Spring miscellany

 Saturday, March 22: Scott reunion

Seth, Ana, Andrea, Miriam and Winnie at the Scott family reunion at Stone Elementary.

Seth taking a nap on one of the cafeteria benches.

Winnie wanted to see where a door outside the school led to, but it just went to this basement. What's in the basement? We'll never know because Winnie was too scared to go look.

After coming home from the reunion, Ana takes a nap on the living room floor.

Wednesday, March 26: Visiting Grandma and going on a date

 

Grandma Hendricks shares some history of Fort Belknap (the reservation in Montana where Grandma grew up while her dad worked with the Native Americans) with Winnie during a spring break visit.

Andrea and Seth busk on the Greenbelt for date night.

Friday, March 28: Pizza for dinner

The family gets ready to eat our Marco's pizza after Miriam's ballroom comp.

Saturday, March 29: Ski ID

Ana thought Seth's season pass at Kelly's turned out especially funny. In order to lock in the lowest price and get the most bonus offers, we drove to Kelly's to get our 2025-2026 season passes before it closed for the 2024-2025 season.

Sunday, March 30: Cat nap

Toad sits on Miriam's lap while the family goes over the following week's Come, Follow Me lesson.

Tuesday, April 1: D.I. sightings

Ana sneakily takes a picture of Andrea as she leaves D.I. Andrea and Ana arrived and shopped separately.

Ana took this picture of a dog in the parking lot. Apparently it was eating Q tips?

Thursday, April 3: Hillcrest quilt and a new eye massager

The Hillcrest band quilt Andrea made for the Bonneville/Hillcrest band fundraiser. Because she had made a few BHS T-shirt quilts over the years, Andrea decided to make one for HHS. The organizers of the silent auction weren't smart, though. They didn't display the full majesty of the quilt and instead kept it folded up on the table. After the girl who won it received the quilt, she opened it up and was amazed at all the band shirts that were included. Also, this was the first T-shirt quilt that Andrea quilted on her machine rather than asking her friend Frances Merrill to do it on her longarm quilter.

Ana and Winnie document Seth trying out the new eye massager he bought (new in the package) from Goodwill. 

Saturday, April 5: Grandpa's T-shirt quilt

The T-shirt quilt Andrea pieced together as a birthday present for her dad. This quilt included years of yearbook workshop T-shirts, volleyball T-shirts, softball team shirts, etc.

Monday, April 7: Cuddle buds

Seth pets Peach and Toad on the back porch.

Saturday, April 12: Timber!

The young Stacey neighbors (Paige, Von and Vern) help rake up the dead poplar we cut down that fell across the road.

Winnie sits on the poplar stump.

Miriam gets ready to pull on the next dead poplar to come down.

Seth blocks up the second poplar we cut that day: the one in the corner of the garden. That one was especially difficult because it was right next to the fence we share with our neighbor, so we didn't want it to fall that way. Instead of the tree falling nicely straight down in our garden area, it smashed through our garden gate and fence. 

Sunday, April 13: Piano recital

Winnie plays her songs (which included Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer") in the Primary room of the St. Leon church during her recital.

Miriam plays her songs (which included the theme from "One Piece," an anime that she loves).

The girls stand with the other participants at the end of the recital.

Monday, April 21: These prices, though

Winnie looks on in disgust at the price of a suit at JC Penney.

Thursday, April 24: Searching for buried treasure

Miriam (yellow hoodie), Winnie (behind Miriam) and other members of our softball team search for hole for the base post to sit in. It was near the beginning of our practice schedule, and the fields hadn't really been spruced up for the spring yet.

Saturday, May 3: Bear World and graves/Big Jud's

Miriam drives through Bear World. She had recently completed her driver's ed instruction and had her permit. Winnie had been dying to see Bear World and their newest section: Jurassic Creek (which in NO WAY was capitalizing on the Jurassic Park series and makes PERFECT SENSE to have in a native animal park), so Miriam, Winnie and I spent part of a day there.

Winnie chilling on the bear bench.

Miriam and Winnie on the giant bear statue.

Miriam acting like Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park when he lies on the side of the triceratops to listen to its breathing.

Winnie pretending to get chomped by a dinosaur.

Andrea, Miriam and Winnie with the dinos.

Miriam in the spinny bears. 

Winnie and Andrea on the Ferris wheel.

Miriam, Ana, Seth, Andrea and Winnie eat dinner at Big Jud's in Archer before visiting Grover family graves in Archer, Menan and Ririe.

Visiting the Hoopes' grave in Ennis.

Monday, May 5: Haircut, feeding chickens, going to a play

Miriam's hair before getting it chopped off.

Winnie feeds and waters the Rapps' chickens while the family is out of town. There was one rooster that had it in for Winnie; she had to keep the bucket between her and that feisty fellow.

Seth, Andrea and Winnie watch "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" in Blackfoot on a mommy/daddy/daughter date. Winnie, Miriam and Ana had seen the play a few days before, but Winnie loved it so much she wanted to see it again with her parents.

Wednesday, May 7: Another haircut

Winnie's hair before getting it chopped.

And after.

Friday, May 9: Cute sisters (and haircuts)

Winnie and Miriam in the kitchen.

Ana is 18!

 This poor girl spent her birthday all by herself at home. The rest of us went up to Island Park for opening weekend at Henry's Lake, but she had to stay in town so the Bonnevaires could make a recording. Regardless, we did celebrate her birthday. First, we gave her a present the day before her birthday.

