Weekend Visitors

We've had two weekends in a row with visitors, a rarity in our neck of the woods (living out in the middle of nowhere)!

JEFF's MOM AND DAD stopped through last weekend on their way north for a visit to Canada. Jeff, Max and I were in Spokane all day Saturday for soccer, and Zoe stayed here with Grandma and Grandpa. They took her out for a nice dinner and we met up later that evening when we got home. The next day we all piled into the new vehicle and went out exploring Riverside and made a loop up through Conconully on the way home. I brought my scope for a little "bird watching" with Max (he's my new birding buddy). We hit six new geocaches and (may have) gotten Tom and Audrey hooked on the hobby. They just bought a new GPS and we sent them north with a travel bug to plant. I had never been to this quaint little store in Riverside. What a cute place with all the collected bird's nests, wasp's nests, antique bicycles, and even a jar of "pocket fuzz" that was started about 15 years ago. Check out the giant rooster out front.

THIS WEEKEND my brother Randy and his wife Shannon and girls Mckenna and Ashlin came up for a visit! It is a long drive between us, so it is so appreciated when they come up to stay! We had so much fun!!! Friday we all had the day off for teacher's inservice (Jeff and I having already been serviced elsewhere) so we made "ice cream" for breakfast, using what else? Liquid Nitrogen, of course!

We (once again) all piled into the new rig and headed north to Republic. My little nieces have a thing for dinosaurs so I thought they would get a kick out of doing some fossil digging. We hadn't been to Stone Rose Fossil Beds in several years. I somehow remember the fossil recovery being a little more fruitful the last visit, however, we all did find something to bring home. Here's a collection of my finds (mainly lake bottom material and leaves, all about 50 million years old). The kids had fun climbing on the rocks and we got plenty dirty. Afterwards we played in the park across the street (which was being inhabited by the local deer) and found a couple geocaches before heading home.

Randy's Birthday was on Sunday so Max, Zoe, and I took the girls out shopping and to the store to get birthday cake ingredients. Shannon's birthday is this week also, so we planned a little evening celebration. The cake they picked was a Butter Cake with Lime Curd and Butter Cream Frosting (YUM!!) from my Cake Doctor Cookbook. I think this is the first Birthday I've spent with my little brother since we were kids! I hope it was a fun weekend for everyone!!!