June 2007

 Flying Away

Here are some pictures for those who haven't seen sunny Eastern Washington farmland. There is a guy here in the ward who flies a powered parachute a few times a week and will take most anyone up for a flight. Ben likes being up in the air, so he took up the offer to fly. Here are the resulting pictures.

A great open shot of the local farmland and sandy buttes. 

Here is the house! Everything is still so green this time of year, I love it!

This is Phil, the pilot, and his 'flying machine.'

Looking north over the farm ground.

Home

It's intriguing to be living back at home. Now almost having been here two months, it feels like I've been here forever, like I never left. Somehow, the last 4 years got stuck in time warp or alternate universe, and I've always been living here. And a husband and two kids just popped into the picture somewhere. Life here has changed some, but not much. For me, I guess that's part of what I call home. A constant place of safety and comfort. Honestly, I've never been able to call any of the other places we've lived home. I would always say, "let's go back the the apartment," or "let's go back to our house," but I really never say "home." This place in Washington will always be home to me.

This is a picture Ben snapped the other day. Evelyn likes getting out of the tub, and she'll say, "tow, tow, tow," meaning "towel." And she wants to be wrapped up like a Nativity scene character.

I think this is the cutest picture. Ben takes such good pictures. Evelyn will almost always take a bath with sister, but not by herself. I can't believe how fast my girlies are growing. They are only babies for such a short time, and I always have to remind myself that I have the rest of my life to do crafty things, but I only have my little girls for a little while.

So this is not the best picture of me. I was sick this day, on Father's Day. I'm glad I have a good one of Ben though. The most important thing about home are the people in it, not what it's made of (though I can get darn sentimental about the non-people things around here).

Jilly got this "rubber duckie" from Grandma Cows, and I'm amazed it's lasted as long as it has. 5 years as of 2012.

June 2007

Enjoying the outdoors

Ben took these pictures the other day when everyone was outside. He's a much better photographer than I am!

Evelyn has learned to like digging in the garden, now that she has her own bucket of tools. Thank goodness Oxi-Clean can get the dirt out of her clothes!

Jilly loves the trampoline. Bouncing has always been her thing. And she has quite the smile!

Ev and Jill enjoying the Hammock

This feat has taken some time, but Evelyn is no longer afraid of the family dogs. (I think they would prefer it if she still was!) She likes to follow them all around the house, out into the field, through the flower beds when they're on the hunt for mice, and tried to get across the road with them (YIKES!!!!!!!!!). So whenever Evelyn's outside, you will see a small train led by the dogs, then Evelyn, and some adult-type person as the caboose.

Evelyn enjoys doing what she sees Ryan or Heather doing, like mowing the lawn or riding on the four-wheeler. Last year they were both too loud for her and she would scream if you went near them with her. See how green the grass is? That's the greenest I've ever seen it. Grandma decided to fertilize it, and the grass went nuts. It was a beautiful lawn to say the least. We did have to mow it twice a week though. 

And then there is that one time Ben jumped on an old, weathered trampoline pad and it split in half. In July 2012 when we visited, an old plastic porch chair next to the trampoline gave way under his foot, leading to big scrapes all around the lower half of his leg. I think trampolines have his number.