Sunday, September 21, 2025

Grandma and Grandpa Bullock, Back to Ponderosa, Stevens Lakes, and Soccer

Our boys have been enjoying retro games on their handhelds


We stopped by a friend's house to pick up some bikes and she happens to have a pool in the backyard. Nixon had to give it a try.


Grandma and Grandpa Bullock came to visit over Labor Day weekend


Nixon was excited that they brought a trumpet from Uncle David


We had a hot dog roast for dinner


Nixon of course had to show off


The next morning we tried some fishing





We didn't catch anything but we had a good time together



We spent the day at our beach and our floating dock got lots of use



Grocery store fried chicken really hit the spot



The water felt great




Toward the end some of the boys' friends showed up and they had another mat and other vessels to play with


We have to play some games when Grandma and Grandpa are here



Henry started 2nd grade



Mason is in 4th



Look at those happy boys



While the kids were all at school, and while I was working, Kim and her parents went for a bike ride on a portion of the Trail of the Coeur d'Alene's







Grandpa Bullock got a little thirsty from all that bike riding




Going on a walk together that evening


Henry won a Crunch Labs box from the library


We bought a pulled pork mac n cheese pie for dinner


It was DELICIOUS


Nixon helping take groceries into the house


Working on the Crunch Labs box building catapults 


On our last Saturday before soccer started we decided to do a family hike. We chose to hike to Stevens Lakes, which is a spot I have considered for a boys backpacking trip. It is only 2.3 miles in but it has quite a bit of elevation (1,600 feet)



Things started off alright








It started to get pretty steep and difficult



This waterfall was cool




Then there were switchbacks up this rock that the kids hated




We tried to keep smiling



We eventually made it to the first lake




It was nice to get our feet in the water and rest




I got some shots from the drone


The bottom of this photo shows the first lake the we made it to and the top is the upper lake


This is the lake we stopped at



And this is the second lake


This shows the upper lake at the bottom of the picture and the lower lake at the top of the picture



Here is a tiny planet from a 360 photo of the area. There was a lot of smoke in the air so the sky is just white and smoky



While the others started back Nixon and I ran to the upper lake



On the way back we found a couple of these caterpillars


We also found this salamander back at the waterfall on the way back




It was a difficult hike and probably too tough for next year's backpacking trip. We had fun though.


We got the kids some ice cream on the way home


Nixon made us some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip cookies


Here is a photo of Henry at his first soccer practice


We took the kids to Dockside for Gooeys to celebrate another 30 days of continuous scripture reading




The life of a Charter Student?


Henry was happy to spend some of his money one evening on an RC car


We had the first soccer games of the season last week. Henry's team played at the same time and the same park as Nixon and Mason's team so we sat inbetween the two games and watched them the best we could


Nixon scored 4 goals and helped his team win the first game




Henry played both forward and defense at different times during the game


Mason was the goalie on their team and did a good job. Here are a few clips from Nixon and Mason's game


I took the boys out to Wendy's for lunch after


That's all for now. Take care.

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