The Glecklers

LOVE THE SUMMER

2011-07-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

I've been too busy working and playing to post anything about summer. I just can't believe it is already half way over. It has been a typical summer for us in the sense that Erich has already been gone 5 weeks on fire details, which means I have road tripped up to Montana twice! As much as I miss my husband horribly I do love to go to MT. Jake and McKinley sure love their grandparents and my brother Chuck's kids have quite the riot hanging out with Jake. Last trip they were sledding down my parents yard. Leave it to boys to go sledding when it is 90 degrees out.
In between trips work has been busy, busy for Erich and I. Although there aren't too many fires here in Idaho, other parts of the nation have been ablaze. As for me I've had the opportunity to help with some very time-conumsing transactions at work that have been very challenging and demanding but a good opportunity for me to learn and grow.
In addition to MT we were able to go down to UT to meet up with Erich's family. It is the first time in I think six years that all the siblings were together. It was a very fun reunion. I sure hope it doesn't take so long to get back together again cause we all had such a good time. Erich's niece Brandalyn got married. She was one happy bride. She'll be a great wife and I am so excited for her to embark on this new adventure. The whole wedding was absolutely beautiful. Jake was very sad to say goodbye to all his cousins.

HELLO SUMMER, HELLO ROAD TRIPS!

2011-06-19T12:23:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things about the summer is the traveling. To start the season off, Erich spoiled me rotten and let me slip away to Vegas for a little getaway with my sisters, their babies, and my parents. We had SOOO much fun shopping, lazing around the pool, hiking around zions and talking late into the night. I feel so lucky to have the sisters that I do; they truly are my best friends and confidants. We had tons of great laughs and one fun time.

Then last weekend Erich, the kids and I went down to UT for my nieces wedding. It was the first time in six years that Erich's whole family (minus one brother-in-law) has been together. Jake had the time of his life playing with granddad and all of his cousins, and we had fun catching up with each other. The wedding was very special. It was a beautiful and classy and the bride and groom couldn't stop smiling. It's refreshing to see a couple so in love! I wish them the BEST. Now hopefully it will only be a year instead of six until our next Gleckler Family Reunion.

Yellowstone Park

2011-05-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

As soon as Erich got back from his 2 week detail in Texas we loaded up and headed out for a family vacation to Yellowstone National Park and Helena, MT where we spent a very fun few days hanging out with my brother and his family. This was Erich's first trip to the Park. We were planning on hiking around a lot but there was so much snow that the hiking was limited--we should have brought our skis not our tennis shoes! On the side of the roads there was still four plus feet of snow in areas. The snow made it beautiful though. Of course we saw lots of animals, primarily buffalo. We even saw a wolf and a grizzly bear.
Jake was very nervous about the geysers. I never thought about geysers being scary but they sure were to Jake. He kept telling them to go to sleep. I was taking a picture of Erich in front of Old Faithful, I thought Jake was right behind me but lo and behold the moment the geyser started he had turned around and high tailed it out of there back to the car. The kid was trucking at a full sprint-- he made it several hundred yards before we were able to catch up to him. Jake is at such a fun age he made the whole trip a whole lot more entertaining. It is just so fun to watch him discover the world for the first time.

Once in Helena we had a great time watching Jake play with his older two cousins. The three boys played their little hearts out, which meant Erich and I could enjoy some time with my brother Chuck and his wife. Nothing beats hanging out with family!!!

All in all it was a very needed and wonderful vacation. I love road trips and even more importantly I love having my husband back!

A big welcome to the sun, but not to the ticks

2011-04-17T13:11:00.000-07:00

Since I have been slacking this will be one massive post.

SKIING:
Usually Erich and I cross-country ski because we can take the kids with us. For Valentines day, however we decided to buy ourselves downhill ski tickets. We live close to Sun Valley which is allegedly world class skiing (I am still partial to Discovery, Big Mountain, and Brighton). I was thoroughly impressed with my bargain hunting skills. I found lift tickets for $2 bucks apiece (they are usually $80+ apiece); we left our kids at daycare and headed out for what I thought would be record breaking frugal ski trip. If all had gone as planned it would have been.....but we'll get to that later. It was so awesome to ski without the kids. We couldn't believe it when it only took us five minutes after parking to head up to the mountain (usually it is more like an hour long ordeal getting all the kids and gear ready). It was a super hot day and the skiing was great, the views spectacular, we were feeling good. As the day went on it got hotter and hotter and the snow slushier and slushier. We decided to go to a less traveled route, not such a good idea. The slush was so difficult to navigate through that Erich fell an sliced his ear. So then we became that embarassing couple, you know the ones that have to call in ski patrol. Although Erich being the tough guy that he is did ski down to the bottom of the hill before getting any help. Anyhow after a quick trip to Urgent Care to get Erich's ear stitched up our frugal trip became a little more expensive. Injuries and all, however, it was sure fun to ski together just the two of us. I think this will be a tradition. Maybe next year we will even try teaching Jake.

THE SUN IS OUT
It is finally starting to thaw out here, which means evenings biking and playing in the back yard, and trading in our skis for hiking shoes. Last Saturday we decided to go check out a waterfall. It was pretty spectacular. You walk out to this canyon and look over a giant spring of water (we live over a huge aquifer). You walk down just a mile down the canyon and the spring-fed creek is really moving. There are even impressive waterfalls. The water, since it is spring-fed, has a beautiful blue hue. It would have been all around amazing if I didn't look down and see several ticks crawling up Erich's leg. Usually as soon as I see ticks I run for the car, but I actually finished the hike out before turning around. Thankfully none of the ticks got any bites in us.....Did I mention how much I HATE ticks!!!

FAMILY VACATION
Erich isn't big on vacationing, but each year when he goes to Boise for training he takes us with him. His training this year was this last week. We had LOTS of fun this year. With kids just staying in a hotel, eating yummy breakfasts and playing in the pool is exciting. Add to that the opportunity to go to the big parks, the zoo, the playlands and it is quite a lot of fun. The best part, however, was getting to see some great friends! Jake is still talking about his friends Boston and Jenna!

Sticking around and enjoying town

2011-03-06T14:56:00.000-08:00

After a several weekends of road trips we were ready to just stick around home for awhile. So the last month we've explored the area around twin falls--going on a few ski trips, play dates and dinner parties. It's fun Jake is finally at the age where he actually plays WITH kids instead of just BY them. He has a neighbor boy he just adores and always asks for. We had some friends over and they had a riot sliding down the stairs together in a big mosh pile. Jake is also getting into crafts. His favorite are painting and cutting shapes.
McKinley's big accomplishment is learning to sit up on her own. One day she could sit for a few seconds, the next day a few minutes. She was so proud of herself she just sat there and giggled. Those are the moments you just love being a mom! We've started feeding her real food but she hasn't quite figured out how to swallow, she has however mastered the art of spitting it all out!

Why I love Winter

2011-02-06T13:53:00.000-08:00

Summer used to be my favorite season until I married Erich. Since Erich is gone so much in the summer fighting fires, winter is when our family really gets to play. The last two weekends we've been on a cabin theme. Last weekend my cousin Chelsea was nice enough to invite us to her in-laws cabin in Island Park. It was a very relaxing winter wonderland trip. I didn't realize just how much snow they get up in Island Park, snow as high as our car. Jake had quite the time following Chelsea and Justin's three little boys around. Aside from the company the highlight was sledding down the hill in kayaks, a fun and different way of sledding. We also made a big hole the boys jumped in...Jake only after much coaxing.

I laughed pretty good when I got this picture. I guess this is what you get when you try and make three little boys pose for a picture!

This weekend we went the more rustic approach. Erich and I are part of a nordic skiing club in town. The club puts up a canvas tent that you can rent to ski into so we backpacked the kids in and head a very fun little family adventure. It was pretty windy and Jake was sure the sound of the wind through the trees was a waterfall...he kept on asking for us to take him to see the waterfall.
It was our first backpacking trip with the two kids and overall it was a very fun time. Since we had to carry our gear down we didn't want to take sleeping bags for the kids so we put them in our down coats instead...I thought they looked pretty cute sleeping that way!

The Pains of Parenthood

2011-01-16T21:35:00.000-08:00

We love our little guy but he sure has a lot of personality and it can be hard to contain all his enthusiasm and energy. Unfortunately Erich has the mark to prove that sometimes parenting is painful. He and Jake were playing with Jake's wooden airplane (that his uncle made for him), Jake got a little excited and whopped Erich good in the face busting it open in two places. Of course this was the day or two before we had an appointment for family portraits!

McKinley thankfully is a little less rough on us (unless we are talking about nights of sleep). We've been struggling with tummy time for a month or so and finally today she stayed on her tummy for a whole five minutes without crying...a very exciting moment (yes I know when you are a parent you get excited over little things that are fairly unintersting to the rest of the world but thrilling to you).

Now that the weather is a little nicer we've been able to get out skiing. Although our first skiing trip with both kids was a bit disastrous and very discouraging, we gave it another chance and the kids have been great since. Jake has become quite the little ski instructor telling us to slow down or not fall or to go this way. We took Gauge on his first trip and he loved it!!! On the way up there Jake insisted on holding Gauge...it was pretty funny as Gauge pretty much took over Jake's car seat. Our little boy sure loves his dogs.

Happy Holidays

2010-12-31T09:31:00.000-08:00

Christmas was extra magical this year. For the first time Jake got into Christmas songs, Santa clause, and presents. (Well actually Jake liked to talk about Santa clause but not visit Santa clause. We waited in line 45 minutes so Jake could sit on Santa's lap, but when it was our turn Jake SCREAMED and yelled scary, scary!) Nonetheless Jake got what he wanted from Santa a big Thomas the train set. Although I am not sure who has more fun with it, Erich or Jake :) It's a great bonding thing for them.

We spent the holidays in Utah with Erich's family. Erich's one sister has five kids and they really helped get Jake pumped for Christmas. There is nothing like Christmas morning with lots of kids.

Since we had so much family gathered together we blessed McKinley. It's a good thing we had the blessing when we did because she has just about grown out of her dress!

Welcome Winter

2010-12-04T10:37:00.000-08:00

I love winter--it means time for skiing and sledding and the years best holidays! To kick off the season Erich and I went to Park City for the ski swap. If you need gear this is the place to go--plus it is a whole new kind of shopping experience. The first night of the swap runs from 8pm to 1 am. People from all over come to this event. We showed up an hour early and the line was already several hundred yards long, people had been camped out in line for hours. It was hard to imagine there would be any gear left by the time we got in but there was plenty. We were quite the spectacle with a month old baby and 2 year old.
Anyhow both Erich and I bought new skate skis which we are really excited to try out--and I don't think we'll have to wait long as the snow has been coming. Last year we thought Twin Falls was just lots warmer than MT or Northern Idaho because we had no snow but we were wrong...we've had snow on the ground for a couple of weeks now and it just keeps on coming!
Anyhow last weekend we got the kids all bundled up and went outside to play. After what seemed like an hour of bundling kids up in snow gear we finally headed out on McKinley's first ski trip. She did great--fell right asleep in her little backpack. And Jake helped us look for a Christmas tree. It's a lot harder having two kids and we didn't make it terribly far but it was fun to get out and start the ski season. I think we will make it a tradition to ski back in the woods to find a tree. (Yes they do have trees in Twin Falls...if you drive far enough up into the hills!)
Anyhow hopefully there will be more winter fun posts coming.

Oh yeah, and one more little detail...our family got even bigger! We, or I should say Erich decided we needed a pointer (a special kind of hunting dog for those unfamiliar with hunting) so we bought a very cute little German Shorthair puppy we named Gauge. I was petrified at first but it has actually been lots of fun. Jake LOVES having a little puppy and puppy loves harassing Jake so it's lots of fun!

Everything is Delayed these days

2010-11-08T12:39:00.000-08:00

I know Halloween is old news now, but it is taking me longer to do everything now, so here is my late Halloween update. We had lots of fun with our adorable little puppy Jake. He was so excited to be a dog, when we took him to the mirror so he could see what he looked like he just smiled and smiled, and then barked! I'm traditionally not that festive but trying to be better now that I have kids so we went to the corn maze, picked a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, and even made pumpkin (or kind-of pumpkin looking) sugar cookies. Erich and I got a good laugh out of Jake's cookie, every inch of that cookie was covered with 3 layers of m&m's. Have we mentioned that our little guy has quite the sweet tooth!
The best part was trick or treating with Jake. he was very good at saying Trick or Treat and Thank You.

