Summer’s Here!

We spent the morning at swimming lessons…

And the afternoon at the Splash Pad!



Check out our Red Head!

She was VERY tired by this point.  We all were!  We came home and I took a nap!  At some point soon I’ll get some packing done….

Memorial Day

Aunt Janie’s for the BBQ.

The Idaho State Veteran’s Cemetery.


Thank you. 
Thank you for allowing me to sleep peacefully in my bed at night.  Thank you for leaving your families to do so. 
Thank you for making it possible for my children to run free down a country lane. 
Thank you for giving the last full measure of devotion.

What did you get for Mother’s Day?

My mom asked me this question when I called her on Mother’s day.  My answer; “A house!”  We have been trying to buy a house and our offer was accepted on Mother’s day!  We will be closing on June 14th.  We love Boise and we are here to stay.  The house has just about everything we have ever needed or wanted in a house.  It’s in one of our favorite neighborhoods with LOTS of trees, it has a big back yard, it backs onto a park, it’s in a cul-de-sac, and it has a basement!  It’s also five minutes from the Boise River and we can see the mountains from upstairs!  I will put up some pictures of it, once we close.  Right now the front of the house is hidden behind a tree we plan to take down asap and bushes that cover up the porch.  But we have taken on an overgrown yard before.  We tamed a third of an acre in our first house and I’m now a pro with the clippers.  Just ask the trees in Duvall. 

At times over the last few weeks I have felt like pinching myself to make sure this was really happening.  The Lord has been so good to us and I feel amazingly blessed to be in this wonderful place with family and friends. 

Rock now gets to move into a house for Father’s Day.   He’s not quite as excited about his gift, though.  Go figure. 

A Recital, a Rendezvous, and Rambunctious Rascals

The boys just had their first official piano recital.  Reagan played the Indiana Jones theme, thus the hat.  Cade played the Star Wars theme, but he couldn’t hold a light saber AND play the piano at the same time so we left the weapon at home.


Here are their songs:
Reagan – Indiana Jones:
Reagan – Iron Man:
Cade – Star Wars:
Cade – Princess Leia’s Theme:
They did well and I’m so proud of all their hard work.  They both really enjoy playing the piano.  Cade often plays just for fun.
Rock and I recently went on a little getaway to a bed and breakfast up in the foothills of Boise.  We slept in, read as much as we could, gorged ourselves on Lindor Chocolate truffles, and ate at several of the fabulous restaurants in down town Boise we’ve been wanting to try.  My favorite part, though, was the bike ride along the Boise River.  The Greenbelt is beautiful! 



Just the other day I caught these crazy characters on film.  They were trying to get the sand off the trampoline.

 
In other news, Cade recently earned his Wolf badge and Reagan earned his Webelos badge.  They put the pin on me, but really it was Rock that did all the work with them. 

Life is good here at the Hymas house.  We are just about to finish up school and take a break for a month or so.  We have lots of exciting things happening this summer.  Stay tuned!

Mean Green Mowin Machine

Look who learned to mow the lawn this week!!


He had such a good time and was so proud of himself, he went next door and mowed the neighbor's lawn too!  Of course, he was really excited when we taught him how to clean toilets too.  That didn’t last long.
Life is good!  Libby is potty trained and Reagan can mow the lawn!  I think we’ll teach Levi how to do the laundry next week!!

Done with Diapers!??

The question marks above denote my indecision on future children, however the exclamation mark denotes Liberty’s decision to be done with diapers.  I’m tellin ya, stopping cold turkey and going straight into underwear is the only way to go.  It’s messy for a day or two, but they figure it out so much quicker!  I did the pull up thing with the first two and this way was much faster. 



She graduated to PINK underwear once she got #1 AND #2 mastered. 

Yay for pink underwear and Yay for Liberty!!!

Dumbledore Dies

Kids grow up.  I’ve always known they do that, but I still don’t want it to happen.  In my heart I want them to be the chubby faced little three year old forever.  But they will grow up whether mom wants them to or not.  Tonight Reagan went through one of those rites of passage that tell you your child is growing up.  He finished the sixth Harry Potter.  For those of you who have read this series, you will understand why that is significant.  To those who haven’t, all I can say is, Read the Book!  Reagan read until way past his bedtime but we let him because you can’t put a Harry Potter down in the last three chapters.  I knew it would be hard for him to read of Dumbledore’s demise, and so I nervously waited to see how he’d react.  I peeked in on him as he was reading and sure enough there were some sniffles and his cheeks and eyes were red.  And then I left him to finish, my heart breaking for him.  It was silly of me, to feel such anguish but I couldn’t help it.  This was the first time he’s read a book on his own in which one of the most beloved characters dies.  He really struggled when I read them Where the Red Fern Grows, and that’s a relatively short book.  He only had a few hundred pages to love those dogs.  But he’s been friends with Dumbledore for thousands of pages now. 

It’s hard to read about death.  Especially in our day and age where most kids don’t deal with it on a daily basis like they did hundreds of years ago.  It’s a hard thing, learning to deal with the harsh realities of life.  And for most kids today, one of the first times they do that is by losing a loved one in a book.  We’ve all felt that pain.  It changes you.  Matures you.  Tonight I had to relive that through the eyes and heart of my child.  He was very quiet when he came downstairs to say goodnight.  We just sat together hugging each other for a while.  He didn’t want to talk about it, which is significant for Reagan.  I told him that I cried when I read the book and I was an adult.  I don’t think that made him feel better.   He went to bed and I actually think he cried himself to sleep.  In the cover of darkness he could let his tears out onto his pillow.  Much better to do it that way than with Mom I guess.  I can’t wait for him to finish book #7 and experience the joy of triumph when Harry vanquishes his foes.  And knowing he will get that sweet reward almost makes tonight a little easier to bear.  But it’s still hard, this growing up. For moms too.