Aug 28 - Thoughts on Temple and "Passing the Test"

Today was a day to recover from the long day yesterday. It started off going to Grandpa Bates house to hear about his melanoma results and give him a blessing. Right now they have some additional tests scheduled for next week so we will know more soon about what the future will hold. They did remove a mole last week and they need to do some more tests.

After the blessing I got to go to the temple to spend some time with the Activity Day girls (age 8 - 11) and share my thoughts on the temple. With everything going on the past few days I am not sure my mind was functioning at 100% (my kids would say that it never has reached that high).

One thing I do know, is that we are here to past our "test" and once we are done, we will be called home. I just hope that all my family will be able to "past the test". I really hope that Heavenly Father grades on a curve when it comes to me.

Aug 27 - Old Works and Old Body

Today was my long awaited golf trip to Anaconda, MT to golf the "Old Works" golf course. This is a fantastic course designed by Jack Nicklaus (check out the below web site). We had 8 of us leave at 5:30 in the morning, we golfed 36 holes, and drove back that night. By the end of the night I felt like I had an "old body". The course is famous for it's black slag sand traps, which is left over from the cooper processing that used to be done on the golf site.

Anyone in to golf should check out this course and golf it if they get the chance.

http://www.oldworks.org/index.php

Aug 26 - Back to School (Part two), Water Kickball, and Tyler Loves Me

Tonight was Tyler's back to school night (this is the last year we have all our kids in different schools - YEA!). His attitude is fairly positive as nothing much bothers Tyler. He also had to go help our Cub Scout pack play water kickball. He does a great job as a den chief.

Also, a word of advise, don't get dressed in the dark. When I put on socks this morning, I did not notice that one had writing on it (as seen in the picture). Good thing I did not take my shoes off until the end of the day. I guess this is a left over sock from our trip to Alaska, where we had socks for each kid. Since we could not take them, we took a sock to represent each one. Some how Tyler's sock ended up on my foot.

Aug 25 - Back to School Night - Part 1

We had two back to school nights tonight (and one tomorrow) as Micah and Mariah had theirs tonight. It is amazing how different a elementary student's attitude is towards school versus the attitude of a junior in high school. One was all ready to go and one was not too excited (I will let you guess which one had the positive attitude).

From the above picture, you can see that Micah brought all her supplies so she will be ready to go. The backpack weighted as much as she did. Mariah (not pictured) has just a few supplies in her locker. She was also going to bring her history book to school, but left it in the car (she forgot it was there).

Wendy and I know that both these kids will do well in school this year. Mariah has a big year ahead as she prepares for ACT and other college prep classes.

Aug 24 - Minute to Win It

Tonight the youth in our ward had an activity based on the game show "Minute to Win it". They had one minute to do a bunch of crazy stunts.

Tyler had to flip his shoes on to a table. There was a game where they had to unwind a roll of TP and wrap up a partner (our Bishop is shown in the above picture). There was a about 12 different games they had to do. Mariah's team won (thanks to some creative work by the leaders).

Aug 23 - Sleep Over and Late Night Party

Tonight we had a sleep over with Kaitlyn, Nicole and Kedryn. They played several games, such as hide and seek. They had a great time.

Mariah also had a late night party. There was a midnight release party for the book "Mockingjay", the third book in "The Hunger Games". In this picture she is showing off her "Team Peeta" shirt. If you have not read the books, then Mariah can tell you all about them.

Aug 22 - Card Game

Mariah, Wendy and I spent part of today playing a card game we picked up in Oregon. It is called "Sleeping Queens". It is a fun little card game that even I can understand (after Micah reminds me how to play). I must be getting older.

Tyler took this picture!

Aug 21 - New (or Used) Car!

Well, we did it. We got a new addition to the family today. We spent a couple of hours at the car shop, but we got Mariah a car. I think overall we got a good deal and the car is in good shape.

We also got to spend part of the day celebrating the wedding of our Bishop's daughter. The wedding was at the Rexburg Temple and they had a reception in the evening. The temple president preformed the wedding and it was one of the best "pre-marriage" advice I have heard. I wish I could have a copy of it.

We drove the new car to the reception, so today was a good day!

Aug 20 - Pleaseeeeeeeee????

Today Wendy and Mariah went car shopping and found a car that might work out. It is a 2003 Chevy Malibu. We took it to a car shop to have it checked out and they found no major problems with the car, so tomorrow we will see if we can make the price work. Mariah has been asking for a car for several months and her expectations have gone from a new car, to a car that just has four wheels. Hopefully tomorrow we can get the car and this project can be over.

Aug 19 - Fun with Cousins

We watched Elise, Cade and Landon this evening as Shanell and Rod went to the temple. It is always fun to have cousins over. These pictures where taken as they were setting up an obstacle course in our back yard.

Aug 18 - Sunset in Idaho Falls

A few days ago, I captured a sunrise, so today, I thought I would post a picture of the sunset. This was taken out of the front door as I was coming in from doing some church work. I was walking home from church and had to capture this picture. The sunsets this time of year are really nice up here (although I do miss the sunsets in Denver - beautiful as the sunset behind the Front Range).

Aug 17 - Best Friends

I don't believe that we have put a picture of Bogey on the blog. Bogey is just like another kid in our family. He wakes up Wendy in the morning to be fed, and lets everyone know when he needs to go outside.

