"Build me a workbench Papa..."

Months and months ago Jeremiah and Papa talked about how he Jeremiah needed his own workbench. Each time we worked on a project around the house, he would remind us that his Papa was going to build him a workbench. Well, yesterday afternoon Papa and all his tools came over. They worked out in the rain and sunshine all day. Papa had Jeremiah do all the measuring, marking, and he even had him put in just about every screw involved. Jeremiah loved it! He kept saying that he "loved loud noises", meaning each time Papa fired up the saw and cut into the wood. At the end of all the saw dust and wood scraps, Jeremiah has one of the coolest workbenches a kid could ever ask for.

The first thing Jeremiah did this morning after getting dressed was head out to do some "work".

I hung around to help out with some of the heavy lifting and I was talking to my dad about the memories I have as a kid working in my Papa's shop. Aaron and I used to "build" all kinds of things. Often, we would not only bend lots of nails, but we usually managed to bend a thumb or two as we hammered! I hope that Jeremiah will have lots and lots of memories "working" with his papa and daddy over the next years.

Summer happenings...

Here's some random pictures and happening from the last bit of the month:

We've had a busy summer around our house. Although we haven't traveled too much, the kids and I have been staying busy at home. They have been having a blast running through the sprinklers in the backyard, almost everyday.

We've been able to enjoy the views from our house to watch all the lightening and thunderstorms we've been having. One day I was able to catch on camera a fire that was started by the lightening across the hill from us.

I picked our first squash from our garden last week and attempted to bake and eat it....unfortunately it was horrible tasting! It sure looked pretty though.

Hosanna is growing so fast...can't believe she'll be one next month!

This morning the kids were playing outside. I thought they were being very quiet, so I decided to check on them. When I peeked out the window, I could see that they had found a roll of duct tape and they were "fixing" things for me. One of the things they fixed was a petrified wood piece on the side of the house. Jeremiah informed me that it was like a spiderweb, only it would catch all the deers! Gotta love 'em!

Home-Grown...

I decided that this year I would plant a veggie and fruit garden. Well....after pulling weeds, building fence, watering, watching and waiting...the kids and I pulled our first carrot today! It was probably a little early, but I couldn't help it! The kids thought it was so cool and they immediately wanted to eat it. I told them we would clean it up and show it to Daddy first.

I hate goodbyes...

We had to say good-bye to our dear friends the Millers last week. They are following God's lead and moving back to Klamath Falls. Angie came over with Teagan, Blake, Penelope and her mom(Angie's) for some fun and popcicles. We will miss them all and are totally bummed about them leaving.....but it's a great thing that God is in control and he knows best! Hopefully we will get to see them soon....we didn't get to say "bye" to Stan...sooo...Stan, have fun in school!

As I look back and think about how we were able to have these great friends, it's amazing to me how great God works. A little over two years ago, John was working for Charter and he came home with piece of paper that had this couple's phone numbers on it. He came in and said, "Honey, I met this really great lady today and she and her husband are christians, they are nice, they have kids and you should call her and get together!" He's crazy....that's what I was thinking. See, John has done this before and the people end up being weird, strange or crazy! I left the paper on the counter for about a week and he bugged me everyday to call.....so, finally I did. Angie anwsered and I pretty much started apologizing for my strange husband and trying to convince her that we weren't these weird radical people. After we laughed a while I had learned that they moved to Hermiston for a job Stan took and that they were indeed normal, nice Christian people! I took the kids over to there house that week and we have spent time together ever since. The other great thing about the whole situation is that our friends Dan and Natalie Alanis also started hanging out with us and even had their own, round-about-connection to Stan and Angie because of some mutal friends in K-Falls. Anyway, the guys will miss their hunting, fishing and of course, fight nights! And us ladies will miss the mommie talk, laughs and fun. Our kids love each other and hopefully can still have a lifelong friendship. In the end, it's great to know that we all love, believe and trust in the same great God, who someday will bring us all back together to live forever someday.....love ya Millers.
The Thorndikes


PENELOPE.....SO CUTE!


TEAGAN, BLAKE, COLE, ALISON, JEREMIAH, CALI

CALI, PUNKY and ALI

Famliy vacation...

We enjoyed a weekend of rodeoing, roughin' it (sorta) and good friends. John worked a couple days at the Chief Joseph Days up near Wallowa Lake so we took the family and had some fun! Our good friends the Alanis's were there with all there family and so the kids (and the adults) had fun doing all we could in the weekend. We went to the rodeo, swam, played mini-golf, ate ice cream, went go-carting, rode horses, watched a parade and played at the campsite. It was so fun....but sooooo long!

Catching up...

So here are a few pics of the last week or so, I finally was able to download them safely!

Lessons learned...

Well, sorry to start off on a sad note....but we experienced a tragedy in our lives this last month. Our old-faithful computer crashed....the worst part is that it got a terrible virus that ate ALL our pictures from the last 6-8 months. I had been trying to burn the pics onto discs over the last couple of weeks, but the icky virus had already damaged my burner and I wasn't able to save anything. The lesson learned...never trust your computer to keep anything safe....burn important memories to disc ALWAYS! So, sadly, I have not one picture to share with you all at this time. If anybody wants to send us pics of our family that you may have taken over the last months, that would be awesome! Just email me or send them snail mail.

On a happier note, we are all healthy and doing well. We had to replace our old A/C unit because it broke a few weeks ago...our new heat pump is very nice and very efficient. We were able to spend a whole week with John's brother Josh and his wife Meghan and there kiddos Kaitlin and Zach. The kids had a good time with their cousins.
The new bun in the oven is doing well...things are healthy and growing great so far!
We are looking forward to a couple of camping trips coming up soon and well as school starting in a little over a month.

Let us know how you all are! We love you!