Olympic Linky

Ok, I am big gymnastic fan.  I loved this promo for gymnastics. 

10 Career Lessons You Learn From Competitive Swimming

17 Photos That Prove That Synchronized Swimming is Kind of Insane

Garnet Ghost Town

On our road trip, we had a chance to visit Garnet Ghost Town. This well preserved gold mining town is set 11 miles off the road.  We had a chance to visit. We stopped at the many pullouts along the road with historical information.  We stopped to visit these miners graves and pay our respects. There is also a geocache here.

My favorite building was the hotel.  It must of been pretty grand in its time.

Of course, no stop would be complete without a pose with a honeypot.  This was a deluxe 2 seater to boot.

Happy Birthday to C and C

This is one of my most favorite pictures that I have of my Mom and my oldest Son.  Today is my Mom's birthday and tomorrow is my son's 18th birthday.  Interesting fact:  My mom had only girls and only has grandson's

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to you both !!!

What I Learned July

SINGLE PARENTING

My husband was gone about 4 weeks between June and July.  I don't enjoy parenting alone.  It is HARD even though my kids are teenagers.  I found myself frequently at the end of my rope and my kids behaved pretty decently.  Parenting is WORK and two male teenagers equal gross. I love them though.

BOOMER PHELPS

Did you know Michael Phelps, Olympic swimmer, has a baby and he has his own Instagram account(@boomerrphelps)? You so got to check it out.  It is so sweet.

MONTANA HAS 130 LICENSE PLATE OPTIONS

We were on a road trip to Montana and were playing the license plate game.  Anyone else play the license plate game on road trips? I noticed that Montana has a lot of license plates. Evidently, they have about  130 different choices. 

HYDRANGEAS

photo by AB

Thanks to the Princess of Quite A LOT I have noticed Hydrangeas everywhere. She has been noticing all the different colors and experimenting with watering her mother's hydrangeas with different things. Love this article - 13 Facts about Hydrangeas.

Route of the Hiawatha

I finally got a chance to check this off my travel bucket list.  We rode bikes on the Route of Hiawatha.

 

The Boys

The Route of the Hiawatha is a rail trail on the Idaho/Montana border.  The trail travels over 7 trestles and through 9 tunnels.

trestle we rode over

The longest tunnel is the first tunnel, Taft Tunnel, is 1.7 miles. The length of the trail we traveled was 15 miles.

The boys after the Taft Tunnel

Me after riding through Taft Tunnel
This is a wet tunnel

Waterfall outside Taft Tunnel

The Route of the Hiawatha is a 2% grade and downhill. A shuttle is available down at the bottom and will take you back to the top tunnel to ride back to your car. We did see people start at the bottom and ride both ways.

view of top of one of the trestles

We rented our bikes at Lookout Pass exit 0.  The staff was awesome there.  If you rent a bike it comes with a light and helmet.  They also provide bike racks.  We brought our own bike rack. You drive to exit 5 and drive to trail head.

We had some opportunities to see some really well fed chipmunks on the trail.  We also saw 2 deer crossing the trail.

This was a fabulous adventure and we saw all kinds of people using the trail.  This was a great family experience.

Plant Change of Scenery

My African Violets have been blooming like crazy.  I have them in my bathroom.  I decided I needed to move them downstairs so everyone could enjoy them. Violets is something my grandmother always had in her house. She had the magic touch with them.  I don't have quite the same touch but I do enjoy them.

I moved out the Christmas cacti.  I have 6 of those but they aren't currently blooming  so I moved them upstairs.

HEY EVEN PLANTS NEED A CHANGE OF SCENERY!  That is my story and I am sticking to it. YES, I am the crazy plant lady.

I think it makes the space seem less cluttered.

Summer Linky

We just rode the Route of the Hiawatha so that is why I included the ad.  It was amazing.  So be looking for a blog post all about it.

When Conversion is Slow - This is from Emily Freeman's Blog - Chatting at the Sky.  This is what I needed to hear right now, right now.

10 Insights of Remarkable Parents from Family Therapists - I say #1 frequently but I need to remember #6.

Teacher at Mt Blue Uses Engineer and Design Principles in English Class - One of my English Teacher friends posted this on Facebook and I just found it fascinating.

Badass Librarians Foil al Queda, Save Ancient Manuscripts - real life adventure story