The Face of Four

Four is funny.
Four is ferocious.
Four is fantastic.
Four is fabulous.
FOUR is what our Caroline Avy is today. Four very short years ago she was a tiny dark bundle with coal black hair sleeping in my arms in a hospital bed.

Now she's a bike riding, nail painting, artistic, friendly, loving little person.
Fear is not something she shows often when on wheels. She does appear to have hit a shy stage--but I'm certain it won't last long.
She'll talk both ears off ya if you'll let her. And she can wrestle with the best of 'em. And if you're sick or sad, she's sure to paint you a picture, write a note to go with it and deliver it to you. She's our girl--and we love her! Happy Birthday Caroline.

Coeur D'Alene

I really wanted to just throw up a few of those rotating photo boxes and call it good. But guess what? I don't know how. If you ever wonder why I don't have a banner and my format stays the same forever and ever--now you know : ) When it comes to blogger, I can type and I can upload photos--and that IS IT. I don't have the patience to sit and fiddle. So, if you're one of those smart bloggers who knows how to make a little rotating photo box--let me know how to do it and I'll have a way out for the rest of my vacation photos.

For now, here's a little glimpse of the first leg of our trip in the pan handle of Idaho where Uncle Jake and Aunt Emily reside. Grandparents Tractor met us there and the whole fam had a glorious 4th of July 3-day weekend. We enjoyed both Lake Coeur D'Alene and Hayden Lake to take the edge off the heat.
The kind fire fighters let the kids hop up and explore the fire boat. They told my dad that two years ago during the Hayden Lake fireworks display, something went wrong and the firework barge started on fire. Yikes! Workers were bailing off the sides all over the place. That's a little more of a show than folks had bargained for. Everyone was fine and the fire fighters put the fire out to keep the barge from sinking.


After baking at Hayden Lake we treated ourselves to frozen yogurt for lunch. And, oh, the food. We got meat hangovers at the Brazilian grill in down town Coeur D'Alene and then stuffed ourselves with Aunt Emmy's bbq ribs the next night. Uncle Brett dazzled us with his very own fire works display--complete with smooth moves by he and Uncle Jake, hehe. Both Ezra and Caroline learned that Mom and Dad aren't kidding when they say "be careful with sparklers".




The Tractors had to go home late afternoon on the 4th--but our family was able to stay and enjoy the amazing firework display over Lake Coeur D'Alene. Nora does not enjoy fireworks. She covered her ears and willed herself to sleep. I could almost here her saying "Go to sleep. This isn't happening. GO to sleep" over and over with her eyes tightly screwed shut. Poor baby.







On the morning of the 5th we woke up, said good bye to Daddy for the rest of the week and settled in for the long drive to southeastern Idaho. And in case you're wondering...nope, I haven't finished that long list of things to do from that last post!

We're Ba-ack

We arrived home from our 2 1/2 weeks in Idaho safely last evening. Now if I can ever unpack the suitcases, finish the laundry, get some groceries in the house, bathe the kids (don't worry I did give them a bath at least twice, I'm almost positive, while we were gone), mow the lawn, pick the raspberries, pay the neighbor boy for watering our plants, do the ironing, charge the camera, find the camera cord, upload the 250 pictures to the computer ( I know, I know, any self respecting blogger would have at least 1000 photos in that amount of time. But I feel lucky to have any photos) and otherwise unbury myself--perhaps I will post some pictures of our trip : ) We really had a lot of fun! Until then....