10 years.

This Thursday I will have been married to Aaron David Roepke for 10 years. A DECADE.  He is perfect for me, through thick and thin. My parents came to stay with the kids so we could jet off to Canada! We could have used a good restful vacation, but we did not rest. We hiked, canoed, explored, saw wildlife, and generally played outside in the wilderness, one of our very favorite things to do together.

Johnston Canyon Resort, we stayed in a cabin at the base of waterfalls. We hiked to the falls on a narrow bridge on the edge of the canyon at 9PM, broad daylight in Canada! 

Lake Louise! One of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

St. Agnes Teahouse. The tea house hikes are about 10 miles roundtrip and are at the top of the mountains surrounding Lake Louise. There is no electricity, water and supplies are helicoptered in one day a year! It was the most work I've ever done to get a cup of Green Jasmine tea and fresh hot biscuits from a wood stove.  Also one of the coolest places I've ever been.

Canoe trip on Lake Louise! Early in the morning when there is not a ripple on the lake, pristine, quiet, completely turquoise, this was awesome.

Chili in the town of Lake Louise, he is so cute.

Glacier hike, we look cold. It was incredible to see and be so close to a glacier. We enjoyed it, even though we don't look like it!

Maybe my favorite stop. The side of the road on the Icefields Parkway we stopped for lunch. It was raining lightly, the river was an amazing clear blue, just cold enough to feel like fall. Ramen noodles on the stove and beer cold from the river. Perfect.

And the bears. They say the food isn't what it needs to be high in the mountains so the bears were down foraging close to the road. This was a mother and cub, and 2 tourists that Aaron wanted to toss in the river. They got a little too close.  We saw a grizzly, elk, deer, eagles, big horn sheep and marmots. 

Banff, Canada. This town is darling, we had a great night walking the town and eating at a brewery overlooking downtown.

We had a great time and can't wait to go back!

Back in business.

Tracey Rankin you have cracked the code and opened up my blog again! Hopefully updates on Roepke life to come on a more regular basis. It's 3:42 AM Idaho time and I am surrounded by crying babies at work. Aaron is home awake and preparing for a trial tomorrow. It is 70's in the day and 50's at night, pretty much perfect. School has been postponed in Moscow for 2 weeks due to construction delays so the kids have an extended summer vacation! Thinking of fun mini-trips to come... Here's to the start of the final year of law school.

Fall Update!

Since it snowed here this morning, and is dark as I'm typing this at 4:30 in the afternoon, I figure we have moved on to winter. SO here is an update on our gorgeous fall...

The kids started school and love it.  We had both of our teacher conferences and were not surprised to learn that Ilon is a delight, very artistic, and could improve by putting a lid on her chatty cathy nature during class time.  Gabriel we were very pleased to hear is very tender-hearted and kind with his classmates, and we were pleased not to hear about any of his loud, jumping, acrobatic, devious nature which he apparently saves for us at home.

Our whole family has been baking, cooking experimenting with recipes, it's pretty fun when everyone is involved!  Pumpkin donut holes is a family favorite, since 2 Thanksgivings ago when Michelle turned us on to them.  I make them EVERY week.

I had a birthday, a great one, on a beautiful Fall day!

Halloween!!

This year we had a sweet little black cat and a mean alligator (the eyes HAVE to be mean, mom).

Ilon and her friend Madison, trick or treating buds.

We went to a great neighborhood that does Halloween up big, decorations, haunted houses, everyone out and about, so fun!

I MADE this costume. Gabe wants to sleep in it every night so it's pretty much a win for me:)

 Aaron did a killer Tinker bell pumpkin this year, complete with fairy dust.

Ilon got her first rose from a boy. Just BECAUSE she said. WHAT?!

Who can blame him? Look at this cutie.

Gabe played on his first soccer team and KILLED it, most of the time.  He was equally capable of standing on the field completely confused. He had a great time:)

My little family. 

 Our garden is pulled up, tilled over and GONE.  The biggest harvest we got were mini pumpkins, my favorite! They are all over house, those darling little things.

We built the first snowman of the year and have dusted off our snowboots and snowpants. Aaron is up to his ears in school, lots on his plate and plowing through. We are excited to plan for the holidays! 

Colorado

My long overdue pictures of Colorado. What a sweet trip we will forever be grateful for.  Who would have known that an unexpected hip surgery would have allowed us the chance to spend one last evening with Nam.  We are so thankful for those hours with Nam and Walt!  Missing you Nam, I have no doubt you are now dancing in Heaven!

We had a great trip and got to spend lots of time with these little guys!!!  They picked up right where they left off.

It rained, hailed, the sun shone, and we expected nothing less from this beautiful state. Until next time Colorado!

Sunday

It's late Sunday afternoon and I have been awake for 2 1/2 hours.  The last hour spent watching Ilon in her first gymnastics class here in Moscow.  I smiled the whole way through it.  She laughed, tried to be serious, flipped, fell, giggled, encouraged her partner, enjoyed every second.  It was worth getting out of bed for!

I spent last night in two different worlds. The first part of the night I cared for a little 1 day old boy under bright bili lights, adjusting his darling sunglasses that made him look like a superhero, taking pics of him and mom with her sunglasses on.  Cuddling, changing diapers, laughing in the dark room lit up in neon lights.  Sweet, quiet, moments shared with these parents and their new little one.

Then the Cougs won. WSU cougar fans celebrate hard, it turns out.  I went to the ER for the rest of the night.  Loud, busy, more bright lights, helping not so new parents change their not so little children out of soaked clothes.  Drawing labs, holding throw-up basins, cleaning gashes to ears, foreheads, legs.  Holding hands, bringing warm blankets. Telling them it's OK, wiping away tears.  It's fast, serious, dirty, raw, and real.  I loved it. I love both worlds.  You never imagine the darling newborns growing up to be real people.  People that mess up, make mistakes, hurt others.  Or people that also come in with their friends, holding their hair back, wiping away their vomit, the girl who stayed up all night in the ER with someone she just found, bleeding, didn't know her.  The world will always have both kinds of people, most people will be both kinds at one time or another.  There will always be a time to serve, and a time to be served by others.

I love my job.

Colorado Bound

 We took a 10 day road trip to Colorado at the beginning of August.  The 23 hour drive is pleasantly broken up by YELLOWSTONE. Bummer.  1st stop Missoula, MT for breakfast.

Swimming at Firehole River, supposedly heated by thermal springs but there was nothing thermal about it.

Ice cream at the lodge

 Aaron's new best friend, and the kid's favorite animal at the park. A squirrel. Go figure. 

 We woke up before dawn to drive through the Lamar Valley, my favorite part of Yellowstone. It's about as wild as you get.  The kids did amazingly well with all of the driving.

Buffalo herds never get old here.

The kids earned their junior ranger badges by completing a book about the park, a 3 mile hike, and a ranger led class.  They are awesome!! 

 Family photo by a nice lady who couldn't quite figure out the camera. Gotta love it. 

Our little junior rangers.

We will be back Yellowstone! Next stop COLORADO!

Ilon's 7th Birthday Party!

Ilon and I came up with a great birthday party. She's adores riding bikes, and burritos, so we planned a bike decorating extravaganza with a parade of bikes to a little Mexican restaurant down the street.  The beautiful Idaho weather held up all summer until the night of her party.  Rain, wind, lightening, thunder.  

The kids put on sweaters, decorated their bikes and dashed out from under cover for a quick ride whenever the rain lightened for a second. A friend saved the day with balloon creations and Aaron picked up dinner to go.  The kids had a blast, Ilon had a blast.  

Happy 7th Birthday darling!