cascade

so here is where we all spent 4 years of our lives, rachel and emily are aspiring to make it 5 each. i am sure someone could figure out how old these schools are but they were there long before we got there and will be here many years to go. yes we did not make it to any of those 4A schools in salem but we were raised on AP classes in the middle of the surrounding corn fields, avoiding FFA and high speed internet. more to come....

school daze

oh yes here is the place where grade school began. the place where we all first got in trouble outside of the house and made some friends.

• behind those double doors i remember having to sit on those stairs because i was handing out rubberbands to kids on the playground. early age drug dealer i guess. i think the problem is that some kid shot some girl in the face. idiot. there was the crossing over from the library to the office. on either side were bathrooms. you got hurt and went to the office only to get a homemade ice pack, which was one of those cheap brown paper towel soaked in water and then placed in the freezer. that all amounted to about 1 minute of relief, because you were then left with a wet paper towel.
  
• then there were the days of when it was raining we had to go out and we could only play under the "barn". if you were bad you could kick those rubber soccer ball to have it bounce around between the rafters. remember all of the owl crap that would be out there. the basketball hoop that was like 10.5 feet to 11 feet off the ground. like 10 was not already high enough. if you were not able to get outside you were stuck in the gym trying to play some sort of organized game with your friends while all of the kids younger or older were in the gym together. dodge ball, that parachute, some crazy assemblies, fund raisers, musical numbers, basketball games, and much more.
  
• granted some of the classic toys are gone but the big toy remains. i remember playing out there on that big toy and the farmer would be spraying that dark green manure on the fields and you could almost taste it, it was so strong. the jungle gym, merry go round (where i got my fingers stuck between the ball and the bottom of the not so merry go round, wet paper towel please.)
  
• there was that ramp that went up to the library and the office, then they built that walkway that went straight over.
  
• on that concrete part we had to wait for the bus to come from cascade and some lucky kid got picked each day to stand at the top of the stairs and look out across the cow fields to see the bus coming.
  
• mrs. T
• the library
• drinking fountains
• field day
• the track
• the lunch room
• bookmobile
• the bathroom sinks
• the gym
  
• much more to come
  

matchbox cars and more

here are some sweet picts from Claire about life back in turner during her summer break away from the ID.
looks like damon has that mischievous look on his eye. gearing up for a get together with the cousins. personally it is kinda weird to see him with hair, but you have to remember that makenzie had her first haircut after the age of two. looks like molly has her hands full with the two little men.
ode to the old matchbox cars there with the old plastic city streets that we would race around on and screech the tires going sideways down the city streets. the little things that you see in the background of these pictures is a little snapshot from our days of growing up. there are those double decker buses that our English mother would have us play with. i am sure somewhere along there dad would say we need to get these because these Yankees don't know what public transportation is. all of those classic cars.
as we can see Claire has to sell her self out to the slums of turner for some extra cash. we all had told dad that Claire was an addict, and we thought that it was just the internet, my space, instant messenger, paint fumes, and grunge clothing. we never knew that it was heroin. i am sure that is a viable income there in rexburg too.