Water Park!!

We had an opportunity to go to the water park for FREE!! The water park held a private event for the employees at Dusty's work. The kids had a blast and it was really nice that it wasn't packed full of people. Only got a few photos before my camera battery died.

Austin is being such a good big brother, he's taking Alanah down the slide.

Dusty & Noah
Noah
Josiah LOVED this slide.
Alanah isn't sure she likes the water park.

My STUD husband

Dusty had an opportunity to compete in a wrestling competition on Sunday morning. Many of you know that he wrestled in high school and college but it's been pretty limited since. We've been a little busy with the five kids and all, you know.

So, on Sunday he wrestled twice with two different guys in the 198 weight class. He was awarded the SILVER metal. 2nd Place!! Not bad for a guy that doesn't get to train much. WAY TO GO DUSTY!!
The other competitors came from all different areas and had very impressive backgrounds. Most of them still actively training on a weekly basis. These are serious dudes!

Another Step in Our Journey

WARNING: *The following might contain images not suitable for young children.*


As you know we are raising our own chickens. We have been actively involved with the entire process from beginning to end. "End" only because we lost many of our first batch of chickens to a predator. All circles of life contain an "end" and in order to take another step in sustainability we needed to learn how to slaughter, de-feather and preserve the chickens for future use. Lucky for us we have some great like-minded friends to learn along side each other. As weird as it sounds we had our own chicken slaughtering party on Sunday afternoon. The kids all watched the process right up until the blood started flowing, they lasted about 3 minutes after that...in the words of Noah "I'm not going to eat chicken like that!"


So, you gotta catch the chicken first. Jon did that, the next step is to put the chicken head first into the "slaughtering cone"
Assuming you've made it safely pass the protesters!
Now the slaughtering cone...yeah, it's head is getting cut off right now. yuck!
Next the bird goes into scalding hot water as shown above...
Next is the defeathering and cutting off of the legs, cleaning out the insides etc. All in all the process wasn't to bad to watch, I thought it would have been more gross. It was a GREAT learning experience. Dusty, Jon, Jerry & Tyler did four chickens total on Sunday. WAY TO GO GUYS!!!

Storyofstuff.com

Leia here, generally speaking, I don't watch videos online. I know, I'm a freak, weirdo, whatever you want to call me, but that's my reality. So, last night my brother in law sent me a video, normally I would push "Delete" but it was a personal message to me and he said that he thought I would find it interesting, so out of courtesy, I watched the video.

In all honesty, I thought, well at least I can tell him I watch it, but in the "buffering" moments before the video started I was thinking, this is such a waste of time, sorry Jed. :) Then, just before the video starts I see that the video time is 20 minutes, immediately, I'm thinking, you've got to be kidding me! A 20 minute video, umm, I don't think so...I'm wishing that I didn't feel compelled to be courteous, it's like 6:35am and the kids are going to come walking in any minute and I'm not going to be able to finish this video. Whatever I'm watching will be drowned out by loud questions of what's for breakfast. Well, the kids didn't come it, which is very rare, and I got to finish the video.
All this to tell you that the video was worth all 20 minutes! Here's the website. Check it out!! You want to see the movie, not the teaser videos.

2nd Annual Backpacking Trip

Just northwest of Imogene Lake is the upper reaches of the spectacular Hell Roaring Valley and contains one of the larger backcountry lakes in the range. Imogene Lake sits just south of the Finger of Fate, one of the top rock climbing towers in the Sawtooths.

Just northwest of Imogene Lake lies The Arrowhead, one of the Sawtooths most challenging trad climbs. Mt. Cramer sits just to the south of The Arrowhead and is clearly visible from the summit of Imogene. The north side of Cramer contains one of the best kept secrets: the longest rock route in the range at ~ 20 pitches of solid rock. The long approach and other nearby attractive climbs have kept this under wraps for years.

Dusty and two guy friends along with 5 boys headed up for a 3 day backpacking experience, here are some of the pictures!

Noah finds an easier way to make the hike.
All these boys being silly for the camera.
Mr. Noah
The Blanks
The Davis'

The whole backpacking crew! Davis', Blanks & Isaksons
Stopping for a break...the hike is 10 MILES each way!!

Dusty & the boys
The packs aren't light. Dusty's backpack weighed in at a whooping 75 lbs. and Austin's at a staggering 26 lbs!!

