Sad Days!

It has been a couple sad days here for us. On July 25, 2009 lightning struck a tree above New Harmony. And the Forest service would not go put it out. What was a tree burning that could be put out by one person is now a huge fire being fought by over 350 firefighters. It has burned more than 10,000 acres of land taking everything in its way. Several homes and structures have been burned to the ground. Our good friend Brent Prince lives there, and this has been devastating to him and all that live there.

This is a picture of Brents Brother Vernile watching the fire get close to his home.

You might be wondering how this affects us well the last 4 years we have gone to New Harmony either picking apples or riding horses. Jayson loves to ride in the mountains with Brent there and they have had some really great rides. It is like losing a good friend and we will miss seeing the mountains and hills and fields green and beautiful.

Now these once beautiful green mountains and hills are black and the tall trees are dead. And the pioneer heritage that was there is gone. We send our love and prayers to all the New Harmony community for the huge loss they have and hope that the land will someday come back green and beautiful again.

It is truly sad that a fire that could have been put out was left to burn like this. Why do we have the Forest Service if they do nothing to protect the land or the people?

These pictures are taken from Little Mountain , it is now a watching point to see the fire how sad.

BACK TO SCHOOL!

Back to school they all go. Our school started on Aug 13th. Jayson is in 7th grade oh how I feel old. Justin is starting kindergarten. Kailee starts Preschool in 2 weeks and cannot wait. Jayson loves his classes and Justin loves Mrs. Snow. We are looking forward to a great year. I am already filling up my little bit of free time with PTA. I am over the Walk A Thon on October 8th it is the schools fundraiser. So I am really excited about that.

Jayson at 6:45 am

Kailee had to have a picture with Justin.

Justin's big day!!

Fort Building!!!

Fort building is my kid’s favorite thing to do.at home they use every blanket and any space to make forts so it was no suprise when we got to Island Park that is what they wanted to do. Justin was moving logs before Travis got there so he was so excited to have his dad help him finish his fort and teepee. There is something about a dad and not just mom helping. It turned out great. Justin was so sure he and Jayson would sleep in it but Jayson would not.

I look forward every year to Island Park for a lot of reasons but the main reason is this… there is NO TV,NO Radio ,NO DS. Just my kids and a huge forest full of possibilities. How great is that. I know a lot of people who would be so bored with out their electronics and TV not my kids they love this. It always brings lots of fun memories for years to come.

How cute is she?

Our family Fort with a sign on top that says " The Hill Family Gang" Believe it or not the sign has been up there for years.

AND THE WINNER IS....

My dad taught Jayson how to play rummy when he was about 6. They play every chance they get. So when Travis and dad got up to Island Park on Saturday the first question asked was "want to play cards?" So dad won a few then Jayson won a few. It went back and forth and after 3 days my dad said no more. He was tired of losing.

Jayson had beat him so many times that he did not want to play any more. Maybe next summer dad but then Justin will be playing watch out!!

Check out those serious faces!!!

The strategy to playing, taking a moment to move your hand around.

He may have beat Grandpa but he has not beat me.....yet!

THE BIG JUDD!

It is true that there is a hamburger the size of a dinner plate. We went and ate there. Justin thought it was great he loves lots of onions and pickles and tomato and lettuce so this was just the place to take the kids to fill them up. We had along day of Huckleberry picking, playing in the water and building forts.

Justin working on building a fort out of trees and logs. I had a really hard time getting him to come and eat because all he wanted to do was work on his fort.

At the end of a long day this is the veiw I love the most.

Moose anyone?

So when we were in Island Park the kids and I and my sister Katie and her son Gage went to play in the water and we wadded around for along time and as we were coming back towards the car we looked up and saw this great site. Yes you guessed it right we got out of the water pretty fast. We did stick around to watch this mom and her baby.

Our summer fun of Geocaching!

If you have never been Geocaching you have got to try it out it is so much fun. Geocaching is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache’s existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS unit can then try to locate the geocache.

Our Cache full of good treasures.

We have hidden two in Island Park one at Big Springs and one at Howard Springs. We have had people log in our note book from all over the world, China, Germany, England, Canada.

Our family Geocaching.

We have also started many traveling bugs that we can track where they are. Jayson is turning 13 we started one on his 6th birthday that is in Iran right now. We started one for my Grandma’s 80th birthday and it is in France. We really have a lot of fun it is a fun treasure hunt.

Grandma's Travel bug in France