Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Teton Village
This is the motel we are staying at. It is up against the mountain, but it is about 10 miles from the hill climb.
We have a nice warm fire place and a kitchenette. BJ made an awesome breakfast this morning and we packed sandwiches for our lunches.


This jeep was at the hill climb. I took the picture because I knew my mom and dad would like it.

This is the hill that they climb up, pictures don't do it justice. It is so steep! This is what the hill looked like in the morning. This view is from the pit area.

Here is the starting line, the staging area is right behind it. There is a big TV down here but it still doesn't do justice. The guys who were filming for the TV sat in tree stands up and down the hill.
BJ took this picture from the lift. We got to see two of the snowmobiles make it to the top from the lift up the mountain.
Jackson Hole from the top of the mountain. It was pretty cloudy and snowy today so we really couldn't see all the beautiful mountains that surround us on all sides. When we flew in, it was really clear though and so beautiful. Now we know why it is called a hole. It is just a hole in the mountains and it looks like you are going to land on the steep mountains until 5 minutes before you land. Kind of scary!
There is over 200 racers and on average 1 out of ten made it to the very top. It was so full of big ruts and holes that the sleds got stuck and spun out bad. We saw atleast 4 roll down the hill and one even rolled through the crowd on the other side of the fence. Really exciting, constant wrecks.

It snowed on us almost all day today. Thank goodness for toe warmers!! The trees blocked most of the wind though. Thank goodness.


After the races were all done for the day we had to get down the hill. First, we started walking down through the trees but there were so many rocks and tree stumps, so we hopped the fence and headed straight down the face of the hill. We sat on our bottoms and slid all the way down, along with all the other people. There was a "train" of people sliding down the hill. It was so much fun!! We are looking forward to tomorrow and the top guys riding. Thanks to everyone that has made it possible for us to go. We are having a wonderful time!

Mississippi River Museum

Spring Break
We had a great day with Uncle Doug, Aunt Ginger, Olivia, Shekinah, Ben and Luke. We headed out early and had a good breakfast in the Amana's then we went through the Mississippi River Museum in Dubuque, IA. The museum was really neat I recommend it highly. They had lots of fun animals and stories about the Steamboats and Barges and Tug Boats. They had a really neat old boat they used to dredge the bottom of the river and you could go in all the rooms and down into the engine rooms and things. It was very educational and lots of fun. After the museum we had a late picnic lunch then headed back home. We are thankful to Uncle Doug and Aunt Ginger for the invitation. We need to do things like this more often.





Venom Display
This is a rattlesnake cage with about 5 rattlers in it! You could crawl underneath it and pop up in the little bubbles and look like you were inside with the snakes. Yuck! Gideon thought it was awesome!

Farm Babies

Calves and Kittens
We have had all but one cow have a calf this year. We only had to bring one into the bathtub and we only had one come backwards. We lost the backwards calf so BJ got a Holstien calf to put on the cow that lost her calf but she didn't want it. She must of seen the spots :) so now we have a bottle calf. The little black calf was a twin and he did okay for a day or so but he was pretty small, so we lost him. Life of the farmer. God is good though and the rest are healthy and strong.

These are Grandma Boender's kitties. They are so tiny and the kids love to cuddle them! If any of them survive they will be nice and tame. Rachel tells me everyday that she is going to take one home when it gets big enough. We will just have to see about that.

She Can Do It !!

Rachel Can Swing!

Mom's and babysitters alike can understand my excitement over the fact that Rachel can now pump and make her self swing all by herself! She is very proud of herself and so am I!
I can now stand in one spot and just push Johnathon instead of having to walk back and forth. Given it isn't that far of a walk it is just the fact that now I only have one child saying "mom, mom, mom I want to go as high as the others, push me, push me now." I am truly thankful. Now we can start working on Johnathon and when he is finished I can just sit on the deck and read a book. Ha ha:)

Spoiled!