A new pair of glasses with heart-shaped lenses.

Then Hudson baked her a birthday cake and brought it up to Island Park to share on Monday, May 26.

Winnie, Ana, Hudson, Grandma Susan and Ana getting ready to enjoy cake at Grandma's cabin.

Ana blowing out a gigantic candle (and wearing her new glasses) after we sang "Happy Birthday."

Ana invited a bunch of friends over for a birthday "hang" on Thursday, May 29.

The Beatles cupcakes Andrea made for Ana and her friends.

The line of shoes from her friends.

Then we hosted a family birthday dinner on Sunday, June 1. 

Ana opening a card from Grandma Susan.

And a laptop from us. Seth bought it from D.I., then we discovered that it wouldn't start up unless it was plugged in. So we ended up buying a new battery and installing it.

The chocolate raspberry cake Ana requested.

For her parent dinner this year, Ana chose to introduce Seth and me to the Mongolian Grill. Ana had been there before as part of a formal dance date, but Seth and I had never gone. 

Adopting Dixie

 As Peach got close to her 12th birthday, Seth and I thought it would be a good idea for us to get another dog. Our logic was the new dog could learn to be chill from the old dog, and Peach would have constant companionship (since Toad is free to wander as he will). 

First Seth and I took a trip to the Snake River Animal Shelter to look at some possible candidates. The first dog we met was a rambunctious boy. The second dog we met was a timid girl. We thought maybe Millie (the second one) would be a good fit for our family.

Since our other pets are named for Mario characters, we had considered other such new names for our addition. "Goomba" and "Dry Bones" didn't seem quite right for this girl, so we did some more research and chose "Dixie" (as in, Dixie Kong, Diddy Kong's girlfriend) for our new pet. Then on Saturday, April 19, we took the girls with us to the shelter to bring our new dog home.

Winnie, Ana, Seth and Miriam outside the shelter after signing papers to bring Dixie home. People at the shelter had suggested we bring our other dog when adopting the new one so they could start to get used to each other.

Ana giving Dixie some love before heading home. As we were getting in our car, we overheard a couple telling their young daughter that the dog they had planned to adopt already had a home. I guess if we had come by a half hour later, we wouldn't have gotten the dog we did.

We weren't told a lot about Dixie's background, but through experience we've learned a few things about her and her personality. Unfortunately, Dixie has some food aggression. And unfortunately, Peach has borne the brunt of Dixie's food aggression more than once. So once we figured that out about her, we've made sure to carefully supervise all food and treats. 

We've also learned that Dixie gets anxious. Thunderstorms will send her running up and down the fence line. She barks and whines at fireworks. When she's around strange dogs, she gets very tense and the slightest provocation can set her off. The first time I took her to the vet, she jumped up on the tiny end table and refused to get down. 

Dixie has a strong prey instinct. In the past when we've had the neighbors chickens roam onto our lawn, Peach would maybe bark at them. Dixie becomes a flippin' Houdini and escapes the fenced yard, chases down the offending poultry, snatches them in her bear trap of a mouth and refuses to let go. We've added extra security measures to all three gates (an extra latch at the bottom of the skinny gate, cane bolts to both other gates, plus Seth worked to straighten posts on two of the gates so everything would fit together more securely), but Dixie still managed to squeeze through a tiny gap in the corner of the back gate the other day. More than one chicken has had its life ended by our ferocious chicken-napper. Several other chickens and one piglet have suffered her wrath but lived to tell the tale.

Because of this, Dixie and Toad haven't been cuddle buddies like Peach and Toad. We're still trying to get Dixie and Toad to get along, and as long as their interactions are supervised, thing have worked out well. But just yesterday when we came home from a walk and Seth had taken Dixie off the leash, she saw Toad in the front yard and gave chase for a second or two until we called her off.

But Dixie won't play with toys. We can sometimes get her to chase an apple (turns out, she loves the apples from our tree) a few times, but she won't tug on a rope, she won't chew on the squeaky pirate chicken-duck toy I bought from Costco, she won't chase a tennis ball. Seth built a flirt pole because we read that dogs with strong prey instincts will go nuts for one of those, but she won't have anything to do with it.

Despite the surprises and setbacks, Dixie is typically a sweet girl. She's never shown any aggression toward a human, small or large. (Tyson's kids have played in our backyard, and Dixie has been patient and kind with them.) She gives Peach kisses. She munches on apples and stands guard in the corner of the yard where she can see people passing by. She has gone on a few hikes, and she loves roaming the trails. Dixie also loves belly rubs and uses the cement step on the back porch as a pillow.

And we're getting some extra help. Starting this week, I'll be taking Dixie to get training at Idaho Elite K9. Once we have the tools and knowledge to help her with impulse control, Dixie and our family will be even happier.

Andrea and Dixie hiking the butte on Thursday, April 24.

Trying to safely introduce Toad to Dixie in the back yard on Sunday, April 27.

Miriam giving both dogs some love in the back yard on Saturday, May 3.

Silly Dixie lying on her back on Thursday, May 8.

Peach and Dixie "helping" Andrea as she moves the sandbox from the side yard to underneath the swing set on Saturday, May 10.

Winnie, Seth, Andrea and Dixie hiking the Menan butte on Saturday, May 17.