Summer Time Random Fun - July and August

The girls accompanied Greg and I to the Shakespear Festival.

One Sunday when there were two missionaries speaking these men realized that all 6 Bishops of the 4th/River Ranch Ward were in the building so they had to get a picture.

First Saturday in August means clothing drive so the girls went through their closets and sorted all of our clothes into sizes.

Then we delivered them to the downtown building and helped put them in their proper places.

Day of I helped check volunteers in while Greg and Emily helped keep the clothes organized and assisted shoppers.

Then we helped with clean up.  It is quite a project but 940 people visited the exchange on Saturday- amazing good was gone.

During the 4th gen academy Lily got to play with her buddies, including a day out shopping with Hazel.

That Friday night before we visited Salisbury's wedding reception we stopped by DeWayne Hill's assisted living center since we had missed him at Christmas.  He was happy to see us.

The last week before school started the girls had lots of work to do, finishing their online course and deep cleaning their bedrooms.  To celebrate their completion the girls each invited a friend and we went to Boise to play.

We relived Zoo Boise memories, ate at Chick-fil-A and visited the climbing gym.

Thoroughly worn out we made our way home - goodbye summer.

Academy of Enterprise - #2

2026 was the Sumer of the second Academy of Enterprise.  We had 17 kids, 5 newbies, and 12 returns.  This is a pic of Kelly doing his history presentation.

After day 1 the kids and the local families gathered at Reed and Linda's for BBQ, swimming and outdoor games.  

The smoke made it a bit uncomfortable but the kids still had a pretty intense game of soccer.

Our first timers plus Holly ( because she missed it last time due to flight issues) and Charlie (because they chose so) toured the Emmett Sawmill with Jonny.  Mark D and Val joined the party as well.

On Wednesday just the first timers toured the Fruitland plant with Greg.

While the second timers got to explore the fab shop.  We were all amazed by the things they are able to make.

That afternoon we put welcome bags together for the families coming to Camp Rainbow Gold next week.  The kids split into groups and made a Walmart run with their specific list then they returned to the plant to assemble the kits.

Thursday was field trip day for the first timers.  The second time attendees stayed in Fruitland for some classes and job shadowing while the newbies hit the road.  We started at the Nampa Door plant, then learned about windows at Redstone.  After lunch we drove to the Boise Distribution warehouse and learned more about distribution.

Our favorite part was watching them pre-hang a door.

Friday we covered the last of our info and talked about how the week had gone, at 2:00pm the kids were done and hit the road to Banks for rafting.

Andrew, Myra, Jonas, Anson, Isaac, and Sam

Emily, Anna, Robyn, Natali, Holly, and Hattie (Natali drove up Thursday night after work and worked east coast hours on Friday so she could join the rafting and hanging out for the weekend).

Freddy's stop on the way home for some very hungry rafters.

Most of the kids headed home Saturday morning but these four hung all day Saturday, late into the evening.  And they were so sweet to bring me these flowers to say thanks for organizing the week.  It takes a lot of work but it was worth it - fun to have them all together and I love watching them learn together.

McCall

The World Cup final was at 1:00pm on the 19th.  With church at 2:00 that didn't work very well, so we went to an earlier ward so we could be home in time for the game, that and we wanted to head up to McCall as soon as the game was over.  Our drive was rather uneventful, we arrived, ate dinner, started a puzzle and then went for a walk to check out the sunset.  The ski was smoky from the recent fires and that made the sunset super orange.

We borrowed two puzzles from the Winds- this one was a hit.

The girls enjoyed lunch and milkshakes at My Father's Place, and visiting the local thrift stores - especially the one that also acts as a shelter for rescued kitties.  We decided we needed another paddle board so we invested in a blow up one, got it all ready and headed to North Beach.  My back trunk had to stay open the whole drive which let in a ton of dust and made a ridiculous beeping noise the whole time.  But our time in the calm water was lovely.  I left my phone in the car so no pics but we spent over an hour meandering the river. 

We spent a lot of time playing pickle ball, going for walks, watching "The Artful Dodger", doing puzzles, and just being together.  Lily had a goal to paddle board to the island so we tackled that later in the week.  It was pretty bumpy so we stayed sitting most of the time.

Made it to the island and did a little exploring on the island and then headed back.

The girls also enjoyed some pool time while I worked on Family Council stuff on the beach.

Thursday night Andrew and Greg drove up and Emily and Andrew went out to look for moose and other animals with the spot light.  Emmy somehow didn't have shoes on...those socks will never be the same.

Friday morning Greg, Emmy and I went for a nice walk in Ponderosa State Park then met up with Andrew and Lily for Ice Cream Alley.

Blake made our night by showing up with her parents in time for a swim and dinner.  The water wasn't that warm, but that didn't phase Blake.  She loved her pool time.

Saturday morning we let her parents go back to bed while Greg and I took this cutie on a very long walk.  She loved being outside, and we loved just watching her cute face.

Greg headed home Saturday night, but Sunday morning little miss was up bright and early again so I took her outside to keep everyone else from waking up.  It was a bit chilly but she was happy.

I sat her on the bed while I started cleaning and packing, soon she had an audience of aunts to keep her entertained while I worked and her parents slept.

We left Mack's little family with the last of the clean up and we headed home, so we could get back in time for church.  We left a big stack of the newly printed Woodgrain history, Sawdust in our Veins, on the shelf for family to take as wanted.  So grateful for our week in McCall.  I love the time with my girls just relaxing and enjoying nature.