Bogus Basin

Here are some pictures from our hike at Bogus Basin; it's kind of funny, because Bogus Basin is generally known as a place to ski in the winter, but it was absolutely beautiful in the fall.

 Camille, sitting on her 'nature rock' with her 'nature stick.'

It was quite funny; the hike down was easy and really fun. The way back? Not so much. Idaho is comprised of hills. So we zig-zagged down the hill, but zig-zagging up takes three times as long.

The Ruins of Gorlan, by John Flanagan

This book is the first in the Ranger's Apprentice series.

Will, who was orphaned as a baby and left on the steps of the Castle Redmont, has now turned 15 along with four other orphans and now must choose a trade to work in. However, none of the trade masters want him as an apprentice for various reason; too small, too impatient, etc. etc.
Just before Will is certain that he is going to be left with a life in the fields, Halt, a ranger, takes him in as his apprentice.
Will is not sure of this at all. Ranger's are mysterious men, and their job is rather unclear to Will until he begins to learn.
Ranger's are almost like spies, as well as messengers and law-keepers. As the battle with Morgarath, the evil man who has been in hiding in the hills and building up his army, approaches, Halt teaches Will everything he knows.
Will also gets pulled into an unexpected adventure as he and Halt track down several savage creatures in order to save the kingdom.

I listened to this as an audio, and did not really care for the narrator very much. His voices are alright, but his narration in between the dialogue is rather boring.
There also is something about the authors writing style that was not my favorite. Maybe it is slight wordiness; for example, 'Alyss said, "Now can't we work this out without a fight?" Will knew she would say this; she was being diplomatic, as usual.' I just did not like the way they presented the characters in the beginning, because all of them said things that Will knew was 'usual,' making every character very very defined. I don't like that he pointed out that Alyss was being diplomatic, because just by her saying 'Can't we work this out without a fight' tells us that she is diplomatic without the author telling us so.
Other than that, the story was great and very original. I really do think the second book was better, though.

The Sea and the Sky

Part of this was in the story I am writing, Moment of Truth. But I liked it so much I decided to complete it a little more.

Does the Sky spill into the Sea? Or is the Sea the Sky?
I guess we will never know until we sail to the ends of the earth to find where they meet.
Until then, if the sky and the sea really are the same, we are somewhere in the middle.

Just so you know, this is a real place; it's Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat in the world.

The Castle Corona, by Sharon Creech

After a thief has been spotted, the entire castle and royal household is in an uproar trying to figure out what was stolen.
Meanwhile, down in the village, two orphans see the thief drop something. A leather pouch. The contents are strange, and don't seem to be anything of value. But they know it is important.

This book is one of my all-time favorites! A wonderful mystery, with funny characters and wonderful main characters. I have listened to the audio countless times; the audio is twice as good as the book. Jennifer Wiltsie, the narrator, does fantastic voices, and has a wonderful voice in between all the dialogue.
The ending to the story is very satisfying; my only problem with the book is there were several awesome characters that did not come into the story as much as I wanted them to.
I can not sing of the praises of this book enough!

Applesauce!!!!

Sadly, we did not make it to the orchard this year. sniff.
But, Mom did contact a lady that had loads of apples for sale. Rather imperfect apples, but still good apples for canning. So Mom bought a hundred pounds for applesauce.
This is our third year making applesauce and we have a pretty good process down. One person cranks the peeler corer slicer, one person cuts the rings into slices, and one person (always my mom) throws all the sugar and spices into the pot and makes sure the stuff gets cooked down far enough. Mom also did all the actual canning, while Camille and I really only helped with the preparation of the apples, which is a lot of it.
 The apple peeler corer slicer tool really is the handiest thing to have around. I would never, ever, ever, recommend canning without one.

All of us hard at work; in all, we made 6 gallons of applesauce! And not just any applesauce; our applesauce is more like apple pie filling!

A Door in the Wall, by Marguerite De Angeli

Robin, recently crippled by some unknown disease, has been abandoned by his nurse after his father goes off to war and his mother has gone to serve the queen. However, a monk happens upon him and takes him to live at the monastery where he learns that even without the use of his legs, he is not useless. He learns to get around on crutches and turns out to be an incredible swimmer and carver.
The story ends with Robin using his abilities to save the kingdom in a very sweet ending.

