Year of the Cicada

This was the year of the cicada, oh the noise! We had such swarms that an ice cream place in Columbia came out with cicada ice cream. People bought it, then realized it had bugs in it, then there was an uproar. You would think something called cicada ice cream would be questionable, but then again, I guess I am just using common sense. The cicadas left these shells behind everywhere and looked like aliens coming out of them...all white with these bid red eyes...ugh!

Edible Plants

Summer is the best for all the fruit that the orchard provides, assuming that the conditions are optimal.


For the third year in a row, the cherries have escaped us. Three years ago the tree just didn't fruit a lot. Last year we saw the cherries were just about right for the picking the next day. The next day, they were completely gone...stinkin birds. This year we decided to net the tree, that was a hoot, and all for nothing. They got nice and red, but mom and dad said that they should get a deep red, so we waited. Apparently we waited too long, they rotted on the tree and never got to that deep red. Dad said that next year, he is just going to eat them green.


The grapes have been another problem fruit for my parents. They ripened the first year, and ever since, the japanese beetles get to them, along with some kind of rot. This picture doesn't look like concord grapes, but hopefully this year, they will get there.
The strawberries did wonderfully in the garden. Funny really, my dad decided that putting up the fence around the garden was just too much trouble this year, so we left it off. We thought for sure the berries wouldn't make it with any the bunnies and deer that come around. You know what, we had a plethora! My mom must have made 4 batches of strawberry jam and we had spinach and strawberry salad every night for a few weeks (I'm not complaining, that stuff is delicious)!

Around the yard

My mother has a wonderful green thumb and has planted some cool things around the yard, now if only I remembered the names...









I know this one...it's an iris.

Three years

For our third anniversary, we decided to go to Ha Ha Tonka State Park, don't ask me where the name came from. Besides the manor house, they had a natural bridge. If we hadn't stopped to see that one on the way back from Idaho I think this one would have been more impressive. Nonetheless, it is still amazing. In this picture I was trying to get that cool water stream effect, but I couldn't get it to work.


After running around the park we went to the three putt putt golf courses they have in Osage Beach. We recommend these (the third just failed in comparison). I guess I had to admit that William won the first two courses and I the third. I'm not sure if it worse to lose by a lot or a little. The first he beat me by 3 points and second course by 1, only 1.

Ha Ha Tonka

They say these are old castle ruins, but it is more like an old manor house. Still, it was pretty impressive. It was interesting to see the way this "castle" was placed on the cliff side, along with the carriage house and the water tower. I feel bad for those who had to make that trip from the water tower to the house.


It was supposed to rain that day, but we made the journey anyway. Go figure, the weather people were wrong once again and it turned out to be a really nice day. Note for the wise, get to parks early in the morning when no one else is around, it makes for a much better experience.

Quarter of a Century

Can you believe it?! William and I are now a quarter of a century year old. How did this happen? On top of that, I had my hair cut the other day and the lady found a white hair...not gray, white. I told William he must be stressing me out too much.

Nature in Missouri

Turtles are very common around these parts. Mostly in the variety of snapping turtles and box turtles, though you are most likely to see them squarshed on the road. Do you know how to tell the difference? Box turtles look like boxes, and snapping turtles snap, duh?!?! When they are younger, the best way to tell is to look for the red on the belly...if it's red, it's dangerous...meaning a snapping turtle. This guy pictured is a box turtle that was hanging out in the yard when I was mowing.


This blue bird had an unfortunate accident in colliding with my parent's living room window. William witnessed the event and figured he would go see if he could help the thing out (good thing since it's kinda of what he will be doing for a living). The poor bird had knocked itself out and so William placed it on this bush so it wouldn't be easy prey. That is how I got this amazing picture. Maybe I just should have said it was my amazing ninja skills that got me so close to the bird, not the fact that it was recuperating from the flight incident it had.


It always amazes me all the critters and creatures that I get to see in Missouri. I must have forgotten all the life that is in the world being out in Idaho in the middle of no where for so long :). Just kidding...some things live out there too, just not in the abundance that is back east.
The view outside of the window that birds like to fly into is this tree. We usually hang a humming bird feeder from the branches, but that is beside the point. I would like to talk about this devious little squirrel. It has found out that by sitting on top of the bird house and hanging it's body over the edge, it could gain access to the bird seed inside the house. I was trying to get a picture of it in the act, but this was the best I could come up with.