We didn't dress up McKinley this year, maybe next but here are a few new pics. My good friend came down from Grangeville and spoiled me by taking some pics (these aren't hers but mine that I was taking behind the scenes).

The first few weeks

2010-10-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

We've had lots of fun with grandma and grandpa and little McKinley joining the household. Mother nature has been spoiling us with good weather so we've been sneaking up to the mountains for some bird hunting (erich) ATVing and open fire cooking. McKinley has been a great sport. I just can't believe she is growing as much as she is! There are not enough hours in the day to cuddle the snuggly little girl, and she is one cuddle bug. She is also quite the grunter and squealer. It's hard to get too much sleep with her around. Anyhow I thought I would post some more pics of her.

It's been a long time coming....

2010-10-16T16:41:00.000-07:00

Well it seems like it was a very long nine months but our little girl FINALLY arrived on Tuesday, October 12, 2010, though she wasn't TOO little as she weighed a whopping 8 lbs. 10 oz. She is 20" long and we decided to name her McKinley Jo Gleckler!
Although we think she is as sweet as can be she really surprised us with all that hair and chunkiness. She looks absolutely nothing like Jake and we can't really relate her to anyone else in the family but we sure think she is cute.

Thankfully both sets of grandparents have come in to help out. Before McKinley came, Erich's family came and got Jake and McKinley's rooms put together and us all ready for the big addition. Then Kara's parents came the day before McKinley was born to help out with Jake (perfect timing). Gotta love grandparents.

Kara came home from the hospital on Wednesday morning and we have wasted no time introducing McKinley to the great outdoors of Idaho. We've been to the mountains for a dutch oven dinner and 4 wheeling (don't worry Kara sat out the 4wheeling part) and down to the fish hatchery and park by the river. McKinely is a great little traveler. She sleeps all day...only problem is she is awake a lot of the night. Hopefully she'll get her days and nights figured out here soon. Other than not sleeping at nights she really is such a sweet and good baby. We feel so lucky to have her!

Our little guy is seeming not so little now

2010-09-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe but we celebrated Jake's 2nd birthday last week. He was VERY excited about the presents and blowing out the candles...he didn't care so much about the cake (surprise, surprise). His favorite toy was definitely his helicopter which he insisted taking to bed with him. Nothing like cuddling a hard plastic toy! He is seeming older these days. He is saying and understanding so much more each and every day. It's a pretty fun stage right now. We are trying to enjoy the last days as a family of 3 (plus a dog).

You Lose some to gain some

2010-08-16T20:21:00.000-07:00

So summers are always a little sad because Erich is gone so much fighting fire. This year has been no exception. For most of July Erich was crazy busy hopping from one fire to the next. Thankfully to help break up the loneliness Jake and I got to attend a lot of extended family visits. It started with a quick Saturday visit with my sister in law and her boy Rhone who were visiting Idaho from Delaware. Rhone and Jake are only a few months apart and it's fun now that they are interacting more! They were impressive little sharers from capri suns to high fives to sun glasses!

Next up was the infamous Harker Reunion. My mother has 12 brothers and sisters and every year they have big reunion where approximately 200 aunts uncles and cousins and second cousins get together. One of my fondest childhood memories was attending these reunions where I got to hang out with my best friend, my cousin Chelsea. Now that we are older it is still fun to get together and watch our kids become buds. Her little boys are just the sweetest little guys to Jake and Jake adores them! And of course its fun to see a bunch of crazy aunts and uncles. They had a mustache growing contest, pinatas, a giant slip and slide and lots of other random fun.

After the Grand Harker Reunion we had the Reid reunion with my brothers and sisters. It was the first time our family had everyone together (minus Erich) for 3 years. Everyone spoiled me and came to Twin Falls for a couple of days and then we went up to a cabin we rented on Lake Pallisades. It was chaotic and loud and involved a week of very little sleep for a pregnant woman, but it was wonderful. I just love boating and being out on the water; it sure beat sitting behind a computer all day!

After the reunion I met up with my parent for a more quiet and peaceful weekend boating and hiking Jackson Lake. If you haven't been you need to go. It is quite possibly one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited. I really treasure the time I get to go camping and boating with my parents. The best part of it all is hearing how excited Jake gets to see his papa and grandma.

And no I'm not quite done. After that my niece and her friend came to stay at my house for a week while they attended EFY, and my in-laws came up to spoil their grandson.

Sadly that wraps up the big family hoopla. At least now Erich is home for a few days, hopefully more.

IT'S A . . .

2010-08-15T12:41:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who are still traumatized from our posting two years ago (yes I know it is a hard image to get out of the mind) we thought we would take it easy on you all and post a picture of my clothed tummy instead of Erich's hunkalicious bare tummy :)

With that said we are very happy to announce we are expecting a baby GIRL a mid October. Sorry for the delayed announcement, the reality of it all is still sinking in. However, W=we are very excited to add a new little Gleckler to the family. (By "we" I am not necessarily including Jake; I'm a little nervous for his reaction). Things are going relatively well; I'm glad its is only two more months of pregnancy but I'm grateful I've been as healthy as I have been.

Well more to come soon!

Summer Fun

2010-07-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July was quite entertaining with Jake. He had no problem staying up for the firework show with all the excitement that was going on. He mastered the word "boom boom" and is still using it a week later anytime he hears a big noise. In nursery Sunday the teacher mentioned the word fire in her lesson and Jake shouted out "boom boom!"
The Fourth was extra fun this year because we got to spend it with my sister and her family. My nephew came home from his mission and my niece got baptized so it certainly was a weekend of celebration. Erich had to work all but Sunday but he managed to come over and meet us for the firework show--Jake was very happy his dad could join in on the fun. And of course no visit with teenage girls would have been complete without a little bit of shopping and a viewing of the new Twilight movie!

Beyond fourth of July we've been having a pretty lazy summer. One of my favorite things about Twin Falls are the hot sunny days. Jake and I spend most of our evenings in the backyard playing with his water toys or teeball. It's funny just a few months ago I was a little concerned that Jake wasn't more into sports--I had no need to worry--it's now literally hours of baseball a day. I think he has a bit of an obsessive personality....I wonder where he gets that from ? ! ?

When you have kids things change

2010-06-21T16:25:00.001-07:00

Well I never imagined myself being an ATV girl...I have always been more of an outdoor purist if you will, but I must admit having an ATV rocks with kids. The last two weekends Erich and I have gone out exploring the mountains on the ATV an no one in the family enjoys the trips more than Jake. It's a great way to explore lots of country and to get up into the trees. We had a great little fire in a pretty meadow. It's fun to watch Jake discover new things. The marshmellow roasting was quite interesting...he preferred using the marshmellow to draw in the dirt as opposed to roasting and eating!

Freedom, Family and Friends

2010-06-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

Memorial Day was very fun this year. We headed down to UT to see friends and family, and to enjoy three days of beautiful sunshine. On Saturday we went to Capital Reef, a national park with red rocks and big canyons. We had lots of fun hiking around and bbqing. We found out Jake loves bratworsts and cheetohs! Jakes was very excited about the hiking too, the only problem is he gets easily distracted with all the dirt, rocks, and sticks. I don't think we went more than 3 minutes straight without him detouring off to discover some new puddle rock or plant. As you can see though, he's a pretty good little climber (scary I know!)

Monday was special, we went to a Pancake breakfast and presentation at the cemetary and learned all sorts of interesting facts about Memorial Day; it's good to remember and appreciate the meaning of the holiday.

All in all the weekend flew by way to fast. It was a very needed break and a great time.

Getting out and exploring

2010-05-23T19:00:00.000-07:00

We had a gorgeous weekend last weekend so we took the ATV out to the mountains. Jake was a trooper; we went for a four hour drive and he loved it the whole time. It was so good to get back up into the trees. We saw lots of elk (my favorite animal) and a few deer.
The rest of the weekend we did some landscaping. Erich spoiled me for mother's day and bought me a bunch of new flowers and plants for the yard (that way they'd last longer) During the process Jake discovered how much fun a hose can be. I just love watching him explore and discover things. It ended up being a win-win: we taught him how to water the plants.

Real is always better

2010-05-12T19:40:00.000-07:00

As much as Jake loves his little four wheeler, what he really loves is Dad's big ATV. As soon as we say the word "Ride", Jake starts giggling and wiggling in excitement. Take close look at his smile in the pics...I would say he is one happy little fella whenever on dad's ATV.

This last week was lots of fun. My mom and dad spoiled us for a little visit. It was so wonderful having them around. My dad let me lose again and the again at cards, my mom made all sorts of decorations for Jakes play room (I'll post some pics when I get it all done), and admist the 20-50 mph winds we managed to make it outside for a few walks and afternoons in the park. There's just nothing like having parents around helping out. I was sad to say goodbye.

Love the Weather, Not the TIcks

2010-04-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

It's been so beautiful and sunny here laterly. We've had a great time out hiking, biking, and playing at the park. It was over 70 the past weekend so we headed down for our first camping trip at City of Rocks. It's a unique place a little less than 2 hour from here. It's renowned for rock climbing but Erich, Jake and I just hiked around. There are massive granite boulders everywhere, randomly conglomerated in central Idaho. Everything was fabulous until we were falling asleep and Erich found a tick on him. Pesky little buggers ruin all the fun.

Anyhow you might notice something different with Jake, like how you can see his smile! Erich got brave (and I went along) we took Jake's binky away cold turkey. I've been dreading this task for 20 months now but it actually went relatively well. I'm so glad we just took away it completely, out of sight out of mind.

He Speaks!

2010-04-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

Jake was feeling pretty talkative tonight. We were outside and it's hard to hear the video with all the wind and it's blurry, but it's fun nonetheless.

Easter

2010-04-13T18:13:00.001-07:00

Holidays are definitely much more fun with a little one around...And a whole lot more interesting. We tried dying eggs but Jake was clearly more interested in drinking the cool looking water than dipping the eggs. We finally had to put Jake to bed and finish the eggs for him :)
We took Jake to the City Park easter egg hunt and he did great. He got a whole basket full of eggs and had fun opening them up, although the City of Twin Falls must have been on a tight budget this year because half the eggs didn't have candy in them--fun nonetheless. I'm glad we did the that egg hunt because Easter morning Jake was so excited about his new toys he didn't care much about the eggs. The highlight was his new ATV. When we visited cousin Rhone Jake fell in love with Rhone's ATV so the Easter bunny thought a little ATV would be the perfect gift.

Other than that life has been good. We squeezed in another cross-country skiing trip. Sadly there was only a few inches of snow so it looks like the ski season is wrapping up for the year. On the bright side we're back to hiking. Last Sunday we went for a pretty mild hike. Jake didn't want to get in the backpack so we thought we would let him walk for a bit. A mile and half later the kid was still going and showing no signs of tiring. We were such proud parents. It was a blast until we found a tick on Jake. Once I saw a tick I was done. We packed Jake up and hightailed it out of there.

The East Coast

2010-03-14T20:45:00.000-07:00

Erich has a sister and a brother stationed on the East coast this year so Erich and I decided it was time to visit the east coast. We had lots of fun. Erich's Brother Ben is a pilot in Dover Delaware. He flies the largest plane in operation a C-5. We got to tour and it was pretty impressive. He said it can haul like 5 black hawk helicopters at once. While we were in Deleware we visited the beach. It was quite cold and windy but fun nonetheless. Jake and his cousin Rhone (only a few months younger) kept us entertained as they played in the sand and with the seashells.
From Deleware we went up to NYC. Erich and I aren't exactly city folks and we weren't dying to experience New York traffic so we settled for a tour of the city via a ferry. We went to the Statue of Liberty an Ellis Island. That was a very fun day. The Statute looks so different in person.
From NYC we went to PA for a little ski trip. We've heard so much about all the east coast storms we were expecting some pretty impressive snow. It was more like 3 feet of slush! And there was pretty much snow only on the ski runs. Fun to enjoy skiing east coast style (or that's what Ben and Erich report) Meagan and I took Jake and Rhone to the Crayola Factory.
We ended the trip in D.C. I was worried before hand that Jake would be an impossible handful in all the museums. Not exactly the dream vacation with an 18 month old but he did remarkably well. Or at least in our eyes. Apparently people on the East coast are very good at giving parenting advice. Erich and I got more advice in one day than I think we've gotten in the past year :) Guess backpacking around 18 month olds isn't as big at the Smithsonian as it is in the hills of Idaho! While DC wasn't exactly relaxing it was fascinating. I LOVED all the museums and history. Erich's fav was the Air and Space museum and my definite fav was Mount Vernon. I've always been a pretty big George Washington fan so it was particularly neat to see his big homestead. All in all it was awesome touring the east coast. Very different but fun to experience. We learned we are not as good of navigators as we thought. Yes we did break down an buy a GPS half way through the trip. We also learned a greater appreciation for the toll-free roads in the west!
The best part though was catching up with family. It was so nice to have locals show us around and to see where they are living.
Anyhow pretty fun vacation for the Glecklers. Now it is back to the grind!

