Bannock County Fair

Last month, I took the kids to the Bannock County Fair while Shad was at work. I love community events. This was the first time I'd been to this particular fair, and although it wasn't the most exciting fair, I think the kids still had a good time.


Drake loved the candy drop. He got to ride up in the cherry picker of a fire truck...



...and then throw candy over the edge to all the kids still on the ground.



Drake spent a while throwing leis on this hula "person".



The boys could have watched this model train all morning.



Drake showing off his foam hat that he covered with stickers.



Graham lagging behind, with his awesome foam hat. You can see from the surroundings how popular this fair was with other people...



Sipping lemonade while waiting to see our neighbors' granddaughter do barrel racing.

Getting ready to go on a wagon ride
(I stayed behind with Avery, who was asleep in a stroller. Thanks Angie for watching them!)



Returning from the ride.



Graham after a long day at the fair.

Good times.

the fruits and veggies of our labors

We've been lucky this year to have a good garden. Drake and Graham love picking whatever is ripe---and Drake is quick to make sure you know whether something is ripe or not!


Drake loves to pick tomatoes.

Graham loves to be like Drake.

Graham loves to eat tomatoes like he eats apples. Unfortunately, he had a sore on his lip, and it wasn't until he'd almost finished a whole tomato when the acid finally hit the sore.

Drake eating a peach from our peach tree.

Shad holding Avery in front of our corn---8 feet tall maybe? And this shot was taken a month ago. The pretty plants in front are our green beans.

Drake ate two whole ears of corn the other night. Graham finished one.

Shad made a little garden spot for Drake, who has been collecting seeds to plant since the beginning of the year (from apples, watermelon, etc. that he ate). It was a little late for anything to really grow by the time we planted Drake's seeds, but Drake just thought it was fun to plant something.

Drake and Graham helping in Drake's "garden".

View of the sunset from our garden.

Summer is ending all too soon.

our yard/field/dirt area

I still don't have our digital camera back from when we left it in Provo, so I'm gonna put up some pictures that were already on the computer, as well as some that I've been "forced" to take with my film camera (which I love, but it just costs more).

With as much time as Shad has spent inside, you'd think we might have neglected the outside. Well, we have. But not completely. Amazingly enough, we've been able to just barely keep up with our yard and our garden. I say "we", but I mean mostly Shad. I have helped out some, but usually the kids are louder than the yard. So here are some of the outside projects...


Drake and Graham, each with their own tools, love to help Shad. You can see all the tall weeds... those covered about half of our "future" backyard. The field grass/weeds out further, by the pasture, were taller than me.



This is Shad and Russell Johnson hauling a big pile of junk and dirt out of our backyard and into a dumpster, using Russell's tractor. Him and Joan were wonderful to help us out so much.



Their daughter, Holly, hanging out with the boys. Avery was asleep behind her in the swing. Because Holly was there to keep an eye on the kids, I was actually able to go weed in the garden for a while.



This is a 15-yard roll-off container, which I didn't think we'd fill. I was wrong. I guess we had a lot more junk back there than I realized, sadly enough.



This is Shad cutting down our weed field with our neighbor's trimmer. He's excited.



We're trying to trick our kids into thinking work is fun...



...it might be working.



Here's the used-to-be-overgrown part of our backyard after all the weeds were cut down.



Next summer we plan on doing more outdoors, since our basement soaked up our time this summer. Thanks again my sweet Shad!

the basement

I would have had this post up sooner, but I didn't have all the "after" shots, and I accidentally left our camera in Provo when we were down there a week and a half ago for graduation. So I finally just took some "After" pics tonight with our cell phone, so I could post this and be done with it. Once we get our camera back, there will be more posts of more recent stuff.

So we're still not completely done fixing up the basement, but done with the big things, and done enough that I can post before and after pics and give you a good idea of what's transpired over the course of the summer. Shad has been wonderful in all the time he has spent working on our basement. And we couldn't have done it without good friends and Shad's dad Brett--he not only did a TON of the work, but he's fast too! Thanks again!

So now for the pictures.


These are the stairs from the kitchen which lead down to our basement.

Before

During


After



Once you get down the stairs, you can turn left or right. Turning left takes you to the bathroom and the existing bedroom.

Bathroom Before
(under the dirty mats was a big hole in the gross, uneven concrete)


After.
(Shad put in the new sink and tile floor--he does good work!)


More before.


More after.



Just past the bathroom is the bedroom.
Before.


After.


This is an "after painted, before carpet" shot, but it shows the new egressed window better.


Before again.


After.




Drake still says he liked the "blue room" better.

If you turn right at the bottom of the stairs, you walk into what was once a big, long family room. We put up a wall and added a second bedroom downstairs.

North Side Before.


North Side During.


North Side After.




South Side Before.


South Side During.




South Side After.


And finally, the new bedroom (added on the North Side)





I can't tell you how nice it is to finally have it done. Thanks Shad. Before we started working on the basement, Drake and Graham would not go downstairs by themselves---Shad or I had to be with them or they were too scared. Now that it's actually a nice place to be, they go down by themselves all the time. Thanks Shad and Brett and everyone else who helped throughout the process.

And a special thanks to our three "bumpkins" who were so patient and "helpful" during it all.