Chess Mania

This is a frequent scene in our home lately- boys playing chess.  Ethan's school has a before-school chess club open to any interested student.  And since I'm helping organize the clubs with the PTA this year, I'm planning to let Ethan join a few.  He's doing a science club for October and November and then he can start the Chess club in December.  When he heard this, he asked his dad to teach him how to play and he hasn't stop begging for more since.  He'll even play with Isaac and Miles if Taylor or I are busy.  Not much competition but they enjoy playing together.  Sadly Miles is usually the 3rd wheel but he likes to watch (and occasionally steal a piece and run away:).

Go Tigers!

Ethan and Isaac's soccer games have overlapped every single Saturday this fall so I've gotten to see a lot of Ethan playing but none of Isaac.  Thankfully another kind parent sent Taylor these amazing shots.

Taylor in the Tiger huddle.  He's pretty funny with the 4 year olds.  Sometimes they cheer Tigers roar but sometimes it's Tiger Squeak or Tigers woof or something.  Just keeping the game fun he says.

Just before play starts Taylor has them all point in the direction they'll be going just to remind themselves.

And Isaac gets into it a little much.  Love his rock and roll point!

And at the end he makes all the parents stand up and help do a victory tunnel- even inviting the other team's kids if they want.

He's still working on them going one way instead of coming back through and having head on collisions.

Isaac LOVES soccer!  He seriously cannot get enough of it.  Maybe it's getting to play with friends.  Maybe it's having some good dad time.  Maybe he really likes the game.  Who knows!  Maybe it's all of that and more.  But he sure does look happy!

We Love the new hotel!

One of the reasons for going up to Idaho Falls was to see the amazing potato harvest but another was of course to check out all the work Taylor has helped to oversee at the hotel.  It's pretty amazing.

The pool was of course a hit with the boys and since the hotel is barely open we had it all to ourselves.

The boys couldn't wait to be thrown around by Taylor.  (LOVE my camera that can actually take action shots now!!!)

See!  How amazing is that one.

And that big grinning boy!

Taylor always laughs when he takes us to see his family's projects because my first reaction is to always tell him the dangerous design elements that will probably get them sued.  So here they built a giant 18 person hot tub just above the pool.  That's fine but of course my boys instantly wanted to use the side as a diving board and the pool isn't deep enough.  And even if it was, they built a sitting bench along the bottom of the hot tub with the water fall- so it's extra shallow there.  I spent most of our time there telling kids to stop climbing on the wall and stop jumping into the pool.  What can I say?  I'm a mom!

See- Miles thinks he's sneaky and since I have a camera in my face I must not be watching.

Isla slept on the side of the pool for a while and then got in when she woke up.  The boys were still begging for dad's attention but sadly Isla trumps them all.

After the pool we settled down in jammies and played chess.  This is Ethan's new obsession and amazingly given the choice of TV or the Wii or playing a game of chess, he chooses chess.

Isaac and Miles... not so much.  They much prefer Disney Jr. and popcorn in bed.

Next time we go up I think we'll try to stay longer and see more things.  The hotel is right by the falls downtown and we didn't even take a walk to see them.  Just too tuckered out.  Saturday morning we got up really early to drive back for soccer games- and because Isla had woken us up every 2 hours with her talking.

Hanging with the Walkers

After almost 5 hours of touring the fields we headed over to the Walker's home for a BBQ they'd prepared.  They were so thoughtful and had stocked their SUV's with drinks and snacks and candy so the boys weren't really interested in food.  But since this house and yard are way over the top, the boys didn't mind just exploring while we all ate.

Seriously- a covered basketball arena complete with trampoline.

And scooters to ride around on the court.

This was Taylor's favorite- a yoga ball hung on a monster tree.

Miles enjoyed just running around with it.
And of course there was a giant treehouse.

Complete with giant slide.

Isaac begged me to put him on the ball and push and he spent the rest of the afternoon laughing his head off and trying to keep his legs wrapped around the top.  Such a fun afternoon!

All About the Taters

Taylor has been working on a hotel project with his work for almost the past 2 years.  It's up in Idaho Falls and has finally finished up.  His family's company is partnering with another family up there who has several businesses.  Their original business was in growing potatoes (it is Idaho after all:) and since Taylor has been going up to Idaho Falls for meetings almost once a month for the past 2 years, he's heard lots about potatoes.  And with the project complete and everyone in a celebrating mood, they invited anyone from the family that wanted to, to come up and see how they harvest potatoes.

Ethan had a random Friday off school so we drove out bright and early and then all piled into their SUV's to be taken on the tour.

First stop:  Their root cellars.  Very high tech actually with vents for pumping in air to keep the potatoes fresh.

Their cellars are just monstrously huge!  Seriously like the size of a football field front to back.

We were there at the beginning of their harvest so we got to walk all the way to the back.  That's a mountain of potatoes behind us- literally.  You can see the 29 on the wall.  The building goes all the way back to 40 and the numbers are 5 feet apart so even though we were there at the beginning of the harvest, they'd already filled up 50 feet back and I have no idea how high.

The potatoes travel down a long conveyor belt to the back of the building and get literally dumped by this thing.

There they go- by the thousands!

Look at the size of those taters!  They let Ethan climb up on top of the wheel and pick out the biggest ones he could find.  Does he look like he's in heaven or what ?!?

Miles and Isaac got in on the action as well but as you can tell by the look on Isaac's face, he's not nearly as into it as Ethan was.  He's much more of a clean boy.  I love him for that ;)

Here's the whole conveyor system from dump truck to belt to root cellar.

After our first stop we drove to another one of their fields.  Isla took a little nap.

Ethan and Isaac were in heaven riding in the back seat.  We drove some extremely bumpy roads and even frequently through fields so they got a pretty bouncy ride.

At the second stop there were thousands of potatoes off loading again.

This time though they let the boys actually climb up the pile of potatoes and slide back down.

Miles had a hard time since every time he stepped up, more potatoes fell down.  But look at his cute brother trying to help him.  Gotta love brothers!

They could have done this for hours!

Taylor climbed up on the warehouse wall to get a better vantage point.  By the end of harvest this place is full of potatoes.  Amazing!

Seriously this is their 2nd day of harvesting.

Apparently last year someone got too close to the conveyor belt and their thumb got ripped off, so our guides were extra careful with the boys.

And when the boys had climbed up and down enough, they were handed boxes and told to pick out potatoes to take home.

Here's part of the conveyor system that helps separate dirt and rocks from potatoes.

After our two cellar stops we headed out into the fields to see the initial step of getting the potatoes out of the field.  This big shovel scoops them all up.  They bounce up the belts and into the dump truck on the side.

And since our hosts were fabulous they let Taylor try out driving the tractor.

Isla enjoyed playing with her tongue.  That's her new favorite toy and I'm just fine with that since she really can't drop it.

Here's Taylor waving from the tractor.

And Miles waving back.  So cute.

The tractors drive pretty slow as they scoop the potatoes so our guy drove in front of them and let me get out to take better pictures.  It was hilarious to walk through the rows because they were literally almost up to the top of my leg.  Pretty funny trying to jump through that much dirt and roots.

I didn't let the kids get out since we'd have lost lots of shoes and maybe even a child or two.

They didn't mind at all except that they wanted to get to drive the tractor too.

This was their favorite part- at the back of the tractor system as the potatoes bounce up the chains, rocks, roots, dirt, and anything else semi small flies out the back.  We drove through it a few times and the boys just went nuts.  Thought it was so hilarous!  Such a fun learning adventure.  Maybe we'll go back in the spring to see the planting process.