When in Indiana......

You just have to LOVE the county fair. The Vigo County fair started today. Bailee and Elly both won blue ribbons (thank you Newton's).

Elly's blue ribbon for photography.

Bailee (who we were embarrassing so she couldn't stand by the basket--gotta love it!!) Blue ribbon basket.

Picture of Rowen taken by Hillary and it won reserve champion. (A little glare from the plasstic covering)
Here is one of the fireworks we lit off last night. These are the kind of fireworks you can light off in you front yard in Indiana. It is amazing. We have never lived anywhere that these are legal. We can hear fireworks almost every night and have had a great time watching and lighting them.

Running and Sunning

So we have officially lived in Indiana for one year. It has been a lot of fun and definitely an adventure.

This was a fast week. On Tuesday, Mary and Sam Moss visited from Iowa. It was so good to see them and we hadn't seen them since February of 2007. That is when they left on their mission and then we moved. Time goes way too fast but it was like we just saw them yesterday. I am sad we did not get a picture. I realized that just as they left our house.

The kids played a lot of tennis and swam every day that it did not rain. Lots of rain this week. Bailee won her basketball game on Tuesday and Thursday and really put up the boards scoring 8 points in both games. Just one year ago we took her to every game crying --oh what a difference a year makes. Since we had just moved here she did not want to go but has since told us "Thank you so much for making me go--I love basketball now." So some things are good to force or strongly encourage.

Bailee (51) shooting.
Saturday Peyton and Elly were in a triathalon on a team with friends. Peyton swam 100m and ran a mile and his friend Tyson biked 3 miles. Elly biked 3 miles and her friend Tanner swam and ran. It was a lot of fun and we got the race in before a big storm hit. It was soo cool to watch. Elly's favorite part was that she had the numbers still on her arms for church today--so nice.

Pre-race picture elly, Tanner, Tyson, Peyton

Elly dismounting to pass off to Tanner for the run.

Peyton just finishing the swim.

The boys are all smiles after the race is over. Did I say that they liked the free cookies the best!?!?

Tanner and Elly show off their medals!!!

AWE-summer

All of my pictures that I took this week got deleted so... this is a pictureless entry. so sad!! This has been another fun week of summer. We had a fun time going to McCormick's Creek State Park. It is about forty minutes away and so much fun. We went on a tour with the park ranger and saw an old limestone quarry. I am amazed at how much work they had to do to just get the rocks out. Then we had a picnic by the playground. The highlight was hiking to the waterfall. It was so beautiful and the best part was that the kids could all play in it. We left wet and smiling. On Wednesday, we saw the Hannah Montanna Movie at the $1.oo theater and loved it. Maybe not the theater so much as your feet stick to the floor and it is hard to find a row of chairs that is not torn up. Thursday was a fun filled afternoon at the Library. On Friday, we worked in the yard and the kids had fun playing in the trees (favorite passtime). The Rodebush's arrived from Iowa. It was a fun time! We grilled and then did fireworks with the Gage's (our new next door neighbor's-- who we just love having here!). Fireworks in Indiana are incredible and beyond what we could ever do in Utah as a kid. After we we finished, the kids set all of the remains on fire and had a mini bonfire. They danced around it and pretended to be wild Indians. That may have been their favorite part! On the fourth of July, it rained all day and I mean every minute of the day. It was fun to hang out with the Rodebush's. We miss them already and it was sad to say goodbye. We sure hope to see them soon!

Speedy Summer

This summer is speeding by too fast! Some people like Catie Keefe (getting married at the end of August) may love that it is going so quickly. But I am wishing time would slow down just a little. We spent this week going to tennis every morning in the heat for three hours, Elly had Math magic in the morning as well. Rowen finished up his swimming lessons and loved it!! We swam almost every day. We had to take Tuesday off because we were all a little crispy. We made strawberry freezer jam instead. Since then we have been eating a lot of PB&J and ice cream using the jam--yum!

On Wednesday we went to the Exotic Feline Rescue Center for the cub scout den meeting. It is about 20 minutes from our house and is the second largest rescue center in the country. It has over 100 lions and tigers. I must add it was at 4:30 in the afternoon and sooooo hot at least 95 degrees plus unbearable humidity. It is very interesting and a little scary as the tigers are definitely eyeing the small ones. The guide told us to be careful as sometimes the animals will spray you but she would watch them and warn us. Spray meaning that they lift their tail and spray urine at you--yikes! Then her next comment was not to worry it will smell like stale popcorn and won't hurt you. Well, as luck would have it Braden got sprayed and he was disgusted. Nothing better than tiger urine and sweat to make your day. We have been telling him who else can say they were sprayed by a tiger, in Indiana, no less :). Other than that we had a fun time.