Missing the Mountains

2010-02-21T20:05:00.001-08:00

Unfortunately there aren't any mountains right in Twin Falls so we've been spending the last several weekends taking road trips to the hills. It's been awesome. First we went to Stanley for a weekend of intense cross-country skiing. The scenery was spectacular--some of the most impressive terrain I've ever seen. We had two beautiful sunny days. We spent the night at a little hot springs resort. While soaking in the springs you looked right up at the peaks (the view from the springs is the fourth pic up). Pretty awesome. Then last weekend we spent the long weekend down in UT visiting all our friends and enjoying a little ski getaway. Erich's very fun niece and nephew attend BYU so we hooked up with them for some Downhill and cross-country skiing.
In between our little trips we've been busy laughing at our little boy. He is definitely fiesty but also a whole lot of fun. His favorite thing of the week is bringing us a blanket and having us pull him around on it--the magic blanket ride. At last he's starting to say more words. The most exciting of which is "Geese". Erich was outside in the garage and Jake pointed to Erich's goose decoys and said "geese". Should I be worried already?!?

Sunny Days and Visitors

2010-01-24T20:59:00.000-08:00

So little Jake is becoming not so little anymore. I've officially decided he can make mess as quick as I can clean it :) Thankfully he's so darn cute it's hard to get too frustrated with him. He's passed the walking stage and is now running and climbing everywhere. Still not too many words but he manages to express himself quite clearly! As for Erich and I, we've had some time these past few weekends to explore and enjoy the winter. More cross-country skiing of course. Our new thing this year is to pack a backcountry stove and to throw a tarp out midway through our ski for a little brisk picnic! It's chilly but fun. It's a good break for Jake to get out of the backpack. our other highlight was having Erich's parents and sister make a surprise visit. We went and explored some hot springs and headed up to Sun Valley. I have to say that McCall is the true treasure of Idaho not Sun Valley. I think my favorite part of Twin Falls is being closer to Family--we just love having company.

Happy New Year

2010-01-06T21:48:00.000-08:00

Can't believe it is 2010! To bring in the new year Kara was sick so we stayed home and had a movie marathon. After sleeping and gorging ourselves with TV for hours Kara felt better and we were ready to celebrate the new year a more typical Gleckler way. We went on two fun cross-country ski trips. One to the South hills and one to the Sun Valley area. We were really worried there wouldn't be enough snow to ski. Boy were we surprised when the road was closed for a half hour while they cleared off an avalanche and when the powder was 2-3 feet deep. Poor Libby got the workout of the season swimming through all the snow. The South Hills was quite the adventure. We found an old road to follow which took us up and up and up. When we started cresting the top I thought I saw a ski lift. Sure enough we had cross-country skiied up to the top of Magic Valley Downhill Ski Hill. I always wondered what it would be like to down hill ski with cross-country skis. YEAH, not such a good combo. We started down a green run (I typically do blacks no problem) and biffed it within the first 15 feet...total face plant :) We looked like the misfits with a dog on the ski hill and a kid in a backpack! Don't judge us please. Anyhow we quickly found a road off the main ski routes and pludged ourselves through the powder back to the car. Our trip to Sun Valley was one of the most spectacular trips ever. The sun was brilliant and with all the fresh snow glistening it truly was a gorgeous day of skiing (And yes the sparkling snow was more beautiful than Edward's skin for all you Twilight fans!) Anyhow it felt great to be out skiing again, and Jake was a relatively great sport throughout it all.

Happy Holidays

2009-12-27T20:53:00.000-08:00

The bum part of working is only having a few days off for the holidays. Although our holiday break was short this year we still managed to have a great time sneaking in a last minute trip up to Montana. It was lots of fun. Kara's mom spoiled us and babysat Jake each day we were there so we could go out downhill skiing, cross-country skiing and sledding. It was a nice to have a little get away during the day and then a family gathering at night.
Jake was a whole lot of fun for Christmas. He couldn;t quite unwrap the gifts on his own but he helped out a lot and got real excited to see what was inside. Christmas is much more special when you have a little one to share it with! (Note the fourth picture up is the view out of Kara's parents' window, which is just one of the many reasons to love MONTANA!) It felt great to be back in the trees and the mountains for a little bit before returning to Twin Falls)

Thanksgiving

2009-11-30T20:41:00.000-08:00

I feel like we have so much to be greatful for. It has been a year of many blessings for our family so this Thanksgiving was particularly meaningful.
To celebrate this year we were fortunate to have Erich's parents, sister, neice & nephew (from BYU) come up for the Thanksgiving weekend. Although we didn't have the snow we were wanting for sledding and skiing, we managed to have a great time. Erich's family was so kind and helped us decorate Jake's nursery, put up Christmas lights, build a dog kennel, and cut down/decorate a Christmas tree. Don't you all want to come to our house now? Despite all the work, it was a blast hanging out with family. And a bit thrilling at time (those of you who watched the BYU v. Utah game will understand what I mean!) I have to say Thanksgiving is one of my fav holidays...good food, good family, good shopping, good football,...can't complain about that!
While I am very sad that the holiday weekedn is over and all our company is gone, our dishwasher isn't. Finally a day without three or four loads :)

Gotta Love Visitors

2009-11-12T18:27:00.000-08:00

This weekend was lots of fun, we were ultra spoiled because my sister and her kids and my parents came to spend the weekend. We only had a few days together but we got in a lot of shopping, good eating and game playing. We even got to watch a bunch of base jumpers. (For those of you who don't know base jumping is jumping off a super high bridge and parachuting to the bottom. We have a very tall bridge over the river canyon and it is one of the only places in the US where bridge jumping is legal without a special permit so we get people from all of the world here. We usually see novices but this weekend there were some pretty experienced jumpers who were doing flips, jumping doubles and other cool stuffs. I got enough of a rush just watching them. Unfortunately I forgot to whip out my camera while all the fun was here.
The weather has been so gorgeous here so we snuck out to take a hike around the falls and little lake. It was awesome to get out and enjoy a sunny, crisp autumn day. Jake liked the slide quite a bit, but I am not sure who was having more fun, dad or Jake :)

lil' stinker

2009-11-01T06:44:00.001-08:00

My brother's son was a skunk last year and it was the cutest costume I had ever seen. Thankfully they were nice enough to pass it on down to Jake. So we had a lot of fun this Halloween with our lil' Stinker. I wasn't anticipating how entertaining Halloween is with a kid. We took Jake trick or treating to a few of our neighbor's houses. At the first one Jake just smiled at the guy, the guy would try to give Jake candy but Jake just kept smiling back. BUT then he caught on. One of our neigbhbors gave him a sucker, which Jake immediately dug into. For the next few minutes he alternated between sucking the sucker and saying yummmmmmmm, yummmmmmm. The funnest was visiting the grandmas and grandpas. One adorable elderly couple oohed and ahhed over Jake and then asked if they could carry Jake over to their friend's house next door so they could see Jake too :) Needless to say Jake loved that attention! In contract of course there was the teenage boy dressed up as Kiss that didn't know quite what to do when he saw a one-year-old skunk on his doorstep. I think his response was something like dude here's some candy, which he handed to us. After a lot of fun trick or treating we brough Jake home to eat some candy. I am not sure how, considering how much of a sweet tooth his mom and dad have, but Jake really isn't much of a chocolate fan. He would take a bite of chocolate then stick out his tongue. He does, however, very much enjoy painting with melted chocolate.
So Anyhow there is a play by play of our Halloween. Lots of fun!

FINALLY IN!

2009-10-22T19:39:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the long time with no posts but life has been crazy moving in to our new house. We are so excited to finally be in...now we just have to get all the pesky boxes unpacked and walls decorated. Erich's mom and sister came up and spoiled us the first week and helped us get settled in so that gave us a good start, but with both of us working full time and playing with Jake at night it is one slow process. The place is not really put together and decorated yet but here are a few pics of the main floor and part of the outside. I'll try to post some better ones later.

Can't believe it has been one year

2009-09-28T19:33:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday we celebrated Jake's first birthday. I can't believe it has already been one year. The one thing I know is that he is changing way too fast.

We had one very fun birthday. Erich's parent's and a few sisters came up to help celebrate. I bought Jake a bunch of presents thinking they were more for my entertainment than his, but boy was I wrong. We must have spent almost an hour laughing at Jake opening/playing with his gifts. There was no mistaking that Jake knew there were toys in those gift bags. He spent a lot of time exploring each toy we got him--most of which were cars as that is his most recent craze.

I even impressed myself by making a German chocolate cake from scratch in the trailer--let's just say I haven't cooked much this summer considering our living arrangements. To my pleasant surprise the cake actually turned out (Thanks to the Petersens for the awesome recipe!). Jake was easy on us though, he hardly made a mess at all. He was much more interested in eating the candle then the cake and he had more fun with the plate than the cake...that's Jake for you!

Anyhow we had a great time and were very appreciative that we had some family around to join in on the fun. Now if Jake would just stop growing so fast....

Labor Day Fun

2009-09-13T22:15:00.000-07:00

Surprise, Erich was gone on a fire assignment to UT for Labor Day. He was actually very lucky, he got sent to Richfield which is where his parents and sister lives. While there he met his nephew, Isaac, who was born in July, and got to give the fam a tour of the helibase. While Erich was busy working, Jake and I went to Island Park for a weekend of camping with my parents. It was gorgeous and the perfect relaxation after a fun, but very busy first few weeks of work. Here are some pics from the trip. Can I just say that I LOVE having parents that are retired and so willing to vacation with me :) The weekend was gorgeous, we saw a cool bull moose, we woke up to elk bugling, we rafted down the river, grandpa spoiled Jake with ice cream and pizza (he's officially American now), we drove up to a lookout point, and we visited the headwaters of the snake river. All in all quite one great Labor day Holiday.

The summer goes by too fast!

2009-08-29T21:10:00.000-07:00

Life has been crazy busy lately. I decided to take one last vacation before starting work. As usual my trip involved Montana and boating! It is so pretty in Montana, I don't seem to want to go anywhere else.

(I am one happy girl in this pic; there is just something so peaceful and relaxing about boating at night)

(we were laying on the boat catching some rays when I looked over and saw this moose eating...it was pretty fun watching it).

Jake adapts just fine to my vacation style. He definitely loves the boat. His favorite spot is on the back where he can watch the tubers/skiers.

It is nice to get Jake around his cousins and grandparents. My brother has a boy who is only 1 year older (Leyton) and the two of them are already trouble!

(Jake playing with his cousins' fishing rod)

After MT I met up with some good college friends in Pallisades. One of my friends' has a cabin there. It was an awesome weekend of relaxation, a perfect way to live up my last weekend before starting work. We had so much fun boating, staying up playing games, cooking dutch oven, etc. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pics, which is a shame because it was gorgeous.
So that covers the PLAY part of my life...now for the WORK part.
My first week of work was awesome! It is really fun to be back at work and the firm is as great as I was hoping for.
And speaking of work Erich has been traveling for fires, hence the all Kara/Jake post. Thankfully summer is winding up and we'll be seeing more of Erich here soon.

And It All Comes together

2009-08-09T13:34:00.000-07:00

Life in the Gleckler household has been full of change and anxiety so far this year. As thrilled as Erich and I were about moving to Twin, it has taken awhile for all the pieces of our life to settle into place. After months of waiting and anticipation things are finally coming together. I was telling my family that it felt like my birthday everyday of this week as I received good news after good news. We finally got the offer on our house in Grangeville, we made progress towards getting Jake on a routine/schedule, we locked in interest rates for our new house at a summer low (for those of you following interest rates you know that they have been swinging around like crazy the last several months), and last, but certainly not least, I got a job offer at a small law firm here in Twin. Our family has certainly been abundantly blessed and I am very grateful and humble. I feel sheepish for fretting so much when I should have had faith that all would work out. At any rate lots of prayers answered and hopes fulfilled in the Gleckler home.

And to top it all off I got to spend my birthday with Erich, a first in our marriage since he is typically off fighting fire this time of year. Now most of you would expect us to have done something adventurous to celebrate but this year the thing I wanted most was just to have dinner and a movie and time at home with my family so that is what we did. It's so fun watching Jake with his dad, he gets so excited to see him he squeals and flails and it's pretty darn adorable. And although he doesn't show it as much, Dad likes to be with Jake a whole lot too; they are pretty good buds those two.

