The Websters

First Snow Fall

This morning we woke up to our first snow fall of the season.

It is beautiful, but I don't know if mentally I am ready for this.  Guess I'd better get ready.  We live in Idaho, and it is mid-November-snow is imminent.

On another note...we are fixing up the entry to our house.  Here is what we have done so far.  Our neighbor is doing the work for us, and he is doing a great job!!!  All the flagstone came from a useless area in our backyard, so our only expenses so far have been the sand for the base of the stones and his labor!  Love it!!!  He is going to create a burm behind the stone area, and we might add some large pots for decoration.  All suggestions are welcome!!!

Fall-My Favorite Season!

What I love about fall...

 

What I DON'T love about fall...

 

 

(We put out 18 bags full of leaves last Thursday, and there are more to come this week!!!)

Tablerock

Seriously...I have not posted for so long, I wasn't even sure I could find my blog site!  Sorry to any loyal readers out there (if I have any left) that I have been so neglectful of my poor blog.  Facebook has ruined me!  It is so easy to write little one line notes there and post photos, I have been completely ignoring my blog.  My blog is really for me to journal and share our lives with friends and family, so I am TRULY going to try and get back to maintaining it on a regular basis. (But PLEASE don't don't hold it against me if I slack again...)

So..what has been going on.  Gwyneth is in 2nd grade and doing well, Mac is loving kindergarten, Fred is hard at work, and I am doing the same old, same old-kids' school stuff, gym, photography.

Today was a beautiful fall day so we hiked up to Tablerock with the kids. It was only my second time to hike up there and the kids, Fred's and the dog's first time.

This is where we hiked to.  This cross sits atop this hill looking down over SE Boise.

A fun afternoon!!!

More to come soon...I promise!

Don't Ask...

A fun evening was had by all on Friday night!  Not such a fun Saturday for some, but I will not name names, all I will say is that I got to see some awesome Saturday morning soccer game solo. :-)

Rick and Cece invited us, along with 50+ other friends to Dirty Little Roddy's, a local cowboy bar/man cave in downtown Boise.  It was a celebration party for Rick's real estate company and he won the bid for 4 hours of open bar for 50 guest at the Riverstone auction. 

Here's some fun pics from the night!

All in all a really fun night!!!!  Thanks Rick and Cece!

Indigo Girls

What a great night out in Boise!  I got together with a couple of my girlfriends and headed to the Idaho Botanical Gardens for an outdoor concert.  One of my favorite groups was performing-the Indigo Girls.  They never disappoint.  Sounded just as good last night as they did 15 years ago!

I had great company with whom to enjoy the concert-Christine and Lindsey. Love you gals!

Well...it was in Indigo Girls concert! :-)

As the sun set it illuminated the surrounding foothills.

Al in all another great night in our little hometown.

Long time, no see

I know I have apologized for this many times before, especially in the past year, but what can I say...my life is full!  I am having a great time with the kids, school, after school activities, traveling, volunteering, creating a budding photography business, and then all the other day-to-day stuff that sucks he time away!  Plus, with my discovery of Facebook I have to admit I have become a bit lazy with my blog.  It is so easy to quickly upload photos and level quick "status updates" as to what we are up to, I have to admit that I have been neglectful of my blog.  I am sorry to those readers out there who aren't on Facebook and depend upon this blog to keep track of what we Idaho Webster's are up to (aka Fred and Marilyn).

I yet again will promise to be better about keeping this blog up-to-date.  I am currently in Sun Valley, so I do not have access to all my photos from June, so when we get home later today I will try and set aside some time to post some fun stuff from the past month-it has been a busy one!  Until then, here's a cute photo of all of us from the top of Bald Mountain on Monday.  We rode the lift to the top to have a look over Ketchum, Sun Valley and the surrounding areas.  It was beautiful!

Happy July!  And I will do my best to post here more often!

Congratulations Super Nanny!

She did it!  Our wonderful Lindsay is officially a graduate of Boise State University!  She is already teaching full time and is waiting to hear about her teaching job in the fall.

We are so proud of her!

Special Olympics

Over the past week the Special Olympic World Winter Games have been taking place in the great state of Idaho.  It has been a huge honor for our state to host these games and I think it opened a lot of our eyes to the Special Olympics for the first time.  On Monday night Fred, the kids and I headed down to what was our mini Olympic Village.  The Olympic Torch was there, as various vendor booths, and TONS of international athletes from all over the world.  It was great to see the kids reactions.  They didn't care that these were "Special Olympians", they were "Olympians"!

The Closing Ceremonies to the games were this past Friday and we were fortunate enough to receive tickets from some good friends of ours.  The four of us attended the Closing Ceremonies held at the Idaho Center in Nampa.  The floor of the stadium was full of athletes, coaches, etc.  Right in the center of it all was the torch.  There were various speakers, musical acts, and at the very end the extinguishing of the flame.  While the whole ceremony went a little long, it was still an amazing experience to be there and witness it all.

 Here are some photos that I took over the past week so that we can remember our experiences with the Special Olympics!

Fun Day in the Great Outdoors

Boise is such a great place to live if you love the great outdoors.  Right outside your door are tons of trails, mountains, rivers and other areas to explore.  On Saturday the kids, Fred, the dogs and I explored an area just down the road from us.  In Boise, one minute you can be in the center of town, and the next in the foothills exploring nature.  We headed to the Hulls Gulch area which is right at the end of 8th Street and on the back side of Camel's Back Park.

It was a little chilly, but not too bad. And for the most part the trails were dry.  We did run into just enough mud to make it interesting and make for some very dirty dogs!!!! 

Here's was our view looking towards the city from the trail.

Looking back towards the foothills...

Off we go!!!

 

We made it to the top of the trail.  Here's looking down towards Camel's Back Park.

Time to play!!!  One of the great parts about this walk was that we got to enjoy the walk in the hills, but then end up at the park half way through so the kids could enjoy time there too.

 

 

The dogs and Fred enjoying a little rest at the park.

 

OK!  Time to head back UP!!!!!!  This really was steeper than it looks in the pictures.  It was basically straight up!

Nigel got tired and decided to lie down.

Finally at the top!!!!  What a view!

All in all a great afternoon!  Can't wait to see where we explore next!

Up, Up and Away

So life just seemed to be that much more crazy this year that I feel like I have been totally neglecting my blog.  I don't mean to, I just don't have the time to sit down the write.  It really bums me out because I mainly use this space for journaling, and days and weeks are flying by with out any documentation.

So here's something that happened recently that's worth documenting...

Something fun that happened recently was a hot air balloon "visited" Gwyneth's school.  One of the parents pilot the balloon so they brought it over to the field at her school and inflated it and let all the kids see it.

It was pretty cool watching them blow it up.  Mac came with me to drop  Gwyneth off at school and we ended up staying for the whole balloon presentation.  He was fascinated!

Here's the lady talking to the kids about the balloon.

We really had an absolutely GORGEOUS day for this presentation.  We couldn't have asked for a better one.  Clear blue skies, a little chill in the air...

Here's a cute pic I took of Gwyneth with the other girls in her class.

They invited each class up one by one to look inside the balloons basket.  Here is Gwyneth's class going up to the balloon.  Gwyneth was a little unsure of the whole thing and didn't like the loud noise it made.  If yo have never been near one of these balloons before they are REALLY loud, especially when they blow the gas flame in the center!

Here's Gwyneth looking inside the basket and up into the balloon.

 

They also let Mac have a look.

 

All in all a really fun morning!  You don't get to see that every day at school!