Royal #1

The next leg of our trip was Randy's Dad's house, which was broken up a bit, this is part of what we did with Dad and Anna, Randy's step-mom.  

Randy's siblings, kids, their kids, and the sister in-law's.

From Left to right; Emma, Randy, Me, Jolene (sister), Payton (Sara's son), Sara (sister), Gia (Sara's daughter), Kenadi, Kendal (sister in-law), Mark (brother)

Anna had a side-walk chalk party complete with bubbles for the grandkids.  They had tons of fun.

Sara, Payton, and Kenadi- Sara was teaching the kids how to do cartwheels after she beat Anna and I to a couple of cartwheel races.  She was fast!  I was impressed.

Emma thinking she could mow the lawn.  She did this for a while-complete with the mowing noises.  

Me and Emma on the slide.  I was having major problems with uploading pictures for some reason.  Most of them wouldn't load, so I had Randy do it.  I don't know why a few are sideways, but I'm not trying to fix them.  So just turn your head. 

One of our favorites, the waterslide.  This was me and Anna, and I think I bailed out soon after the picture was taken.  We love the slide.  Emma wanted to go down a bunch, and did.  Kenadi didn't want to go down at all, but after a forced trial run, she decided that she liked it.

Kenadi and "Papa".  The girls were so happy to see Nana and Papa and their horses.  They wanted to go out every day and pet them and sit on them.

Emma was a bit timid at first.  She only liked horses from a magazine.  She warmed up.

The view from where Randy grew up.  This lake and cliff is just in front of the house.  A funny story is that Randy's car in high school rolled off of these cliffs when he forgot to put the emergency brake on before seminary one morning.  It was no good after that.

The house that Randy's dad and step-mom live in.  Randy says that he helped his dad build some of it.  I guess that is why he knows so much.

Randy and I took the Harley out for a spin.  

Kenadi and her cousin, Payton.  He is 5, and they had a blast together.

Randy and his siblings, Jolene, Sara, and Mark.  We were lucky spend more time with them this trip.  They all came over for the weekend, and we had so much fun!  

It's A...

I went to the ultrasound appointment last week on Tuesday and have been wondering if I want to tell you what we're having or not.  I have decided that it might be fun to post what the baby is when it arrives.  SO, WE know what we're having, and it's a healthy normal looking baby according to the ultrasound, but we will let you wonder until it's here!  Ok, unless you don't care about being surprised, then you can email me and I'll let you know.  =)  One more thing.  My due date has changed again, and it is now January 28th, so expect to hear about our new baby sometime in February.  That's just how it goes.

Grandma and Grandpa's house #2

Well, this is another big post with lots of pictures.  I think that all of my vacation posts will be like this, so just be patient.

At my Grandparent's house there are 2 ponds.  They are on the other side of the creek and pretty near the house.  We took advantage of those ponds and swam in them every day that we were there.  The water was surprisingly refreshing but not cold!  Grandma swam with us and we had so much fun with her.  Isn't she beautiful?  I hope I'm like her when I get her age.  She has more energy than anybody else I know.  I really do need her endless amounts of energy.  I always tell Randy that I wish I had my Grandma's energy.  It's funny because it's true.  Who can really say that about a Grandparent?  Her and Emma are good for each other. 

A little family picture.

One of our boating excursions.

This is the lower pond.  Grandpa built that gazebo and bridge that goes over it.

This is the upper pond.  There are 2 islands in it.  One of them has a bridge that goes right to it, and that is the one that we swam off of.  The other island is accessible by boat only.  Hmmm, it is so peaceful out there.

My beautiful Grandma and their newest addition-Roy. 

Here are a few more things that you can find around my Grandparent's house.  Funny signs like this one.

Beautiful and intricate art.  My Grandpa painted this one and the one below.  I wish I could get a better picture for you to see.

These two are done by my mom's cousin, or my first cousin-once removed.  She does pencil.  The one above is of Cindy, Grandpa's dog.  The one below is of Tara, Grandma's horse.  

