Kevin's Family Comes to Star !

 Wednesday 10-18

This afternoon, after Kevin got home from work, he and his family left their home in Bountiful Utah and drove to our house here in Star, Idaho. They arrived safely around 10:15 p.m. 

Thursday 10-19

We began our day by heading to our local Pumpkin Patch.

Connor, Steve, Linda, Crew, Shea Sydney

 Jeremy's Pumpkins. Jeremy has been raising and selling pumpkins, right here in Star, for 26 years.

Connor, Crew, Shea, Sydney

The patch is right at Jeremy's house where they have lots of fun decorations like these that surround the "pay-station". The patch is self-serve and they use the honor system for paying.

Giant Skeltons behind "scary" little Shea

Shea, Sydney, Crew, Conor

and TONS of pumpkins all sorted by size and prices which range from $2 - $15. Each of the kids got a pumpkin that we will be carving on Saturday!

After we finished at Jeremy's, we put the kids to work!

The girls helped Grandpa gather up all the garden critters and they . . . 

put away grandma's Fairy Garden for the winter. They gathered up all the pieces then cleaned all the dirt that was stuck to the bottom of them off with scrapers and a scrub brush. They did a GREAT job !

Sydney, Shea & squirrel in the tree

Grandma put some peanuts on the low limbs of our large maple tree. Pretty soon a squirrel came along and started eating them. The girls had fun watching him nibble away.

About 2:15 this afternoon we all left, in two cars, for Boise

We took everyone to PoJo"s Family Fun Center and Arcade.  Matt, Jen, Sienna & Jetta met us there for a total of 12 family members. We bought each of the kids 40 tokens and 3 ride tickets.

Sydney riding the Carousel and . . . .

Shea also had fun on the Carousel.

Kevin & Connor racing each other. Grandpa and Crew are watching them race

Lani helping Sydney & Shea learn how to play this game

Crew & Connor

Now Shea & Sydney are racing Mario Karts. Kevin, Connor, Lani & Crew are their cheering section

Motorcycles anyone? Shea & Sydney are racing. That's Mom, Dad, Connor & Crew watching them.

Kevin challenging his boys, Crew & Connor

Steve & Matt spent most of the afternoon just talking and watching everyone else "Play"

(Grandma spent the afternoon taking pictures of everyone)

We were glad that Matt, Jen, Jetta & Sienna were able to join us for this fun afternoon at PoJo's.

Jetta & Sienna

You had to be at least 40" tall to ride the Bumper Cars . . . . YAY Shea ! She is the smallest grandchild and cleared the minimum height easily. She loved the bumber cars.

Shea & Sydney quickly learned how to drive the bumper cars

We had a great time all together on the bumper cars. There were nine of us . . . can you find us all? Lani and Matt took some pictures and Steve enjoyed watching the fun.

bumping

more bumping and . . . .

more bumping

The ride is over and we all had lots of fun !

Shea, Sydney, Lani, Connor

More arcade games

Sienna & Jetta

No, they are not sick to their stomach's... they are holding all the coins they have won

Sienna & Jetta being silly

Sienna & Jetta concentrating on their driving skills

Kevin shooting a few hoops

It's time to go but we still have 4 ride tickets sooo . . . .

Crew, Connor, Sydney & Shea . . . 

took one more ride on the bumper cars!

Tonight Lani and the kids all played a fun game of Headbands

Crew, Lani, Connor, Sydney, Sienna & Shea

Crew held the phone and had to guess while Sydney, Connor, Sienna, Lani & Shea gave him clues !

Friday 10/20

This morning we drove to the Parker's house  

which is 45 minutes west of Star in Parma, Idaho.

We had a great time doing all kinds of fun activities . . . .

Shea had fun Playing in Jeff's roadster then . . .

Jeff gave Avery (a neighbor girl), Sydney & Shea a ride around the block.

Sydney & Shea had fun playing in the leaves . . . .

Out by "Sydney's Garden" (in the background)

Kevin & Lani's Sydney and Randy & Lynette's Sydney

Avery & Sydney

They would rake up some leaves into piles then . . . .

Avery, Sydney, Shea

would run and jump in the middle of the pile

Connor, Steve, Linda, Lani, Connor, Kevin, Sydney & Shea

Marilyn took a picture of us with Kevin's family

Jeff took the kids to the pond

where they tried to get the three white ducks to come to them - unsuccessfully !

The three girls went across the street and played in the neighbor's field for a little while. Crew went with them and took a few pictures

Sydney, Shea & neighbor girl, Avery

Sydney 

Shea, Avery & Sydney playing on the Wheel lines

Shea

The Parker's Tree House was a hit with . . . .

Shea, Sydney, Crew & Connor

Shea on the swing

Crew pushed Sydney on the swing and . . . .

Connor pushed Shea on Keith's homemade tire/tractor swing

Kevin, Marilyn, Keith & Steve

Jeff, Marilyn, Steve & Keith

We spent some time in the apple orchard !

