Highlights from this year

In looking back at this year, I realize that a lot of cool things have happened... none of which have appeared on my blog. How does time go by so quickly? I have put a lot of pictures on Facebook, so if you'd like more pictures, you can check out the links at the end of the post. Otherwise, I will give a very short synopsis of fun things our family has done.

Birthdays

Yes, part of the reason I have a blog is just so I can show what birthday cakes I decorate each year. I put a lot of work into those cakes! But this year there was an exception: Jimmy just wanted peach cobbler for his birthday. No decorating required... and the picture I took didn't look great, either, so I won't put it here. But here are a couple of other cakes:

Sam loves llamas... no one knows why. But I made him a llama cake anyway. 

He looks pretty happy about that llama! He turned 13 this year.

Abby loves My Little Pony. This cake shows a scene with a pony in a hot air balloon and a pony near a barn.

Abby turned 10 this year! My little girl is getting so grown up!

Jim loves to eat... and especially loves to eat rolls. So I got him two dozen of these huge rolls for his birthday. He ate one dozen all on his own. He is 15 this year. 

 Augie hasn't had his birthday yet... it's coming up in November. He will be baptized Nov. 30 so we are excited for that! It's a big milestone for him. 

Fun Stuff

In February Abby went on a special Daddy-Daughter Date at our local Chick-fil-a restaurant. She got all dressed up and they went and ate chicken, then they got to ride in a limo! It was a very cool event. Here are some pictures. 

Ready for her big night.

Daddy Daughter date night... all ready to go!

A fancy stretch Hummer limo... pretty cool!

Abby exits the limo. She was given a rose this evening as well. 

This was the year Sam turned into a thespian. He loves acting and he was in three plays this year: The Princess Bride (a reader's theater), Twelfth Night (performed by his 7th grade class), and Alice in Wonderland (a production of Idaho Falls Youth Arts Centre). 

In The Princess Bride, Sam had a narrator's role. He had to memorize nearly all the play and know when actors came in and out. He did a great job, and enjoyed working with Doyle Jenkins as the director and with the small cast. It was a fun night to watch. 

Westly and Princess Buttercup are in front, and Sam is in back as the narrator. He also played the part of the Archdean. You know, "Mawwiage. Mawwiage is what bwings us together today."

Sam got the role of Malvolio in Twelfth Night. If you're familiar with Shakespeare, this is a comedy play and Sam's role was pretty comedic. He's an uptight butler/servant who gets tricked into thinking his Lady is in love with him, and he shows up in crazy yellow socks and acts outside his rank, then gets put in prison. He was a good sport and loved the role he played. 

Malvolio speaks with Feste the fool and Olivia, his lady.

Malvolio reads a letter conveniently dropped in his path, making him think his lady is interested in raising him from his station and desires to love him.

And now he's  in jail. See the yellow stockings?

The cast gathers at the end of the play. The class painted their own set.

Sam was pleased to get a scholarship to participate in Alice in Wonderland. His try outs were in May, and the play was performed in a two-week crash course Summer Theater Camp in July. He was selected to play Cheshire Cat #1, which is a narrator-like role. But the play is a musical, too, so singing and dancing were a key part of his role. He learned about 15 different songs or reprises and was on stage the whole time. He had two counterpart Cats who also narrated. He was chosen for this role because of his great ability to memorize. He was so worn out at the end of two weeks! But the play was amazing, colorful, fun and well put together. We had a great time watching it.

Sam is the Cheshire cat's head, the girl in pink is the body, and the girl in yellow is the tail. 

One of the singing and dancing numbers, "Caucus Race."

The cat narrated and so had a bench to sit up on stage during the play. They did a great job!

School Highlights

The kids really enjoy going to Taylor's Crossing Charter School. They have some fun opportunities there. Here are a few of the things they did.

Abby did an "Idaho Hero" report on Beaver Dick. She dressed as his wife, Jenny, a Shoshone Indian. She wrote a book about his life and made a diorama, then read the book and explained facts about his life to an audience.

Sam was selected as Citizen of the Month in March. Here his 7th grade teacher and the principal congratulate him. It was a great honor for him and showed a lot of progress through the year. 