Lastly, but not really, we played a game or two every night.  Usually cards.  Notice Emma steeling cookies out of the cookie jar?  

Anyways, that's our visit to my Grandparent's in a nutshell.  Can you tell I enjoy it there?

Congratulations Chase! (multiple post day)

My sweet little (bigger) brother has gotten his mission call!  He is going to leave November 10th, and he's going to the Richmond Virginia mission!  I am so proud of him.  He is a good boy, and I know that this will be great for him and the people who's lives he will help touch.

Grandma and Grandpa's house

We spent the first 2 days of our trip last month at my Grandparents farm, and I spent those days remembering all of the things that I love about visiting them.  I took pictures like crazy and thought that I'd do a post or 2 dedicated to our grandparents. Do you have memories and things that you love about your Grandparents and their house?  I do.  I rarely get to visit them anymore, and so this time I just wanted to take pictures and capture everything that I love about my Grandma and Grandpa and their farm.

  My grandparents live on a farm that was purchased and built by my grandma's grandpa.  He built the house which is now historical.  It was built by cement in 1913: 4 inch walls on each side of a 4 inch dead air space for insulation.  My Great-Great Grandpa Rusho mixed a railroad car of cement (not all at once) and poured it all himself.  After pouring the bottom 4 feet of house, he built a pulley/elevator system to pour it for the rest of the house.  It is 3 stories high with a basement/cellar.  Huge for the time that it was built in.  And still big.  He also placed a dam and water wheel in the creek behind his property to operate a water pump for the new house.  He installed a table saw, grindstone and other equipment that were operated by waterpower.  I love their house.  It has so many memories that come with it.  The pictures above are of the house.  The funny thing is that I took pictures of it from all angles, except the front of it. Woops.

This is the little shop that goes over the creek that houses the waterwheel and blacksmith thing.

The waterwheel, obviously.  I know that my Grandpa did some work on it to get it running again so they could use it to power the house if they needed to.  I don't know if they've used it since then.

The milk barn.  My Grandma and Grandpa had a dairy and they used to milk every morning and evening at 5.  I would always wake up early and go out to watch them and drink warm milk when I was little.  They don't run the dairy anymore.  Instead my Grandma uses this barn for her woodshop, and she is quite good.

The tack barn.  I love the silhouette that Grandma made for it.

Some of their many horses.  My grandma trains and rides horses like crazy-when it's not hay season.  The barn in the background has been a subject for many photographers pictures.  It is historical, and it is being taken apart and moved to southern Idaho.  My grandparents used it forever, but I guess the lady that is having it moved is the Grand-daughter of the person who built it.  Isn't the scenery gorgeous?

And again-the scenery.  You can see Randy and my Grandma changing pipe.  While we visited Randy got to go back to his roots and change pipe morning and night.  He did enjoy it.

Here are some things we did.  The girls played on the many toys.  This motorcycle my Grandma built.

Grandma pulled the girls around in this old VW.  They loved practicing how to "drive".

There was lots of time for talking.  I caught Randy and Grandpa deep in conversation here, and had to enjoy a picture of it.

This is Grandpa consoling Kenadi after I traumatized her by trying to get her to go for a ride on the lawnmower.  As soon as I started the thing up she went screaming and crying until Grandpa held her.

Emma and Kenadi enjoyed throwing rocks into the creek.

There are so many neat antiques around the farm.  The neat thing is that they were all used by ancestors or family members.  This is my Aunt Carmen's tricycle.  Isn't it neat?  I think all of us grandkids have used it too.

One of my Grandma's favorite horses.  I had to take a picture of this beauty because her name is- Tara.  Well, it's Wind-Tara's Delight.  Tara for short.  

And I love this old phone.  Ok, I know there are some random things here, and the next post has more to come.  I just love visiting here so much that I was hoping to share my enthusiasm about ALL of it.

I'm sure we all feel that way about our Grandparent's and their houses, just because of the memories they hold.