Thursday, August 12:  We met Nicole for lunch in Missoula on our way home.  Saw her new apartment.

We expected Kent and Lois and Katie this weekend, but because of Katie's car accident, Katie and Grandma stayed home.  Grandpa Kent had pulled into the driveway about five minutes before us.  He and Kirby left pretty much immediately for the Shock playoff game.

Friday, August 13:  Our front door has never been painted.  It's primer white, attracts dirt and will not clean:

I ♥ red front doors.  But given that our house is green, I thought a red door would seem a little... Christmas-y.  So I went with brown.  Kent brought over his (Kody's) sprayer and painted all my exterior doors brown:

Saturday, August 14:  While Kirby and Kent finished the doors, visited Cabella's, browsed Spaldings, etc., I dug up the flower beds and made a curvy, sweepy path.

Sunday, August 15:  Our anniversary.  Well, technically, it's Tuesday, but we celebrated today.  Despicable Me at Riverstone and dinner at Outback.

Monday, August 16:  Puma had her kittens while we were in Montana.  Laid 'em in the compost pile behind the shed.  Kids moved them to a basket behind the bookshelf in the school room:

Their names, in no particular order: Kit Kat, Snickers, Skittles, Heath, Nibs and Twinkie.

Mary came down with her children.  We stayed up late watching White Collar and baking baklava.

Tuesday, August 17:  Our anniversary.  Technically.  Kirby wasn't here, but Mary and I celebrated with baklava for breakfast.  Mmm, mmm, good:

Wednesday, August 18:  Mom and Dad stopped by on the way home from a fish delivery.  I made Mary's white chicken chili for supper.  Dad had injured his pelvis in a horseback related accident, so I sent Mari and Bri home to be his arms and legs on the mountain while he's healing.  They left after dinner.

Thursday, August 19:  Mary went home.  I brought the kids to the lake.  Felt local when the guy asked me about parking and I knew.  Felt local when I saw Erik and Joy and Nicole and Anna and Sunny.  Rented a paddle boat.  Wilson, "Can we go out to the boobies?"  Um, buoys.  Walked the boardwalk.  Logan: "I see a sunscraper!"  Slept in the tent.

Friday, August 20:  Did not sleep in the tent.

Last weekend: Kirby brought the boys camping.  Lots of funny stuff.  They had a grand time in the creek; the boys caught fish, lost Kendric's shoes, planed cards, smelled barbecue, etc.  While they were gone, we went to Coeur d'Alene City Park every day.  I swam.  Good stuff.

Sunday night: The laundry sink flooded.

Monday: We went to Montana.  Rikke was there.  It rained.  Bit of thunderstorm.  Rick Jore weather.  Nicole came.

Tuesday: Angie came over.  We thought we'd beat the predicted thunderstorms by heading for the lake right after lunch.  Bri kneeboarded.  Mari made a friend, Shandon.  Cory cannonballed Angie.  Myra went kneeboarding, AND jumped on the rope swing.  We went home and had... something for dinner.  Angie and I stayed up talking 'til 2:30 in the morning.

Wednesday: We had lunch at Gramma Betty's.  Lauren came with me to get my hair cut off.  Angie went home.  Steph stayed.  We saw Grandpa Rick's new barn above the horseshoe pond and all his new hydrant.

Thursday: We went home.  Met Ang and left Steph at Target.  Brought DQ to Nic's new apartment.  Drove home.  Kent was here with the boat - yay!  Kent and Kirby went to the Shock playoff game.

Friday: Kent painted my french doors and the basement door.

Saturday: Kent painted my front door.  Kent and Kirby went to Spalding, Habitat for Humanity, Cabella's, etc.  Kirby brought me and Kent to Famous Willy's.  We walked through Treaty Rock park, and stopped to get truffle ice cream cones.  We showed Bizarre Foods to Kent.

Sunday: Kent left early.  Kirby brought the kids to church; I stayed home with Log and Wilson.  I finished lining the big flower bed.  Kirby brought Taco Bell home, then brought me to Despicable Me and Outback, sort of an early anniversary celebration.  On the way home, he said he wanted to go swimming, so we stopped to pick up the kids and went to Corban.  They had just enough time to swim across -- even Kendric went.  They found some guy's sunglasses.

today: We cleaned up.  Goodmans came over to see the kittens, then brought us to Rathdrum to see their new house, and we showed them the city park.  They left, and we went to Fort Sherman.  Mari said, "Hey, it's Monday, do you think we can go to Juggling Club?"  We haven't been since Memorial Day.  Not in our bathing suits.  I looked up and saw someone juggling flames.  Robert and David.  Ha.  Juggling Club came to us.  We told Robert we'd seen his Tubbs Hill vid on YouTube.

Kendric climbed the swings to the top of the ropes:

Bri, not to be outdone by her little brother, followed suit:

Bri.  Next to a tree.  At first glance, it's nothing special:

...but I planted that tree, oh, 20 years ago.  See how much it's grown?

