the coolest moth

At first I thought a leaf was stuck to our house, but then I realized it was a huge moth - about 3 inches from wingtip to wingtip! I took a picture of it and then Simon took a picture of me taking a picture of it. Fun stuff.

I think it may be a Montana Sphingidae, but it might be some sort of Sphinx moth too. I can't tell because we never saw it with the wings fully opened. I may have to submit it to whatsthatbug.com to figure this one out!

mostly photos this time

Swimming lessons:

The kids and their teachers at The Learning Tree:

Now we're just frantically moving and packing and entertaining guests (as best we can). The biggest challenge is trying to get everything that we own, and would like to continue to own, to fit into a 12x5x9 storage shed. Fortunately we've sold most of the larger pieces so it actually seems possible. And, we've still got the MPRE to take and attempt to pass on Friday. This next week is going to be crazy!

4th of July

The kids had fun celebrating the 4th. After sparklers, pop-its, and groundflowers we went to Clif's office to watch the fireworks.

And, of course, since we were outside after dark, we spotted more creepy Boise bugs. Two of these striped critters (ten-lined June Beetles) were crawling on our house.

I'm amazed at all the different spiders and beetles there are here. I guess that means that when we get to American Samoa you can expect to hear all about the creepy crawlers there!

Jon loves us

See how much Jon loves us:
We didn't make him work alone though. We helped too:

Uh, I mean, we helped too:

Now our house looks beautiful! No more two-toned house. (I know, technically it's always been more than 2 tones, but you know what I mean.)

Hooray! Thank you Jon!!

Special thanks to Charlie & Tenielle for the use of their freakishly cool ladder!