Andrew turned 5!

Aren't birthdays the best? I love to celebrate them and make the birthday "person" feel special! It's great to see their faces and have them understand why they are loved so much!   Andrew had his fifth birthday at the beginning of September! I always ask myself the typical mom question on the morning of my kids birthdays, "Where did the time go? He/She is growing up too fast!"

Andrew spent his day with his lovely mother, running errands! Every boys dream! Actually he loved it...I find myself doing more errands with kids now that I ONLY have THREE to take with me!  We went and picked up cucumbers for pickling, went to the bank, and then went to the doctors office for a check-up on Julia. Loaded back up, went home, had lunch, and played with some friends, had pizza for dinner while watching an episode of "Reboot" on Netflix (you are totally missing out if you haven't been watching this...great 90s classic) and then had a birthday party. 

New horn for his bike...which reminds me...we haven't put that on his bike yet...which leads to the question, "Where did we hide that thing again?"

We give him this awesome hot wheels track that sticks to the wall with Command strips! Big hit!

The requested birthday cake, complete with matches as candles because I forgot to buy some...(honestly how many of you think to buy candles....I was pretty sure that I had five somewhere in my house..sigh...)

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!

The long awaited event finally arrived!!! He had been counting down to his party for weeks! He was so excited!! It was his first one with friends! We had plan this really fun outside beach party, but won't you know that the weather decided that 68 degrees was perfect weather for the day...grrr...last minute changes lead to a still rockin party!

Beach Blanket Bingo (musical chairs with beach towels) accompanied by Pandora's Beach Boys station! Awesome!

Instead of cupcakes, I decided to do huge sugar cookies and let the kids decorate their own with candy that I got from the 98 cents movie-theater-candy bin! To reduce the amount of sugar that I was inputting into the kids, I made the cookies with white bean puree instead of butter and honey powder instead of sugar and some wheat flour thrown in for good measure. I was definitely surprised when the kids ate them!  They really didn't taste that bad...I don't like honey so the flavor was lost on me.

We also did a treasure hunt where the kids got to dig through a pool of landscape bark (I was improvising) to find pennies, nickles, and candy! Big hit!

The fun never seemed to end! The next week we had a joint birthday party for Andrew and my dad, whose birthdays are right after each other! 

 Andrew has really grown this last year and I have been so impressed with his willingness to help me when asked, and even when not asked, since Peter went to school! I love you, buddy and I'm glad that you are in our family! 

Meadow Lake

A couple of weeks before school started, we got a surprise!! Anthony's parents, who recieved a mission call to Australia, were asked by their mission president to leave a month earlier then scheduled!!  We were so excited to have them leave but all so it was rough to say goodbye knowing that they will be missed so badly and that things are going to be different then they have been. 

To celebrate, the family decided to go on a mini road trip! We all drove to Gilmore, Idaho and then up further to Meadow Lake.  I won't bore you all with the tons of pictures that I took of Gilmore ( a ghost town). I also haven't edited them all. Okay...none of them...I'm going to get to it! Ne ways... these are the ones that I did take from Meadow Lake. 

 Our potluck lunch filled with lots of goodies!

Anthony with his dad

Jace was trying to help Grandma eat her taco salad! Here comes the airplane, Grandma!

So much dirt...so little Ayla! 

Julia  got into the act as well! Why eat food when dirt is just as good?

Grandpa gave a lesson about how to take care of our Earth...no sticks or garbage in the lake..

Grandpa helped entertain the younger kids by taking them on "walkabouts." 

We had a visitor when most of the family went on a hike to the upper lake. 

We had a lot of fun being together, enjoying the beautiful weather and each other's company! We already miss Anthony's parents like crazy but we know that what they are doing is very important and already has had a positive influence on our family. Thanks Mom and Dad for being such awesome examples!

First Grader!

Peter started FIRST GRADE about an month ago! (I'm a little behind!) He has gotten so big and I'm so proud of him!

Wild West Adventure

In July, Anthony and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary! I can hardly believe that it has been that long! It seems like we are still newlyweds( and to some, I'm sure we are...). Anthony, knowing me so well, agreed to go on a Wild West Adventure with me. Our first stop:

Virginia City, Montana

This small ghost town was once a booming mining town! It full of amazing folklore and stories that captivated  my imagination! You could actually rent one of the rooms in the old hotel! Complete with no running water and a shared bathroom in the hall!  Talk about great, right? And it would only cost an arm and leg to sleep there! We decided to stay in the quaint little town 10 minutes away, Ennis, Montana. 

We got to hear great stories about how the townspeople wanted to appear to be civilized to their eastern relatives and so they built fake second floors so that it would appear that they had large homes! 

We went on a "romantic" stagecoach ride up to where gold was first discovered and learned all about the men that found it and how the town was formed and later ran.  

It was pretty authentic ride! It wasn't an actually stagecoach from the 1880s but was a pretty good replica with bouncy seats and no air conditioning! I loved it!!! Anthony was less enthusiastic but humored me...I love that guy!! 

We wondered up and down Main Street, almost bought some authentic western gear (corset, bonnets, duster, derby hat...), had some yummy dinner at a little cafe, and then went to a show at the playhouse. They tried really hard to be like the Playmill but it wasn't quite as good. But it was still fun!

This is the little cabin that we staying in at Ennis. It was pretty close to the highway but it was still pretty nice. We stayed in the one on the left. The only thing that would have made it better was a continental breakfast of some sort. But then we wouldn't been able to have a great breakfast at the amazing soda shop place that we did!

Anthony on the go-cart! We there with a bunch of high school girls who kept bumping into us and causing accidents! I had just been hit from the behind and was sitting it out for a while! Crazy kid drivers!!

After breakfast we drove back through the mountains and spotted this! Got to keep the landscape natural looking right? Got to cover up those ugly cell phone towers somehow!

We had lunch in Rexburg at the We're Twisted place by Gringos and then headed down to the Riot Zone for some fun! We had a blast acting like little kids! We rode the go-carts at least five times, the bumper boats, and the buckaroo!

This was crazy!! It's basically a bouncy obstacle course that I got stick in and ended up laughing so hard, I couldn't breathe!

For dinner we had reservations at the Mountain River Ranch. They do a show and great dinner. We had a great time laughing, eating, singing, and getting eaten by mosquitos!

This was suppose to be our cabin for the night. The lady opened the door and I almost died! The room was barely big enough for the bed that they had stuffed in there! I could feel my lungs gasping for air! (Have I ever mentioned I'm claustrophobic?) The lady offered to put us in a different cabin and we agreed to the lovely three person cabin! Breathe freely!

You get to go on a awesome wagon ride up to the dining area! Won't you know that Anthony would know almost all the people that we were sitting by? And that I would be from the same town as one of the performers?

It was a great weekend! Thanks so much Aunt Rachal for giving us the break that we so badly needed!