Labor Day Rafting

We spent labor day doing one of the things we love best - Rafting. We took four days and ran the lower Salmon river in central Idaho. It was a beautiful trip with plenty of adventure (ask Maren about how she saved Grandpa in the rapids). The girls love spending time with grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles.

Bruce joined us as our newest rafting recruit. Kelli trained him well and we are hoping the rest of his family can come along next year.

We always enjoy sleeping under the stars. As always, the food was excellent. Thanks to everyone who was willing to pitch in and feed us so well.

Another successful family vacation, Davidson style!

All In Jest

My super talented, super creative friend Jenee just added a few more adorable creatures to her Etsy store. Check her out at All In Jest. Wouldn't this adorable 'Sophie Softie' doll make a great baby gift?

Potty Time

It's time. Izzy is ready. So today we cleared our schedule, pulled out the panties,

the skittles,

and set the timer every 30 minutes.

Wish us luck! I'm hoping to cross diapers off my grocery list for good in the near future.

Summer is OVER

Summer officially ended today! It's turned cold - I don't think it's gotten above 60F today - and rainy. On top of that, today was the first day of school.

Summer is over!!

But we drug out summer as long as possible. We pulled in the driveway late last night from a wonderful rafting trip (I will post on that sometime soon). The girls showered, picked out their first day outfits and went to bed. This morning it was busy, but not to chaotic as we woke early, tried to re-start early morning scripture study, made lunches and drove to school in time to drop of each child to their new classroom with a VERY LARGE bag of school supplies.

I did not have time to take photos before school, but I did manage to get one as everyone arrived home. Just picture the girls with less messy hair and you can imagine what they looked like as the walked out to their new classes.

Maren started Kindergarten today. She was a little nervous and kept telling me she wasn't going to go. But she did fine and even made a new friend. We are sad that our favorite Kindergarten teacher retired, but Maren has a new teacher that is very excited and we hope she has a good year.

Priest Lake

We spent a great August weekend with our friends at Priest Lake. 7 Families, 23 kids, 9 tents, 2 boats, 1 catamaran and lots of beach toys. The kids will have great memories of spending days on the beach and evenings around the campfire with their friends.

We had great water skiing in the mornings and evenings and gentle breezes during the day for the catamaran. I still don't know if I'm over the work of packing and unpacking - but it was definitely a fun trip. The kids loved the beach and spent at least 14 hours a day in their swimming suits.

The adults had lots of fun water time too. The Dads spent an afternoon trying to figure out the air chair. I wish I could have been on the boat to see that!

The Moms got out too. Here's Cassi and Erin skiing double. Way to go girls!

An unexpected wind and rain storm blew the catamaran off the beach. Kirk had to swim for it. But no damage was done.

Some of the girls had the crazy idea of doing a polar dip. We did say they couldn't get out of the tent until 7am, but it still seemed too early to be swimming.

Got Milk?

I made my first purchase of raw milk this week. We drove to a small farm not far from our house - complete with barefoot children, chickens on the front porch & cows in the meadow. We spent $5 for a gallon of milk in a large olive jar from the fridge in the garage.

There are very strong opinions on both sides of the fence regarding raw milk. You can check the information from both sides and decide for yourselves. Many argue that raw milk is healthier. See this website for more details. The other side argues that pasteurization is essential in avoiding the risk of bacterial contamination. See this website for more details.

I'm not sure which side of the fence I sit on. I've always put a gallon of milk into my cart at WalMart and not thought too much more about it. So why the raw milk purchase???

Purely NOSTALGIA.

When Kirk heard a friend mention she was buying raw milk, it reminded of him drinking raw milk growing up. He also reminisces about powdered milk (which he likes for some unknown reason). Two extremes, I know.

So we came home with a gallon of raw milk. What did the kids want for dinner? Cereal to go with it. Perfect. Kirk showed us how to skim off the cream and we had a delicious dinner.

Fair Results

The results are in. We went to the fair tonight and came out pretty well with our photo entries. 2 blue ribbons 2 red ribbons Yeah!