As for Jake he now has two front teeth and two bottom teeth. He's not walking a whole lot yet but he is awefully energetic and curious, definitely my little explorer who doesn't care for kid toys as much as the other stuff he finds.

Reunion

2009-08-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

This has been the month of reunions...a reunion with Erich's family, then a reunion with my high school buds, then a reunion with my extended family (I have 70 cousins on my mom's side alone--crazy I know), then a reunion with my brothers and sisters (sadly minus a sister). Now I'm home for a little bit before heading off to one more reunion with friends. Needless to say it has been one full, fun month.
In the meantime Erich has been down in Nevada and California fighting fires--poor Jake misses his dad but hopefully he'll be home soon.
Apparently I was having too much fun to take many pics so sorry.

(me and my high school buds)

2009-07-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

It has been an unusually slow fire year so far which Erich and I have been taking advantage of. We have been traveling on the weekends, something we rarely get to do in mid-summer. This weekend we were off to Utah where we had a little family get together with Erich's parents and sister in law. It was fun to get Jake together with his cousin Rhone. We went to the Air force museum and out to Antelope island. It was a gorgeous evening and fun to see bison roaming around so close to the city. We definitely love being closer to family now that we are in Twin. We were also excited to fit in a little visit with our good ol' law school friends.

(Grandparents take note! Jake took his first steps last night!!! This is a picture from down at the river. Erich and I went swimming off the ropseswing you see in the background and Jake had a ball playing with the sticks, dirt, and grass.)

Freedom, Fun and Family

2009-07-09T08:14:00.000-07:00

Fourth of July has to be one of my favorite holidays especially since spending a summer in Africa and realizing what a blessing it is to live in America! Lucky for me the fourth of july celebration lasted all week. To kick things off Jake and I were up in Grangeville, a little town that knows how to celebrate big. They have 3 days of street games and festivities including what could be the nation's largest "egg toss" competition. It is pretty funny, the streets are lined with people tossing eggs back and forth including the "eyes closed" toss, the "behind the back toss" the "hike toss"....you get the idea. It was really fun unil the egg exploded on me and got me all gooey. As always it was a real treat to be back in Grangeville for a visit with great friends.
For the actual fouth Erich had to work so we watched the fireworks in Twin. Jake was lots of fun and had no problem staying awake for the big show. He was quite enthralled with the lights and the booms, Libby on the other hand was petrified. After the fourth Erich took a long weekend and we went to Pallisades for a few wonderful days of boating and camping with my parents and sister. For me there is NOTHING better than a hot day on the lake with glassy water and family to share it all with. With Erich's job it is rare that we get to spend the fourth of july together, let alone take a 3 day summer vacation so it was a very memorable week of the fourth. I sure am grateful for my freedom and family.

(the egg toss, look close and you can see how high those eggs are in the air)

(dad and Jake watching the fireworks)

Too much fun to take pictures

2009-06-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

This last week we got to go back up to Grangeville. It was so awesome to see our friends and to be in our house again. We were so busy having fun playing cards and eating great food that we forgot to take any pics of our lazy, comfortable weekend. It was a good thing we had sucg a relaxing fathers day weekend because the week was anything but lazy. Erich got to go to Boise to train for cargo let down (for those not down with the language it's pretty much what it sounds, dropping cargo loads down out of the helicopter). Then he had a lot of stress with mechanical malfunctiosn on the helicopter. While Erich was busy with work I was busy picking out the whole interior of our house (yes Erich trusts me to make all the decisions). It's fun to drive by the lot now because they are working on the framing. Anyhow that's an update in the Gleckler world. I'll keep it short since my last few posts have been so long!

(as you can see Jake is better at getting the food on his face than down to his tummy)

Another week of exploration

2009-06-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

We are still discovering more and more treasures of Twin--this week a lot of the exploration was done via bike. Erich has a bad habit of going out and buying his gifts before I have a chance of purchasing/giving them to him. Lately he has been wanting a bike trailer for Jake so I went ahead and bought it and gave it to him as an early Fathers Day gift. Thus, this week we've been doing a bit of bike riding. We really wanted to go to Sun Valley and ride but we got rained out. So instead we rode the country roads around here. It is pretty fun just cruising around the farm fields. We also went and biked out to one of the lakes here. I can't help but check out all the good waterskiing spots!

(the fields around here are quite beautiful)

(as you can see Jake is quite into standing up these days)

When you are in Twin you can see some mountains to the south. From a distance they look more like sage covered hills but once you get up in them they are actually quite tall and beautiful. We were quite excited to discover a little ski resort and hiking trails all less than 30 miles from home!

(who knew Twin Falls had trees and mountains?)

(it started raining pretty good on us so we hunkered down under some trees until it passed)

Jake has FINALLY decided he is interested in food, which freed me up to attend a temple session. The temple is gorgeous, especially the inside.

(It awesome having a temple right here)

(Quite the little smiler!)

(Gotta love being a mom)

They are really moving on our house. Last Sunday when we went out there it was bare dirt, now we have part of a foundation. Things are really developing fast. Last week there was only 1 house being built on our block, now there are 5 going up, including our neighbors. I guess things still move in this economy so long as the price is right!

More about Twin Falls

2009-06-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of the lot/subdivision/area where we are building. We are pretty excited about it. We are three houses down from the park, real close to the canyon rim trail and just down the road from Winco, Walmart, and Gold's Gym! Our backyard borders up to an undeveloped part of our subdivision so at least for the next couple of years we will enjoy a several acre field behind our house.
Thanks to those of you who voted on the exterior colors for our home. We ended up going with a darker sage green, tan, and a creamish colored trim. Hopefully it turns out as pretty as we have envisioned :)

(this is a zoomed up view of the canyon rim from what will be our backyard)

(this is a picture of Jake trying out the swings in the park next to our lot. He wasn't too sure of the swing--he was smiling big but a little shakey too)

(the park by our house, or future house)

(a little waterfall along the canyon rim trail which you can walk to from our place)

(Looking down to the canyon from the trai...and yes I saw waterskiers down there!!!!)

(since no blog is complete without pictures of Jake! He is quite the crawler these days)

Hidden Treasures

2009-06-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

I have driven by Twin Falls a number of times in my life and I have always ridden the area off as boring, dry, and relatively ugly. Since moving here I must say my perspective has completely changed. I can even say I am excited about living here. I love the vastness of the sky, the intense sunsets and weather patterns, the peaceful sound of sprinklers running, the hot weather, and the mighty river and canyons. Erich and I had a lot of fun this weekend scoping out the area, finding all the boat ramps and dreaming of the day we buy a boat. We found some fun places to hike though they were sage-filled instead of tree-filled, and rattle snake infested instead of tick-infested. After seeing 2 rattle snakes we decided we better watch more of the trail and less of the scenary! Nonethess a very fun day of hiking and exploring. Obviously our life here will be rather different, but I am pretty sure we will find things to do and love about Twin Falls.

As for a Jake update he continues to be our primary source of joy and entertainment. Crawling is no longer exciting enough for him; he now pulls himself up and stands on everything. He is loving his life down here. He spends hours playing in the grass and with Libby (our dog), though he and I certainly miss our friends up in Grangeville.

And then life changes

2009-05-23T22:13:00.001-07:00

So it is going to be hard to go from this:

To This:

But that is our reality and blessing. Erich got an awesome job offer in Twin Falls as the helitack foreman. It is a good promotion and opportunity for Erich to run his own fire crew. The helicopter there is one of the busiest (in terms of flight time) in the nation and it should be a pretty neat experience for him. Considering the economy and the struggles of so many, we feel very fortunate to have this privilege, though it is heartbreaking to have to leave Grangeville.

So that is the true reason I have been blogging MIA. We are officially moving this Tuesday :( Life has been incredibly hectic trying to sell our house, buy a house, oh and finish our house so it is sellable!

As stressful as the past few weeks have been I mainly feel incredibly blessed at the generosity of our friends and family who have gone above and beyond to help our little family in this transition. From friends that house and feed us en route to Twin Falls, to friends that spend their Saturdays roofing our garage and mowing our yard (even cleaning up our dog's poop--now that is a real sign of friendship!) to parents who drop everything so they can come scrub our tile clean to parents who have lent us their trailer for temporary housing arrangements, we certainly feel overwhelming blessed by the kindness and generosity of friends/family.

It took me awhile to realize what a gem of a place it is here, but I LOVE Grangeville and will certainly miss it.

Back to the blogging world at last

2009-05-14T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hey sorry I have been blog lazy for so long. Life has been pretty hectic around here. Erich went on a detail down to New Mexico for some burning/sawing assignments. Being the nice guy that he is, he sent me to Georgia and California to visit my sisters (and my mom came too). Us ladies got in a lot of shopping, eating, six flags, hiking and of course late nights of game playing and gabbing! The only rough part was having to say goodbye. Some highlights from the trip were taking Jake to the ocean for the first time, losing the Wii tournament to my 8 year old nephew, hiking to the top of Stone Mountain and overlooking the skyline of Atlanta (my 4 year old niece hiked the entire 3 miles by herself making her aunt quite proud!).....I could go on and on as the whole trip was amazing. Jake even spoiled me as usual and did a fabulous job riding the plane. He only got fussy for one of the flights, which is pretty impressive considering that I left my house at 7:30 a.m. and did not get to Atlanta until 3:30 a.m....yep that's right with the time change that is almost 18 hours of traveling. What a trooper I have. Here's some pics from the trip.

Family...if only we lived closer!

2009-03-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately my family is spread out enough that we don't get to see each other often. So last week I was really excited that I got to get together for a short visit with my dad, and my brother and his very cute boys. Leyton (chuck's youngest son) is exactly one year older than Jake, and Aiden (Chuck's oldest son) is 3 years than Jake so it's fun to see what fun we are in for! Anyhow we had a great time swimming and getting spoiled by my dad who treated us to McKenzie River pizza, which for the record is the BEST pizza joint ever! The other excitement of the week was trying desperately to get Jake to eat food. It has turned into quite the battle, the kid just does NOT want anything to do with baby food. At least he's darn cute as he spits all his food out!

Shed Hunting

2009-03-25T12:35:00.000-07:00

Erich and I thought we would take advantage of the warm streak of weather and switch from snow sports to good ol' hiking. We took a couple of days last week and hiked up the riverbreaks in search of elk/deer sheds. The terrain here is so crazy, it is insanely steep right off the river and then you break out on top and hit these big basins and gently sloping ridges. It's so beautiful on top with lots of great views. We only found one 5 point deer antler but we sure had a good time ...UNTIL I saw a tick on Erich. I am petrified of ticks so that took a little, no make that a LOT of the fun out of it but thankfully there were none on Jacob and we caught all of the ones on us before they had time to burrow in. Anyone else feeling itchy right now?!?

Adventures with Flat Stanley

2009-03-16T13:33:00.000-07:00

So my nephew sent us "Flat Stanley" and asked us to take him on adventures around Idaho. So that was our weekend fun---toting Flat Stanley around to visit the beauty of Grangeville. We went skiing to our favorite little Rustic Cabin and snowshoeing to a great vista point overlooking Whitebird pass. It was a gorgeous weekend and a great reminder of just how lucky we are to live in such a cool place.
We also hung out with our friends who were thinking of buying a puppy...hence the pic of the adorable lil' lab/retriever pup.

Random Winter Happenings

2009-03-12T13:15:00.000-07:00

Things have been relatively mellow here in the Gleckler household. We are having lots of fun playing with Jake who's requiring more and more attention these days :) He's definitely perfecting the sitting up thing andmbecoming more inquisitive. The days of enjoying a nice peaceful dinner or holding Jake while playing cards are definitely gone.

We've also been cross country skiing quite a bit. Last weekend we skiied up to a little cabin and had hot chocolate up there. Jake was completely mesmerized by the fire...lights and motion what more could a little boy ask for?

I am not back at work but I did take a pro bono (volunteer) case for a woman involved in a custody dispute. Anyhow it was my first official court appearance.

My favorite part of the day is waking up to this!

Like Father Like Son!