Angie and her girls came up from Missoula:

We ate lunch, then left to meet Cory and Rikke at The Lake:

Rainclouds gathered, we scattered:

Nicole let the girls open her sunroof and ride, parade style, on top of her car on the road home:

No visit to Montana is complete without the obligatory stop at Camp Bighorn.  We spotted Faith right away -- standing at the entrance, waiting to cross the highway:

The moment Mt. Harding comes into view, it feels like we're Home.  Highway 212, then, is just a very long driveway.  By the time we turn onto Mollman Pass Trail, shoes are kicked off, seat belts abandoned.

When we cross the bridge, kids leave their seats to crowd by the door, hoping to be the first one out.  Wilson's Week, so he got to "drive" up the road:

Grandpa must have heard us drive up; it wasn't long before he came home from the hills:

Bri was singing and dancing (and rollerblading) in the rain when Nicole arrived:

The boys came home before the sun went down, all tuckered out from a weekend of playing hard.  The boys had waded across a small tributary, caught fish, cut their own roasting sticks with hatchet and knife, got rained on...  Logan: "But you're driving away from the smell!"

Tuesday night:  Kirby was hot and tired after a hard day at work; after dinner he brought Mari and Bri to Corbin Park.  Instead of jumping from the cliffs, they swam to the small rock ledges downstream.  Climbing the rocks, Mari slipped and gouged her shin, "Dad, we need to go right now."  She was calm until they were in the car on the way to Urgent Care, and then she was mostly concerned (apologetic) about the price tag.  There was too much flesh gone to do stitches; the nurse said the skin would pull and the stitches would rip out, making things worse.  Mari came home with lots and lots of bandages.

Wednesday:  Back to School sales in stores.  Good time to organize the school room.  I originally intended to buy a lot of grey / smoky storage drawers, but there weren't nearly enough in stock.  There was plenty of red... and I do like me a little red every now and again.    I spent the afternoon cleaning, sorting, organizing all our school / crafty stuff.

Thursday:  Myra spent the morning at Natalie's.  The plan was to meet the Goodmans at Fort Sherman at 3:00.  With arms full of towels, chairs, goggles, flotation devices, I led the kids from the parking lot to the crowded beach... then realized it would have been wise to specify a particular location.  (Okay, so maybe I can see why it would be nice to have a cell phone.)  We waited for fifteen minutes near the dock, then paraded along the shore in search of the Goodmans.  When we spotted Angela, Doug was off looking for us.

It was hot, hot, hot in the sand; I was glad when the boys asked me to bring them to the (shady) playground.  A black woman asked if "all them boys" were mine; when she learned that I have three girls as well, she gasped, "Well, you took the Lord literal, didn't you, when He said 'be fruitful and multiply'!" 

We all met back at our house for dinner: watermelon, corn on the cob, baked beans, and Angela's pulled pork sandwiches.  Myra, Bri and Kendric went home with Natalie and Brett -- Kendric's first (non-family) sleepover.

Friday:  Kirby and Logan stopped at the Goodmans' to get Kendric on the way as they left to go camping near the Coeur d'Alene River, north of Kingston, ID.  I bought window shades and more red drawers, picked up girls from Natalie's, went to Costco, put groceries away, then brought the kids swimming at Lake Coeur d'Alene.  Fort Sherman was crowded; as we made our way across an obvious queue, I asked someone in line, "What's the occasion?"  Some triathlon event.  (Is Coeur d'Alene triathlon happy or what?!)  We swam near the steps by the artificial creek.  Stayed 'til we were all tired of the water.

Saturday:  Hung shades, labeled red drawers, organized Myra's clothes, went back to Lake Coeur d'Alene:

For Rikke, Bri's healing progress:

Cyndi brought all the kids over to play after lunch:

After a few hours, the kids petitioned for a swimming trip; we packed up and met at Kiwanis Park:

After browsing the internet for information on Keeping Toads, Bri filled a tub with dirt, grass, bark and a dish of water.  She catches worms, flies and grasshoppers, and the toad obligingly gobbles them up:

The only suitable green sticks we have for roasting hot dogs are from the lilac.  Mari cut several branches, then brought them to the back yard to clean them off.  In the meantime, Logan hid in the "bushes":

Hot dogs for dinner, marshmallows for dessert:

Logan disappeared for a moment, then returned with a washcloth.  Kirby nudged me when he saw this:

What a sweet brother!

Monday:  Molley came over for lunch, and in the course of our conversation, inspired me to get to work on my flower garden.

Tuesday:  Bri and I went to Silverwood.

Wednesday:

Thursday:  Kirby called on his way home from work; traffic on I-90 was backed up due to a multi vehicle collision; he asked me to look up an alternate route from the nearest exit.  Hwy 53 takes him past Hauser, so I volunteered to bring food and meet him at the lake to swim.  As I told one of the other mothers, being from a mountain in Montana, where everything is fed by springs, this warm water stuff feels stagnant and yucky.  Yes, if I'm not chattering, I'm grossed out.  Kirby had a bad asthma attack; we left for home as soon as he could breathe well enough to drive.

Friday:  Kirby worked an extra day, a swing shift.  I rode with him to pick up Kody and Amber's new business van.

Saturday:  Amber came to pick up her van.  I didn't see her 'cause I was at the nursery, cashing in my birthday gift certificate.

Plants I want (for future planting):
hosta, day lily, periwinkle,
Clematis jackmanii
Rosemary officinalis