Elise's pictures

Marae and Ben are getting married and have requested Elise, with her new camera, take their engagement photos. Elise thought it would be a good idea to practice so she took Hyrum and Athena on a little walk with her and snapped a few photos. Well done, Elise. I can't wait to see the engagement photos :)

Hyrum's showing off his scratch... maybe he got it from the tug-o-war in the previous picture...

Girl's Camp

I was blessed with the opportunity to attend Girl's Camp as a ward leader this year. I absolutely loved Girl's camp as a youth and so I was very excited to go to camp again. The weather was beautiful and all went well. I even got a decent amount of sleep which is usually rare for leaders. You know me and my sleep though :) This top picture is the view from our hike at Catherine Creek. The picture below is me with Tammie Mahler, Zayna Dahle and Christina Smith during the lunch break on our hike. Fun times indeed!

Hyrum's fun adventure

Jon's parents took Hyrum with them to Mt. Vernon, WA for 10 days to help Uncle David deliver phone books. Hyrum had a great time playing with his cousin Cooper and even worked and earned some money ($120, by far the most he's ever earned). Among some of the fun things they did were attend a Mariners game and ride ponies. I guess they were pretty good and only got into a little mischief like tipping over the outhouse next door... boys will be boys! Aunt Elise, Uncles Craig and Ben, and cousin Athena also made the trip with him. Hyrum's lucky to have such loving extended family.

We made Hyrum this poster because he is always so good to make us posters and write us notes on the mirrors with dry eraser when we're gone. He's a very thoughtful little boy. It was lonely without him and we're grateful he's back home with us. The following are pictures Elise took of their trip that I stole from her blog.

Twins

Sleepy boys

Hyrum pigging out on goodies, I'm sure!

David and Cooper at the Mariner's game

Athena, Ben and Hyrum

This picture is for my sister so she knows that I appreciate and use the crafts she gives me :)

Father's Day Weekend

A friend of mine, that I actually started babysitting when I was 10 years old, was married yesterday at the Moore Mansion in Pasco and so we came to Washington for her wedding. It worked out well that I was able to spend Father's Day with my Dad. I always enjoy that. For those of you that don't know, I am blessed with one of the best Dad's EVER! I guarantee my 5 siblings would agree :)

The bride and groom, Melissa and Dan.

The two men I love most in this world. Wow, am I ever blessed!

The food was amazing! Thank you, Melissa :) The weather was actually quite chilly. Kind of strange for the 20th of June in Tri-Cities. I had to put on Jon's long sleeve shirt he had in the car. The picture below shows what my Dad put on...

I believe it was some sort of pillow/blanket designed for emergency use only. Definitely not practical. You do what you gotta do when your cold though. Oh, by the way, he said he didn't want to see this photo on my blog. I guess this is one way to find out if he looks at my blog...

Isn't he handsome?

Jason and Taunya

Tasha and Marshall

Dustin and Andrea

On Sunday afternoon my Mom had a picnic at her house with all the family. This is my sister and I with our Dad. I put this one on here because my parents are moving soon (the 1st time in my life) and I want to remember how much I LOVE their backyard. If you look out their kitchen window the view is AMAZINGLY green. They have several fruit trees in their yard and then the pasture behind them has a huge walnut tree. Until Jon and I bought our 1st home this was the only backyard I had ever known and it is/was a good one! It holds many fond memories.

Anikah, Lydia and Kira

Dallas and Jonnie. It was a little chilly this day also and Jon's long sleeve just wasn't enough. In my Dad's closet he found this very stylish leather jacket. Sorry, Jon, but I have to admit it looks better on my Dad.

Layken, Lydia, Jessica and Savannah

My Grandma, Alberta Amy McAffee DeCoria Rice with Lydia and I. She is a sweetheart and has always been a dear friend to me. I have a few things I'll always remember about my Grandma. One is how she always stands at her door when you're leaving her house and does not go inside until you are way beyond view. I have many many many memories of her doing that. I think that is very polite. Her Mom must have been wonderful because there are several "proper" things about my Grandma that I admire that she says her Mother taught her. A few years ago her and her sweet husband, Don, were traveling through Fruitland on a Sunday afternoon on their way to Idaho Falls. I talked with her before she left and we made arrangements for them to join us at our home for lunch. She arrived with a side dish stating that her Mother had taught her never to show up for a meal empty handed. I personally would never think to prepare a side dish for a meal I was going to 4 hrs away on my way to a vacation spot. Thank you for your beautiful example to me. I love you, Grandma!

"Okay, I'll start learning."

Lydia occasionally will wet her underwear before she makes it to the bathroom. I noticed she had done that today when we were at the park for Hyrum's T-ball game. I told her that she wasn't suppose to do that and that she needs to go to the bathroom before she wets her underwear. Her response to me was, "Okay, I'll start learning."

She appears to be so grown up and mature for her mere 34 month old self. She says things daily that surprise me and of course bring a smile to my face. She is such a joy to have around. Thanks for letting me be your Mom, Lydia!

BTW, I am in no way complaining about her wetting her underwear. She potty trained herself at 26 months old and shortly after that stopped wearing a diaper at night. She amazes Jon and I, who were both bed wetters. We're not sure where she got it from but we're grateful!

Oregon Trail Interpretive Center

The kids and I joined Grandma Shauna and her friend, Kay, at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center outside of Baker City today. We only live a little over an hour from there so it was an easy and fun day trip. The kids ALWAYS LOVE seeing Grandma Shauna!