2009-03-01T18:45:00.000-08:00

So we finally found Erich's baby pictures and were quite shocked at just how much Jake looks like his dad.
Definitely some differences but definitely some similarities as well. Speaking of Jake he's sick for the first time. It's so sad to hear his cough and hear him struggle to breath with all that gunk. And with a lttle guy not feeling great we've had to put our outdoor excursions on a hold. Hopefully he'll get feeling well soon so we can enjoy all that snow while it lasts :)

Family Fun

2009-02-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

Erich's brother Ben is in the air force and lives in Mississippi, but he and his wife came to Idaho to bless their little son, Rhone, who was born 5 weeks ago. So this weekend Erich, Jake and I headed to Malad Idaho for a whirlwind family get together. It was Erich's idea of an ideal vacation. The first day we got there we went shooting, then sledding, then coyote shooting (where his shooting wasn't quite as impressive!). On Sunday Erich's sister came up with her adorable four kids. It was great introducing Jake to his new cousins. I am sure they will be great buds here soon. Anyhow it was a lot of driving but a whole lot of fun, if only we lived closer to our families so we could do this more often!

(Erich shooting clays!)

(Meagan's dad breeds English Setters. It was tough not buying one of these cute little pups)

(it is weird how much the dad's look alike but how different the sons look)

the cousins

(the kids love playing with Uncle Erich)

(Baby Jake does too!)

Lovin' the Winter

2009-02-02T11:38:00.000-08:00

WINTER CARNIVAL IN MCCALL

This weekend we went with the Petersens to McCall to enoy the Winter Carnival. For those of you who haven't heard of it before, throughout the town they have huge snow/ice sculptures and then a bunch of different winter games. The theme this year was fantasy so there were a ton of dragons and haunted forests and sculptures like that. It was pretty impressive the things people can do with a mound of snow/ice.

We lucked out because it was a beautiful sunny day. Of course we coudn't go to McCall without enjoying a little snow adventure so we all went snowshoeing close to McCall lake. Very gorgeous!

Thought this day would never come!

2009-01-27T13:17:00.000-08:00

Well we finally finished the downstairs living room, which means that we have officically completed our major remodeling touches on the house. We still have a lot of little projects to do but it feels AMAZING to have all the big work done. I will try and get up some before and after pictures.

Since we did not have remodeling work this weekend we headed up to the mountains for a little snowshoe adventure.

We are so lucky that Jake is easygoing. He is pretty content riding along in the pack.

Speaking of the little guy, Jake had his 4 month b-day and checkup. The doctor said Jake was in the 40th percentile for legnth and in the 25th percentile for weight--so that is good news.

I am enjoying the last few months that I can lay Jake down and have him stay. Before long it will be chase time!

Jake's favorite position these days is standing. It is pretty impressive how sturdy he is on those legs.

off to a great new year!

2009-01-16T15:10:00.000-08:00

Well we started out the year with Erich getting back to work. His first week was a training in Missoula. The drive over Lolo pass was amazingly beautiful with tons and tons of snow. We took a little detour on the way up for a snowshoe trip along the river. Poor Libby was sinking into snow up to her waist. It looked a little like she was swimming but it didn't even seem to phase her with her endless supply of energy. In Missoula we had fun swimming and working out together at the Motel. It was perfect they had a bike that Erich could use to stregnthen his knee. We did a little snowshoeing in Missoula as well. One of the highlights of the trip was visiting the Visitors Center of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. They had some world record bull elks there that were impressive to say the least. It was fun cause they had a plaque which gave a summarized story of the hunts in which they were killed. It definitely motivated me to go elk hunting this next year. Other than that I got some shopping in and enjoyed the time playing with Jake. Our little guy isn't seeming so little anymore. As you can tell from the one pic it is time we move up a size in his clothes--he got his head stuck in the onsie!

(One snowy road trip! It just doesn't get much prettier than Montana in a fresh snow blanket!)(I can't figure out how to rotate this picture but it makes me laugh so I am posting it anyhow!)

Love the Holidays

2009-01-06T21:19:00.001-08:00

We got to go to Montana for Christmas. It was lots of fun to see my family and some ol' friends. What did we do?

(We went for a lot of walks/hikes. It's so pretty around my parent's house how could we resist?)

(Jacob didn't see too much of the scenary. He LOVES the backpack carrier his aunt and uncle got him...it's so cozy and comfy he falls right to sleep in it).

(We also got in a fair amount of sledding? You are never too old for a good run on the hill right?)

(We played game after game--mainly cards--which of course went hand-in-hand with eating treat after treat.)

(Jake got spoiled by grandma and grandpa)

(We opened presents...well actually our adorable nephews helped open our presents for us. In fact my 3 year old nephew's favorite toy was Erich's goose call which Aiden was sure was a TUBA not a goose call!)

(Erich obliged to celebrating Christmas Reid Style which included lining up in the hallway Christmas morning for pictures and staying up on Christmas Eve until a crazy hour--my parents said it was more like fourish when they got to bed. Does anyone else's parents stay up until 2 in the morning on a regular basis? I was the one telling them it was bedtime!)

(We introduced our adorable son to lots of friends and family)

(and just reflected on how lucky we are to belong to such a fun and great family! It would have been better if everyone was there but it we had a great time nonetheless)

Christmas Fun

2008-12-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

Our ward did a really neat Christmas party this year. It was called "Come to the Inn" or something like that and it was all bethlehem themed where they tried to re-enact the Christmas night. The halls of the church were decorated as Bethlehem shops...one being the fabric store where everyone in the ward was given Bethlehem garb to wear. The gym was closed off and decorated like the inn. They served an authentic type dinner and asked Erich, Jake and I to be Mary and Joseph. Halfway through dinner we came and asked for a room...they of course told us it was full but there was a stable available. After dinner they announced that the baby Jesus had arrived, so the ward went outside where they had decorated a live nativity scene complete with goats and a mule and a manger. We sang Christmas songs out there around the nativity and then went inside for dessert.

It took a lot of work from the activity folks I am sure, but it was such a neat and spiritual experience. A perfect opportunity to reflect on the true meaning of Christmas. Jake was a good sport and did an excellent job as baby Jesus...being very peaceful through the whole program.

Anyhow I just love Christmas and am so grateful to have such good family and friends to help celebrate this wondrous time of year.

Although this is a little late in posting, here are some pics we took coming home from seeing Erich's family. Traveling with a newborn demands you slow down and stop along the way...so we tried to make the most of our stops. Here's a detour to some waterfalls and to the river.

One Last Chance--Private

2008-12-14T22:09:00.000-08:00

Okay, I thought that I would give everyone one more chance to send us an email before we make our blog private. Please leave your email address in our blog comment if you would still like to see our blog. Thanks! Erich and Kara

Duck Slaying

2008-12-11T21:58:00.000-08:00

Here is a picture from one hunt 2 weeks ago.

4 snows, 10 Greenheads, 1 hen, 6 Canada Geese

Jake pics per the grandpa request :)

2008-12-05T19:12:00.001-08:00

Erich got me a new camera for our anniversary but I waited until black Friday to get it. Anyhow I LOVE my new camera and have had lots of fun taking picture after picture...Jake is my typical target. Here are my favs. This week I got Jake to giggle for the first time and it was the cutest thing I've ever heard. I've tried to get him to do it again, like for his father, but no such luck!

Making Blog Private

2008-12-04T16:28:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! I am going to make our blog private so we can block everyone in the world from viewing our blog, just for safety reasons. So, could all of our friends and family please email us so we can add you to the list( erich_gleck@hotmail.com). All I need is your email logon address. I will give everyone a week and then I'll be blocking it. By the way, go Sooners!

Erich and Kara

Out and About

2008-11-09T20:13:00.002-08:00

Erich has made lots of improvement these past days...he's now almost off the crutches wohoo! It's so nice to feel a little more mobile as a family. We took advantage of the mobility this past Wednesday and went crusing around the mountains near Grangeville in hopes of scouting out some good hunting spots. Unfortunately we didn't see too many animals, but we had a good time nonetheless. It's so beautiful around here. Jacob was very compliant with the outing...thankfully he loves his carseat, his backpack, and the fresh air.

Now that I am not working I've been able to join some ladies in the ward who do the Power 90X workouts. For those of you who know me, you know that I am very excited to be working out hard again. And for those of you who need a good workout, I definitely recommend P 90X--it pretty much kicks my trash. I also joined a ladies volleyball league which I am absolutely loving. I hadn't played volleyball for so long I had forgotten how much I LOVE the game!

This week I also hosted a Fondue/Game Party as part of my attempt to get some special interest groups started in enrichment. We got in a lot of laughs and calories which made for one fun filled night. Anyhow as you can tell I am loving this stay at home mom life and am trying to take advantauge of this opportunity.

As for a Jake update..I really dreaded him growing bigger and older--I didn't think he could be any sweeter and cuter than he was as a little newborn, but now I know I was wrong. This past week he started smiling and cooing and really kicking his arms and legs in excitement. It's hard to capture with a camera, but it's pretty much the cutest thing I've ever seen! This is such a fun stage and we're sure enjoying it.

And speaking of Jake thanks for all of you who gave us great binky advice. I appreciate the input and feel much better now about letting him indulge in his binky love!

Jake loves to sleep in this "touchdown" pose with his arms and legs outstretched. It looks awefully uncomortable to me, but it is hi typical sleeping position. Anyhow we think it's kinda cute and random so we thought we'd post a picture of it.

Out and About

2008-11-09T20:13:00.001-08:00

Bad days for the new dad

2008-10-27T21:22:00.000-07:00

So remember a few posts ago when I told you all that Erich had a motorcycle accident. Well it was a little worse than we initially thought. Erich fully tore his ACL and partially tore his PCL, so he went in last Wednesday for knee surgery. They took a piece of his hamstring out and used it to replace the damaged tissue. It's pretty crazy, they had him in and out of the surgery center in less than 6 hours....gotta love modern medicine. So anyhow our update for the week is that the Gleckler house has returned to its gimp house status.

Jake is still growing like crazy. No real smiles yet but he's getting more and more alert and interactive.

In between taking care of my boys I've been trying to get myself back into shape, a bit of a process I am discovering.

(Before heading into surgery Erich hit the duck hunting hard, this pic is from the morning before surgery, unfortunately there were not many ducks but at least Erich got to initiate his new gun)

(I am posting this pic so you can tell how big he's getting)

(I try to get out and take Jake for a walk everyday. It's been awesome with this amazing fall weather that we are having. Jake usually gets all snuggly and falls asleep as in the pic above)

(Even with surgery Erich is a great helper. He and Jake love to cuddle)

(I tried hard to keep Jake to avoid it, but Jake has fallen in love his pacifier. I would love to hear whether you experienced mothers let your kids have binkies or not, and if so how/when you got them off of them. Jake will cry and cry and cry until you give him his binky and then he'll be as content as can be.)

One month old

2008-10-20T22:39:00.000-07:00

Well today is Jake's 1 month b-day! He weighs about 8 lbs 8 ounces now. I can't believe some babies are born that big. Since he can't properly celebrate his one month b-day Erich and I and some friends took it upon ourselves to eat junk food and play games in his honor.

As for a Jake update--it was a pretty big week. He spoiled me and slept his first 7 hour stretch. The continuous sleep felt amazing. Although it was much appreciated it was not long lasting. The next night he was up like 3 or 4 times!

It was also a big week for Erich. He has been getting in lots of duck hunting before his surgery. He also got his new shotgun which has become his new prized possession. In between hunts we've been busy cutting more wood, sheetrocking the garage, and mud & taping the basement. So working hard and playing hard at the Gleckler house!

(Erich talked big about how he'd never change dirty diapers but here is evidence that he does! He is an AWESOME dad who spoils Jake and I with all of his help!)

(Here's one of Jake's smiles which isn't a true smile but melts mom's heart nonetheless)

(Jake on his one month b-day. As you can tell he's really starting to lengthen out--I think he'll be out of his 0-3 month clothes before too much longer)

(We've been really missing these days....2 weeks ago we were on the beach lazing away in the sun...now we're all bundled up and busy keeping a fire going).

(Erich scoping out his new gun! A picture just can't quite capture how excited he was about this new little hunting toy)

Jacob's Blessing and More

2008-10-12T17:40:00.001-07:00

Sadly grandparent reinforcements have gone leaving Erich, Jake, and I to ourselves. Erich's parents were here for a week and then my parents for a week and a half. It was such a blessing to have them here. It was fun sharing Jake, and both our parents were beyond helpful and thoughtful. The moms slaved away cleaning my house from the dust on top of my curtains to the junk that had fallen behind my washer and dryer. The dads helped sheetrock the dreaded downstairs and cut wood enough to heat us through the winter. We are very grateful to have such good and such generous parents. The house is a little quieter now without all the company, but Erich Jake and I are having lots of fun adjusting to our new life. Being a mom is more fulfilling and enjoyable than I ever could have anticipated. I think I could spend all day just cuddling with and admiring Jake. He's already changing so fast I know I will miss these days all too soon! Anyhow here's some more pics.

