The next day we checked out the other sites.

The family near the grand canyon of the Yellowstone.

Near the mud pots I notice a bison near the trail.  We were so interested in the mud pots we were about 10' from it before we noticed it.  Brenda did not appreciate it when I started grunting and making my bison noises.

Lots of steam out of the geysers when it is so cold outside.

Nice pool.

We had to go to Old Faithful again to see it erupt.  Always good to see.

He actually fell asleep after 1hr in the backpack.

Back at home it was time for some mothers day pictures.

We also went over to a friends house for dinner last night.  The weather was so nice and we actually got to eat outside.  James is a little clingy to Noelle, but she is so nice to him.

James is teething a bit and he loved to chew on this rock...it did not sound great when we heard his teeth grinding on rock, but he liked it so we let him do it.