Camping with Friends near Sun Valley!

Tuff Trace gets Tubes!

After several ear infections , the doctor recommended that we get tubes in both Trace's ears. He had so much fluid behind one eardrum that he was deaf in that ear so we did it and are very glad we did!

Here he sits in his little hospital gown. We got up at 5 in the morning to be at the hospital by 6! Trace is always in a good mood when we wakes up and here he was happy as can be not knowing that he would soon be able to hear out of both ears!

Trace and I sitting together waiting for the Doc to come.

Trace's little paddles with his very own band!

They came and took him for about 10 minutes and returned carrying him happily sleeping so Lisa was able to snuggle with him for a few minutes until he woke up.
After he woke up we waited a little bit and then took him home. He has been happy all day long and we are thankful for prayers and doctors that helped this go so well.

Here he is happy again and a bit tired. ;-)

Trace takes his first steps!

Trace surprised us by being able to take a couple steps so we quickly got out the camera and took this video clip. Good job little buddy!

Things Trace Loves

I hardly ever post on here but Trace is doing so many cute things I don't want to forget. Here is a list of things he loves:
1. Soft blankets on the ground to put his face against

2. Crawling with objects in one or both hands.

3. Stairs

4. Pulling letters off the keyboard of our laptop

5. Swimming

6. Food: Cantaloupe, burritos, refried beans, fruit, crepes, mac and cheese, oatmeal

7. Talking....he is a loud mouth!

8. He loves his daddy

9. Bed time...We love it too!

10. Hitting things and pulling hair, he is all boy!

We love you Trace!

More than you wanted to know!

Kody and I found a friend's blog post with all these questions and decided to fill this out together (something to do on a Saturday morning):

YOUR FAVORITE

COLOR:: Green, Green - I heard on a movie once that Geniuses choose green and at the time I was driving a Green Ford Tauras. It was the first time I was proud to drive my dented Taurus.

MOVIE:: Dan i Real Life, Minority Report

SPORT:: Bowling - I stink at bowling but its so fun to play and you get to sit around and talk, baseball -

HOLIDAY:: Christmas Eve - Its more fun than Christmas Day, Thanksgiving - I know most people put Christmas but I can't get over the giant gorge we have on Thanksgiving, plus you have all of the next month anticipating Christmas.

FOOD: Papa Johns pizza, Artic Circle butterfinger shake, Crem Brulee , Famous Daves BBQ burger, Iggys Aloha Burger, Carl's Jr. Strawberry Shake, authentic Veracruz food, and Hot dog caserole prepared by mom.

PEPSI OR COKE:: Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke, Dr. Pepper, A&W Root beer, Coke in the glass bottle from Mexico made with sugar instead of fructose

MCDONALDS OR BURGER KING:: Burger King burgers - I will not eat a MCDonald's burger, and Mcdonalds fries, ice cream, and chicken nuggets. Either one but lately I've been going to Wendy's for the chili & potato (trying to cut back)

CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA:: swirl, not much of a fan of either.

LISTEN TO SOMEONE TALK OR TALKING:: Talking, talking too so I guess if anyone is interested in listening, come on over. ;-)

MOVIE YOU SAW IN THE THEATER:: Twilight, The Dark Knight

IF YOU DONT RECOGNIZE THE NUMBER ON YOUR CALLER ID, DO YOU ANSWER:: Yes, probably not unless I'm selling something on Craigslist.

WHAT STAR/CELEBRITY DO MOST PEOPLE SAY YOU RESEMBLE:: Stevie from American Idol last season,

Jarod Miller from an animal show

We got a box!

So, after flushing money down the toilet month after month with the Altima. We decided we needed a new car.

This is what we wanted:

Reliable
Good gas mileage
Comfortable & lots of space (we need it)

So, after trying out a bunch of cars, we tried the Toyota Scion. Yes, its kindof funny, but we loved it. So we got it.

Now anyone want an Altima? We've got one for sale. ;-)

Stimpson Family Reunion 2009

We had a great trip to West Yellowstone for the Stimpson Family Reunion!

We visited the stink pots and saw a buffalo, eagle, and an elk with huge antlers.