(Erich's Mom bought Jake this handsome lil' tux. Jake was so tiny we had to do some alterations just so it would stay up on him!)

(On Sunday September 28th we blessed Jacob Marshall Gleckler. Jacob had both sets of grandparents here and an aunt so he was surrounded with lots and lots of love!)

(The weather was unusually warm while our parents' were here so we loaded up and went down to the river several times including one time for a big ol' dutch oven dinner! Those of you from Moscow know how much I love those dutch oven meals!)

(Jacob's favorite place to sleep is cuddled up on Dad)

(I think Jake looks so peaceful and snuggly when he's asleep!)

(One of the most recent pictures. He has already grown out of his preemie clothes and he's gaining ounces by the day!)

(One of the things I cherish most about Jake is all his different facial expressions. Here are a few for you to enjoy--it's hard to catch them on camera)

The first days home

2008-10-01T11:22:00.001-07:00

This first days home with Jake have been amazing. Jake and I got to leave the hospital on Sunday (the 21st). We had one night to try the parent life solo before grandparent reinforcements arrived. Erich's mom, dad, & sister got here last Monday and stayed for a week and then my parents came this last Sunday. It has been super helpful to have grandparents around and very enjoyable having all this company. We have had crazy warm weather which has been very convenient Erich and his dad spent 3 days getting wood for this winter and then Erich and my dad have spent the past few days replacing the front end of his truck. All in all life has been beyond wonderful. I had no idea how fun and fulfilling life is as a parent. I could sit and snuggle and play with Jake all day long. It's hard for me to want to put him down to do anything else! I don't know how, considering his genes, but he is a very laid back, sweet lil' guy. He doesn't cry too much except when he's naked, and he sleeps really well. Anyhow more pictures to come but here's a few to start out with. Jake gained a pound just this past week--I can't believe how quickly he's changing!!!

(This is Jake the day he came home from the hospital)

(Libby is still not sure what she thinks about Jake but this is her meeting him for the first time)

(Jake loves to have his hands out and to stretch. This is a picture from this morning)

(Erich got a chance to take the dogs out and hunt with his father while they were here visiting. There didn't see too many birds but had fun getting out nonetheless. The only bad thing about being a mom is not being able to join all the outings)

(This is Jake before his first bath. He's still smiling here but that quickly turned to screams. Poor thing hates baths).

Introducing Jacob Marshall Gleckler

2008-09-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

The Gleckler Family
September 20th 12:55 am, Jacob was born. He is 6lbs 3 ounces, is 21.5 inches long, is totally healthy. Kara is going great, she has been up walking around all day. Both will be coming home Sunday moring, just in time to get settled for my parents arriving on Monday. He seems really easy going, sleeps a lot, and poops even more. Here are the pictures:

(Jacob wanted me to take a picture of his best side)

(Jacob cheering for BYU, 44-0)

Lots of Time in the ER

2008-09-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

Well it's been quite the interesting last week...three trips to the hospital but still no baby! It all started last week when Erich felt left out of the gimp life and so decided to join the fun by crashing his motorcycle. It was actually quite scary, but all is relatively fine. Erich met me at my doctor's appointment last week. He was driving away on his motorcycle and he hit a really big dip. The impact made him loose his balance. He fell back and inadvertently grabbed the throttle which shot the front of his motorcycle up and over. The crazy thing was I was walking home and looked up to see my husband and his motorcycle flying through the air. They ended up crashing between 2 cars almost half-way down the block. It was very, very scary. Thankfully Erich was wearing a helmet and good shoes, pants, & coat. He got some pretty good road rash and hurt his left knee. They think it might be a partially torn ACL but they're not sure. At any rate Erich's been getting a good upper body workout hobbling along on crutches and is now guaranteed to be home for the baby since fire season is officially over. I am just grateful that he wasn't hurt any worse then he is. You are so vulnerable on a motorcycle. So moral of the story if anyone wants to buy a Motorcycle we'll make you a good deal on one :)

Other than that we've just been waiting in anticipation for lil' G to come join us. I have had some false labor and fake scares but not the real thing. I just hope that now he at least waits until after the BYU v. UCLA football game! I still have a few days until the due date so we'll see!

(You can see Erich's road rash after several days of healing. Thankfully one can still do lots of hunting prep even with a bum knee...his guns are all cleaned now, his hunting maps printed, and his bullets loaded)

(This is a picture packing up for the first trip to the hospital. I was definitely having some serious contractions but they were just a false alarm...at least I got my tour of the hospital!)

LABOR DAY WEEKEND

2008-09-02T10:28:00.001-07:00

5 WONDERFUL YEARS!
This weekend Erich and I celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary. It was lots of fun. It is pretty unusual that Erich isn't either on fires or out hunting on our anniversary so we enjoyed just the fact we were together for our anniversary! Since Erich doesn't like "mushy" stuff (as he puts it), I'll spare him the embarassment of posting lots of wedding pictures or a tribute to why I love him so much. Suffice it to say Erich is a fabulous husband and it was fun to celebrate five years, as each year of marriage just gets better and better.

(This is one of Erich and I's engagement pictures)

(Since it was our 5th wedding anniversary I cooked a five course BBQ rib meal and gave him five presents...one to follow each of his courses. I think I enjoy doing the romantic stuff more than Erich enjoy receiving it, but it was a fun evening nonetheless. Most of Erich's gifts revovled around bird hunting as that is his new craze these days)

THE REST OF LABOR DAY WEEKEND

For those of you who know me, I LOVE traveling, but I am supposed to stay close to the hospital right now so we had to stick around for the weekend. I was pretty bummed at first but we managed to have a pretty eventful weekend.

I couldn't quite convince Erich to go camping...something about "why should I sleep on the hard ground when I have a perfectly good bed at home" (which one would think is a more likely comment to come from the 8 1/2 month pregnant woman than the hardy outdoors husband...but hey). At any rate Friday we went up to Fish Creek Campground and had a picnic dinner, rode 4 wheelers and ate schmores with the Petersens...then we came home to play cards. The girls have been on a several month winning streak but the guys came back and put us to SHAME, it was an embarrassing performance by the lady folk but we'll come back---not that I am competetive or anything! Saturday Terri, Kelli and I went down to the river...we even tried a new beach this time which was very beautiful, though a bit chilly. When I got in the river baby Gleckler really started moving around and kicking...I think he was shocked by how cool the water was. Saturday night was the long anticipated BYU FOOTBALL GAME....go COUGS! I absolutely love football and with the Hall/Pita/Collie/Unga + combo it is bound to be one heck of a fantastic season. One reason to just love the fall. If only we could get down to UT and make a football game live!

SUNDAY we went back to the river with a few friends for tin foil dinners and fires. The guys made fun of me for taking so many pictures so they made some great poses and mocked my photo happy habits. Erich finally caved in though and gave me my "posed" shot. What a great husband! Even Libby cooperated. It really is spectacular here down along the river.

MONDAY

Monday was the highlight for Erich. We went up to Lewiston with the Petersens to shop and eat out and then Erich, Bryan, Logan and I headed out to go Dove Hunting. It was pretty poor hunting at first...only two doves for two hours of hiking, but then we drove around and found the honey spot where we got into hundreds of birds. I think we ended up going home with 11 birds all together only one of which was possibly mine and most of which were Erich and Bryan's. It was one of the more enjoyable hunting days. For awhile there the birds kept coming in and coming in (and I kept missing them and missing them again).

The scenery was beautiful out there on the rolling fields. I tried to take a pictures but it doesn't really capture it--it was a little late and the sunset all but over. The guys were proud of their kill though--Doves are very quick birds and challenging to shoot.

WEWH...that was one thorough recap of our weekend. To sum it up...good times--we'll see if we can slip in a few more outings before baby Gleckler decides to arrive.

FLE

2008-08-24T22:39:00.000-07:00

I initial attacked a fire about a week ago and it grew to 35 acres overnight in heavy timber. I spiked out(camped) on it for 8 days before heading in for a shower and a day off. I got to do the coolest thing perhaps ever on a fire, Fire-Line-Explosives! So, three of us packed 55 lbs each down the mountain to blow up a tree that was unsafe to fall with a chainsaw. We then stuffed 165lbs of explosives into the tree. Then, the blaster let me touch it off. So enjoy the video and the pictures. The video doesn't do it justice, the shock wave was so intense that it took the air out of my lungs and shot stuff to the east a half mile. If you listen after the blast, you can hear it hit the ridge to the north. By the way, I love my job. It must suck to be a desk jockey.

Erich Gets a Little Break

2008-08-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

After spiking out on a fire for 8 days Erich got to come home for a little break in between fires. It was so miserably hot down here that we headed up to the mountains. We took a couple of guys from Erichs' fire crew and drove to an ol' ghost town called Florence which is up by the wilderness area. There wasn't a whole lot to see other than swarms of mosquitos, a few grave sites, and a couple of collapsing log cabins, but it was interesting nonetheless. On the way back we stopped to go clay and pistol shooting. My marksmanship was less than impressive, but oh well. Baby Gleckler got his first introduction to Shotguns, a noise I am sure he will hear a lot of in his life :)

(Erich and Roberts faking an ol' Western Shoot Out)

(One of the many gravesites. On the sign it said someone was killed in the bars basically everynight...what a lifestyle)

(At one time there was over 5,000 people living in Florence. Now it's completely desolate and over an hour and a half drive from the nearest town. It's crazy how things change with time. For awhile there it was quite the lucrative spot. They found millions and millions of dollars worth of gold before the place was abandoned)

It was great getting to see Erich for a little bit. We even celebrated my b-day since he was gone for the actual day. We went down to the river with the Petersens and had an ice cream cake.

Lots of Changes

2008-08-11T00:12:00.000-07:00

Erich is off on fires again and we are at a stage of the house where I can't do much until he finishes some sheetrocking. Which means that I was forced to take a Saturday off of housework, and man did it feel fabulous!!! For a really long time I've been wanting to visit the gospel hump wilderness which is only about 30 miles away. So Saturday morning I called my good friend Terri Petersen and her daughter Kelli to see if they were up for a little adventure. Thankfully they were feeling spontaneous and they joined me for a picnic lunch and afternoon hike in the mountains. It was a perfectly beautiful day...sunny, a nice cool breeze, not too hot, and I quickly remembered how much I love hiking and being outside. Here are a few pictures from the day.

(Terri and Kelli Petersen at a scenic overlook)

(Libby, very happy that she got to join the little road trip)

(Libby and I at Upper Gospel Hump Lake)

(Looking down from the top of the six mile rountrip hike we took into Moores Lake...if you look close you can see the lake in the distance.)

(A nice mellow part of the hike right before the real elevation change begins)

(Dropping down into the canyon...isn't it spectacular?!?)

Well that's it for the fun hike day.

For those who have requested here is a full on prego shot. Clearly I have arrived at that "very pregant" stage. The side profile view says it all!!!
And now for the big Change in Life.... I had my last day of of work on Friday because my one year contract as a law clerk ran up. Since the baby is due in a month I have no new plans for employment. I am going to focus on living the "stay-at-home mom" life for awhile. Before teh baby arrives I plan on spending some time reading instructional books....maybe I can learn a thing or two about being a mom before our little bundle of joy arrives. I definitely feel in need of a lot of help and instruction! Anyhow the following is a picture of me with Judge Brandbury and the clerk Kathy whom I adore. Clerking this past year has been a really great experience. I will definitely miss it but I am excited about our new adventure.

Girls Camp

2008-08-02T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well for those who didn't know I was called as the Girls Camp Director. This year it was ward camp year which meant I got to plan everything from location to theme to activities to menu....just everything! It was a huge responsibility but oh so much fun. I used a survivor theme so I could incorporate certification challenges and tribal councils for firesides. It was fun to break out the tiki torches and to add an element of tribal competition.

Anyhow this week was a blast--we had our own little section of the lake at Dworshak Lakeand we went swimming every day, had a big boating party on the last day, a big faith walk Tuesday night, a game night Wednesday, and a sunrise hike and service project Thursday among many other things. I just really enjoyed being camping (minus the hard ground for sleeping as pregnant lady). I am so proud of the girls of our ward they are so amazing and the YW presidency is so inspired. I felt like I spent the week among some of the most talented woman and teenage girls. Not a day went by that I wasn't in tears from laughing so hard and from feeling the spirit so strong. I feel much closer to my Heavenly Father after spending such a spiritual, fun week with the girls on the mountain. Although I am physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausted I am so grateful for the experience and the friendships.

