Yellowstone

Emily and Amy in the swing at our cabin.


For the last leg of our trip we went to Yellowstone. It was so great to go off season and avoid all the crowds. There are definite perks to homeschooling! We got to see Old Faithful twice, a herd of bison and elk, and just about every license plate in the United States. It was a great vacation. Even though it was a busy one, it was different enough from our usual routine to feel restful in a way. We're now back full swing into school, work, lessons and such.

These pictures were all taken by Evan.

A Few More Pictures

Evan and Amy enjoying the views.

Old Faithful!

This mud pot really stinks!



Evan, ever the photographer.
Emily and Eva in the swimming pool. Eva is the daughter of my good friend Cara. For some reason I couldn't get this picture up on that post, but it's just too cute to pass up!

Montana

Another authored by Sean.....he's on a roll!


Before we left Idaho we had a quick visit to Couer D' Alene. This town was beautiful! We stopped at a downtown park near the lake and were facinated with a 6,000 square foot play structure built by the community. It was a huge fort that could have entertained our kids for weeks - except that we had to hustle to make our dinner date in Montana!

Our dinner date was with Jim and Jacque, friends of ours who have recently moved back to Montana. They hosted us in their beautiful new home, allowing our little ones free reign of the place! It was a great opportunity to catch up with good friends.

Jim and Jacque's amazing house is complimented by an excellent community, a rock-solid church, and is only minutes away from their daughter and son-in-law. Seems to me they're "home at last!"

Jim and Jacque took us to the Museum of the Rockies, which has a large collection of dinosaur bones. They have the largest skull of a T-Rex as well as several other skeletons that were excavated in Montana.

More on Montana

During our visit to the Museum of the Rockies we were able to see an outdoor historic exhibit in which people were dressed in mid 1800's clothing as they demonstrated early life on the farm. One hard-core gun collector allowed Evan to hold an actual rifle from the Revolutionary War!





Amy and Emily in the Saddle!






Emily and Jacque grew quite attached to one another!



The farm experience included allowing the kids to wade out into the garden and "harvest" jumbo sized carrots! The farm house in the background is over 100 years old.

Idaho

Authored By Sean...........

Our next stops were in Idaho where we visited Grandpa John, Uncle Pat, and Aunt Tammi.




Grandpa John lives on a real-life farm and has hundreds of acres of wheat surrounding the century-old farmhouse he lives in. Grandpa John’s mother was actually born in this house nearly 100 years ago.



Grandpa John piled us in a trailer and towed us on a tour of the freshly harvested fields. While we bumped and bounced, we got a lesson on the topography and early homesteaders. On our next visit we’ll have to remember to rent a 4x4 SUV so we can HEAR the tour!



Below is the old corn crib (building at right) used to dry...you guessed it...Corn! Sean's great-grandfather was an award winning corn farmer from Idaho. The family hopes to restore the 12 horse barn sagging in the left.




Sean’s brother, Pat, and his wife Tammi were brave enough to host all of us, even though Tammi was eight months pregnant! They recently moved to Idaho after spending 2 ½ years in Alaska. Needless to say, they are enjoying the less extreme weather changes and are excited about the community they’ve moved to. And Emily was quite smitten with her Uncle Pat and waved at him every opportunity she got!

Visiting Cara in Oregon

As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Proverbs 27:17

I met Cara the first week of school, my freshman year in college. We found out right away that we had both been dancers (Royal academy of Dance Ballet). Then we found out we were both Christians. I think we literally jumped up and down for joy! Later we realized that both our moms made bread with a Magic Mill and a Bosch mixer, and we were not allowed to play with Barbies! We had a lot in common back then.

Cara and I during our freshmen year!

Fast forward 16 years and several kids later. We are both homeschooling our kids using a Classical Christian method and growing in our love and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We also have one other very important thing in common now, soon to be two. Cara's brother Aaron married my sister Shauna in 2000 and we both get to be Aunties to CJ and his little sister (due Jan 2007).

Cara's husband Brian is in the Military so they have moved around quite a lot. After being away from the west coast for awhile, they are now back, building a house in Oregon. We had a wonderful dinner the first night we were there; Cara is a fabulous cook. We had a great discussion about her kids' food allergies which led to the topic of sugar. Many of you know my family recently concluded a study at UCLA regarding our son's Tourette's Syndrome. One of the things the psychiatrist from UCLA mentioned was that sugar and chemicals in foods can trigger ticks in Tourette's Syndrome or make them worse.

I had always thought of just the nutritional value of sugar (0), in comparison with honey and sucanat (very minimal). I simply thought if we cut back on sugar that would help. Cara reminded me that sugar is processed chemically and it's the chemicals that her kids are allergic to. So I have been inspired to read up about this and possibly eliminate refined sugar from our diet. Its actually not that drastic for us since we don't eat a lot of sugar anyway and our kids are already used to sucanat. In fact, Evan's favorite cookies are Peanut Butter made with whole wheat flour and sucanat. I took the kids to our local farmer's market to test the different types of honey. They picked out the ones that they each liked best and are excited to get to use that as their sweetener. Amy is going through candy withdrawals, but I figure it is better for her to go through it now then at my age! He he!

