Well crap - I lied - I'll start with Christmas and Kaleb's birthday...
Christmas 2012 - we went to my parents' house in Asotin and had a really great time. The kids made out like bandits getting a million toys and I can barely open any of them. When did a doll require nine million twist ties, plastic zip ties, hair being sewed to the box, and such? Either way, we had a blast. Now everyone will want to shoot me because I don't think I have any pictures. My camera was MIA and I didn't have my fancy smancy iphone yet. So, I apologize, I'm trying to be much better about it!
Kalebs 7th birthday - WHY IS THERE NO SNOW? So we, in Moscow, get burrrried under snow each year. Kaleb planned to most awesome "x games" themed birthday party - snowboarding, sledding, etc. and then it didn't snow. We did get snow later but several weeks after his birthday. So instead of doing a big friend birthday then, we did a simple family party with Grandma and Grandpa Smith and Zerbe, our little family (oh, and Aunt Katie & Uncle Will). We had a cake, presents and good food. We promised Kaleb a pool party this summer with friends to make up for the lack of big birthday party. We will be doing that pool party in the next few weeks!
January - The biggest and most exciting thing of January is our new found love of ice fishing! We went out onto Spring Valley and fished right in the middle!! We dug out several 6 inch holes and caught our limits in no time! Kaleb was slaying them - "casting" his own pole, hooking, and landing all his own fish. He even got some of the hook by himself. Cameron was another story, it took all we had not to let her fall into the hole....and then.....she fell in. Not all the way as they are only 6 inch holes, but her foot went in and she was up to her hip on one side and soaking wet! We ran her to the car and she and I sat in it the warm car while Kaleb and daddy finished up. Sam enjoyed it, at least I think he did, he slept through it!
Not much more than that happened in January!
February - Just about nothing happened in February either, it was an uneventful short month! I wont try to come up with something that happened because I can't remember anything which means anything I come up with will be ultra boring to read!
March - Also not eventful.
April - Well, I'd say that we needed a few uneventful months to prelude April. April was a whirlwind of emotion, heartache, feeling blessed, massive travel, and so forth. We lost Joe's mother April 19th. We got the call the weekend of the 13th and told that Donna was not doing well. While at church on Sunday we didn't feel good about the situation and decided to hop in the car and drive the 35 hours to Tipp City, OH. We left Sunday night at 8:00 pm and arrived on Tuesday afternoon. We didn't stop unless we needed gas or food, alternating midnight driving, and sleeping in the van (we had a rental van AND all three kids). We got to Ohio in plenty of time to spend several days visiting with Donna while she was coherent and playful and really got to enjoy her last few days. Afterward her passing we stayed in Ohio for another week to be there with family and attend the funeral. Before leaving Ohio we were able to attend the Wrights Brothers Air Museum with Doug, our family, Will, Katie, and Elizabeth and kids. It was a lot of fun. We got A TON of photos!
There a lot more pictures but this post would be huge if I added much more! After 10 days of being in Ohio it was time to make the trek home. We (our family + 2 [Katie & Will]) hopped in the minivan and began the ride back home to Idaho. Along the way we made many stops, enjoying our drive home and breaking up the 35 hour drive! We stopped by silly sites like the worlds biggest truck station, the place where Dances With Wolves was filmed, Wall Drug Store (worlds biggest drug store), and Mt. Rushmore! It was a blast, the kids loved every site!
And at the end of each day we found a cozy hotel room to let the kids play and eat and sleep in an actual bed!!
And then we were HOME SWEET HOME!! We had two full weeks away, although the circumstances were not the best, we made the most of our small trip away and made it the best we could for the kids.
May - May was also pretty uneventful. We did however get out to Spring Valley for some spring fishing, did pretty good too! We also got to enjoy three nights of camping over Memorial Day weekend. Joe got bit by a dog, I got bit by something, Kaleb got attacked by mosquitos, and we spent our first day of the summer gold mining! That's pretty much it!
It is now June and we just celebrated Kaleb's last day of 1st grade, not sure how I feel about that, even worse, Cameron is officially on her first summer break as she starts kindergarten in the fall!! I will be turning 27 on the 19th and Cam will be 5 on the 30th! So hopefully I will do a little better at blogging from this time forward! I think we are also nearing time to be able to see Grandpa Greg again as he should no longer be radioactive soon! Kaleb is so excited!
Before I close, yes, I'm sorry, longest post ever - I want to end this with a short tribute to one of the most amazing and beautiful women I've ever had the pleasure to call family. I met her 6 years ago, standing next to her son, as he introduced me as his wife. I was terrified she was going to go "oh son, what did you do!" but instead she wrapped her arms around me and never stopped. I love you very much Donna and will miss you like crazy. I take comfort in knowing you are young, healthy, happy, spending time with your two lost boys, waiting for your one true love to join you, and knowing that you are in a better place. I was blessed with an amazing example of a woman, a wife, a mother, and I will never forget as you often reminded us "all is well." I love you.
Until we meet again, we love you Donna!
