The Miller Memoirs

A SUMMER AT A GLANCE

June 11, 2008~HAILEY'S BIRTHDAY

We spent Hailey's birthday at the cabin with Bryan's family. We had so much fun riding four wheelers, climbing the tree house, and eating lots of food!

June 11-June 15, 2008~FAMILY CONFERENCE

One of my girl's favorite things to do is to swing!

Grandma and Grandpa with all the grand kids!

Grandma and the girls!

June 28, 2008

Family Featherville Trip

We love to go to Featherville every chance we get! We feel so blessed to be able to go to the cabin, and spend some quality time as a family. Every time we go we have endless hours of fun playing in the streams, and four wheeling around the ranch!

Amber and daddy getting ready to go through the tube at the culvert! I never caught a picture of Amber doing it by herself ...I always remembered my camera as she was going through with daddy.

Amber and Daddy coming out of the tube on the other side.

Hailey swimming in the culvert.

Amber and Hailey thought it was so funny to see how much mud they could cake on themselves after playing in the water!

Hailey and Amber posing with muddy hands!

After swimming for many hours in the culvert, my girls had some more fun swimming in the stream.

Amber running through the water!

The three of us posing for a picture!

The three of us posing some more!

Jacob and Daddy were the ones catching the girls on photo...they decided that it was time to catch them in action as well. (Bryan taking a photo of himself and Jakey.)

June 18, 2008~JACKSON HOLE

We went to Jackson with my mom to get fireworks for the 4th of July, and we decided since we were there we should enjoy what Jackson had to offer. Our first stop, was at the Jackson Stagecoach Company. We went on a stagecoach ride around the metropolis of Jackson Hole, Wyoming--my girls had a fabulous time!

Our second stop was the Alpine Slide! We got to ride on the ski lift to the top of the mountain, and then slide down on the mountain! We had so much fun that we wanted to do it again, but our pocketbook couldn't handle the cost.

Here is Piper (Hailey's cousin and best friend) getting ready for her big slide. She was a bit nervous!

Here is Hailey preparing for launch! Hailey and Piper were very careful the whole way down-Amber and I had to keep encouraging them to go faster.

Amber was so excited to be riding with me! She had no fears! She kept insistently begging me to drive faster and faster! It got really hard to go faster when there were two sweet kids in front of us without similar motives. Amber let them know they were going too slow.

July 1, 2008~LAGOON

Every summer it is a tradition to go to Lagoon with Bryan's family. This summer was no exception. We had such a great time with our family!

Jacob on his first ride!! We weren't sure how he would handle the rides, but by the time the day was over, he was having a fabulous time!

Hailey and Amber on the swings!

Jacob and Hailey on the little cars.(Hailey humored us by going on the "kiddie rides", so that we could have some good quality "family time".) She was really excited to finally get on some of the "big kids rides".

Ava Mae on the planes!

Hailey, Jacob, and Amber on the planes!

I finally took a break with Hailey, and we went on the "big kid" swings!

Jacob and Daddy!

We arrived at Lagoon as the doors opened , and we left as the doors closed. We even spent some of our time at Lagoona Beach soaking up some sun. So, as this picture depicts, Amber had a right to be extremely tired! We started our drive home around 10:30 p.m., and we didn't arrive in Boise until 4 a.m. (We had to stop and sleep on the way.)

July 8, 2008~HAILEY DONATES TO LOCKS OF LOVE

Hailey really wanted to donate her hair to locks of love. She had been talking about it for a while. She had a friend in preschool who had alopecia, and I think she had always thought that someday she would donate to help her friend. I wasn't as sure as Hailey was about donating, but I am so grateful to Hailey for her sweet example, and her willingness to serve! She is such a special girl!

This is how Hailey's hair looked before the big cut! The hair dresser kept measuring over and over again, because she wanted to make sure she wasn't cutting more than she needed to cut. I was grateful!

This is right before Hailey's hair was cut. The hairdresser had to put Hailey's hair in a ponytail in order to cut it. (Hailey was really excited the whole time!)

Here is a picture of how Hailey's hair looked after she was all done! Hailey was excited the entire time! She was really happy that she was sharing something with someone else. I can't say that I was entirely tear free the whole time, but I was proud of her!

July 25, 2008~Cabin

Our favorite thing to do during the summer is to go to the cabin. Every once in awhile we get a chance to invite others to enjoy in our blessings. This summer we were able to invite the Pruett family to the cabin. We had a great time! We feel so blessed to have so many great friends!

Amber, and Brooklyn always wanted to ride together, so poor Vaughn got to take a lot of kids with him on the four wheeler. It was fun to see Brooklyn and Amber being such great friends!

Heather and I cruising the ranch!

Amber, Brooklyn, Jackson, Jacob, and Hailey posing for a picture!

August 8, 2008~Kids Triathlon

Both of our girls really wanted to compete in the kids triathlon held in Emmett, Idaho. We heard about it at swimming lessons, and as soon as our girls caught wind of it...they really wanted to compete. We were not so sure Amber would be able to compete, but she was extremely insistent that she was capable, and after several begging sessions--we conceded and allowed her to enter. They swam 25 meters, rode a bike for .75 miles, and ran for .5 miles. We were so proud of them both for simply finishing the race.

This was a picture taken right before they were about to swim 25 meters. It was so fun to see both of our girls excel in this area! They had each kid jump in the water one at a time, and then they would allow the next kid to proceed when the first kid had a head start in the pool. When it was Hailey's turn to swim, she caught up to the little boy who had jumped in prior, and almost passed him. When it was Amber's turn, all the life guards were ready to jump in to help (they kept commenting on how little she was), but Amber did fantastic! She swam like a pro!

This was a picture taken after the girls had finished the race. They both got little medals, which was extremely exciting!