Jim performed his final dance routine at the end of the year. They aren't offering a dance class this year, so I'm glad he took the opportunity to learn dance while he could. He did a great job memorizing dance steps and working with the girls. This routine was called "Hit the Road Jack," and their dance class won an award at a local competition for Most Creative Routine. (Jim is, of course, the tall gangly one on the right.)

This is the first day of school for 2013-2014. Jim is in 10th grade, Sam in 8th, Abby in 5th, and Augie in second grade. 

Random Pictures

We saw a lot of the Johnson side of the family this year, between my dad's 75th birthday celebration in April, a family reunion in June and another reunion in August. Here is what the kids did after the birthday celebration for Grandpa. They convinced him to take them for a ride on the "mule." I think there were 7 people on the ride!

 Sam is holding Jace and they went for a ride with Grandpa.

 Augie is eating his favorite ice cream flavor, Playdough. :)

Here is Augie at the Museum of Idaho. They had a merry-go-round exhibit and he is on this special elephant seat from a classic carousel ride, almost 100 years old. 

This is a quick picture of Jimmy's Eagle Scout project. He coordinated a team of volunteers to come and shovel and wheelbarrow 4 semi truck loads of bark into the new swing set play area at the school. It was a lot of work! It was hot and tiring but he showed great skill and had wonderful volunteers.

And this is just a hilarious picture... Abby love mustaches! And rabbits! And she dressed up as... uh... something! She's a character.

For more pictures, here are some links to Facebook:
Summer fun: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201725345876058.1073741828.1252916618&type=1&l=ed613abe24

Anniversary trip: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201518447263722.1073741827.1252916618&type=1&l=17f9c944fc

Spring: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10201518212657857.1073741825.1252916618&type=1&l=ec409cc9c3

Thanksgiving and the Big Barn Adventure

For Thanksgiving this year, we did what we always do... eat at home and make our own turkey with all the trimmings. It is wonderful to eat on your own time schedule and to lay down in your own bed afterward and take a nap! James and I went to check out some Thanksgiving night sales, but the crowds were insane and we spent a whole total of $11.

Happy and full of Thanksgiving dinner!

We tried a new dish this year--stained glass jello. It tasted better than it looked. 

But, the day after Thanksgiving we did something out of the ordinary--we went to my sister's house in Utah for another Thanksgiving dinner! Marian and Vern had just bought and moved to a new home and it was big enough to accommodate us all. It was a nice chance to see all the family. James couldn't go because it was black Friday and a big sales day for him at the shop, but the rest of the family drove down to Lewiston, Utah. (We almost didn't get out of town... our battery was dead when we went to leave, so we had to have a neighbor give us a jump. Thankfully we then were driving for two straight hours so the battery charged up and never gave us problems for the rest of the weekend... just the next week when we had to buy a new one.)

Look at all the cousins! From left: Janessa, Afton, Zach, Abby, Sophie, Taylor, Thomas, Sam. On couch: Bridger, Jonny, Carter, Josh. Behind couch: Jim and Augie. Not pictured: Jace.  So all but 2 (Jim and Sam) are age 9 or under, with 3 babies. 

The next day we all recongregated back at Marian's for breakfast. Afterwards all the kids were itching to get outside--it was chilly but not super cold, so I decided to walk with them across a couple of empty crop fields to a big, wooden barn.

The little tree is in Marian's back yard... in the background is the barn, the destination for adventure. 

To the west is the old abandoned sugar beet factory... maybe an adventure for another time. 

 I started out walking, and Sam joined me. Then Abby and Taylor wanted to come. Then Jim came along, then Augie, Bridger, Carter, and Johnny, and finally Zacky joined in, too. So I was like the pied piper leading all the children away. :) After about 10 steps I realized that we all should have had chore boots--the mud was thick and clingy and we had an extra 5 pounds of sludge clinging to each foot.

After crossing one field, we stopped and looked at the neighbor's alpacas, chickens, goats and rabbits.

Sam loves Llamas, so he was happy to meet their cousins the alpacas. 

Then we went on to the barn. I loved the gray, weathered wood, the sloping roof, the old silo and the broken-out windows. Behind the barn a couple of horses were pastured, and the kids wanted to pet and feed them. We also wandered along a drainage ditch/creek where a lot of cattails were growing.

