Pumpkin Patch 2009

Carson's preschool went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. He had a great time playing in the hay bale maze, and riding the slide at the end.

He looks so unhappy in all the pictures. He really was happy, but the sun was shining so bright, he was always squinting and scowling. The only good one I got of his face, was his face through the cut out of the lady..oops! That little white pumpkin he is holding in his hands has made on a trip to Salt Lake and he even sleeps with it at night. He keeps waiting and waiting for it to turn orange. We keep trying to break it to him gently that it is a special white pumpkin, it is not going to change colors. Here's hoping he's not too broken hearted, when it starts to go bad and we have to throw it out.

Jackson 2009

Each year, we join up with my parents and spend a weekend in Jackson. We always go in the fall and it is almost always beautiful. Some years we get better weather than others. This year the weather was great, but we had a little issue with a fire. Here are this years highlights:

Throwing rocks into Jackson lake with Grandpa. This always has to happen. I believe their is a candy bar reward for anyone who can hit the buoy with a rock.

Hiking to a Sandy Beach along Leigh lake, a lovely spot for lunch and for the kids to play in the sand. (Aaron had to miss this day and hang out in the motel, because he was recovering from a little procedure to fix a herniated disc in his back:( Carson had a bit of an accident while trying to go to the bathroom in the woods, so we had to do a little "ee-nerwear swimming." (That is how my little boy says underwear, and it is so cute, we have not even tried to fix it.)

Watching elk each evening and listening to them bugle. We had a bit of a forest fire in our plans this year, so our plans were a little different. The first night the fire was pretty small, and we were able to watch the elk. On Day 2 the fire was bigger, so we had a lot of smoke in the air, and that evening we did a lot of fire watching instead. (That is why the pictures of my kiddos playing in the water start to look hazy in the background.) We could see the flames from our motel room, they were way across the lake, but pretty impressive at night.

The smoky air did make for some incredible sunsets in the evening! Thanks Mom and Dad for another great year, we can't wait for next fall to do it again!!

The Harvest

My husband spent the better part of his Saturday harvesting the garden. It was in pretty bad shape, considering he has had a broken back for a couple of weeks, and I am essentially useless.

It was nice to get one thing off of our growing list.

I must say, I am seriously going to miss that green grass, here's to nine months of winter. (I really hope we still get a little bit of a Fall season, even if I woke up this morning to a snow covered lawn:(

Family Fun

Tonight for FHE, we decided we would get crafty. We pulled out the paint, and decided to decorate a few of the little pumpkins that we grew in our garden this year. Carson was REALLY excited we could not get him to wait until the dishes were done before he was tearing into the paints.

We took Carson's shirt off, because he is QUITE messy, and after a while his Daddy thought it would be funny to paint a little face on my boy's tummy.

The girls thought this was funny, and wanted to give the face a name. They quickly decided to name the face Fred. (She does know how to make a correct e, she was struggling a bit, trying to paint back words!)

Now it is time to head to the bath....

Last Weekend...

Last weekend, we decided to take the kids on one more camping trip. Within 5 minutes of arriving at our destination, Carson was stung by a bee, we had popped the only raft we brought for floating the river, and we realized we had forgotten a few vitally important things for our trip. (Cups...Underwear-not every one's, just one unlucky person...some needed tools...ect..) We got creative, and all crisis were resolved. Luckily Aaron's parents and brother were coming to join us the next day, and they brought us a few necessities.

This picture was taken by Morgan, she thought Carson was so cute. She wanted to get a picture of the little boy helping his Daddy. He LOVES to help hook it, unhook it, and help his Dad with all the other little things to get the trailer set up.

Our first night's campfire. The weather was so beautiful, we could not have asked for a better night. It was really nice to get away and relax for a weekend.

After Carson and Aaron patched up our raft, they took turns floating the river with the Dad. The mom watched and took pictures. I wasn't sure I could get out of the boat, if I were to actually get in.

Morgan with Uncle Shane, and her cousin Jacee. It was so fun for my girls to have a cousin to play with while we were there.

We took the kids to West Yellowstone to see the grizzly bear and wolf center. It was a little strange to be this close to the bears, they are huge! It was fun to get such an up close look at them.

Sorry about my son. It looks like he is kissing the wolf's behind.

Before we went home on Sunday, we drove to Big Springs to feed the fish. This fish were pretty full of course, but we were able to feed a couple of muskrats, and quite a few ducks. We bought some of that fish food that they sell there in the candy machines, and wow, that was a mistake. It made our hands smell SO NASTY. I washed my hands three times and I could still smell that yucky dead fish smell on my hands. I will stick with bread or cheetos from now on. Then maybe we could eat our next meal with out gagging.

This photo is for my sister, who lives far away, and is begging for a photo of how my stomach is growing. (Really not my favorite photo!!)

We had such a great weekend. We did come home and after some serious searching, we realized my little boy had buried two library movies in the dirt and we had left them at the campground. To make a long story short, the lovely campground host went to our site with a rake, and found two movies and a walkie talkie. I did feel quite stupid asking them to look for some buried treasures, at our campsite 3 days later, but they were very nice about it.

First Day of School

The first day was actually a week ago, but it seems we are still running behind. The girls were so excited! They were happy with teachers, they had the proper amount of friends in their classes, and they were rather tired of hanging out with a boring and somewhat grouchy mom.

I wish every morning could be like the first day of school. My kids sprang from their beds and actually made the beds after they got out. I was up and ready, so my children had a mother who was alert, rather than wandering around in a coma.

Someone had the camera on the wrong setting at the school for the "sit in your new desk" photo.

Carson was a little bummed that he didn't start school the same day that the big sisters did. He was so excited to see all his little friends again. He was a little nervous for a few minutes, but he warmed right up. When I picked him up he reassured me that "it was so fun!"



There were no tears from the mom. I think I really am going to enjoy my three afternoons a week all to myself!

A day at the Lake...

We decided to spend one of our last days of summer swimming and playing in the sand. We went with one of my good friends that happens to have kids the very same ages as mine. It was so cute, they each paired up with a buddy and played for hours. It was so hard to get any good pictures of them, as they didn't want to stop and look at me for long enough to get a face shot.

These boys kept running out as deep in the water as they dared, to fill up the buckets, and then they would run into the sand to pour the water out. They started out pretty timid, but then they got brave and we had to put on the life vests.

I am so sad that this was our first trip to the lake. My kids LOVED it and would have loved to do it over and over all this summer. We will have to do much better next summer. For now it is back to school on Monday.