Elly and Jewel looking at one of the white tigers. Gotta love the Eye of the Tiger--Right Jewel?

One of the lions. You could hear them roaring back and forth to each other. Too cool.

Bailee made this basket over the last few weeks in Young Women's. It looks so good! Thanks to creative YW leaders!!

On Friday we went to Racoon Lake and took the boat out for the first time this year. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and clear. We took one loop of the lake and heard a loud rattling noise. Biff took the cover off the engine and there was smoke so we quickly pulled the boat in and went swimming on the beach. It should be fixed in a week--they think it is the water pump. Gotta love the '85 Chaparal. Luckily, we were not stranded and had a great day. And still made it home for a fun GNO to see My Sisters Keeper. Good movie--if you did not read the book. We had a great time!!

Summer!!

We have officially begun our summer fun. Swimming everyday that the rain doesn't stop us, tennis lessons, library and everything you can think of doing outside. Bailee finished the ISU basketball camp, Elly did another week of math magic, Braden braved the extreme weather of cub scout day camp, Peyton loved running around at tennis and Rowen started his first official week of swimming lessons (goggles are required--picky boy!!) Biff spent most of the week in San Antonio for the NATA convention--we wish we had gone--next year. Then Friday and Saturday Elly and Braden finished off their ball seasons in some scorching games. Saturday afternoon we had the Riley end of the year picnic. They had games, food, bouncers, and lots of sunshine. It was so much fun!! Summer is the BEST!

Braden doing archery at Wildwood and by the end of the week he loved archery.

Rowen batting at the picnic. He had a blast!!

Braden and Peyton just finished racing on the bouncer! Braden's team was undefeated all year and lost their first game on Saturday. They are so much fun to watch.
Elly and her teacher at the Riley Picnic. Mrs England was awesome!!

More visitors!

We have had almost three weeks of company and it has been A LOT of fun!! On the 6th, Skip and Bonnie came and stayed for 4 days. It was so much fun to see them and we have missed not living by them. Skip is finishing his Ph.D. at the U of U and will be working at the other ISU (Illinois State). They came out to buy a house and will only live about 2 hours from us. We are excited!! The kids had a great time with them playing Wii, croquet, and cards (like 21 and golf). They are always so much fun to have around.
On Sunday, Page and Cameren came from Indy. Cameren was visiting Page and he left this week for basic training. I am sad to say that we had not seen him for about ten years!! I still think of him as a little boy with spiky hair. You can definitely see how he has grown up! It was awesome to see them!!
Then on Monday, Jackie (Biff's Mom)and Don and Tayler (Page's daughter)drove from Utah. They stayed a week with us and their visit overlapped with Skip and Bonnie's so we had a lot of fun.



We found our new favorite pass time--trashy as it may seem- running through the ISU fountain. The kids had so much fun!!

We went to a covered bridge. It was in Park County about twenty minutes away. There are lots of covered bridges there. It makes you feel like you are taken back in time to Little House on the Prairie.
We went to Raccoon Lake and hope to go camping there this summer. It is so beautiful.

School's OUT!!

The last day of school we have a tradition of a water balloon fight. I think my kids thought I forgot about it--not so lucky. Peyton, Rowen, Vince and Archie were helping me. We hid behind the big trees in front of our house and waited. Two of our neighbors came out and the kids threw some of the balloons at them but finally the bus came. Elly, Braden and Thomas (our neighbor) got off the bus and we started throwing. It was so funny to hear the kids on the bus screaming at us to get them and my kids were soooo embarrassed!! But it was awesome- the boys had a blast getting them wet! I love the end of the year.

Elly came home with a new bike that she won at school. (See she is all about a good competition!!) The school has a 1/4 mile fitness track around the playground and for every lap that you run you get a punch on a card. The boy and girl who ran the most laps each won bikes. Elly ran almost 80 miles this year!! Go El!!

This is Bailee and her soccer team at her last game-- it was a tournament in Indy. Do you think she is a little taller that everyone?? They won two games and were playing two more games on Sunday. When she started playing this year we told her coaches that we do not play sports on Sunday . They told us that was fine. Well anyway, after her game we went to DQ and a girl and her family on Bailee's team were there. She told Bailee, " What are we going to do without you tommorrow? Where are you going anyway?" At that point I knew Bailee wanted me to answer the question but I just looked at her and waited. After a pause Bailee answered and said,"Church." Her friend said, "Oh." On the way home we were talking and I said, "You wanted me to answer that girl in DQ." Bailee said, " Yes, why didn't you?" We were laughing so hard and we had a great conversation about all the other ways she could have answered. But Bailee did a great job!