Now for the grand finale. Have you ever seen a white deer? If you have, then you can stop reading because this is meant to impress people. On the way home from my grandpa's house we spotted the one and only white deer on the face of the earth!! Believe me, ok, it was a long shot. Apparently they aren't that rare, but it was the first time I had ever seen one, and I didn't have to pay to get in. I thought it was pretty cool.

Car Ride

After packing up Nebbie and Dad's truck and small trailer, or should I say stuffed, we headed off to make the drive from Idaho to Missouri. To brake up the driving, we stopped in Wyoming and

rented a van to go see some sights. Don't tell the rental place, but we took the cat with us, and then erased all evidence of him being there before returning it.

It always interests me to see where Teddy is going to end up in the car while in transit. When in the car he always insists on being on someone's lap, usually the driver's, even though he is anti-touching all the rest of the time. In the rental he seemed to like the cup holder in between the two captain seats. It was pretty funny when he sat on the map on top of the cup holder and slide off at a stop.

Farwells

The only thing sad about moving to a new place is the good people we leave. Josh and William have gotten to be great school buds. We wish Josh and Nicole luck in moving to Pennsylvania for school and wish all good things with the upcoming addition to the family!

William's Graduation

It's official, William now has a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology, I'm so proud! For those who don't know, we are now in Missouri. William has been admitted into the veterinarian program at Mizzou. It is a four year program, so unless he decides to do a double major it should take him four years to finish up and get his degree here.

Both sides of our family were able to come. It was great being able to see them and hang out for a time. We sent some of our stuff back with the Meyers side...and good thing too because it was really close getting it all to fit in the trailer to go back to Missouri :). Thank goodness we were able to sell most of the big furniture we wanted to, we have been extremely blessed.

BIG JUDD'S

We figured that a Rexburg experience that everyone should have is Big Judd's. So William and I thought it would be good to go to when family came into town for graduation. What we didn't know was that there are two in close proximity to Rexburg. In looking it up on the web, we ended up going to the wrong one. We should have talked to one of our local friends to get the right place.


Daniel ate the whole thing while four of us shared another. Can you believe that he said he was still hungry after finishing it? Teenage boys...I guess we can blame it on his angel chiseled body (at least that's what the boys tell him).

We're Professionals

We spent a lot of time in the clubhouse the last couple of weeks while William was in school, that is when he wasn't studying finals. We thus have become professionals at pool.


Since most of our stuff was packed away in boxes, and the only other thing to do was watch tv during the snowy weather, this was a good way to pass the time.

William was showing me how to hop the que ball, I'm not very good at it. There was an impressive move where William 'purposely' had the que ball ride the border and jump back down to hit one of his balls in the corner pocket. I just had to settle for hopping it off the table or hitting the unintended ball every time I attempted it. Even with my lack of hop, I am a formidable adversary.

Teddy's Angry Eyes

Meet the Pattens

Meet James, Jamie, Bob, and Ella. We have known Bob and Jamie since the semester William and I started dating, William and Bob were roomies.


Jamie asked us to babysit one night, so William and I took on the challenge. They say the best form of birth control is babysitting...with this family I don't agree. We had them over for dinner one time and the kids ate the spinach salad and didn't want dessert.


Babysitting was great, even if James missed his mommy for a bit. We went over for a waffle lunch with them and James started crying because he thought mom was going to leave him again.

Teddy

Teddy is our constant entertainment. Whether it be him running into the sliding door trying to frighten another cat....


...or his moments of playfulness that really do last only moments.

Around Rexburg

Being our last semester in Rexburg, we thought we would take some pictures.


Notice the pictures were taken with snow on the ground.


Since Rexburg is in snow 9 months out of the year, snow was inevitably in the shots.

Seth Comes Home

We went up to Washington for Seth's coming home speech. Two years went by so fast. While up there we went to Grandpa's birthday party. Wasn't William so happy to see Seth?


On the car ride home Teddy was being such a lovey boy. He always becomes a lap cat when in the car.