Presenting.........Queen Kaebrie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I know, a little bit of Kaebrie overload, but, this is like , one of my FAVORITE ages because they do such CUTE stuff!!)

ANYWAY........ May I present to you...Queen Kaebrie!! Who LOVES being the youngest and having all these older siblings at her beck and call to serve her!

Yesterday, they were playing one of her FAVORITE games, which is riding in a laundry basket. And it just kept getting cuter and cuter so I had to take some pictures. Then what is the use of taking pictures if you don't share them? So, here they are!

Here are the sisters! The puller and the pull-ee. ( Kaitlynn's hair is a mess because it dried crazy after swim lessons). Eventually, the basket wasn't enough, so Kaitlynn created a "backrest" for her royal highness with one of her rugs and a royal cape!

Her Highness leaving the room.
Head back and LAUGHING and SQUEALING!!!! She so LOVES this!

Dixie comes over to check out the situation.
Hmmm..... What could she be thinking about now? Maybe, this isn't enough? After all, a Queen needs her possessions!!!
Well, Kaitlynn and Christopher loaded her up with just about everything from her toybox!
Made for a heavier pull, but she played with her toys while being pulled around the house.

NEVER knock being the youngest! It certainly has its advantages!! :-)

War Eagle Mountain!

Sam had such a good time on the last camp-out, he decided to pick another place to go see. The destination today: War Eagle Mountain!!! His original plans were to take Collin and Kaitlynn for the afternoon, but KK was playing with a friend and Collin decided he didn't want to go. So Sam decided he would go by himself for a few hours. He got his stuff together and left, and 5 minutes later drove back, WITH OUR BABYSITTER! He saw her at the park and asked if she was free for a few hours, brought her home and asked me to go with him.

Don't EVER accuse me of not being spontaneous!! :-) Took me five minutes to organize a QUICK supper for everyone ( thank GOODNESS for Chef-boy-Ardee!!! ) :-) . Make a list of instructions for Collin, put on my sneakers, grab some water, and off we went!

A few hours later, and one or two wrong turns on gravel roads, we reached the VERY top! 8,041 feet high on the peak of the mountian. Sam had rented a GPS machine from the outdoor center here on base and was having fun playing with it! SO we ALWAYS knew our elevation and exactly how far we were from home.

Here is the rover looking out over the peak! WAR EAGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is Sam, at the very top. IT WAS SO WINDY!!!!!!!!
Here he is catching his Auburn hat before it blows away! It was like we the only people in the world. Besides the wind, there was no other sound. We could see for miles! We were actually looking into Oregon.
Here Sam decided to walk down the mountain and touch the snow. THe wildflowers were in bloom everywhere! Purple and red and white and yellow; with patches of snow and the view, it was just GORGEOUS!
Here you can tell he has gotten an idea. He shouted up that he wanted to throw a snowball at me in the middle of July!
Up he comes with a real snowball in his hand!
He did throw it at me, but it landed at my feet.
Here is one of the MANY streams and creeks we had to cross. This mountain used to be a gold mining haven! Old mines were EVERYWHERE! On some, you could still see broken pieces of track sticking out. Some of the names were Freedom mine, and After thought mine. Old rotten timber covered openings, left over rusty equipment rotted in the sun. I could just imagine getting all their equipment up here with horse and buggy and digging into this mountain. We explored an old cemetary dated back to 1837. There were a LOT of unmarked graves there, I imagine they were miner graves.
On some of the hills, it looked like the trail just disappeared into the sky!
One of the beautiful wildlife specimans we saw! Birds and butterflies and rabbits and other animals EVERYWHERE!
Just as you get back to the base entrance, here is the view of the mountain range.
Here is the same view, but I highlighted War Eagle Mountain. The yellow spot is where we were.
And that is it! We were gone for 5 hours and had a GREAT time. Sam should have planted a mini-Auburn flag on the summit! :-)

Watermelon Girl!

Well, let's just say there must be NOTHING like your FIRST piece of watermelon on a cool summer evening; dancing on the sidewalk to the music coming out of Daddy's car that he is cleaning, wearing your favorite shades, and even eating some of the dirt stuck to the piece that had already been dropped 4 times!

The joy of summer and being 22 months old!!!!!

4th of July!!

Sam and the big kids got back about 2 hours before our 4th of July party. We had 26 people here for a cook-out. It was fun! All the chaplains and their families were here, as were 2 families we met at church yesterday who are staying in temporary housing until their things arrive in the next week or so. It was nice getting to know some new people and just being able to sit and talk with friends.

Here are our 4 in their 4th of July colors!

The 3 muskateers!!!!! AnnaBrooke, Madison and Kaitlynn!
Here are all the kids!!! Nobody said they all had to wear red to come to the party, but it sure makes for a cute picture!