Shea picking apples

Sydney admiring her apple

Crew & Connor

Shea

The Kevin Waite Family

Connor, Kevin, Crew, Lani, Shea & Sydney

Jeff got several of us to go with him, to the neighbors pasture, to feed buckets of bad apples to the neighbor's cows . . .

They loved them !!

Shea & Sydney wanted to get a closer look at the three baby cows, but the dog kept barking and the calves turned away from them.

It was a fun morning and on the way back home . . . .

We stopped at Jack-In-The-Box for some lunch.

This afternoon our itiniary said "Skate Park & Playground" so that is what we did !

The Skate Park was awesome

Connor

Connor & Crew

Sydney

Crew & Lani

Shea & Lani

Connor, Crew, Sydney & Shea are all lined up and ready to "ROLL"

And away . . . .

they go !

Shea

From the skate park, we went across the parking lot, to the playground

The girls had fun on the slides

Shea

Sydney

Sydney

Shea & Sydney

and climbing 

Sydney & Shea

Then . . . .

Connor pushed them (really fast) on this merry-go-round spider web

Star's new playground & skate park were a hit !

At home everyone always likes the Patio Swing

Shea, Kevin & Sydney

We've had a vent leak in one of our bathrooms so Matt & Kevin thought they would check it out

Up the ladder and . . . .

On to the roof to have a look

hmmm . . . . what's this?

Aha . . .  looks like it might be leaking right here under thses shingles. We'll do some calking and see if that helps!

The next project for Matt & Kevin was installing a fan/light on our patio

unpack the box . . . .

read the instructions and . . . .

inspect the proposed location. They will need a mounting bracket, but it is too late to get one tonight so Matt will pick one up tomorrow on his way out to Star.

Everyone loves playing games together everyday

Connor, Lani, Sydney, Sienna, Jen, Crew

playing some Scattergories

Lani, Sydney, Shea

are enjoying the Waite Family "Go Fish" game

A little Disney Trivia is always fun for . . . .

Lani, Connor, Crew and grandma (taking picture)

One of our family favorites is the game "Skull King."

Lani, Jen, Sienna, Crew & Connor

Of course there was some spectator sports going on in the TV room

Matt, Steve, Kevin

Saturday 10/21

This afternoon Linda, Lani, Sydney & Shea all went to Camrynn's birthday party.

Linda, Shea, Camrynn, Lani, Sydney

 Camrynn was hosting a "come and craft" birthday party activity. You could go anytime and craft with her. 

These were Shea's projects

these were Sydney's

They each made a little bead christmas elf then painted some sun-catchers. The paint didn't dry before we left so they needed a little "touch-up" by the time we got home.

 This afternoon we found Sydney & Shea in the playroom - hmm, what are they up to?

a little closer look reveals they are watching a "My Little Pony" show.

and loving it !!

Matt & Kevin continued the installation of the Fan/Light

Kevin & Matt hard at work, actually we were visiting, over the fence, with the neighbor and laughing with her about something.

Back to work . . . . Steve trying to "shed some light" on the project

The medallion (beauty ring) is in place, now to figure out all the wires !

It is getting dark, but the blades are on and the light is being hooked up

 Matt is fitting the light cover

Yep . . . . the light works !

and the fan goes around . . . . Yay !

We had Pizza for dinner

Pepperoni, Cheese, Hawaiian, BBQ Chicken

Yum

Connor, Crew, Sydney, Sienna, Shea

Today is the day we are carving our pumpkins

Crew, Connor, Sydney, Lani, Shea, Jen, Sienna

After cutting the tops it was time to clean them out . . . . Yuk

Sydney

Sienna

Crew & Connor

Shea picked a bumpy pumpkin. It turned out to have a VERY TOUGH skin, so tough that Kevin could barely cut it with a large butcher knife.

He finally got the top cut so Shea could join the other kids in cleaning her pumpkin out.

Now the carving begins.

Sydney

Sienna drawing her pumpkin face & crew still cleaning his

Eyes are done . . . . nicely done Sydney

Connor cleaning off his top

Sienna begins carving

Crew

Connor

Kevin trying to carve Shea's very tough-skinned pumpkin. 

Crew (see Kevin working sooo hard on Shea's pumpkin)

Connor

Sienna & Crew

Sienna - concentrating

Sydney finished her pumpkin first . . .  so cute !

Connor is done

Crew finished his creation

Kevin was able to carve out the two eyes then . . . .

Shea colored the nose and mouth with a black marker

Despite the problems, it turned out pretty darn cute

Sienna got really creative with her pumpkin face

They all turned out so cute and it was a fun "cousin" activity !

Sunday 10/22

Kevin and his family left to go back home today

Crew & Connor, Sydney & Shea

Everyone  (and their pumpkins) took their places in the car and . . . 

they were on their way  (it's going to be very quiet around here this afternoon)

They left at 10:00 and arrived home safely about 3:45

We got our first look at the fan - in the daylight! It looks nice and we are looking forward to using it, a lot, next summer.

 This has been a great week. Thank you for coming to see us !!