Labor Day in Montana

Charley's family reunions are usually Labor day weekend. Normally everyone meets in Filer and goes white water rafting and then to the Filer Fair. This year, everyone headed to Montana. Charley's oldest brother, James purchased property in Montana and invited everyone to come see the property & camp. This year everyone was able to make it except for Danne's family & a few of the grandchildren. There were 29 total Blackwoods there!

Here are some pictures that were taken on James's property. It was huge and the view was awesome. They are planning to build a cabin on it, but for now, it's nature.


After, we all headed to a campground to spend the weekend. Nate was excited to go camping since he hasn't been for a few years. He also knew there would be several cousins for him to play with, and he couldn't wait to sleep in a tent. He thinks that's "real camping" since we've been spoiled and have taken the trailer the last several years. Here's a picture of the tent we borrowed from Craig & Heather. It was HUGE! Sleeping in a tent actually wasn't that bad! Good thing we had air mattresses! We had a total of 5 tents, a tent trailer, a large RV motorhome, and one corner of the campground to ourselves. There was so much to do! Nate & some of the boy cousins spent a lot of time playing with Heath's dogs:
They played catch:

We shot BB guns

Charley tried to burn his fingers off:

And of course, we don't go anywhere without our laptops:

We even had a family picture taken. This is everyone assembling in one place for the picture.

Luckily Travis had his tripod & camera there so we could set the timer. Everyone had to gather around to make sure we got "ONE" good shot.

Here's a picture of some of the kids. (Keep in mind I have 5 of these pictures, but this is the one where everyone is looking). This is Braden, Brogan, Peyton, Nate, Jordan, Mylie, & Madison.

We ended up leaving Sunday afternoon. (We were going to leave town again Tuesday and needed to get home so I could work two days). We had passed "Blackwood Road" on the way in and wanted to stop by on the way out and take a picture, so we did. (Actually, Charley wanted to steal the sign, but he couldn't reach it!!).

We left early enough so we could drive through Yellowstone Park on the way. Although we got there just before dark, the drive was beautiful. There is so much wildlife, and they come right up to your cars!
We also stopped at Old Faithful and watched it "erupt" It was dark, but it was still neat to watch. I haven't been there since I was a child, and this was Nate's first visit to Yellowstone. Definately something you need more than a few hours to drive around. We're going to add it to our list of places we want to go camping.

It really was a great weekend. A lot of driving (1200 miles total in two days) but it was well worth it to spend time with the Blackwood family.

HOT Day? Perfect Day for Raging Waters...

A friend of ours (Thanks Polly!) was able to get us discount tickets at the last minute to go to Raging Waters. It was so hot yesterday that it sounded like the perfect thing to do! It was so much fun to see & spend time with the Butterfields!



Lauren & Holly have been to Raging Waters several times, but Nate has only been once. The last time he was there it was JetBlue day and it was sooo crowded that he really didn't get to do much but lay in the lazy river and the wave pool. This time was different. We were there right when they opened so the kids got to ride several of the rides before it got busy. Charley and I mostly spectated.

But, this picture is of Charley and I racing down Rampage. Charley thinks he won this one, but I'll let you be the judge. Yes, that is me (way ahead of him) on the left hand side of the picture, and him just coming off the slide. (HA ha).

The kids had a great time! It's hard sometimes to get them all together in one place, but when we do, they have such a great time together... You can even see some of the sibling rivalry starting to surface lol... (aka Holly loves to pick on Nate, but Nate loves the attention from an older sister). Just ask Nate how many times she pushed him in the pool or down the slide... (Don't worry, Charley got her back!).

And one group shot of the kids when we finally got them all in one place! It was such a great way to end the summer. Dan & Jake start school tomorrow, and Lauren starts high school on Wednesday.... wowza, good luck Lauren!! (Holly and Nate are on year round and went back at the end of July).

Hit & Run, Ouch!

So the Honda has now experienced it's first accident... As Charley was on his way to get his allergy shot, in the lovely 35th South traffice, somebody pulled out in front of him and he rear ended them. It was a Ford explorer, and when the lady got out of the car, noticed she didn't have any body damage, and drove off. She didn't speak english and left VERY quickly... Hmmm. It may (or may not) be a blessing in disguise that she left the scene. Since Charley is the one that hit from behind, he is automatically at fault, and we may have been responsible for her car also. But, since she left the scene, it was considered a hit and run.

Charley, and Nate were the only ones in the car, and they are both fine. Poor Nate, this is his 4th accident in his short 9 years of life. The car is driveable, but there's a large dent in the front bumper, hood and fender on the passenger side. Guess we're going to get to work on the insurance & estimates...

Weekend Getaway...

We haven't been to Idaho for quite a while, so we decided to go last weekend. We didnt' have the kids, but there was a pageant going on in Glenns Ferry that Charley's parents wanted to go to since it was the last year the pageant was going to be held.