Valentines
My wonderful husband had to go out at 10:00 at night on Friday the 13th to go push 3 inches of snow. He got home at 3:00 Valentines morning. I got up when the kids woke up, went into the kitchen and was surprised by the beautiful bouquet of yellow roses and the very nice card to go with it. I really wasn't expecting anything because he had told me a few times that the new kitchen was my Valentines, mother's day, birthday and Christmas present all in one.;)
Later that day I also got a bright daisy bouquet from my Dad and my sister gave me the white daisies. I felt very very spoiled! Thank goodness I had a whole new counter to put all my beautiful flowers on!
Hope all of you had a wonderful Valentines too.

What We Do On a Beautiful Day!

After the power washer bath we parked her in front of the heater and she dried off just a little bit. It is a very good thing I had her put farm clothes and mud boots on before we left the house.(Just in case.)
The Mud Hole
Dad got out the power washer and carefully hosed her down. Thank goodness it was 55 degrees outside and we live only a mile down the road from Grandpa and Grandma's farm!

Rachel, she is more a boy than my boys sometimes:) She came flying around the corner and drove right into the mud. This mud is deep, almost 8 inches. She hit the mud and flew over the handlebars; but she didn't let go. Oops. Oh well she didn't get hurt and we all got a laugh.

Finished Kitchen!

The Bar!
This is my favorite part! We are working on finding bar stools at the moment and now the drywall is patched and I just need to paint it. Those minor details that take a little while to get done.
Okay, this is also my favorite part! The back splash. It really pulls everything together nicely.
It isn't completely finished I guess. They added a shelf above the stove so I have a little bit more counter space. Someday we would like a microwave that goes over the stove but for the time being I just use it for odds and ends.

Johnathon is Three Years Old!!
This is my favorite picture I took for his pics. He wasn't extremely cooperative so I didn't get a huge variety.

Birthday parties are always so much fun. Thanks to everyone who could come and for the wonderful gifts as well. It was so nice to have a open and almost done kitchen to have a party in!

Johnathon wanted a race car cake so I did my best. I don't know it was really leaning by the end of the day. He thought it was cool though! The 21 B is his Dad's race car number and Dad's car will be green and orange too.

More and More Kitchen
Johnathon "works" all day in the kitchen on anything he can get his screw driver, hammer and whatever else he can find to "fix" like daddy. I am constantly having to keep a very close eye on him so that he doesn't pound a new hole into anything. When the guys get home in the evening to really work on things he is just happy as can be to be in the middle of everything!
Here he is sitting on the sink so daddy can caulk around it and make sure it seals tight. He wasn't heavy enough so, Jeremiah had to add his weight too.
This is how the counter top came. (without a sink hole) Jeremiah and BJ measured and measured to make sure that they would cut it just right. They did an awesome job and we all breathed a big sigh of relief when we popped the sink into the hole and it fit perfectly. Way to go guys!!
BJ worked hard Tuesday night while I was at a meeting and put in two new can lights. They are so nice and really make the kitchen look new, clean and finished. I love the warm light they give off verses the florescent light we had before.

Happy 3rd Birthday Johnathon!

Poor Johnathon didn't get much of a birthday party yet because our kitchen is still kindof a disaster. Mom has big plans to have everyone over, I just kindof wanted the hutch out of the hall way:) He didn't seem to mind that he didn't have lots of people to come over; he was happy with going to Grandma Jan's for the day and having Bratwurst, rice and corn for supper. ( His choices.) He also got yellow cupcakes with the chocolate frosting being his favorite. So now I have cupcakes without frosting on them because Johnathon licked it all off. I guess it takes a little more than three years to grow out of that. We are all very proud and thankful to God for our little Johnathon who isn't that little anymore. I am working on his 3 year old pics and will get them up here as soon as I get them.

New Cupboards!




Wow, I thought it would look really big when everything was out of it, but it didn't it looked really small. Thank goodness for cupboard space!