A Gratitude Attitude

I really want to focus on what President Monson talked about in conference on Sunday. I am going to try to post something I am grateful for nearly every day. I was going to do it on facebook, but think that it might get annoying to my facebook friends if I do it there. This way, if anyone is interested they can read it here. If not, I can look back and read what I have shared.

God has blessed me so much, it shouldn't be hard to find many things to share.

A Special Day

Today when I was at work I looked up and two of the cutest little girls in the world had come to visit me. It made my morning. We went to lunch and then I invited Harlee to come home with me. What a fun afternoon we had. She wanted to color, and I can't believe what a good little artist she has become. She is also learning to write her letters and knows many of their sounds. She was even able to sound out a few words with a little help.

She is growing up way too fast, but I think I love the age of 3. The kids are old enough at that stage to play on their own a bit. It's really fun to see them all develop. I loved spending time with Harlee today. Can't wait until my next "Special Day".

It's the little things.....

When it comes to being a grandma, it's watching the little things that bring so much joy....

Like

Watching Jade enjoy his birthday presents.



Or seeing his birthday candle blowing technique.



Having Harlee show me what she learned in dancing lessons.



Or just seeing the sparkle in Jaycie's eyes....and watching her newly developed spunkiness (is that a word?).



Now, what can I say about the Vest boys.....They always make me laugh. It's so different from the life I had as a mom with four girls. When I saw these photos, I thought of the three monkeys.....hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil.




How I love these little ones. Each is so unique and precious to me. Thank you, girls, for giving me this wonderful gift.

I love Saturdays....

Greg and I try to do something fun almost every Saturday. Once in a while we decide that doing things at home have to be the priority, but after spending so much of our life working around the house, we've decided that having fun together is more important that a perfectly clean house and manicured yard.

Yesterday we went to Big Elk Creek up by Palisades lake. Here are some of the reasons why I enjoyed my day so much.

We got to see the most amazing view of Conant Valley. The entire valley was full of fog except for this one little part right as you go down the hill.



The fog was lifting off of Palisades lake and it was quite spectacular.



Ziggy is fun to take....he loves the water.



We saw the first snowfall of the season...(not so sure that was a good thing).



The scenery was fantastic.






We got to eat lunch by the Creek....just imagine listening to the water as you eat.



And the four best things are....

It was fun being together.....the leaves are starting to change, which is beautiful....we got some exercise.....and where else can you see hiking goats!!

A Blast from the Past

Years ago, when my girls were little I was the canning queen. Every summer and fall I canned hundreds of jars of applesauce, beans, tomatoes, peaches, pears, grape juice, spaghetti sauce, and pie filling. I think I even once canned potatoes, carrots, and tomatoes together for a soup base.

Then things changed.....I started doing my crafting business and was busy making Christmas items from summer till December. There was just no time for canning.

Then things changed even more.....all my kids grew up.

Well this year our apple trees were loaded. The past few years we have just tried to give the apples away and threw away all the rest that fell off the tree. This year I decided to not be so wasteful. Actually, Heather wanted to make some applesauce and I decided to make a batch myself to practice.

Our Yellow Transparent tree has lots of beautiful, sour apples, with no worms (we had them sprayed this year).



The birds are getting a lot of them, so I knew it was time to start picking. After washing all the apples, it was time to boil them.



The fun (but messy) part is using the Victorio Strainer. It hadn't been out of it's box for around 20 years or so.



Into the jars and out to the Camp Chef in the garage for the hot water bath... This is different from the "old days" when I did it on my stove indoors. It is kind of a pain transporting the jars to and from the house, but it keeps the house so much cooler and cleaner to do it outside.




Finally, the job is finished. It was fun, free (since I had all the supplies), and tastes yummy. I enjoyed doing it so much I decided to purchase some more jars so I could make another batch. Too bad I gave away most of my jars years ago.

I forgot how rewarding canning is. You really get a sense of accomplishment from it!!

Summer

It seems that when you live in Idaho, you live for the summer and fall. The weather in the spring is sometimes nice, but more often than not is disappointing. The problem with summer is that we try to cram so many activities into the few nice weeks. All winter we talk about what we want to do the next summer.

Of course, this year, the Alaska trip was the biggest event we were planning for. But we also had a lot of local hiking that we wanted to do.

For a long time, we've talked about hiking back up to the Bench Lakes near Redfish Lake. But, it never seemed like we were able to make the time to go there and do it. This summer part of the family went to Redfish earlier than we are going, and we wanted to see them, so we went over this weekend. Thankfully Angie let us put our tent in her camping spot. It was fun to visit with family and take the beautiful hike.

Greg and I have so much fun together on these outings. I'm not a very fast hiker, and he is very patient. So, it makes for a nice combination. We both love solitude and beautiful scenery. It's something we've really enjoyed since becoming empty nesters....(well most of the year empty nesters).



It doesn't hurt when you have destinations like these.

Looking down on the beach area of Redfish Lake



The view from the trail


The two lakes we visited

A Most Unusual Store

Yesterday Greg and I were in Jackson Hole, Wyoming and stopped at the Haagen Dazs shop for an ice cream cone. It was kind of chilly so we sat on the window ledge of a store next door that had the sun shining on the front of the building.



Greg finished his ice cream and stood up to look in the window of the store that we were sitting in front of. He told me to look. It was a tyrannosaurus skull. On the card next to the skull it said, "Yes, it is real". So we stepped inside the store.





I saw a beautiful purple geode. I said, "Greg, come look at this, it costs $10,000."



Then I saw a neat stone that was full of ancient turtle fossils.



I was shocked to see that the price tag said $97,000.



Then we saw another geode that was very cool, but I can't remember how much it cost.....I'm sure it was a lot.



By it was a fossil of a fish from the Jurassic Period that cost $130,000.



By this time I was getting really amazed at the value of these items.

Around the corner was a beautifully presented flower fossil.



I'll let you see the price tag of it for yourself.



Well when we left the store we decided to see the price of the dinosaur skull. It wasn't easily visible when we first saw it.

It was a shocking $375,000. Don't think I will be making any purchases in that store soon. But the items sure were fun to look at.