The book was a little slow, but was a very cute story using the analogy that God will always open up a new door upon shutting another. I liked how the author made the dialogue rather easy to read but still has an old English feel, using thees and thous in an understandable way, rather unlike Howard Pyle, who is rather hard to understand and whose sentences are not easy to picture in an everyday situation.

Renaissance Faire

We were asked by Phyllis, our former driving teacher, to come out to Emmet to help her out with carriage rides at the Renaissance Faire. She sometimes needs someone to hang on to the horses while they load and unload the carriage.
Sadly, we could not really help out the day she did the carriage rides, because the ball was that day. But we did go on Sunday, and she was there with her Gypsy Vanners.
Gypsy Vanners are a breed of draft horse that used to pull the carriages of the gypsies. Today, they are rather rare, but are becoming more popular because of their beauty. They are high upkeep horses with all their hair, though!
Phyllis has two Gypsy Vanners, Blue and Orion. They are both beautiful and have amazing temperaments. Because they are drafts, they are rather slow to spook, and rather slow at a lot of things! Both pull carriages, although Orion is still in training, and both can be ridden sidesaddle.
Jousting was a most exciting event to watch. Before it started, Blue pulled the carriage for the King and Queen, where, upon arriving, they took the best seats before the jousting began.
I got lots of fun ideas for our own horses, (not necessarily jousting; that would not fly with either of our horses!) but other ideas. There was one event in which the rider canters, or gallops, with a spear and tries to stab a cabbage on the ground. They did this same thing also with the cabbage on a pole anchored to the ground. Sort of like jousting, just not at an opponent.
There were all kinds of fun things to look at, although it was not really a reenactment  because there so many vendors tried to sell you their cheap imitations of medieval clothing. Many people come dressed up in what they consider appropriate clothing, but it looks more like stuff out of an old Disney movie like Sleeping Beauty.
One person rehabilitated birds, and displayed her falcons and even an owl to the public. Sword fighting was also fun to watch, and one lady had real reproductions of some of the clothing they would have had during the Renaissance.
One thing that I thought was interesting was no one could really identify what time period everyone altogether was representing. The lady in the tent said according to everyone, it was 1200 to 1600! So, not altogether organized, but still fun nonetheless.
My favorite part was definitely the jousting. The jousters did an excellent job, and really knew their stuff and were quite good at it.

 Jousting

 A lady jouster!

A giant chessboard with...faeries and gnomes.

 An owl

 A kestrel

 Sword fighting (not real swords!)

 Dress from the Renaissance

Us girls with the King and Queen!

Sagehen Reservoir, Day 4

Everyone was a bit tired from the hike yesterday, so everyone sort of lounged around for quite a while. Playing games and drinking hot chocolate, we sort of hung out in the trailer because it was a bit chilly outside. After getting sick of Bananagrams, we decided to take a quick hike up to the waterfall with Mrs. K because she hadn't seen it the last time. Mom and Dad and Megan stayed behind for various reasons, so the rest of us set off.
After arriving at the trail head and only getting about 20 steps into the forest, Benji, who had just had his leash removed, decided that he didn't want to go for a hike. So he ran back to the trailer. But we didn't know that, so Kaitie and I walked all the way back to the trailer. Everyone else waited for us, but by the time we had caught up with him we decided we didn't really want to go all the way back. Because everyone else was waiting for us, we went ahead and started to walk back.
We hadn't gone very far (about halfway to the trail head) when we met up with everyone else, who were walking back. They explained that while waiting for us, they were assaulted by wasps and Mr. K, Mrs. K, and Jo had all gotten several stings. That dampened their spirits, so they headed back. I don't know how Camille wasn't stung.
So we never really went on the hike.
The campground pickup was really quick, as all our stuff was in the trailer, so we made it out of there pretty quickly. It was rather strange, because the other campers around us left really early, so by the time we left it was deserted.

 I love this picture! Mom looks so excited about her word.