I always wanted a Lab when I was young, so I was happy to have him as our first dog. He is such a good dog, but he does shed (which drives us all crazy).

We all love Bogey.

Aug 16 - Sand Dunes

Today we had family home evening at the sand dunes. We grilled some food and talked about Lehi taking his family into the desert. The weather got a little windy, so we ate in cars, but the weather did clear and we had a good time playing in the sand.

Aug 15 - Pop Tart?????

Ever wonder what a Pop Tart looks like after it has been in the microwave for 2 1/2 minutes? Well one of our kids decided to put the pop tart in the microwave and misread the directions. It said to put it in for about "3 seconds", but I guess the "seconds" looked like "minutes". Good thing we did not go for the whole 3 minutes. The house was full of smoke and the smell lingered on for several days.

Aug 14 - Saturday Chores

Nothing like Saturday chores to make a happy home. Got these pictures of the kids cleaning up the house. Note that Mariah's picture is not posted, this is because she was NOT in a good mood and her picture almost broke my camera.

Aug 13 - Big Day

Today was a big day for Wendy. The kids and I tried to make sure that she had a good birthday. We just hung out and did things that Wendy wanted to do. She opened presents and had we had our yearly ice cream cake (much better then making a cake).

Aug 12 - Picking Raspberry

Wendy, Tyler and Micah went picking raspberries today at Grandma and Grandpa's Bates home. Raspberry are Micah and Wendy's favorite fruit to pick.

Aug 11 - Visit Dr. Summers

Tyler had his first visit today at the orthodontics. He has to get 4 teeth pulled and his wisdom teeth out within the next few months. Then he will start braces. I hope he does not have to have them on as long as I did. This picture shows what his teeth look like today. He has a long way to go (I think he got his teeth from me).

Aug 10 - Sunrise in Idaho Falls

I snapped this picture of the sunrise as I was heading out the door for work. It was really hard to get up today, as we had such a great time on our trip.

Aug 9 - Trip Home

Not much happened today, as we left about 6:30 (local time) and drove home. We pulled in to Idaho Falls just before 9:00 pm. I did not take a picture this day, but Wendy did of the falls we saw on day 2 of our trip.

Aug 8 - Sunset at Seaside

We finally saw blue skies at Seaside (for just a couple of hours).

Today we attended the Seaside Ward Sunday service. Had a BBQ then went to the Salt Works (Lewis and Clark place). Went looking for Blackberries, but it was too early in the season. Walked on the beach, flew a kite, kids went swimming in the pool and watched the sun set. It was the first one we could see all week. Packed up for the return trip home.

Aug 7 - Seaside Day

We took things a little slow today. Went shopping at the outlet mall, and got some clothes. Kids swam in the pool and we did a little grocery shopping. We then went to a couple of art shops in Seaside. We bought a couple of pictures of the coast. We ate out at a place called Puggy's. Micah and I had our rematch in golf. This time she was not as sharp, so I did win. We came back home and I taught the kids "nerts", a card game I have played most of my life. We watched another episode of "Psych", which we have watched nonstop this trip.

These pictures show our view from our room, and our living area. The place we stayed at was very nice.

Aug 6 - Say Cheese

We drove down to Tillamook. Went through the Tillamook Cheese factory, ate several samples, and had ice cream. Then took a scenic loop, which included many lookouts over the ocean, a light house (worlds smallest lighthouse), and the Octopus tree.

On the way back to Seaside, we had to stop for more ice cream at the Tillamook factory. Weather was sunny! Drove back to Seaside, and then went too the beach. Weather was cloudy at Seaside (about 95% cload cover). Kids went swimming, tried to fly a kite, played football and freebie. Kids then swam in pool, Wendy went shopping.

Aug 5 - Day at Seaside and Ecola State Park

We all slept in today. We went to Seaside Aquarium in the morning. Feed some sea-lions who where very funny.

We then went to Cannon Beach and ate lunch at Mo's (famous seafood place). Then went to Ecola State Park. Saw tide pools (some really cool stuff), lighthouse, and great sites, including beach where Goonies was filmed.

Came back and I swam with Tyler and Micah while Wendy and Mariah went car shopping, picked up a few items at Safeway, and hit the outlet malls. We had dinner ready when they got back.

Then we went shopping along Broadway, played mini-golf (which Micah and I tied for first), kids went on a Tilt-a-whirl, and did bumper cars. Micah was killing me in mini-golf, and I had to get two hole-in-ones just to tie her. Waked on beach at high tide. We came back home and played a new card game and ate some smores. We are all really tired, and tomorrow is a big day.

Aug 4 - Astoria and Visted Washington State

We eat breakfast with the McQuivey family who is in town (Paul is our Executive Secretary).

We drive up to Astoria and visited Fort Clatsop where Lewis and Clark stayed on winter.

We then climbed the Astoria column, which had 164 spiral steps (I got a little dizzy coming down). We then drove by the Goonies home (that is the picture of the house with a bald eagle flying overhead). We also saw other places where movies where shot (kindergarten cop, short circuit and others). Then ate lunch at Subway and "The Bow Picker" (fish and chip place). Went to the Columbia Maritime Museum (which was way cool).

We then drove to Washington State and saw two light houses. Drove back and tried to find a gas station. Gas stations are hard to find, they have more Dairy Queens than gas stations in Oregon. We then had hamburgers at out place and played at the Funland.