Mud, a Replacement Hamster, and Hiking

 I am adding this picture without any commentary

Last Sunday afternoon I went on a walk with Nixon and Mason along the river bank. That buoy is the edge of the swim area for our beach. That shows how low the river is right now. 

The kids loved stomping around in all of the squishy soft mud

I like how each of these supports says Canada

The cracked earth was really cool

The boys loved trying to turn over big rocks

Meanwhile, Kim and Lyza were playing Guess Who

It was strange seeing tree stumps so far into the river. There must have been trees there before the dam was put in

The boys also loved throwing rocks into the water

It was cool seeing the root systems of trees near the river bank

We had a huge gingersnap to share for dessert

Kim colored some rice for the kids to play with

Lyza's hamster Donut never got friendly and would not let anyone hold him. It was a very difficult decision but Lyza decided we should return Donut and get a hamster that wanted to be loved.

Meet Cupcake. So far she is much more gentle and open to contact than Donut ever was.

Mason loves pulling all the cushions off the couch and making forts

Lyza hit half a million words on the books that she is able to take reading quizzes for (not every book has a quiz so she has read more than the half million)

We had a huge windstorm on Wednesday that left around 70,000 people without power and destroyed a lot of trees. Luckily we never lost power for more than a few minutes and nothing was damaged at our house. Many were not as lucky. This tree fell down between two houses without hitting either.

He sure looks happy here

Mason has also been giving away free dance lessons

On Saturday we went hiking together to Tubbs Hill. I put together a little video of the hike

I know some of these pictures were in the video but I wanted to put the pictures on here as well

We saw lots of trees on the hike that had fallen over and were broken. Luckily those that blocked the path were already removed

Henry doesn't like to hold hands very long when we are hiking but when he does it is super cute to watch

Lyza was at one with nature

There are pretty views of the resort from the trail

This breakwater (I think that is what it is called) looked cool on an overcast day

Another view of the resort

I am glad we didn't have to climb over those trees

My hiking buddies

We saw so many trees that were broken because of the wind

Another view of the resort

I thought this couple and their dogs sitting on the beach looked too picturesque not to document

The three big kids in front of Lake Coeur d'Alene

This spot had so much green moss it really stood out from the other brown areas

Last picture of the resort

I am pretty sure Lyza is the most faithful follower of this blog and she has shown an interest in starting her own blog some day. She and I discussed her using this blog to write when she would like to. Here is the first ever installment of "Lyza's Library" written by Lyza Deanne Keyes:

Lyza's Library

Last week I read a book called Animorphs: The Visitor by K.A. Applegate. I like it because there is lots of magic in it. The main idea is five kids that are destined to save the world from the Yeerks. The kids met a dying alien that gave them the power to morph into any animal they touch. So far it is my favorite book. I think everyone should read it.

Take care