SMITH'S IDAHO INSTALLMENTS: September 2015

Tuesday, September 29, 2015

Fat Lip

Today I went to the dermatologist and had a white patch on my lower lip ... pre cancerous - so zipped with the freeze stuff - it hurt!

Dad wanted to have a close up - gross, huh? It will take about two weeks to heal..hopefully before Millie's blessing!

Saturday, September 26, 2015

Another photo of the lined up runners waiting for the start. It was the first time this group put on a race and it showed - everyone was patient because of the awesome cause but it got a little annoying. They had to enter all the racers numbers in their computer - oh well!

Here is Sydney at the start - second orange cone back - putting her hair up!

The race course went right by the Rexburg Temple - so pretty.

Here is Sydney past the four mile mark - the signature red face of a family runner - she said her right knee was hurting but she wanted to continue. We drove down to the next corner and waited ... and waited and waited - realizing that she should have run by us we drove back - at about the 6 mile mark she had hurt her hip and was limping along! We gathered her into the car and drove to her apartment. She wasn't too disappointed just happy to have a ride home! Here is her kitten Pippin and her roommates dog Evea - they are getting to be friends.

Jordan's room - she had been studying - what a girl!

We took them both out to lunch at a fun BBQ place - The Hickory. Notice the brace on Sydney's right knee - hope she heals well and quickly! Such fun to be with family, any chance we get.

Rexburg Race

We drove to Rexburg early this morning to support Sydney in her second Half Marathon - isn't she pretty? We love it! We learned so much about the wonderful organization that this race for a fundraiser for - Operation Underground Railroad - O U R. Break the Chain - it rescues children from trafficking world wide.

This is Jacob somebody - he is the Financial office for the non profit - it is only 18 months old and has already rescued over 300 children. Average age 12 - 13 - as young as 9 and older to 19. He told us there more slaves in the world today than at any time in history! They have what they call "Jump Teams" that actually go to a country and conduct a rescue. They work with the local government - the Jump Team is mostly former FBI, CIA and Navy Seals - pretty impressive! Our team does the work and then the local government does the arresting and prosecuting - they have video of the whole operation so the children never have to appear in court or testify - the video is hard evidence!! they have a movie - The Abolonist? I want to see it.

They have recovery places for the children to go for rehab and healing - all around the world. Some can not go back to their family because their family are the ones who sold them into slavery - sigh. It takes about $2,000 a child for a rescue. He said he had done a few of these fundraisers and this was the most people he had every had at one - yay Rexburg!

Another view of the park and all the runners.

They were 30 minutes late at the start - but everyone was patient - beautiful day.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Squirrel and seeds

Dad brought one of the big sunflower heads to our deck - put it out to dry the seeds. One of our local squirrels found it and was having a wonderful 'free lunch'!

See how many seeds that squirrel ate in a few minutes!!

I got this close before it would give up the prize!! funny squirrel.

Making Applesauce

There are two apple trees at the Mortensen's house. Dad picked all the apples and today we made applesauce. Here is Dad at the corer and peeler things working hard.

Here are the apples - just a few worm holes - Dad caught them out!

Dad put the apple slices in a pan and I cooked them 15 minutes - then put them in the blender and - hooray - applesauce! We are going to freeze it in these containers since we don't have a canner.

We didn't add any sugar, but Dad asked me if we could put some cinnamon in one - and I remembered reading somewhere that you put Red Hots in - so I got online and sure enough - so we did!

Here's the final result - the pink and red are the Red Hots one - they all taste amazing! We are pretty proud of ourselves - you may get some for Christmas!!

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Beautiful Visitors and Sunset

Beautiful Sydney and Jordan came to Pocatello Saturday for a Costco run! They brought Dad the jar of Cashews for his birthday - yummy! We had the privilege of feeding them lunch and sharing an hour or so of their busy, fun lives. So happy to have them both in Rexburg for this term, and only this term!

We had a beautiful sunset the other night - funny - Mortensen's noticed it from their house and Joel posted a picture of it on fb - what a pretty world we live in.

Williams Wall

Here is the wonderful Williams Wall - they worked so hard on and had the help of family (Chris K.) and good friends and neighbors ... it looks great.

We stopped by on our way back to Idaho and took pictures - Dad's idea! So much work and it looks so good.... grass coming - stay tuned!

From the other side. They are going to place fencing on top to provide more privacy and security - we hope we can help at some point - maybe another family sod laying party?