Goodbye sweet Grandma

Back in May, my sweet Grandma, Bernice, passed away. I remember her always making crafts for us, including two very special cross stitch pieces that are hanging in my home. She always made sure to send us $10 for our birthdays and loved getting her annual family calendar. She loved visits from everyone and we'll greatly miss her.

Paul was asked if he would fly her ashes over the Priest River mountain area which is where they lived for a long time. Paul, my dad, my brother Mike and I flew up to Cavanaugh bay to sprinkle the ashes, had dinner and flew home.

the runway at Cavanaugh BayDad, Mike and I

The gold Palouse hills from the air.

When does school start?

So this is what you do in the last weeks of summer when you can't think of anything else to do... hey, at least they're wearing helmets right? Nicole is in the wagon that Aliciana is pulling and screaming all the way down the hill.

Nicole and Aliciana

Cabin retreat

We have spent more time at the cabin this summer than every other summer combined I think!! It's been fun playing in the water, getting more work done on the cabin and having friends join us. We've been able to host a work BBQ and slumber party, and lots of weekends with friends.

Nicole and her friend Trinity

Nicole and Ashley

The floor is almost done!!

More summer

At the end of July we headed down to Orofino for our friends', Mark & Ashley's wedding. Ashley has been one of our favorite babysitters when the girls were little, then one of Chukar's favorite dog sitters. Mark is a good friend from church that became an college intern for our office this year. What a special couple!!

When it came time for the bouquet toss I told Nicole she should go up since she's single :) She was not having any of it. Our table was right behind the toss and when Ashley tossed it, it went right over all of the single girls and landed on the floor right next to Nicole :) Then she had to go up with Ashley and take a picture with EVERYONE watching!!

Another thing I really wanted to do this summer was ride the Hiawatha Trail. Natalie, Neil, Cassidy and Gabriel were in town so we went up to Cd'A after the wedding and spent a few days with them riding the trail, going to Silverwood, going on a boat tour of the Spokane river, mini golfing and taking more pictures.

The "complimentary" Hiawatha stripe


Coming out of the 1.6 mile tunnel that is PITCH black

the wave pool at Silverwood

Every year that we get together with the cousins we try to do a photo shoot... sometimes professional, sometimes not.



Gada and Bapa with the grandkids

Riverboat tour of the Spokane river

Ahhh summer...

For the 4th, we spent the weekend playing in the sun, hanging out with family, watching fireworks, making our annual flag cake, biking and of course,

taking lots of pictures.

The beginning of a masterpiece. This year we decided to make a fruit "pizza" and use cream cheese frosting to avoid the deflation of previous years' cakes. It turned out great and was super yummy. We even had enough frosting after
all the kids were done sampling :)

Before...

During...

After...

Cooling off in the kiddie pool.

Ashley will somehow figure out how to do tricks on any bar she finds.


Muffin and I


And if the frosting isn't sweet enough for you, we also have whipping cream
that we can spray directly into your mouth.

All of us

One thing I've wanted to do for many years was ride our bikes on the "trail of the Coeur d'Alenes". The four of us and Gada started at Heyburn state park and rode into Harrison, ate a yummy lunch, got ice cream, listened to some music in the park, then rode back.

Ohhh Chukar... whenever we spend time at my mom and dad's in Cd'A in the summer, Chukar decides to use their really cute and slightly fragile fountain as a watering hole. After this episode, we borrowed a kiddie pool for him to cool off in.



For the first time, Nicole went to the UI Volleyball camp. What a new experience for her. She got to stay in the dorms with friends Katie and Berlyn for three days and spent 8 hours a day practicing volleyball.


I picked up Nicole at noon and she quickly crashed on the couch for four hours. She was completely exhausted!! I imagine they weren't getting much sleep.


Ashley and friends Megan and Hannah headed off to Camp Four Echoes (Girl Scout camp) for three days. She had a great time and said
"the food was much better than last year" Ashley's camp t-shirt that all of the counselors signed.Inside their teepee (which they received an award for being the cleanest)


The new lodge at C4E built with money donated by the Schweitzers.