Anyhow here's a few pics.

(As you can see our campsite was right on this gorgeous lake)

(Which meant we did a ton of swimming and activities in the water, including this early morning challenge. You can't tell from the picture but it is 6:30 a.m. here. Let's just say it was an invigorating way to start the morning)

(Kylie Ashley and I were determined to make a raft out of the drift wood. We never quite dominated the raft building skill...it looked pretty sweet but it didn't float so well).

(Of course the girls used the lake for a little beautifying. This here was part of the "stellar hair" contest we had one afternoon. I saw some pretty impressive mohawks).

(No camp is complete without some crazy games...like this one where you try to move m&ms by sucking through a straw. I was at a distinct disadvantage due to my limited air capacity as a pregnant woman. I think I only moved 1 m&m while others moved an entire cup full!)

(And of course there were skits)

(If you can't tell the leaders' skit was on the YW values. My part was on the value of knowledge...hence the glasses and dorky pigtails).

(For a service project we mulched the playground at the main campground. The girls are not wet with sweat...I'm not that big of a slave driver. They are wet because us loving leaders kindly sabatoged them with a water fight!)

(This was one of my favorite nights when we had a picnic dinner down on the beach)

Well it's back home and real life now. Although it felt great to shower and sleep in a bed and see the husband I sure miss the beatiful trees, the lake, and the fun girls. What a great time!

Making Progress, slow but sure.

2008-07-15T23:47:00.000-07:00

Well we have finally moved on to the last phase of the home remodeling...the basement. We've been avoiding this part this part of the house for a reason...it's dingy and nasty, but hopefully not for long. This is a pic of Erich and our friend's son Logan sheetrocking the ceiling. I was quite relieved it was Logan and not me helping Erich lift that sheetrock :) Not to worry I made a major contribution mudding and taping...which happens to be one of my not so favorite remodeling tasks!

This is a picture my brother sent of me and his little son Leyton and I. He is such an adorable baby it makes me super excited for own little guy to arrive. Although with Erich and I's temperment we probably won't be blessed to have a baby with the super mellow & happy go lucky personality that Leyton has! One can always hope Right!!!

Summers in Grangeville are simply perfect. Nice and hot during the day, nice and cool at night...and best of all days and days of sunshine. Although we don't get out as much as we would like, Erich, Libby and I did manage to slip away for an afternoon in the river. It was divine! In the pic Erich is trying to outswim Libby, which is actually quite the task. It has been so fun to hang out with Erich for a little bit before the big fire rush hits. I'm definitely savoring every minute of it.

Happy Fourth of July

2008-07-06T20:55:00.000-07:00

For this Fourth of July Erich was slaving away on fires in California while I was partying it up with my family on the lakes in Montana! Poor Erich always working during the fun months of the year. Right before he left he rented a bobcat and entertained himself by destroying...oh I mean relandscaping part of our backyard :) In the pic below he is leveling out a driveway/parking place.

Montana was great. Even though it was torture not to be able to waterski and wakeboard it was still awesome seeing family and lazing away on the boat. I make a pretty good flag girl/driver .... Pregnant or not there's nowhere I would rather be than on the lake with the fam. Amidst all the boating we managed to slip in a few rounds of golf and several rounds of cards. I also got to be there to help celebrate my dad's first day of retirement. I am so excited for him and my mom. Anyhow another great Independence Day. Just can't complain about hot summer days and vacation from work :)

(This is a hike we went on that overlooks the part of the Missourri River that we always boat on it's one of my favorite places in the world...Montana at its best!)

(this is a pic of my siter from CA and her family...we entertained ourselves quite well being goofy on the boat. My other sister from ID made it up for part of the trip as well as my bro from MT. Since I'm the one picking the pics I can avoid any embarassing ones of myself and instead harass my very fun sister and her family)

(On the way home Libby and I took a quick detour to enjoy a short hike and swim along the Lochsa River).

Random

2008-06-19T20:33:00.000-07:00

So here is a pretty random assortment of pictures but it is what we've been working on these past few weeks. Most exciting for me is that Erich bought me a new crib. So here's picture of my new prized possession. I was quite proud I put it all together myself. It's hard to tell from the pictures but the nursery is Sports themed :)

We've had some beautiful sunny days so we've been laboring hard on the landscaping. The outside of our house was really ran down so we've been trying to spruce it up. We bought shutters, a new front door, and we put in railing along the porch. There used to be these humongous unruly juniper trees around the front of the house but we cut them down to open it up and replaced them with flower and shrub gardens. It's not all done but it's looking a lot better.

(this is Erich pulling out one of the 3 big trees in the front of our yard)

This next picture is of the beautiful canyon above our house. It is so green here right now I am loving it. I was all excited for the good weather and I dragged Erich on this hike, but then 10 minutes into it I found a tick crawling on Erich. I am absolutely petrified of ticks so that hike didn't last long. When we got back to the car we found several more of the little buggers. So nasty!

Couldn't Be more EXCITED!!!

2008-06-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

Erich was going to entertain you all with another fun way to announce the big news, but he has been too busy slaving away on the house to work on the blog. So I will just tell you that we found out that we are having a little baby BOY!! We both really wanted baby Gleckler number one to be a boy so we are pretty ecstatic. It was lots of fun seeing him on the ultrasound. He's big and healthy, and lately very squirmy. I felt him kick for the first time while at the temple with Lauren and Jamie so that was pretty special. Now he's kicking all the time, well except for when Erich is trying to feel him kick :) Anyhow the pregnancy is going great, right now I am working on the nursery. I'll post pictures when I have it all done.

One Extraordinary Fella

2008-05-30T08:32:00.000-07:00

This weekend Erich and I went down to Idaho Falls for my nephew, Robert's, mission farewell. All of my sisters made it as well as my brother and his family so it was a blast. A bit chaotic and loud, but a blast nonetheless. While my family was all together we also celebrated my dad's retirment and my sisters threw me a surprise baby shower. Unfortunately I kept forgetting my camera so I don't have too many pictures to capture all the fun moments. It was a pretty jam packed vacation. We went swimming, played kickball, volleyball, and round after round of cards. We also went golfing a few times and got completely soaked and hailed on, but I had my best round ever and Erich literally got a birdie...He was pitching his ball, he sent it through the trees and literally hit and killed a bird...only Erich would go hunting for birds on the golf course :) Anyhow it was a great vacation, and I am glad we were all togehter for one final hoorah before Robert leaves for two years. He is an extraordinary guy, and I will miss him tons. Family vacations certainly won't be the same without him, but I know he'll do amazing things as a missionary in Argentina. He's just the kind of guy you want representing the church!

(My whole family at church after Robert's talk)

(This is Robert and a few of his sisters. I posted this picture so you could see the big rug burn on Robert's forehead that Erich so kindly gave him the night before in a wrestling match, Robert and Erich were a hoot together between all of their roughousing and pranks. They may have been outnumberd by the lady folk but they certainly weren't out-energized)

(My sisters and I with Robert at the Idaho Falls Temple)

(The Idaho Falls Temple after our session)

(These are my adorable neices (Robert's sisters). My sisters and I had a lot of fun taking them shopping and embarassing them with dance parties in the car)

Memorial Day

2008-05-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

I was listening to a talk radio station and they were interviewing a Colonel who just came out with a book called American Hero's. What was interesting was that he conducted a little test that went like this:

Finish the name;

Britney....

Harrison...

etc..

What about these names;

Paul.....

Woodrow..

Bruce....

Jason L. ....

These names are a couple of the Medal of Honor recipients in 2007 and no one knows who they are. Why, most likely because of the media, the controversy of the war, and less than 2 percent of the American population actually knows anyone in the armed forces.

I just thought that it would be fitting that we take a little time and look at what these brave soldiers did that made it possible for us to enjoy our freedom. Many of these soldiers gave their lives and there families are receiving their medals. Visit http://www.cmohs.org/recipients/most_recent.htm to learn more about what exactly they did for us.

Thanks to Ben, Dad, and Stephen for doing what it takes.

A description of American Hero's if your interested:

What is a Hero? New York Times best-selling author Oliver North says, “Real heroes are selfless. Those who serve America in harm’s way in the war against radical Islam have that quality in abundance. And so do their families and loved ones at home. Yet, they rarely get the attention or coverage they deserve.

“Despite the way they are presented by too many in the press and politics, the men and women in uniform today are overwhelmingly good. I never cease to be amazed at the self-discipline of these brave young Americans. They can endure the adrenaline-pumping violence of an enemy engagement, and then, just minutes later, help school children get safely to their classes . . . No nation—ours included—has ever had a military force better than the one we have today. I’m proud of them. You should be too.”

Climbing and Refinishing

2008-05-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

Right after Erich got home, he took the scouts up to the climbing wall in Moscow. I tagged along as the photographer. It was a very fun trip, some of the boys were pretty impressive climbers.

Last week was devoted to refinishing the wood floors. It was quite the endeavor ... lots of long, hard, late nights of work but it feels great to finally have them done.

We finally got some hot sunny days. We took a little break and headed down to the river thinking we would chill out on the beach. When we got there the beach was completely submerged so we hung out on the grass instead.

A little Road Trip

2008-05-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

Erich got assigned to another detail down in New Mexico so I headed down to Utah to spend some time with friends. It was a long drive but very worth it. The first few days I spent with Di (my roommate and best bud from the BYU days). Then I headed up to Kaysville and spent a few days with the Law school crew. It's convenient that so many of my law school friends live within 1 mile of each other!

(Di and I on a little camping adventure. We tried to camp at Mount Timpanogas but there was too much snow still so we just headed up one of the lower canyons.)

(Di and I found this little waterfall to hike up to)

(Di and Chris tried teaching me how to play tennis. As you can tell it turned into more of a game of chase the balls!)

(The weather was absolutely gorgeous so I spent a lot of time in the park with the law school ladies. You can tell I'm the only one from Idaho as I am still brilliantly white with no sign of a tan!)

(One of my favorite things was going to the Bountiful temple with Lauren and Jamie. I went to the Bountiful temple open house several years ago but I've never been through a session. It's a very gorgeous temple and it's always special to attend the temple with close friends and family).

We're Lame I know

2008-04-27T23:20:00.001-07:00

I feel like all of our blog posts are the same....we are remodeling such and such and we squeezed in a hike somewhere. Sorry for the repetition but that's our life these days, simple, unvarying, but pleasant.

So on that note, here's the house update:

After a year of remodeling, we finally contracted a project out--the carpet. We still tore out the old carpet and installed the padding and tack board ourselves, but we actually paid someone to come do some work for us. It was FABULOUS! I loved going to work in the morning and coming back to a completed project that I contribued nothing to!!! Our entire upstairs is now carpeted, which brings me to the next picture which is the beginning of the nursery (one of the rooms upstairs). As you can tell it needed a little TLC. Sorry no "after" pictures yet, we still need to figure out whether to add blue or pink before we can finish it all up. I had our ultrasound scheduled for next week but I postponed it because Erich is off on another fire detail. This one is in an inital attack assignment down in New Mexico with a 20 man smokejumper crew.

With no Erich around I took the liberty of sluffing off remodeling work this weeked. Instead of slaving away on the house I enjoyed Saturday biking with some good friends along the Lewiston River. It was a very fun little adventure and the day of sun and relaxation was much appreciated! I should have taken pictures because the trees were blooming and it was gorgeous.

(Erich's sheetrocking what used to be lovely wood paneling)

I've been trying to avoid the camera like the plague but because people keep asking me, here's a prego pic.

One snowy b-day

2008-04-14T21:55:00.000-07:00

You might be wondering why I am posting a blurry picture of Erich, but it was snowing so hard that I couldn't get a clear picture. Erich hasn't had too many snowy birthdays so this is a picture of him and Libby celebrating his b-day in the snow! The weather here is crazy, it snowed for weeks straight then we had 3 sunshiny days that were 70 degrees and bam, back to snow again today...like 4 inches and still snowing kind of snow!
This is a hike Erich and I went on to get out of the house and to celebrate the sunshine. It's beautiful, steep country right off the Clearwater river (about 2o minutes from our house). We started from the base of the mountains you can see in the background so as you can tell it was a a pretty big, fun hike.
This is a picture from one of the viewpoints we stopped at so I could rest.