It was so great seeing everyone, although not everyone could make it this year.

A night on the town!

Have you ever gone to downtown Boise to walk around and see the sites? It is a lot of fun. Lisa and I decided to go there and try out the Mongolian grill. It was delicious, actually too delicious. I ate so much I thought I was going to lose it. The huge trough bowl I filled to the rim with some of the freshest and best food I'd ever seen. Yum. It was really good ;-)

Trace didn't come with us this week (thanks to Sarah & Shawn for watching him) so we had time to walk around and see what downtown Boise has to offer. There were some cool fountains and it sure felt good to stand near them in the heat since its been around 104 the past few days!

Now this is one cool building. The sides are angled really weird. I wondered what it must look like from the inside.

I wished I had brought a couple toilet plungers because I'm sure I could crawl up the side of it. Maybe next time!

Cool buildings... complete with a thumb.

Doesn't this look like a perfect place for a movie? maybe one about a man who lives in a box or possibly a Secret agent leaping off of these stairs?

The one picture thats missing probably would have been the most entertaining... the one I didn't take, but wanted to of the nearly 7 foot tall man/woman we saw with huge blonde hair that was fluffed two feet wide. I guess we'll have to return another time to take that pic. lol ;)

One last plug for the Mongolian place. It was really good! ;-)

Wow! Time flys!

Why summer is the best time of year!

Camping, fishing, camping, snacking, and more camping.

After work Monday Lisa, Trace, Kenya and I loaded up the Explorer and headed to the forest.

We weren't sure exactly where we were going and after circling around the lake we ended up finding a spot around 10:30 at night. Mosquitos feasted on Lisa. We had brought dryer sheets as a repellant and it worked for me but not so much for Lisa. Thank goodness a tiny store in Cascade had repellant for sale by the can at 7 bucks a wop! Wished I had got some at Walmart for 4.50 instead of thinking "that is way too much for bug spray". I learned that you can't pay too much for bug spray when you really need it. ;-)

We found the best campground we have ever seen. It was at Lake Cascade, secluded, and right on the lake. Trees galore!

We brought a raft and some life jackets and paddled around a bit. I had all these plans for the many fish I was going to catch... Never happend. I fished and fished and only caught one!

The handy baby-pack was excellent. Trace loved it as we walked around.
Trace is quite the camper!

If you look closely, and I mean very closely you will see my tiny fish! I named her Sue.

After a night of fishing with everything in my box with no luck, Lisa was telling me about something she had read in "The Work and the Glory" about Wilford Woodruff. He fished with hair and ended up catching more fish than anyone else.

Call it inspiration or sheer brilliance, I decided to try hair fishing for myself.

I looked up and on the tree saw a bunch of mossy hairlike stuff which looks like buffalo fur. So I thought "what the heck" and grabbed some and put it on the hook, tossed it out, and immedietly had a bite. This was the end result.

Since my fishing wasn't bringing in much, we went into McCall and visited the fish hatchery. There was a lot of fish! I wished I had brought my pole!

Trace wasn't much of a fan of his life jacket.

The last morning, I woke up and looked in the cooler to find that we had accidentally left the worm container open. oops!! They were everywhere crawling around in hopes to escape my hook.

I quickly cleaned it up and snapped some pictures before Lisa could see. ;)

After this, we decided it was time to head home.

Trace and Lisa went swimming the other day (meanwhile I was slaving away at work).

Hooray for summer! Trace loves the water. He is sure to be a water rat like his parents.

So we have a huge box of blocks. I whipped em out the other day so Trace could play with them. Before we knew it we had built a tall tower that was too cool to just put away so it took its place as a centerpiece for a couple days.
For the 4th, our ward had a delicious and excellent pancake breakfast Saturday morning outside. It was tasty. For the fireworks we went to Sarah & Shawns for fireworks. We had a fun time!

Trace started crawling a couple weeks ago. He is now crawling everywhere! He is getting bigger and bigger and is almost 11 months old! wow!

Meanwhile, Trace's little brother or sister continues to grow!! 14 weeks tomorrow!