August R&R ... Good News!

We had a quick trip back to Virginia to spend 10 days with him while he was doing his medical tests for his 9 month extension. While we were there we got to visit with many friends, go to the national zoo, go to a water park, visit our storage units, play a competitive game of Risk, visit with Justin, go swimming at our hotels, visit the Natural History Museum, eat Godiva chocolate, visit Tyson Corner mall, ride the metro, oh .... and visit the FBI building in downtown DC! In fact, during our trip to the FBI office building ... I had a job interview and was hired! What a surprising week for all of us!

My new career with the FBI will begin at the end of September and I can hardly wait! I will be SOO busy in the next four weeks as I will start my drive back out to Virginia, find us a place to live, line up pre-school, go through storage units and set up our home! Max will hang out with Grandpa & Grandma for a few weeks until I can get ready for him to come out. Mark is working his way back to base and will work for another 9 months if all goes well with his tour orders. While we are sad to say good-bye once again, we are planning to see him for Christmas or early January depending on his schedule.

We got to see ..... Lions at the National Zoo...

Dinsosaur bones ... Max inside the head

Maxs' favorite Old Testament story ... Daniel & Lions Den ... he was so excited to these guys!

Eating pizza with Justin at California Pizza Kitchen ....

Mark & Max at Chili's ... eating out for 11 days total does get a little old!

Swimming! We did lots of swimming at our hotels & at Water Mine, a park in Reston.

Lots of fun in our hotel room and lots of great cuddle time with dad!

Max & Mark enjoying lots of loves!

We Are Off ...

Tomorrow Max & I are headed to Virginia to spend the next 12 days with Mark. This is sort of an unexpected trip so we are very excited. Mark has decided to extend his tour in Afghanistan for another 9 months. Because of the extension, Mark is required to complete another series of medical tests and doctor visits. So this trip will involve visiting several different doctors but, we are still happy for the visit. This extension will take us through mid-June of next year. We have many reasons for the extension but the biggest two are financial and no job state-side. We are still hopeful that a job will come to us and we continue to apply for jobs weekly for both Mark & I. In the meanwhile, we are grateful for the job Mark does have and will continue to pray for the employment blessing here in the states and for Mark's safety. We are also hoping to see Justin while we are in Virginia. He should be returning from Canada this week so hopefully we can visit with him later this week. Until we get back on the 27th ... enjoy your weeks!

Oh sooo Good ....

Our second picking from the raspberry bushes this week. Oh how they tasted SO good on ice cream tonight. Wish you were to have some with us!

ATV Riding - Greys River, Wyoming

Yesterday, Dad treated me to an ATV ride up the Greys River Canyon. We went with 6 others and met up with 3 other couples along the way. This was my first time driving an ATV and we were out for 6 hours! Today .... I had some sore muscles! Mostly in my back and arms - I would imagine from holding on! I got my machine up to 36 mph and that was plenty fast for me! We got rained on for about 20 minutes or so but, for the most part we had a beautiful day. I was surprised how "exposed" I felt ... meaning no seat belt, windshield, and how cold it was! Thankfully I had on four layers ... as you can see below I was a little bundled up! The ride was beautiful and a lot of fun! I'll definitely have to add this to a must-do with Mark. Here are some of the pictures I took along the ride.

Lincoln County Fair - Best of Show!

Last week we went over to Afton for the Lincoln County Fair. The fair lasts all week long with so many things to see and do! Each city has a "booth" that members of the community can enter various items in to be judged. Everything from blankets, quilts, weavings, vegetables, flowers, food of every kind, photography, etc. Dad entered his Wyoming Cowboy lap blanket and won blue ribbon along with Best of Show! We spent plenty of money on rides and later that night we went to the horse pull competition. This was a first for both me & Max. There were three categories of horses, light weight, medium & heavy weight. The horses started out pulling 3000 lbs and then after each group of horses completed that weight another 500 or 1000 lbs were added. The heavy weight horses pulled over 7000 lbs of weight! It was amazing to see these horses hard at work .... and for what? The owners of the horses received a belt buckle ... but dad says the real reward is the bragging rights for the next year! Here are some pictures from our day at the fair.

Horse pull - the horses pull a sleigh full of the weights

placed by the local high school wrestling team.

These horses are warming up.
So Max could not ride the ferris wheel by himself, so mom climbed on too!

Merry go' round.

The train ... Max had a blast! He rode it 4 times!

They had a live animal area - some could be petted - some not!

Turtles & lizard - max did touch both.

Alligator

And last but not least ... BEST OF SHOW!

Congrat's Grandpa Tippets!

This blanket (along with all of dad's creations) are done on sticks. Check out his new blog site that he is getting up & running! Western Weaver

Fruit of our Labor ...

We have been working on our garden here in Star Valley for months now. This picture was taken early on when the onions, peas, potatoes, and green beans were just starting to come up. Dad devised our "deer fence" by stringing empty coke cans around the garden as a somewhat distraction for keeping them out. I thought it was quite funny - but it has certainly worked on keeping the larger animals out. All around the garden we have iris and daisy's growing which have been blooming. On the one end of the garden dad has been growing evergreens for a couple of years now and perhaps next summer they will get transplanted in to the yard.

This past week we have been picking the peas. Max has had so much fun going out with the bowls, pulling the peas off and getting them out of their shells. For lunch on Friday we picked fresh peas and pulled up some of the potatoes so we could have baby potatoes and peas for lunch. This week we will be harvesting raspberries. I can't wait. We have about three red ones so far but, they will be coming on here pretty quick.

Max shelling the peas with Grandma Tippets

Oh Where Have We Been?

We have been pretty busy this summer and these photo's take you through June & July 2010. We had a great visit with Mark in May with his family and of course the time went too fast. After Mark left to go back to Afghanistan, Max and I headed north to Star Valley Ranch, Wyoming with mom & dad Tippets. These are in reverse order but here is a recap of our adventures this summer thus far!

Max swimming in SLC at our hotel ...

anytime there is swimming available, Max will be there!

Max with cousins Jatae & Nakiya at the Monte L. Bean Museum at BYU Provo.

Childrens Rodeo - Thayne, Wyoming (Max did not ride the sheep or calf's!)

Max & Grandpa Tippets cutting the lawn at Star Valley Ranch, WY.

Last night dinner at Lake Keuka, NY - celebrating Grandpa

& Grandma Tippets 50th Wedding Anniversary ...

Lake Keuka, NY - We all went for a ride on the raft!

Water balloons with cousins in Lake Keuka, NY!

Soooo tired! Lake Keuka rental house.

Helping Grandma with rice krispie treats - NY.

Grandpa & Grandma Tippets with all their grand kids

Sacred Grove, Palmyra, NY

Max waiting and waiting for cousins to arrive

... finally fell asleep at 11:20 pm!

First night in NY at our crazy HOT hotel!

Grandma Bridges & Max at Palisades Reservoir.

Grandpa Bridges, Uncle Garrett & cousins at Palisades Reservoir

July 4th Celebration!

July 3rd at Star Valley Ranch - kids games!

Star Valley Ranch - Max & Grandpa Tippets

The day after the big fall on the deck stairs - NO broken jaw but,

Max did not eat for 24 hours, x-rays, bloody mouth, pain ... not fun!

Fathers Day - June 2010 - SVR, Wyoming

Pocatello, Idaho - Visiting Heather & Curtis Sandy

Local Community Pool

Montpelier, Idaho ... on our way to SVR, Wyoming

Bryce National Park, Utah - early June 2010