This photo was taken . . .

on our 13th wedding anniversary- July 18th

in the middle of a family reunion in Utah.

Later that afternoon we tried to steal away for an hour to drive somewhere and celebrate but only made it to the driveway. The car was blocked in, we couldn't think of anywhere to go, and I was anxious to get back to family time, so we just hung out on the front of the car and took a couple pictures of ourselves.

But the rest of the family didn't think that was a good enough celebration for 13 years and thus surprised us with a little retreat on the back porch. We had chocolate dipped strawberries, candles, and sparkling cider . . . and enjoyed them all while listening to the playlist my brother Jeremy prepared for us that included appropriate and not so appropriate musical choices.

Turns out this was probably the most romantic anniversary date ever. Too bad I hate the picture. It looks like we are celebrating our 50th not our 13th. I am wearing sneakers, (it was a surprise) and Brent has a pair of socks hanging out of his pocket. Plus we can't even reach each other over the table. Happy 13 years! I have way too many pictures lately in sneakers!A couple days after we got back home Savannah announced that she was going to do a lemonaid stand at the park. Brent was out doing chores in the back yard for me and immediately switched gears. Savannah told me that he told her he would build her a lemonaid stand, then just stood there staring off for at least 20 minutes. That's why he's smarter than me. I don't think I have stood staring and thinking once in my life. A couple hours later this foldable, portable lemonaid stand was ready for painting.

I think I better just plan on getting back to blogging in a couple weeks after the kids go back to school. It is just way too hard with all these kids in the house, and all the"Why do you get to be on the computer, Mom?" stuff.

But in a couple weeks it's just me and marco man around here. Pretty hard to imagine what that's going to be like.

That's all.

I am already getting sick of this myself so I am pretty sure any readers are. This kind of blogging is no fun. But here's a little more anyway. (I will post the text now and add the pictures slowly as I get time)

Grandpa Fielding has had two strokes in the last few months so I was anxious to check on him at his ranch in Summerville, OR. He was still his honery old loveable self. We got free pony rides too! For the first time I noticed how beautiful his ranch was.

After we spent the night in OR, we stopped off to visit my parents at the mansion. Now this is where we should be spending all our Washington time Brent is thinking right about now. It was his first time visiting the finished B & B and he was way impressed. We tried hard to work it out to come back and have a free stay in the $250 a night rooms but the Casper's wouldn't let us get away for more Fielding time.DARN!

The farm on Casper Lane looked fabulous. It seems that it doesn't need us much anymore. And we had a surprise. End of July and there were still cherries on the trees! That really is a bad thing. The packing plants shut them off and they never even picked any Chelans. But it was so wonderful to pick and eat cherries till we were sick. . and then pick more. We fired up the old blue Ford and drove around our farm checking on stuff. Our wild apricots on the hill above the farm were also ready to be picked. We picked a bag full with intentions of making jam but then remembered we were on vacation and never got around to it.

Casper Reunion
Now the Casper's do things different than the Fielding's. Instead of renting a big house For A Week, we get together and party hard for one day.
There were many things planned, but it was so hot that instead of all those things we just stayed in the pool. Not just lounging about but participating in belly flop contests, swimming relays, and diving over the rope contests. We all had so much fun and for the first time in a long time all got sunburns. (It is practically impossible to get a sunburn during the few minutes of sunshine in Buffalo everyday. Not complaining about that, btw.)

All 9 of the siblings were there.

With the final reunion of the trip over with it was time to head to Idaho for our cabin time at Priest Lake.

For 5 days we enjoyed perfect weather, water, and company. We had missed 3 days of our time slot by the time we got up there, due to the reunion. Lisa and Todd were so nice and talked us into lingering there during their time. We were easy to convince. We had nothing but a long drive back to Buffalo to look forward to. But we were out of food by then -besides the cooler of free beef from Grandpa Fielding of course- that we always had with us. They insisted that it was no problem, they had plenty. Brent and I picked wild huckleberry and raspberry's so we could make a small contribution, and mooched and ate like kings for a few days. After all that fine dining I decided our family should spend a little more money on food in the future. The night before they came we had one can of minestrone soup and a cornbread mix. It was filling but no one was raving.

Finally Thursday we rolled on out of there and set our GPS for Kalispell, Montana. A little out of the way but Brent wanted to check it out. That little decision sent us on a big detour. Instead of I-90 all the way to Buffalo, we spent two days just getting through Montana on a two lane road. For the first day it was all beautiful and worth it. We were up near Canada and had a great drive through Glacier National Park, but by Saturday things had taken a turn for the worse and we went through hours and hours of dried out Indian reservations. Not all of Montana is forested and pretty I found out.

