To Whom It May Concern

Please do not give these to my husband. If I were to light a match our house would explode.

Thank you.

Family Home Evening

We all went out yesterday on the boat for Family Home Evening. James had a meeting, so we missed him, but other then that our night was pretty perfect!

Wrinkly hands!

Striking It Rich

We had an adventure yesterday! Now, when I say this, I'm not using the phrase as you would sarcastically about a really horrible day. We actually had an adventure yesterday! We packed up really early in the morning, dropped off Cooper at Grandpa and Grandma Davis' house, and then we hit the road for a road trip. We drove two hours south to the Emerald Creek Mine just past St. Maries, Idaho. We went to dig for Star Garnets! For anyone who wants to see one, here is what they look like. So, our experience went as follows...

We arrived at the mine after a very beautiful 2 hour drive, and listening to the new Coldplay cd 4 times. Love it. We arrive and park our car, and then hike 1/2 a mile to the mine.

At the mine you pay for a permit, and then you start digging! At this mine you are allowed to take home 5 pounds of Garnets for every permit you pay for. It's very special because these stones are only found in this remote Idaho(?) mine and in India. So, they were very exciting to look for.They give you two buckets, and then tell you to fill one up from the previously mined pile of dirt. See below.

You are then to proceed to the sifting area. As you look at the pictures, keep in mind two things.

1. Steve took these pictures without moving his feet at all, just turning in a circle. The whole experience takes place in a very small area.

2. The Park Ranger told us that yesterday was the busiest day they have EVER had. Yikes.

So, in this picture you are seeing the sifting station. You pour your dirt/rocks from your bucket over a screen and sift all the mud through, saving the rocks in your spare bucket.

You then carry your bucket of rocks and your empty bucket down to the water station. Using a different screen you pour the remnants of what you dug onto the screen and the let the water wash away all the dirt so you can see what you've got!

Here's (from left) Sydni, Aidan, Dan, and Steve, looking at their rocks to see if they came away with any garnets.

The day was so much fun and we all ended up finding some. Thanks so much to Dan and Staci for being troopers and coming with us, it was so fun to do together! Also, thanks to Mom and Dad and Mason for watching Cooper!

It's clearly been a long and exhausting week.

We love living out here on the Prairie. We sometimes have to hunker down during the windstorms, but we love our sunsets, thunderstorms and Javiers.

Summer's Here!

Summer has taken off! Things have been pretty crazy around here, but we are so enjoying it! As usual, my blogs have stockpiled so here is the condensed version.

A few weekends ago we had a ward bbq, as I previously mentioned. We had such a fun time, but I had some secret fun watching Dexter at the bbq. He was my personal hero all day, and the picture just sums it up.

This picture is especially fun because...

1. You can see that they are both on their 2nd sodas
2. You can see the chocolate all over Dexter's face from the cookies

3. And Dexter clearly is looking sick...

It has been super hot here this last week, and we discovered that maybe we did wish that we had AC after all. We are all very wilted by the end of the day, especially Cooper. We had our Daines Family Reunion this week, which was super fun, but very tiring. We did so many fun things, I never managed to take a picture. Here is Cooper after one of our long days at the reunion.

And then, the Fourth! We were so lucky to get to be with both of our families this year. We had so much fun at the parade with the Davis family, and then the rest of the day out at the cabins. My Own Firecracker!

Bizzer and Annie

Typical Cooper ...we got so lucky with this guy!

We were so lucky yesterday to get to attend baby Annie's blessing. I won't give away Candy's upcoming post, but it was a very special blessing. Also, we attended a special Daines family reunion to honor Steven's grandmother who is 90 years old. She has created such a wonderful posterity, and we feel very lucky to be part of our families.

A Full Day...

I've never tried to blog with three children in my lap, so bear with me if things are a little strange.

We had a really full day today. Candy and I went shopping to get all the supplies for a ward bbq tomorrow. It's a missionary activity organized by the activity committee, so Candy and I took the hit with both our husbands somehow ending up in charge. (Yikes!)

So, we hit up Costco and Wal-Mart and managed to get our supplies for under $200. (Our out-of this world budget) As part of our carnival/bbq we decided to do a Goldfish pool, so the kids could capture the Goldfish and take them home as pets. We bought 100 goldfish at 28 cents a piece, and we were pretty proud of ourselves. They're dropping like flies. We've already flushed 5 and there are a whole bunch more that are not very responsive. The good news is that for 9o days Wal-Mart replaces them, and you only have to bring the receipt. The poor fish man at the store told us that sometimes people freeze them and then bring them back. (Because?)

So, wish those poor little guys luck tonight and tomorrow...

Steve was awesome and watched Tori, Sammy, and Cooper so we could go to the store quickly.

Ah, true love. (Sadly a few minutes before Steven, I sat on the ghetto chair without the bottom legs locked into positon, and it of course collapsed. I know I was experiencing some fantastic karma because I was blessed to have Candy witness the entire thing and remind me all day.

We hung out the rest of the day, with Dexter and Mercer too. It was a fun day, especially because we lathered Cooper up and he had his first fun experience in the water. We had tried previously, but Sammy was in the pool then. We all know that telling a one year old not to splash is about as effective as saying, "Don't look!" to another person. Why do we bother?

Steve was sweet enough to sit in our little pool and hold Cooper. It was pretty funny to see, considering that Steve took up about 2/3rds of the pool. What a great daddy.

Cooper is filling out so well! We are so excited to see some new chubs on him.

Last Video, I Promise!

Okay, so I haven't ever really been a huge Tim McGraw fan, but I was impressed when I saw this video. The story is that he saw a male fan attack a female fan at his concert, and then called for security. When they didn't take care of the problem soon enough, this is what happened.

P.S. I can't believe that he's still singing that song! I remember that song from when we lived in PA a long time ago...