Life on the farm

We've been waiting for Dusty, Austin & Noah to return from a weekend of backpacking. Life on the farm is a little harder without all the help! I mowed the lawn this weekend, well I should say I mowed half of the lawn this weekend, a sudden allergic reaction kicked in and my mowing was brought to a sudden halt! You should have seen how cute I was, really sexy...sweaty, red, itchy, and starting to swell in the eyes. CUTE huh?? Just Keepin' it real! (In the words of the Pioneer Woman)
We have a HUGE lawn, 18,000 sq.ft. to be exact, no that's not a typo. It takes about 2 hours a week to mow.

Josiah has been by my side all weekend helping me feed the chickens, collect the eggs, make the bottles for the calf, feed the calf AKA Tri-Tip, bring in the trash cans (which is NOT close to the house), harvest food from the garden & take care of his sisters!

Siah very fond of Kaianah, he tells me daily how much he loves her. "Mom, I'm always going to love her and protect her, she's just so cute, and I'm going to miss her when she get's married."
Those are Siah exact words.

We brought some eggs to the neighbor today...this is what he brought us!! Here's a picture.


BELL PEPPERS!!
And LOTS of them...Josiah and I had fun making a circle with them. We are working on shapes in school, so it was a perfect learning experience.

Josiah and I decided to make some cookies as a surprise for the boys when they return, while we are waiting for the cookies to bake we decided to watch Ratatouille, a movie by Disney. How appropriate, since it's a movie about cooking! :)
Then we got silly with the camera...
Kiss face
Here's the cookies we made, yummy!

More?

Josiah and I have been neglecting our garden this week, we finally got out today and harvested some food. We could have been the poster children for the "Got Weeds" commercial! yikes!! Here's what we found...

Tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, jalapenos, serrano's & green beans OH MY
We started with the basket in the first picture and by the end...
we had to break out the wagon!

Birthday Time

We celebrated my Aunt "Bab's" birthday on Saturday at my mom's house. It was just a small family party but it was great to get together. We had yummy food & some good laughs, it was a very nice day. Dusty, Austin & Noah were backpacking for the weekend so that's why you don't see them in any of the pictures.

All is calm and then...
ATTACK!!
Gucci-gucci goo...Kaianah seems to have this effect on people.

My Uncle Rob & my Mom
Alanah is trying to assist Babs in opening her presents, such a helper! :)
Mr. Siah throws a smile for the paparazzi.
Cute picture of Uncle Mike & Aunt Babs holding Alanah.
No, it's not Alanah's birthday but it does look that way...

All sister in laws together.
The guys couldn't stand it anymore! The "back 20" were calling all 4x4's...
Uncle Rob's Bronco!! That's how we roll...
Grandpa, Grandma & Aunt Babs in the background.
Present Time!

Give Me Your Eyes

To sum it up...three words;

My Favorite Song

If you know me, my attention span for songs changes like the weather in Idaho. So, this is my favorite song for the last 2 weeks now.

Here's the words....and it's the song you are listening to right now.

Give Me Your Eyes

Looked down from a broken sky

Traced out by the city lights

My world from a mile high

Best seat in the house tonight

Touched down on the cold black tile

Hold on for the sudden stop

Breath in the familiar shock

Of confusion and chaos

Are those people going somewhere?

Why have I never cared?

Chorus:

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the once forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

yeah .. yeah .. yeah .. yeah

Step out on a busy street

See a girl and our eyes meet

Does her best to smile at me

To hide whats underneath

There’s a man just to her right

Black suit and a bright red tie

To ashamed to tell his wife

He’s out of work

He’s buying time

Are those people going somewhere?

Why have I never cared?

Chorus:

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the once forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

yeah .. yeah .. yeah .. yeah

I’ve been there a million times

A couple of million eyes

Just moving past me by

I swear I never thought that I was wrong

Well I want a second glance

So give me a second chance

To see the way you see the people all alone

Chorus:

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the once forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

yeah .. yeah .. yeah .. yeah

Give me your eyes for just one second

Give me your eyes so I can see

Everything that I keep missing

Give me your love for humanity

Give me your arms for the broken hearted

The ones that are far beyond my reach

Give me your heart for the once forgotten

Give me your eyes so I can see

yeah .. yeah .. yeah .. yeah