floating the river

On Saturday we floated the Boise river with some friends. I hope they don't mind my sharing this story. Not too far into our float, after we had all six children somewhat settled by shoving licorice in their faces we started approaching a woman, fully dressed in street clothes, standing in the middle of the river holding on to her tube. Our logistics were thus: Richard and I with our two boys in one raft, our friend with three of her children in another raft, and her husband and their little boy on a large tube. For much of the river we kept our rafts together by holding on to the ropes that run around the top of the rafts. Since the woman was right in the current we couldn't avoid her and sort of bumped our way past.

Some time went by and I was distracted by various river diversions but then I noticed that the woman was back on her tube floating along with our little group. Upon closer investigation I noticed that she was holding on to the rope of Jason's tube. Really awkward. Just floating along with us, without saying a word. I looked at Tricia and whispered "What's up with her? Why is she holding on to his tube?"

I mean, I'm not trying to be a river snob here, it was just a little odd. A complete stranger joining our party with a tight grip on my friend's husband's tube.

"He's hot." Tricia said matter-of-factly.

After awhile Jason started small talk and eventually I think he asked her name. Turns out she had been separted from her own group, and I guess we looked like pleasant company. Further down the river she spotted her family on the shore and Jason gave her tube a good shove toward the river's edge. Farewell river companion.

We had a great time, and the kids [mostly] loved it. I wish I had pictures but we were too worried about dropping the camera overboard.

can't keep this girl down

Really, she is our most active baby so far. She was quite proud of this feat, as you can tell by the look on her face. I guess we'll be lowering the mattress before she topples out.

seven months, and then some

This is a belated seven month post. It's been a big month for Little Missy, she's crawling and has two new teeth. The best news of all? She's consistantly sleeping 12 [uninterrupted] hours at night. If only Eli didn't have to go potty in the night and if Cameron didn't have bad dreams we might all be able to sleep through the night uninterrupted.

She's still sucking her thumb but usually it is just when she is tired and/or falling asleep.

no Z in Boise

This is Jewel at a performance in Boise, forever endearing herself into the hearts of the locals.

Don't we all love this?

I suppose most of you have read this on Facebook. That's where I discovered it. But it delighted me. Enjoy, and keep your snit to yourself.

singing of you, singing of Idaho

Richard had a couple days off work so we headed for the hills. We camped at Bull Trout Lake, near Stanley and the majestic Sawtooth Mountain Range.

I wondered about the wisdom of taking a seven-month-old camping, but she was a trooper. Aside from eating a little sand she caused us no trouble.

The only misfortune of the weekend were the mosquitos. Despite frequent and liberal applications of mosquito repellant the bite-count came out as follows.

Mira: 0 (As far as we could tell.)

Richard: 2 (How?!)

Cameron: 12 (Not bad...)

Jo: 22 (They have always loved me.)

Eli: 1,472 (Too apathetic to swat them away.)

Eli and I just have that tasty blood I suppose. Most of his bites were on the first day so thereafter I was a little bit more strict about wearing a hat and covering as much skin as possible without inducing heat stroke.

10 events worth blog-umenting (er... documenting)

1. 28 June 2010- Richard and I celebrated seven years of marriage. I am certainly hoping that neither of us experiences any type of itching in the next 12 months. Although I read that these days the "seven year itch" might be more accurately called the "second year itch" since marriages are not lasting as long as they used to. In which case, we have long since been in the clear.

2. In anticipation of the return of my brother from overseas, my two other brothers came to Boise. (Great was their disappointment when said brother missed a couple flights and was marooned in Dallas overnight.) But we took advantage of their presence for a day. We had a picnic in the park and played a little wiffle ball.

3. 29 June 2010- My youngest brother Evan returned from his two year mission in Greece and Cyprus. Naturally, being in the Generation Y, it was only a matter of minutes before he had cell phone in hand, fresh off the plane. He told me later that he felt handicapped without a cell phone. It goes without saying that the youngest of six children is likely to endure a great deal of teasing. (I guess it doesn't go without saying, because I just said it.)

4. 30 June 2010- My older brother had to return to Seattle before Evan's return, and Darren returned to Twin Falls shortly after. But the house was not quiet for long, the next day my two sisters arrived from Henderson, Nevada thus reuniting all six grandchildren. (Virtually impossible to have them all look at the camera at the same time.)

5. 4 July 2010- Adri & Lori's husbands arrived on Independence Day. Some brave family members ventured downtown to watch a firework display.

6. 5 July 2010- Bryan returned to Boise from Seattle, along with Brit. We were all thrilled to see that Brit has a "baby loading". We now all refer to Bryan and Brittany's future baby as "Tie-breaker" because he/she will disrupt the balance of 3 grand-sons and 3 grand-daughters. What's it gonna be?!?!

7. 6 July 2010- Our family of 21 departed for a few days of quality bonding time at a cabin in Garden Valley. (Getting all 21 of us in a picture just "wasn't in the cards" as Adri would say.)
8. A particularly comical moment at the cabin. We forgot to bring a cable to connect our computer to the t.v. so Evan could show us pictures from his mission. So we all pulled out our own laptops and watched them via a Picasa album as Evan narrated through the photos. Technology is amazing. Interestingly there were six computers and five of them were Toshibas. We had a hard time keeping track of whose was whose as they were dispersed around the cabin for World Cup updates, access to recipes and occasionaly members of Generation Y checking blogs or Facebook.

9. Other highlights included a ping-pong (or "pink-ball" as Eli called it) tournament put together by Richard, with a bracket and everything. The women did not fare well in that tourny so Bryan put together a Ladies Bracket. It was a sweep by the Stevens with Sean winning the original tournament and Lori pulling off an upset in the Ladies Bracket.

In an effort to harness some of the energy exhibited by the three little boys Lori came up with the "Bubbly Boy Boot Camp" which included a lot of marching and some fun games coordinated by Adri. Even the adults got in on the action.

Other activities included air hockey, biking, swimming, puzzle-ing, napping, reading, playing games, discussing, a whole lot of taking care of kids, campfire, and of course eating. The food was delicious because as Richard put it, everyone brings their "A" game when it comes to meal preparation.

10. 10 July 2010- We returned to Boise, exhausted. That night we had a BBQ birthday party for little Thea who will be turning one year old in a few days.

Of course I have a hundred more pictures and stories, but this post has taken me nearly two hours to assemble. For those (besides my family) who took the time to read it I apologize if you want the last couple minutes of your life back. I love my family and getting us all together is no small feat in consideration of distance, jobs, transportation and school. The last couple weeks have been chaotic but sublime.

been awhile

Wow. I left my deepest thoughts of late front and center on my blog for a l.o.n.g. time and I only got one comment?  Come on deep thinkers!

We've been busy around here.  L.O.T.S. to post about tomorrow. 

Don't you l.o.v.e. it when people employ improper use of punctuation for added emphasis?