Our adventure team!

I love the aged wood and the sagging roof... this barn has so much character.

Playing with cattails. 

A shower of fluff!

Visiting the horses. 

After our trip to the barn I spent a good hour scrubbing shoes... Marian's utility sink saw its fair share of mud! We all went home with semi-clean but wet shoes. It was a short trip but one full of memories.

I just like this picture of Ninja Augie, so I had to put it on. :)

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Augie's 7th Birthday

I am months of blog posts behind... and the only time I remember to update is on birthdays. So because today is Augie's birthday, I will do his birthday first and all the missing updates later. :)

Augie turned seven today... my baby! Seven years old! It's crazy how time goes so fast.

This is my happy birthday boy!

His favorite video game is Skylanders, and the new game, Skylanders Giants, came out just a few weeks ago. He probably knew he was getting it for his birthday, but it was fun to make him wait and anticipate for weeks to actually get and enjoy the game.

We made his cake to look like a Skyland (floating islands) and the portal that "brings to life" the characters in the game. I placed the cake on an overturned cake package to make it look like it was floating. Abby helped me with the frosting. We placed one of his new figures on the top of the cake. It was a fun cake, and pretty simple and stress-free, too.

The finished cake.

Abby wrote "Skylanders" in frosting on a graham cracker.

He had a lot of fun gifts. Abby made a rubber band gun from a stick and clothespin. :)

Legos from Grammy... Always fun!

And the grand prize... the new Skylanders Giants game!

He loves Easy Cheese so I got him his own bottle. 

A Skylanders sack-pack filled with goodies

A super hero Lego from Grammy. He also got a cup, a watch, and a card, and some erasers. 

He said, "I tried to smile my biggest," for these pictures. He is bubbly and happy today and it's a pleasure to celebrate this special day with him!

Jackson Hole Trip

This summer we took a day trip to... 

Jackson Hole, Wyoming!

Our trip was an early celebration of Grammy McCartney's birthday, which is at the end of August, but we would all be in school by then, so we went on Aug. 13th. We drove up to Jackson and went directly to Jackson Hole ski resort. We had tickets to ride the tram to the top of the mountain. 

This is what the tram looks like. It's big enough to hold about 50 people standing. It crosses five cable support towers as it climbs from 6,000 feet to over 10,000 feet.

The family waiting to get on the tram.

The tram arrives...

we hop in and ascend the mountain... tower 3 is ahead.

Abby was having a panic attack because she was afraid of the height of the tram. As it swung and bumped over each tower she would put forth fresh tears. She only opened her eyes for about 30 seconds of the 10 minute ride.

and this is the view from the top!

It was very hazy/smoky, because of all the wildfires that have been burning in central Idaho. The air quality was not great, but the view from this 10,000 ft. mountain was awesome!

Jim and Sam at the top.

Abby and Augie sat down to get out of the wind and to make sure they went nowhere near the edge!

At the top of the mountain they have a waffle hut... we ate a waffle!

The next mountain peak over... the Tetons are behind this peak, but you couldn't see them for all the haze.

See that?! says Dad.

Sitting on the tram on the way back down. Abby was calmer on the ride down. 

The Jackson Hole resort looks like it's own little town as you look down from the mountain.

After the tram ride, the older boys and James and I rode the smaller ski lift up another hill. They have a special attachment in the summer and mountain bikers hitch their bikes up, ride the lift to the midpoint of the mountain, and then ride the mountain trail down. We rode up and back just for the view. Meanwhile, back at the resort, Abby and Augie got to try the bungee trampoline. They bounced about 12 feet in the air--they loved it!

Augie bounces up high!

Abby soars through the air. 

Woo hoo!

 After Jackson Hole, we went into the town of Jackson and had lunch. Then we walked around the town square, visited their awesome toy store, candy store, and other specialty shops, and then the kids went on a stagecoach ride! Jim got to ride "shotgun" for real!

He'd better have good aim, riding shot gun up there!

Abby, Sam, and August riding in style in the authentic stagecoach!

Then we rode off into the sunset, at the end of our enjoyable outing in Wyoming. :)