 Mr. K on his banana phone

 Jojo on his banana phone

 Dad with his fish that is actually quite small

 Jojo after getting stung (poor guy)

Sagehen Reservoir, Day 3

The third day was the best! Everyone, (well, almost everyone) went on the 4 mile hike around the reservoir. It was really fun, especially the first part where it went up and down, and twisted all around. The second part, after crossing the dam, was quite flat and straight.
Us kids kept pulling ahead. We weren't really trying to, but I think we walked a little faster and when we came to a hill we would run down it. There was a particularly large slope, so we ran all the way down; it took the adults quite a few minutes to pick their way down. So we would go up ahead quite a ways, then wait for the adults to catch up.
About halfway, we came to this really large boulder where we all climbed up and waited for the adults to catch up. It was fun, sitting on the very edge looking out over the water. We even saw a heron fly back and forth over the water, looking quite lost.
When the adults caught up, we all sat on the boulder and had snacks and drinks and licorice.
It rained a little that night, but not enough to keep us away from the fire. We sang hymns and stayed up rather late.

 I don't know why this picture is so cool to me

 Dad being....Dad

 I really like this picture

Sagehen Reservoir, Day 2

On the second day, after having slept well (and slept in), the day started out pretty great. It was really, really cold outside, but it warmed up quick.
We all went for a short hike up to a small waterfall (and I mean really short; like less than a mile there and then back again). It was really pretty; the trees grew a little closer together and it was a little greener.
Sadly, right at the end of the hike, just before turning around, Camille got stung by a wasp.

 A cool rock

 Note: all these pictures were not taken by me!

Sagehen Reservoir, Day 1

Our friends and us all have been planning this camping trip for quite a while, and this time we both had enough time to borrow trailers from our friends.
The ride up was interesting....miles and miles of sagebrush for a really  long time, until all of a sudden you enter the woods.
The first thing that surprised us (well, it didn't surprise Dad, but I wasn't expecting it) was that fact that the reservoir was really low, and I mean really low! So low that it left this huge plain of mud where the bottom of the reservoir usually is.
The second thing that threw us totally off guard was that the reservoir was surrounded by cattle! Not penned in or anything...that's just Idaho for you! Camille and Kaitie got a chance to chase them off; they seemed quite bothered by us and avoided us the entire time.
After getting set up, Kaitie, Camille, Mr. K, Jojo, Seth, and Dad all went down to the reservoir. Dad and Jo tried to fish, but Dad commented that he thought the reservoir was pretty much empty and that whoever caught a fish should call in and win a prize.
While Jo and Dad fished, Kaitie, Seth, and I all threw a frisbee around in the mud. The mud was so deep that if you stand in it too long, you'll sink! Running in it was no easy task, but it was quite fun, and it turned into a mud fight. I wish we had saved it for the last day, when we were already dirty!
That night we roasted marshmallows and just sat around.
Sleeping in a trailer was so nice! Everyone kept saying they didn't sleep, but I slept well every night.

 The mud pit

 Trying to rinse off all the mud

 Here is a good picture that shows how deep the mud was

 Throwing the frisbee around in the mud (or trying to)

 One thing that was weird about Sagehen was that down by the creek, there were literally thousands of puny little frogs about the size of your pinky nail. Here is Mrs. K with a little bit larger one.

The Thief Lord, by Cornelia Funke

Bo and Prosper have run away from their aunt, who wants to separate them, and are now in Venice, Italy.  They are accepted by a small band of children, all runaways, who are all taken care of by a boy named Scipio, the Thief Lord. None of the children know anything about the Thief Lord, who gives them stolen items to sell.
They are quite happy in the short time that they live in the small abandoned movie theater, but soon discover that a detective has been hired to find Prosper and Bo. Their lives are turned upside down as they work to escape from him, and also as they work to help Scipio in his plans to break into a house. The job is risky, but the mysterious Conte who has hired them offers much in reward.

I don't think I cared for this book that much, but I did like the first part of the book; however, I didn't like that there was magic in the second half of the book, because it was the real world until the author added that. The ending was alright, but some of it made me sad.
Scipio has no regard for his parents, and doesn't really seem content with any of his real life, which makes me angry. He reminds me of Peter Pan; however, because Scipio lives in the real world, it just made him sound immature.
The rest of the children I really loved, because they all took care of and watched out for each other.