We were so happy to get home to our little place here. It rained the whole time we were gone and so we had a green thriving garden to greet us.

Across the plains

LDS Historic Winter Quarters
Omaha, NE

Crossing the Plains

The best kid for the trip award is a tie between Marcus and Camille. Kennon's thermostat was all out of wack, and Savannah and Caroline's stomach's were. Savannah took Dramamine and slept a lot of the way but whenever she woke up she was growling at the rest of us "Be quiet!" Caroline can't swallow the tiny pills however and instead spent the first day each way holding a bucket.

Halfway through the first day Caroline insisted that she wanted to get out. We told her that we would be pressing on as we were barely in Ohio and had miles to go till Utah. "Can we walk then?" That is one trial that the pioneers didn't have to face that Caroline doesv when she crossing the plains. Carsickness.

And then there was Kennon. She was always hot and complaining. The whole car was snuggling under blankets, and freezing and Kennon in a t-shirt and shorts was begging us to blast the AC or she was going to "burst into flames"! I couldn't figure it out. Is this a puberty thing?


There isn't much to see when traveling through southern Wyoming. We jumped at the chance to stop at this State Penn and tour the museum in Rawlings, Wyoming.
Whenever he was released from the carseat Marcus took off at full speed and it was hard to catch him again. But he was easy to entertain while driving. We just pointed out the zillions of cows and listened to him moo away. He never got tired of that game the entire drive.

Fielding Family Reunion July 14- July 20
An entire week with my favorite people in the world

Andrea, Alainna, Mom, Kashann, Candice, Laura, Ciana

Spencer, Dad Jeremy, Peter, Brent, Dave and sons -just missing Stephen who was away starring in a concert

We rented a house in Midway, Ut (near Heber). It was big enough for all the couples to have a room. . . except for Brent and I. We got a pantry that mysteriously smelled like vomit. After 6 nights stuffed in that room we decided the $400 a week we payed was way too much for our sleeping arrangements. My brother Jeremy refused to give up any of his master suite to accommodate a small spot for his sister and her husband. He just couldn't part with his office, walk in bedroom size closet, and master bathroom. Thanks for sparing a small pantry for your relatives, Jere.

Besides the vomit room, the Reunion Highlights included:

Swimming in the Deer Creek Reservoir and Jordanelle State Park located nearby the house. I love lake swimming. Dad, and my brothers and sisters and I swam laps across the reservoir while mom, who just had a knee operation sat back at the shore and watched all the kids.
SLC Temple square

Though, I wouldn't recommend touring the square with 16 little kids in your group. It really tried my patience. We insisted that Mom let us push her around. She was holding everyone back hobbling around with her cane.

Dad weeding with the grandkids and Maverick runs
My dad couldn't stand a beautiful house surrounded by weeds. So one afternoon in the heat of the day he took his grandchildren out to teach them to work. I couldn't understand the point of pulling their weeds while we were on vacation and paying a hefty price to stay there. But the kids all learned a good lesson and for the rest of the week they were anxious to weed with Grandpa and earn an ice cream at Maverick.

Baby blessing of Laura- Candice and Peter's fist daughter.

Enjoying the great outdoors around the house.
One day Brent made up a treasure hunt for his nieces and nephews. They spent over an hour running all around the place, wading through chin high thistle and finally found the grand prize -One whole dollar bill. . . to share. Ciana's 6 year old came in sweaty, and red faced after wasting the last hour of his life and declared. "That treasure hunt was a rip off!"
The Kid's room in the basement where we sent the kids so we could stay up till 2 a.m. talking and playing games every evening.
On to Washington next.

Ok, so the van still stinks. Brent slaved away on it over an hour on it last night and my fingers are crossed that he was able to work some magic. I have to give a lady a ride this morning and I am going to ask her point blank if she smells anything funny.

The worst part is that I am starting to get used to it. I watched a PBS special last night about how some people don't react bad to certain smells because they are accustomed to them, like bathroom mal odor (their name for poo). Some people would gag and immediately push it away. Others would sniff several times into the bottle trying to figure out if it was that bad. I've always wondered how people who live in houses that are totally contaminated by certain odors that I hate don't notice it when I can't handle to be in there for over 5 minutes. They also talked about how random smells take you back to a memory that you didn't even know you had. That happens to me all the time.

