Loving Lisa

Loving how she sometimes acts shy and tries to hide from the camera

Loving how excited she is to ride the bus to preschool this year

(Not Kidding! She screamed out loud when she saw the bus pull up)

Loving her desire to make every day a FUN day!

(here with her new friend, Alexis, on a silly rainy day)

Loving her enthusiasm for the seemingly mundane tasks of the day

Loving her sense of adventure as she overcomes fears

and explores new territory

Loving her exuberant discovery of the natural world,

her boundless energy, and her infectious smile.

Loving her ENDLESS questions about life and the universe,

her creative imagination,

how she sings her way through the day.

Loving the unique and fiery spark she adds to life and to our family.

Loving HER!

Hiking day at Palisades Creek

On Saturday we got together with some friends and hiked to the lower lake on the Palisades Creek Trail. The trail was going to be a little too long for Lisa to hike herself so she got to stay with our neighbor, Lindsay and her son, Levi. We arrived at the trailhead around 10:30am and hiked about four miles to the lower lake where we stopped to eat our lunch. The view was beautiful and it just felt so peaceful. There were lots of flowers along the trail, several of which Anne identified for us by name. I was not sure if Lyra would be able to fall asleep in the carrier, but she surprised me by zonking out for half an hour on the way back from the lake. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the good company and conversation. When we picked Lisa up at the end of the day she asked when she could go to Levi's house again, so I think she had a very fun day, too!

Andrea Binggeli

Anne Timpany and her son, Cedar

Lyra: 10 months old

Lyra is now 10 months old and doing well. She follows us around the apartment by scooting on her belly. She gets up on her hands and knees, but isn't quite crawling yet. She pulls herself up to standing position if there's something she wants to reach. She loves herself a good smoothie (don't even think about taking it away from her!) and is also drinking from her own little sippy cup. She tilts her head way back and looks like she's giving herself whiplash. Every now and then she does this funny noise where she purses her lips and sucks air in and out of her nose. I finally caught it on camera and even took a little video. Cracks me up every time. She seems like she may be teething a little. She's been sort of grumpy the past few days, but no teeth yet. She is very petite for her age which gives off the illusion that she is younger than she actually is. I am enjoying the babyness as long as I can while it lasts. She has surprised me by being much more interested in watching movies than Lisa ever was at her age. We never had to worry about limiting Lisa's viewing time because she wasn't interested, but we may have to watch it with Lyra. One thing I have yet to capture on camera is Lyra's fondness of clapping her hands. She started doing it on her own a couple weeks ago and now if we say the word "clap," she'll smile and bring her hands together. So fun when babies start putting things together like that and making verbal connections. Love the cuteness.

See her thumb in the next one? Didn't notice at the time I was taking the picture, but it kinda looks like "Gotch yer nose!" tee-hee

The end of our job hunt! (plus road trip moments with a four year old)

Within the last 2 weeks we have spent over 24 hours driving in the car. Trip home from California (13 hours), trip to Hazelton Idaho for Ryan's teaching job interview and then back to Rexburg (6 hours), trip to Twin Falls to secure an apartment because Ryan GOT THE JOB! (6 hours again). While the reality of it has not completely set in yet, we are very excited to be starting this new adventure. It has meant a lot of time in the car, however, and that is not always easy for the little ones. Lisa has been mostly cooperative and pleasant, but there have definitely been moments. For example, driving back from Twin Falls on the last trip she had a total melt down in the back seat so we decided to take the nearest exit off the freeway and get her out of the car to cool off. At first she madly attempted to get back in the car, which was locked with Lyra and I inside. Then when she realized the tantrum was not producing her desired results, she just started walking away from the car through the weeds.

While all this is going on, I'm sitting in the front seat of the car nursing Lyra and I realize the camera is on the floor in the passenger side. What an opportunity to capture a moment! I put down the car window a crack and called to Ryan to come get the camera...lucky me, he played along. What else can you do at a moment like this except recognize how utterly ridiculous and humorous it is? After a minute Lisa slowly walked back to the car and gave Ryan a lovely piece of grass she had picked for him, some sort of offering to make up for kicking him in the head and screaming at him just minutes before. They had a little talk and got back in the car so we could be on our way. I quickly jumped out and snapped one more picture of the surrounding area since we had actually exited at the town where Ryan will be teaching. Such a pretty place. I can already imagine how those fields are going to look covered in blankets of fresh snow. It is very small with a population of about 700 and the school is Pre-K through 12th grade. Ryan will be teaching biology, advanced biology, general science, and 7th grade life science. There really are no apartments in Hazelton so we chose to live in Twin Falls, 15 miles east.We are set to move August 3rd and I have already packed about ten boxes. We sure do have a lot of books! Thankfully Gail and Lee are going to come help us with the move. It is going to be here before we know it!

Satisfaction of organizing

I may not always be put together, but I do find the task of organizing to be extremely satisfying. Gail knows this about me and we have joked for quite some time about her paying me to clean her garage, but a couple of weeks ago I finally got out there and tackled it. After about 10 hours of sweat and dust, you could actually see a mostly bare garage floor! There ended up being enough stuff from the garage and some donations from my mom's closets for me to throw a garage sale together which ended up being rather successful. Now I just need to find ten more people who want me to clean their garages and I'll be set! :)

Before

After