Back to August Again

I have to finish the photos for August before I can move on to our trip to Washington!! After Lyndsie and David left we decided to take a "little" hike. The boys had just been to the Wind Caves and said its not a bad hike. So, we geared up and off we went. Well, we had to drive over thirty minutes down a dirt road, with Josh driving, this should have been my first clue this would not be a couple hour hike!! It was very pretty in this little valley but I kept asking,"How much farther?" The answer was always we're about half way there. After the third time hearing this I decided maybe we shouldn't go all the way to the caves. I was vetoed! We made it, the views were amazing but it was more hike than I intended. Jason apparently had time to take pictures of flowers, I don't know if I even saw flowers, I was just trying to breathe and keep up!! On the way back Steven fell down the rocky hillside and cut up his legs.He did manage to keep his Red Bull can upright!! It was very steep in some places as you can see from the photos, which I got from Jason and Karla's camera as I didn't have mine with me. They took some great shots.

Basement Update

I am way behind in blogging but mostly it is due to our basement. We are actually making progress, sometimes it just seems very slow!! However, today I have photos for you of some completed rooms. Well, not actually completed as in you could live in them right now. The sheet rock is all up, and this is a major feat for us! The bathroom was the most time consuming as there were a lot of things to cut around. We had to put up durarock to attach our tiles to, that was not fun to work with. We have both the boys' rooms done, closets and all. The girls' will be next but we are waiting on our electrician to fix a small problem before we can complete all of it. Tiling the bathroom floor will be our next project as that must be done before the cabinets and the fixtures can be installed!! The photos are a little dark, that just means that things are closed in, yessss! Thanks to all of you out there who had a part in getting us to this point! We couldn't have done it with out you, OK, we could have but we would have a lot farther to go and it wouldn't have been as much fun!!

String Lake

On Sunday we went to church, made pizza and mostly hung out. Monday we packed a lunch and headed to String Lake with the Brunk's canoes. The day was gorgeous, the scenery majestic and the canoes were a blast! String Lake is a fairly shallow lake so the water is warmer than most of the mountain lakes. Still too cold for me to want to swim. The lake is situated right at the base of the Tetons in Teton National Park. The views don't get much better!! The little kids found very small fish in the shallows and kept busy catching them. We had several canoe races, I think I won! Helps to know which canoe is the fastest!! OK, I won with the help of my boys, we make a great team! We left right before a storm blew in!
I had to use Jason and Karla's photos for this blog as my camera had no batteries that day! Wonder where they were? Maybe in the gaming system remotes!!

Back to August

Let's see where to start? We celebrated Aunt Bonnie's birthday on August 16th and from then on it was non-stop action. Lorissa and Vince arrived on Monday night, Lyndsie and her boyfriend David arrived on Tuesday and Jason and Karla joined the fun on Friday! So, we did go huckleberry picking on Thursday, but no pictures. Sorry Abby! We managed to get a bag full with all of us hunting, sort of the end of the season. Ruth was RUNNING up the path and tripped over a stick, reminiscent of the Family Reunion. This time it was just her leg that got injured not her eye!! We made some good huckleberry muffins!!

Saturday we headed out with the older kids to Yellowstone Park, with breakfast at the Teepees in Moose! It was a little cold but the view and the company were incredible!! After that it was off to see Old Faithful. We were up close with a buffalo, ate lunch at the lodge and took a tour of the lodge, lunch and the tour were a first for us! Both worth it!!
We did lots of walking,took lots of photos, saw lots of animals and had lots of fun!! You can see for yourself with the photos!!

Josh Got a Car

One more newz flash for you, Josh got a car!! It does have a few dents in one side, the hood must be tied down and the power steering doesn't work. But hey what do you want for NOTHING!! It actually runs very well and from the left side it looks great!! Our good friends Jake and Christin, who are moving to Australia bestowed this gift on him and for this we are very thankful!

Drew Lost a Tooth

A little newz flash!! Drew lost his first tooth!! Check out the cute smile now!

What a Summer

Abby and Sue you were right I haven't been blogging enough. My last post was July 10th and I almost couldn't remember my password it has been so long!!
We just said goodbye to Lorissa and Vince the last of our summer visitors. If anyone else decides to come it will definatly be fall weather here!I believe summer is over even though it is only the beginning of September, we've already had our first snow (last Monday!), and Steve had to scrape the ice from Lorissa and Vince's car this morning. I've already put the last of the guest sheets and towels in the wash, made Drew's bed (the guest bed),and moved all his belongings from our room which is where he has been sleeping for the last three weeks. And its not even 8 o'clock in the morning!! What will I do for the rest of the day? I am really going to miss our activities director, Vince! He always had some plan for the day!!
I am not going to attempt to put everything that we did this summer into this blog or you will never get to read it! So, for today I will just start out with an update on Lorissa and Vince, the rest you will get in subsequent blogs. So you can start checking it again!
The Medranos have decided to move to Olympia, Washington. They were sort of inbetween jobs and lacking a home when they arrived here on August 18th but God is good and by the time they left Vince had accepted a position with a non-profit organization that works right in the downtown area of Olympia helping troubled teens. I'm excited to see how God is going to use Vince's talents for this position. Lorissa decided not to take the job offered at the foursquare church there as the position was not what she was looking for. She will look for work when they get there hopefully sometime next week. I don't imagine she will have any trouble, after all who wouldn't want Lorissa? While they were here they looked online (too bad we didn't have that in our days of moving!) to find an apartment. They had already been to Olympia in August and checked out some of the areas so they knew where to look. They sent in an application and a deposit so they should be hearing from them today on the drive back to LA if they got it or not. They will spend a few days in LA saying goodbye to family and friends and next week pack up a moving truck and head off on a new adventure. Vince didn't know what he was getting into when he married into the Quisenberry family as that seems to be the story of our life!! Vince I know how you feel, I lived in the same house for 19 years until I married Steve!! Pray for them they have a lot of changes ahead but also a very exciting time.