Here is the group, having a casual dinner in the backyard on lawn chairs. Thankfully, the storm held out till 10 minutes after everybody left! About 9:30 pm, I stepped outside after the rain to get something out the car. Now , I know tradition is that you are supposed to see pretty lights in the sky on the night of the 4th of July, we DID see pretty lights all right! But they sure weren't man-made! This GORGEOUS double rainbow was God-made! The picture hardly does it justice! It was so BOLD in the glow of the sunset. Can you see BOTH rainbows? The bottom one was complete, we could see the entire arch.

Well. there are 3 sets of blogs about our holiday long weekend. Busy around here, BUT FUN! Hope your weekend went wonderfully as well. Write us and let us know! Bye for now!!!!!

Holiday Camp-Out!

Sam had a nice 4 days off, so after the previous evening of rock hunting, he decided to go camping. Off he went to the library to check out books on Idaho campgrounds and trails. He found a place in the SawTooth mountains that was highly rated for scenery, was perfect for his Land Rover to be able to get there, but had hiking trails that were suitable for first-timers! Off to the BX to buy a new 4-man tent and a few other supplies, pack some gear, and at 10:00 Monday morning, off they went! No cell phone coverage in the mountains, so it was 2:00 Tuesday afternoon before I heard from them again, but here are the pictures from the SUCCESSFUL first camp-out in Idaho!

Now, they didn't even have to pay a camping fee because the camp-grounds weren't even open yet BECAUSE OF THE SNOW!?!?!? They used the snow banks as a fridge for their drinks and thought that was pretty cool!

The first picture here is playing in the COLD water next to the campground.

Here is the new tent in an absolutely GORGEOUS spot!
Sam said the mountain was in bloom with summer flowers!
Here they are exploring near the campsite, crossing streams still covered in snow.
This one is a little out of order, but here is Collin next to the fire.
The camp site!
Kaitlynn LOVED eating the MRE's. (meals ready to eat). She had ravioli and pineapple upside down cake! FYI, they sell them at the commisary, you can buy them anytime. :-)
Collin in the hammock! I think I could sit in that spot for hours. It just looks so quiet and peaceful.
Starting the hike up. They have on their jeans, found some hiking sticks, and carrying supplies around their waist or in Collin's backpack.
One picture of the snowy summer mountain!
Crossing the snow was difficult. It was cold, slippery and hard to walk on!
One of the many stops for a water break on the way up.
Sam carried the small tripod so he could get some group shots. Here is one of my favorites!
Kaitlynn made it to the summit! It was almost a 3 mile hike and Sam said they did AWESOME! He was so proud of them!
Just feet away from the very top!
A group shot at the summit!
The long, but pretty, walk back down.
A VERY successful, fun, beautiful, and wonderful camp-out with Daddy. Collin's numbers were PERFECT, everybody enjoyed themselves, and they are looking forward to doing it again VERY SOON! There are SO MANY places here they want to explore. And now that Sam knows they can hike well and camp well, there is no stopping them now!!!!!!!!

Sunset on Friendship Hill

Ready to start off the big holiday weekend with something fun, Daddy asked, "who is ready to do some rock hunting and some climbing?". THREE sets of hands went up and lots of "ME ME ME ME ME's" were heard. So after supper, Daddy, Collin, Kaitlynn, and Christopher (who is getting old enough to go along on these adventures) picked up Chaplain Steve and Leigha and off they went!

This picture kind of looks like they are standing on flat land, but they are actually pretty high up. That is a ridge that ends right behind Sam's feet where the gravel is.

The kids had a ball climbing the STEEP hills. That is the little hind-end of Christopher you see climbing up on all fours because it got so steep. Collin and the others are already at the top. Once they got to the top, they decided to name it Friendship Hill.
There are some GORGEOUS sunsets here ( and the sun doesn't even set till AFTER 10 pm now!!). On top of a giant hill is a pretty place to watch them.
Here is Chaplain Steve and Leigha
More of the sunset. Look close, and you can see them all still sitting there and watching!
ON ANOTHER NOTE!!.......................................................

Not only is the weather about PERFECT, and the absense of bugs (mosquitos, roaches) WONDERFUL, the wildlife around our home is fun as well. We have LOTS of owls!!! This one just sat in the tree in our backyard and watched Sam as he took the picture. We sit outside at night and watch them swoop from tree to tree. This owl is a barn owl. They hardly ever seem to make a sound. A few nights ago we heard LOUD hoo'ing coming from out front. There we saw a great horned owl. He was HUGE!!!!! They will swoop down right over your head. There are lots of rabbits around here too. (Guess what the owls eat!) and I won't ever forget about the whistle-pigs. Lots and lots of whistle-pigs.

That is all for now. Hope you all have a safe and fun holiday!

GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!