This is a stuffed real buffalo. All the animals there are stuffed. Meaning they were living at one time. It's such a neat place to visit. Lydia wasn't too sure about the buffalo at first but she warmed up to it pretty quickly.

The kids loved these animal hand puppets. There were all sorts of neat animals.

Hyrum really enjoyed dressing up like a mountain man and acting out little plays with the animals.

Lydia would have been an adorable little pioneer girl, but I'm sure glad she's here now and not then.

My camera was blurry for some reason so I didn't get the best pictures... oh, well. The kids will at least get to see photos of our outing. After touring the center and watching a live performance, we left to eat pizza and then headed home. Thanks for the fun day, Grandma!

Off to Alaska!

Here is some wildlife on the way up to Alaska. I think the trip was around 60 hours of driving. Lots of Wildlife and wonderful scenery. We took the alternate route, the Cassiar highway thinking we would do some fishing. We did not do very much, Matt caught one greyling.


Here Matt and I are heading out into the ocean to do some halibut fishing on a little raft (Zodiak) that we have never taken on water with a 15 horse motor that we have never used. We made it out into the big waves and the motor quit. luckily Matt put in a 3 horse motor for back up. we mounted it and continued out into the rough waters. We continued out and parked next to some large fishing vessels that dwarfed us. Matt caught 3 little halibut on a jig, while I was using some large hooks and herring going after the big boys, I am not sure how we would have brought in a 150 pound halibut but unfortunately we did not need to figure it out how.
Here is a couple of Kings caught on the little sue, the first one caught was May 31st which is really early to catch a king and the second one was the next day. I caught them both on a fly rod which was a total thrill. that was my goal this year to catch a king on a fly rod, well worth the effort, and good eating.


These two fish were caught just a few minutes apart, Matt was beside himself that I got a bigger fish than him. We had several bets on our trip starting from Idaho. I believe I won the first one in Canada which was golf. Here we were on our way up to build a bear stand. We basically built a fort up in the air. We tied a barrel to a tree and put dog food in it with some greese. We did not have must time to bear hunt by the time we got the stand built but will have it for next year.
this one is 29 pounds. average is about 25lbs. 50 lbs is a monster.

Here is Matt's dad Howard torching us a bear barrel. We put holes in it so the bear has to beat it around to get food out.
This cracks me up every time I see it. This is Matt standing next to a native girl in Whitehorse- Yukon territory. They were pumping gas next to each other and I knew Matt was dying to get a picture with her so I asked her to stand by him. Matt was not as thrilled as she was. It definitely made her day.
Totem poles at some Indian villiage along the Cassiar highway
Me beating Matt at golf even though its been about 10 years since Ive played.
Here we were roaming around looking for a bear stand Matts father in law set up at Ptarimigan pass. We heard something so I got the camera ready while Matt got his bow ready. We just saw a big patch of grizzly hair where a bear had been scratching. notice Matts mosquito net on his head. They were a life saver.

While Jon was gone...

The kids and I packed up and went to Washington. No reason to stay home by ourselves. Especially, when there was family not far away to spend time with and cousins to play with.

Lydia, Anikah, Hyrum and Savannah at the Park.

Hyrum has become quite the fisherman lately. Every body of water he sees, including ditches and canals, he talks about what kind of fish might be in it. This little pond here was full of gold fish and Hyrum spent quite a bit of time here. He even named a couple fish. He's walking in his Daddy's footsteps with his love of fishing.

Tell me that's not adorable! Lydia and Anikah are such good friends and so incredibly cute together!

Hyrum wasn't wearing a shirt so Lydia didn't think she needed to either. Anikah tends to copy Lydia since Lydia's about 6 months older and a little more knowledgeable... She teaches Anikah all sorts of new tricks. You're welcome, Taunya! haha!

Hyrum's short were really low so I asked him to pull them up a little. This was the result. Very cute, Hyrum! I did help him out after Taunya and I had a good laugh and I snapped this photo.

Dress up is definitely one of Lydia's favorite activities. Beings how there's 3 girls in the Andrews family they have a lot of fun dresses.

Hyrum found this bug at G & G's house and called it his Fruitland Grizzly bug because it appeared to be orange and black. He wanted to take it home but, fortunately, somehow it escaped.

Lydia playing in the water at the Andrew's house.

My Grandma Amy turned 85 while we were in town so I was able to celebrate with her at her birthday dinner. In this picture is: Dustin and Andrea, my Aunt Darlene and Uncle John, and Aunt Janice and Uncle Bill.

The Birthday girl with her sweet husband, Don. My Grandpa DeCoria died May 20th, 1995. People were doubtfully that my grandma would make it too much longer. She soon met Don and they were married January 1st, 1996. Thirteen and a half years later they are still happily married. Grandma's had health problems since having a brain tumor removed in 1993 and struggles with speech and writing and remembering. Don is amazingly patient and supportive of her. Their marriage is a great example for me. Thank you both! I love you!

Me with my Mom and Dad and Dustin's baby Abigail.

My sister, Taunya, and her husband, Jason. What a cute couple :)

My brother Dallas. He was single this night also so I tried to pretend he was my date and get my order on his ticket. Unfortunately, he didn't fall for it. Don't worry I still love you, Dallas!

Grandma and Abby.

Grandpa and Abby.