The next day we went to see the land that they are going to build their house on and went swimming. Sean and Brian took the older kids to see where Brian works while the little ones napped and Cara and I got to catch up. That night after another wonderful dinner we participated in their family worship. It was such a blessing to be with other believers and see what God is doing in their lives, and have them pray for us.

It is so incredible how God works sometimes. Right before our trip I had read a post from Leslie about being Bible Saturated. In it she talks about memorizing a large portion of Scripture, why it is important and a recommendation of how to do it. I had been praying about what portion of Scripture to start with and even more importantly, how to approach my family with this idea. We have never tackled more than a few verses in a row (other than Psalm 23) and I had an idea that it might scare them if I told them I wanted us to memorize a whole book!

During the worship time with Cara's family they recited the entire chapter of Romans 12 together. This has been the chapter they have been working on as a family. Sean was very inspired and spurred on to want to memorize scripture with our family in that way. I told him about Leslie's post and the books I thought might be good to start with. With God's help we are now purposing to commit to memory the book of Colossians. If we are able to memorize a verse a day (we're on verse 5 out of 95!) we will be done a week before Christmas. I am so excited! It has been fun to work on this together. And the way that God moved in my heart and then my husband's through the example of our friends just makes me realize even more God's goodness to me and my family. It also makes me love Him so much more, too.

More Pictures

My dad sent these pictures from our day at Old Sacramento.

Amy is drawing at a desk similar to those used by the French who came to seek their fortune in gold, but made more money as artists. There were booths set up to represent several different nations. They showed how the people lived and made their living during the gold rush. Many had interactive displays so the children could get a hands on history lesson.

A rare picture of all of us inside a train.

Sacramento, Ca

normally, I don't equate visiting a state capitol with an exciting vacation. But, since we were studying California History this summer and had to stop somewhere, it turned out pretty great. The tour of the capitol was very interesting, and when we went next door to the courts, the kids got to sit in the "Big Judge Chair". The court was actually closed, but some nice security guards let us in anyway. I guess a homeschool family on vacation isn't much of a terrorist threat! Here is a picture that Evan took of the capitol building.



The next day, we met my parents in Old Sacramento for a trip to the Train Museum, and "Gold Rush Days". It was so fun! All the kids had a blast, even Emily. She loved looking at all the horses. Evan loved everything, but especially the California Military Museum. And Amy had a good time, but loved the candy shop!

Emily loved this display of model trains. She could stand up and see it, and it was moving!

The Military Museum has a great collection of model airplanes. One of Evan's great loves.

Evan and Papa at the Train Museum.

Amy getting in some swim time at the hotel.

We're Back From Vacation!

We just got back from a wonderful 2 week road trip. The car is unpacked and the laundry mostly done. God in his goodness helped little Emily to sleep 4 1/2 hours today during her two naps! We'll blog more about the trip, including pictures, but for now I will leave you with our Road Trip Top Ten Things to be Thankful About.


1. After traveling over 3,000 miles and through 9 different states we made it safely home a day early. Sean wisely made the choice to hard charge the last leg of the trip cutting down our drive home from Yellowstone from 3 days to 2.

2. We enjoyed great food, fellowship, and fun with our good friends the Bergerons, and the Hays as well as Sean's brother Pat and his wife Tammi, who hosted us while being 8 months pregnant!

3. We were blessed with two unexpected special events in places where we visited. During our visit to Sacramento as part of our state required "California History" studies, we got to participate in "Gold Rush Days" where the streets were closed in Old Sacramento and covered with dirt. People dressed up in period costumes and there were many activities that helped to show what it was like in the 1850's during the California Gold Rush. The day was made even more special because we got to share it with my parents who came over to meet us for the day!

4. Likewise, in Bozeman, Montana at the Museum of the Rockies, they too had a special reenactment of farm life on a well preserved farm from 1905. Admission was also free that day!

5. God has blessed our family with an exceptionally good driver (Sean-not me! Ha Ha) with a built in GPS system in his head. After inadvertently taking the wrong road because it had moved from the last time Sean had come through Oregon, he had a "feeling" that we were going the wrong way. We then realized that the maps were all left back at the hotel room 200 miles back. Sean took a look at the mountains (I'm not kidding!) and took an unknown road that took us in the right direction and through a different route to the place we wanted to go with only 30 minutes lost in our trip.


6. We were reminded of the absolute beauty of God's creation. We were able to travel through lush thick forest in Montana and northern California, see amazing geological thermal features in Yellowstone, and pass through a beautiful rock canyon in Arizona.

7. I had a new breakthrough. On the last day of the trip I was able to read in the car!!! I always get so sick, but for some reason, I decided to try and was able to read half of Robinson Crusoe.

8. Evan became the new aspiring photographer. Thanks to his Papa who gave him a nice digital camera with a 1 GB memory card as an early birthday/ Christmas present. Evan took more pictures than Sean. We'll post some of them later; quite a few turned out really good.

9. Preschool Power! Emily would not have made the trip so well if it were not for this video series. Yes, we let her watch movies in the car. And even though we're all a little sick of the incredibly catchy songs about brushing your teeth and making a snack, it was better than hearing her cry! She also would take her naps as soon as I turned on Kenny G! We've tried lots of other classical and instrumental music, but she likes Vivaldi and Kenny G. Go figure.

10. Did I tell you how glad we are to be home?