We left late Friday night after a BBQ at the park, so we didn't get to Filer until around midnight. We spend the night at Charley's parents then drove to Glenns Ferry saturday morning. Once we got to Glenns Ferry, there was so much traffic that we missed the pageant. It was ok though, we still had a good time. These cute benches were along side the road once we go to town, so we made Charley and his dad jump on one for a picture! (They are such good sports!).

Later in the afternoon we met up with Carlos & Denise in Twin Falls. Carlos had to work late Friday, so they left early Saturday morning. As soon as they got into town we went to see the scenic Shoshone Falls.

We also met up with the family for a birthday dinner Saturday night. (Happy Birthday Danne!). Then it was off for an evening camping at Miracle hot Springs. Miracle has these awesome camping domes that we stayed in. Very affordable, and nice! They have heat and electricity, a bbq grill, patio, chairs and tables, with lots of trees and privacy. We definately want to stay there again!! They also have the natural hot springs heated pool, and the private hot tubs that you can reserve by the hour.

See this awesome hand shaped chair next to the camp dome? They were so funny! We all had to get our picture taken in them. (They are actually pretty comfortable to sit in too!!).

After visiting with the rest of the family on Sunday, it was time to drive back home. It's always fun when we go to Idaho. It's close enough to go for the weekend, but far enough that you feel like you are getting away.

New Wheels... For Nate...

I am so proud of Nate. He has been earning money this summer to buy a new bike. His old bike is getting too small for him, but I explained to him that we didn't have the money to just go buy a bike right away. His birthday is in December so that wasn't a very good alternative either.

So, he's been doing odd jobs around the house, and volunteering to help out while he was off track to earn a dollar here and there. I told him I would pay half. He has been riding his bike to school and we have been going on nightly bike rides as a family, so the motivation was to get a new bike quick!

While we were at Walmart the other day, they had this bike on the scratch n dent rack. The only think wrong it is the vinyl was coming up from under the seat. Well, we just happened to have a new bike seat at home not being used... Perfect! It was 35% off for that reason only.

I now have a large ziplock bag full of quarters, dimes, nickels & pennies...

The Boys Turn Three...

Erin's boys celebrated their third birthday today! Wow, these boys have sure grown up fast! They are so tall it makes it hard to believe they are only 3! I don't get to see them very often, so it was so much fun to go up to Heber to celebrate with them today.

We started on the Heber Creeper. It was a three hour round trip train ride down the Provo Canyon. This was Charley's first time on the Heber Railroad, and I haven't ridden it since I was little. Nate has ridden before with my parents but he didn't really remember it.

I think Nate got bored on the way back...

Until the robbers came on the train at the very end & made everyone put their hands up

Then we went back to the park in Midway where we had sandwiches, cupcakes & the boys opened their gifts. This is Bailee trying to show them how many fingers to hold up... (At first they had up all 10. LOL). And then a group shot of everyone that attended. (Minus Jamie who is taking the picture).

Adapting to Changes...

I have kind of a unique (although extremely busy) job. There are three floor trainers for the two claims teams. The three of us work closely together to act as a resource for 40 processors, the training & development team, 5 phone teams, and several other departments within company.

Recent changes have downsized our trio to just two of us. Not only am I sad that we're losing our "third leg" but I'm also overwhelmed at the workload that will soon follow. Jen (in the middle) takes on so many meetings & behind the scenes projects that are often unrecognized. She has organized the claims teams, and implemented so many resources. She is definately going to be missed!! Although she's just moving across the hall to training & development, it will be a huge adjustment not to have her as a mentor every day.

Jen, T&D is so lucky to have you!! Change always affects people, but this time it definatley affects Carrie, you, and I more than others. I will miss you dearly, but of course, will still always reach out to you for direction. Thanks for being the great lead & mentor that you have been, I just hope I can be there for you the same way you have been there for me....

First Day of 4th Grade...

Can you believe it? I barely can! Yesterday was Nate's first day of fourth grade. He was NOT at all excited to go back to school. I don't blame him. He's only been out of school since July 2nd. That's that hard part about year round. But, I just keep telling him, he goes off track again in three weeks! That's the bonus!! Believe me, he'll like it when he goes off in three short weeks!

His teacher this hear is Ms. Hansen. She's going to be excellent. She has been a neighbor and friend for the last 12 years in the ward, and she is a wonderful teacher. I'm so excited he gets to be in her class. He also has several friends in his class from last year as well as a few others in the neighborhood who have moved to C track. I think I officially embarassed him in class! I've always been a mom with a camera, I mean really, I'm a scrapbooker. For the first time, he actually burried his head on his desk and said "Geez Mom". It took forever to get this ONE picture of him at his desk. (UGH. I knew the time would come!)

Anyway, he must have survived... He came home yesterday excited about earning their first "class reward party". Nathan is an excellent student and I know he's going to do well this year! Good Luck Nate!!