Happy Father's Day!

For Father's Day this year, we decided to hike into a little lake called Blue Lake.  The trailhead only takes about an hour and a half to drive to.  Too bad that when we got there, this is what we saw...

 Snow!  And lots of it!

 So we went with plan B, and drove to the summit.

 This was a small snowbank...spring is coming late to the mountains of Idaho!

 This is the view toward Cascade and the Payetter River.

 At the top, it was a chilly 54 degrees in the afternoon.  At the bottom, it was a lovely 76 degrees.  We even spotted some spring flowers.

 And mushrooms!

 Clara loved every moment (besides being stuck in her carseat).

She is so full of wonder...

 every piece of dirt, rock, and stick was incredible in her eyes!

 Here she is spotting her Daddy walking down the road toward her!  She just loves him!

 This turned out to be a great Father's Day photo!

 She loved stepping in and out of this small hole.  Weird to me, awesome to her!

 Then we drove back down to the river and fished for a bit.  No luck!

 I love this picture of the two of them!

 Later that evening, we headed to Jeff and Janet's for dinner.  I tried to get a shot of the three generations of Brooks men/girl.  Clara wasn't in the mood for a picture, but I managed to get a couple cute ones anyway!

Happy Father's Day Kurtis, Jeff, and Dad (Paul)!

Palouse trip, part 1.

Clara just loves her cousins!  She loves to talk to and play with baby Will.

 But just look at him, he's certainly easy to love!

 At times she gets squirly when she's around her cousins!

 Ben is so capable...that comes with being the oldest of toddlers/babies.  So he usually is running circles around the other two babies.  Clara adores him but we've found few ways for these two to play well together.  We think it is the age... tell me it's the age!  Just when we think they love each other, they give each other a too rough hug, and fall to the floor.  Clara usually cries, Ben gets put in time out, you know the drill!  I know we'll turn this corner soon, maybe when Clara can communicate a little better!

 This is what Teenie's house looks like when we come to visit.  We bring a tornado with us that destroys the house!

 Clara can't help but give Will a hug every time she walks by him.  He looks like he really enjoys those hugs, doesn't he?

I love when these kids get to see each other!  They have so much fun together!

memorial day weekend 2012.

Teenie and the babies came to town for the long weekend.  We spent Memorial Day out around the pool. 

Here's Opa helping both the babies practice reeling a big fish in!

 Ben liked it, he just also loves to race around with that superman cape flying behind him!  We're all going to be sad when he grows out of that shirt!

 There's always at least 3 cameras in use when all of us get together. 

some more Palouse park pics.

I know a little girl who LOVES to slide.

Clara is still young enough to be quite fearless!  Her parents have a love/hate relationship with this fact.  Check her out sliding down some little and not so little slides!  The girl couldn't be happier!