So now we have accustomed our noses to rotting meat and it doesn't seem so bad anymore. Maybe we are even taking on the odor ourselves.

Well besides that lingering odor from our trip life is settling down much like it was while Brent was in Alaska. The guests are gone and Brent is back in school. The girls have another month until school starts so we still have eternity of summer stretching before us it seems. Brent has exactly 9 months now until graduation and that is nothing. Brent and I spent the evening looking for a job online. There are a lot of choices out there and we're having a hard time narrowing it down. Vermont? Montana? Oregon? Ohio? Everything sounds exciting but no idea if we will actually do something so drastic like just start a new life somewhere we pick off a map.

A couple months ago Brent and I took a survey online that determines the best place for you. Out of the whole country without us giving them any preference on states but based on many other questions we answered the final result was . . . Tri-cities, Wa area! We just looked at the screen stunned. Is that a sign?

Well, I know that no one cares but I have got to get some trip highlights on here. So here goes.

Brent's favorite cousin

(Palmyra, NY visit -Brent and I stayed home with the younger kids)

Three days after returning from our BIG trip back home, Brent's cousin Dale from Ohio, his wife Julianna and their three children came to stay with us. Though Brent and Dale are the same age, he has been a practicing dentist for about 7 years now, as I calculate. And he just may be Brent's inspiration.

About 10 years ago Dale was in dental school and came to visit his cousin Brent the farmer. He relieved Kennon and I of our tractor job and helped Brent put up some hay one afternoon. Later that day as he drove off to head back to the fall semester of school in Ohio, Brent was in the middle of changing a tire on his harrow bed. As he tells the story, he was prying off the enormous tire from the rim with a huge crowbar when it popped off and slammed right into his eye brow. It was then that Brent, heard a honk and he looked up with blood and tears in his eyes, just in time to see his care free cousin's dust as he waved goodbye and his car turned down the lane off to an easier life than poor Brent. So here we are 10 years later, Brent still carrying a scar on his eyebrow but very close to achieving what he once thought could never happen as he was once left bleeding in his cousin's dust.

We took them to Darien Lake amusement park and this is my favorite picture there. Their red head son Calvin and his cuz Marcus hating the motorcycle ride we strapped them onto.
Like her father, Eliza their 5 year old is way ahead of the game. She is Caroline's age but can read sentences and likes hanging out with the older girls. Caroline was too busy playing with the boys to notice that she was getting left out.
Now we've become such good friends the kids all said that we need to get together more often. Thanks for coming guys!

Home again!

We did it again! We drove 5000+ miles with all our children. This time we were totally boring and left the doubledeckerbuick behind and didn't spend one single night sleeping in the car there or back. So much for Brent's reputation. He actually offered to pay the kids $10 bucks each one night in Cut Bank Montana to drive on and save $80 bucks on a hotel. They refused. We've spoiled them. (If you can call 2 star hotels spoiling.)

So I don't have near the stories that I told after our last trip home to Washington. . . such as 2440 miles in 50 hours with 6 people and . . . one mouse on board.

I guess you could say everything worked like clockwork this time until Fargo, North Dakota. That was the morning we discovered that in the great midnight hotel rush the previous night "someone" (still under debate) had tipped over the cooler of free beef from Grandpa Fielding and it had bled out in our van all night. So from Fargo on we had Dead Cow on Board. We threw out the beef at a rest stop dumpster (after Brent seriously entertained the idea of a spontaneous rest stop barbeque) once we discovered the spill. . . but that wasn't the end of it.

The first day following the bloody beef incident wasn't so bad. It was still fresh. Some of us complained about the stench, but as Caroline pointed out, it was just "meat and meat tastes good."

But by the last day the meat was soooo dead and we were DYING! Brent and I self detailed the van twice thanks to hotel pool towels, baking soda and Febreeze. Let's just I'll take a live mouse on board any day rather than a bloody dead cow.

I am swearing like an englishman today. As in "That was one bloody road trip" and "I am so bloody glad to be out of that bloody van."

So, that's where we have been. Brent got home from Alaska July 11th at 8 p.m, worked all night fixing everything we had broke (the lawn mower, the fans, the AC in the van) in his three week absence, and we were outa there by 8 a.m the next morning.

16 states in 21 days. Just in case you've been wondering about us.

I will post more later. I am in the midst of the worst thing about vacations right now.