The Week of Surgeries

2008-04-06T20:16:00.003-07:00

This was a much anticipated week for Erich....he finally got LASIK surgery!!! For those of you who don't know Erich is (or was) quite blind without glasses or contacts, which are quite inconvenient when you work as a firefighter. So he finally got the eyes fixed. We went down to Boise for the surgery and it was quite a fascinating process. The actual laser surgery took less than 40 seconds per eye. Erich was a little discomfortable the day of the surgery, but he could see pretty clear the morning after. The doctor says he has a blurry 20/15 vision (which is better than 20/20). It will take 30 days for his vision to completely correct itself, but so far it's been amazing! It's definitely very exciting.

Libby felt left out of the excitement so she jumped off the embankment and got a gnarly cut on her leg. We took her to the after hours vet, where they had a Pet ambulance. We thought it was pretty funny so we took a picture, but no, Libby didn't get to ride in it (Can't imagine how much that would have cost). The next few pictures are of Libby the gimp. We spared you pics of the actual wound since we already traumatized you with Erich's stomach. It's been pretty sad, hopefully she'll heal up quick cause we miss our little hiking buddy.

So we are back in G-ville now, but it was sure fun spending last week in Boise. We got to catch up with good friends and squeeze in some shopping. And I had fun looking at baby stuff :)

The sunny days of Boise were a much appreciated break from the snowy, gloom of G-ville. It was storming when we left and returned to G-ville but it was t-shirts and sun for a few days there in Boise. I just love having such a considerate boss who let me work from Boise last week so I could go down with Erich. It makes Erich's traveling a lot easier when I get to go with him!

The Week of Surgeries

2008-04-06T20:16:00.001-07:00

We're Back!!!

2008-03-17T21:54:00.000-07:00

Sorry we have been such slackers it has been one crazy month for us. Right after I got back from the murder trial Erich got the opportunity to go to Arizona to burn and saw for four weeks. He just got back on Saturday and we got right to work on the house. So here are the pictures of the upstairs bathroom we finally finished! Wohoo, I am so excited!

(This is a before shot with the sink and toilet taken out, so beautiful huh)

(Our bathroom was so tiny we couldn't even fit in a vanity, so we decided to use the closet in the next room to expand out our bathroom. Unfortunately this little remodeling project required plumbing work for Erich which as you can tell from the picture is not his favorite job)

(Once a closet, this is now home to our vanity. We are still shopping around for a mirror some wall decorations and a new light bulb!)

(It's hard to tell the layout of the bathroom from the pictures. You walk in the door and to the left you have the old closet which is now the vanity section and which is partially closed off with a wall, then to the right you have the bath and toilet area)

(Libby feeling so entertained while we're upstairs working)

Surprise!!!

2008-03-02T22:05:00.001-08:00

WARNING! This posting may contain graphic content not suitable to weak stomachs. View at your own risk.

It took almost 5 years in the making.....

Lots of dedication and hard work, but it finally paid off....

Erich got Kara pregnant!

DISCLAIMER: Pictures were not actually of Kara's stomach but of mine. Got ya!!

.....but Kara really is pregnant, just more modest than I.

Lots of Different Things

2008-02-14T20:54:00.000-08:00

(one of the many snowmounds in Wallace...notice the roof in the background)

(This is a really neat antique store in Wallace that had a bunch of amazing mounts among other intriguing items...made us excited for the hunting season. You would love this place Di!)

(Cross-country skiing near Wallace)

(Quite the rack....this is what Erich is dreaming of for the 2008 Buck season!

Well I am back from Wallace! The murder trial was supposed to last 3-4 weeks but wrapped up in two, thank goodness. So I got home just in time for Valentines day. The jury found the defendant GUILTY and so it is back to prison for him. Although it was hard to be away from home I learned so much at the trial. It was such a neat (though not particularly enjoyable) experience to be part of a murder case the first year out of law school. It was nice of course that I didn't have to be one of the lawyers presenting. Researching the law is much easier than cross-examining a bunch of death row witnesses. Anyhow the case was rather time consuming so it feels good to have it wrapped up. As I mentioned the trial was in Wallace, Idaho (by Coeur D' Lane). Luckily Erich had training in Coeur d' Lane the first week of the trial and so I would drive back and forth every day so I could spend my evenings with him. Then we spent the weekend in Wallace which was quite the Winter wonderland. There was definitely at least four feet of snow everywhere in Wallace. The one snow mound in the picture was in the parking lot of our hotel...Libby loved us throwing her toy up there. She's sure one snow loving pup. Anyhow it was nice to not be working on the house day in day out. We went snowshoeing and ran right into a moose and then we went on a rather exhausing cross-country skiing excursion. Anyhow that's our little update. Sorry we've been MIA the past weeks.

One Fun Week!

2008-01-26T17:32:00.001-08:00

So this week has been lots of fun. Erich and I both had MLK off (Yes Erich is back at work full-time now, sad I know). So we took his scouts skiing up at Snowhaven, this small little resort just 20 minutes from town. The resort is much different than I am used to, nothing but green runs...so to make it challenging they have lots and lots of jumps. So we spent the day in wipe out and biggest air contests. Erich one a few times :) Anyhow lots of the youth from the ward were there so we had a good time hanging out with them. Of course the day wouldn't be complete without an embarassing moment. The resort doesn't have a chair lift just a rope tow. You can put two people on them but apparently anything over 150 pounds makes them bobble a lot. So Erich and I not knowing this tried to ride together and ending up wiping out and stopping. Don't worry we got plenty of harrassment from the much more coordinated and rope tow experienced scouts! It was a FREEZING cold day, zero degrees, but sunny and gorgeous!!!!

After skiing we had just enough time to recoup for a big snowshoe/backpacking trip with the scouts Thursday through Saturday. It was still cold but we lucked out and had beautiful sunny days. We got a late start on Thursday and hiked about 5 miles back into a big meadow. We got there at about 9:30 at night. We had some starving scouts by that time!

Friday the plan was to ascend another 4,000 feet and 7.5 miles to a lookout but it was so snowy we couldn't find the trail. We tried switchbacking up the mountain but by the end the first big mountain the boys were practically crawling their way up it was so steep. They were all exhausted and decided to bail out the lookout plan and just just play around in the snow and return back to the meadow to sleep. It was a pretty good time. . . UNTIL we got back to camp and our hard working scout Kade decided to get us some firewood. His father had given him a hatchet, he swung hard, missed the log and lodged the hatchet in his boot. So then it became evacuate the scout with the split foot time. Thankfully his father was there when it happened so we didn't have to call a parent and tell them that we injured their son. At any rate Kade and his father and I went down the hill on Friday night late...his father and I taking his pack, we took him to the E.R. and 7 stitches later he was all taken care of. Erich stayed with the rest of the scouts and came down the hill Saturday. All in all it was quite the adventure!

Coming down the mountain we just sat on our tushes and slid down the hill. With our packs on we really got some good momentum...lots of fun, and one efficient way to get down the hill.

One More Room Done!

2008-01-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

So we finally finished the downstairs bathroom which means we are ready to move on to the upstairs bathroom! Here's a few shots of the interim and finished project.

Last Weekend Erich and I took a little break from the house and went down to Boise. I had a Drug Court conference to attend and Erich met with a doctor to find out about getting Lasik surgery which he is VERY excited about! It was nice to see old friends and to have a variety of restaraunts to chose from. On the way down we stopped north of New Meadows and played with Libby in the snow. We found one of our dream spots to live, which is the pretty picture.

The Beginning of 2008

2008-01-06T22:16:00.000-08:00

(Libby handing me a rooster. She even points!)

IT's 2008!!! To bring in the new year we spent the day at a bird hunting farm. Kara found out just what a horrible shot she was and Erich showed off his deadly shooting accuracy. Even Libby made an impressive showing. Afterwards we went swimming and huttubbing and then cruised back home to play games with some of our friends Ang and Nick. We discovered a fun new game Hit the Deck.

So here is the almost done kitchen. As you can tell Kara is a bit indecisve. After spending hours painting the kitchen red, she repainted it green. Primarily because the red paint was poor quality and ruined the texture. But as painting the kitchen has become Kara's least favorits task it's great to finally have it done! Life is much easier now that we have a nice place to cook and eat! Ah the simle things.

So far 2008 has been all about finishing our least favorite tasks. Kara finished painting the kitchen and Erich finished his project of updating the electric and plumbing in the nasty basement.

Erich's latest Libby project is teaching her to retrieve sheds (antlers). The idea is that she will hunt them down and bring them to us while we're out hiking. It's pretty funny to watch her try to handle the big elk antlers. Speaking of which, Dad do you recognize the one in Libby's mouth? Jake and Dad you will be sad to learn that Libby ate Erich's Browning grease hat while at church today. It's finally met it's death after 6 years.

One of our new year's resolutions is to get up into the mountains at least once a week. So here is a picture of a hike we took just 10 minutes up from our house. It was fun to play around in the snow. Mom this is the hike we took with you when you were here. Looks a little different all white!

Hawaii Video

2007-12-28T09:48:00.000-08:00

Last year we went to Hawaii with Kara's family and for Christmas. Kara put together this slideshow, however it was to large to email.

Our Different Christmas

2007-12-26T08:47:00.000-08:00

This year for Christmas we wanted to go down to UT to see our many friends and family but felt compelled to spend our time off and money finishing (or I should say working on) the house. I (Kara) was pretty bummed but I convinced Erich we didn't want to be alone in our house for Christmas Eve. So we left at 4:00 at night and headed up into the mountains about 20 minutes away. We then cross-country skiied into a cabin up there. It was a spectacular night. It was a full moon and it was so bright we skiied a bulk of the trail without headlamps. There was about 2 1/2 feet of fresh powder and it was a hoot watching poor ol' Libby bound through the snow. She loved it-she's definitely a snow dog. Anyhow we skiied a few miles back to this cabin thinking we would be spending the night. The cabin was a bit surprising however. We weren't expecting anything fancy but we weren't expecting anything quite that remote either. The cabin was tiny thing with no cots or real sleeping room or much of anything for that matter. So we decided just to spend the evening up there and ski down at about 10 o'clock.

Nonetheless we had an amazing time. We read Christmas stories and listened to Christmas music while sitting around the fire. The whole time we had this phenomenal view of the full moon glistening on the snowladen trees and mountain vistas. We tried to take pictures but of course couldn't capture it. We also had a fancy Christmas meal of soup and Snickers. It was sure yummy after skiing in! After a great night we came home and crashed in our warm comfy beds.

Christmas morning we made a big breakfast, went Chucker hunting (Erich's activity choice) and had dinner with some friends. Although I missed being with friends and family it has been nice so far to get out an explore Grangeville. I've been so occupied with working at the court and at home I haven't had the chance to get out and enjoy the area much.

Kitchen Cabinets

2007-12-16T23:56:00.000-08:00

(Just shoot me)

A little over a week ago we recieved our cabinets. They were not assembled, so I spent from 8am to 11pm assembling them. With Kara's help we got them all hung within a few days. The kitchen has really come together. Everything is in except for the countertops and a few other finishing touches. I am waiting for a polishing pad for the granite in order to finish the countertops. I managed for us only to be without water in the main floor for a day or so. I hate plumbing. (Kara is a slave driver!)

(huahuahuahuahau, we're huntin' rabbits)

The scouts, Kara, and I went out to practice snowshoeing and setting snares for an upcoming survivor campout. It was a real hoot. We also grabbed a Christmas tree while we were out. It's not the prettiest thing but it works!

A little break from the house

2007-12-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

Right before the snow hit Erich took me on a beatiful motorcycle ride up into the wilderness area around Grangeville. Although it was a bit brisk of a ride, it felt great to be out of the house. It also made me appreciate what a beautiful place we live in.

Erich's Masterpiece

2007-12-02T14:04:00.000-08:00

This is a closer up picture of the slate mantle Erich built. He was pretty excited about this project and I have to say I am impressed with his work--I have one talented husband. Anyhow it's fun and cozy to have a wood stove burning all the time especially with all the snow we've been getting.

The Living Room is FInally Done....well almost

2007-12-02T13:53:00.000-08:00

So here are some pictures of the living room. A special thanks to a wonderful mom who hand textured and painted the walls, doors, trim and ceiling. We still need to refinish the wood floors but we are waiting until the construction on some of the other rooms are done. For now we are just thoroughly enjoing the fact that we finally have a nice place to relax, complete with a cozy fireplace.

House Report

2007-11-19T00:07:00.000-08:00

Kara and her last minute crisis of color. She thought she liked yellow until she saw it on the walls.

Exciting News, we finished the living room and den. Kara's mom has been here this week and it has been like a concentration camp. I have managed to break out and go duck hunting with Libby most mornings though.

Finally, sitting down and relaxing.