Melt My Heart

The day we found out I was pregnant with a boy (Tyler), my dad showed up at our house with a Lightning McQueen fishing pole. He was so excited for us, and was already anticipating fishing outings with his grandson.

I have been meaning to set something up for Tyler to go fishing for a while now. Neither Matt nor I have a fishing license, so I wasn't sure how that would work, therefore I kept putting it off. I was doing some reorganizing a couple weeks ago and Tyler saw the fishing pole sitting in the hallway (I hadn't taken the time to put it in the shed). He started carrying his fishing pole around and asked daily to go fishing. Finally, I had him call his grandpa and they made plans to go fishing yesterday morning. It was like Christmas for Tyler - he was SO excited... which isn't surprising - he gets excited about just about everything :-) But I do think he was extra excited about his fishing trip. When my dad knocked on the door, Tyler ran out without a second thought. He didn't care one bit that I was staying behind :-)

Neither Tyler nor my dad caught a fish on their outing, but that didn't stop Tyler from having fun or making a special memory with his grandpa. I'm grateful to a dad who loved his grandson, even before he was born. I'm also thankful that BJ joined them on their fishing outing (he wanted to catch some crawdads) and was able to snap a couple of the most precious pictures ever of Tyler and my dad. They melt my heart! Tyler might not remember this fishing trip when he gets older, but this is something I will always treasure.

Summer Break 2016 - Week 8

Week 8 of summer break was HOT! We had a really fun time going swimming as a family on Monday - I think the kids could have stayed in the pool all day. I was surprised at how much Bradley liked the pool compared to earlier in the summer... Matt suggested it might be because the pool is warmer now than it was at the beginning of the summer :-) It was nice seeing how much more comfortable Tyler was in the pool and I could see that Kylee was so much more confident and a better swimmer.

The highlight of the week, though, was definitely our Passport to Boise adventure - a hike in the foothills with Richard the Mule. Richard (along with his owner Matt), pack up coffee and hot chocolate into the foothills to share. On our adventure, he packed popsicles :-) We learned about the difference between a donkey and a mule, how long mules can live, how much weight they can pack, and more. The kids thought it was pretty cool to feed the mule too. It was such a lovely morning!

Bradley - [10 Months]

 Bradley is 10 months old!

• We lovingly call Bradley Chewbacca (you'd understand if you heard him talking) or Stinky. Not sure where the Stinky nickname came from - I'm sure Matt started it!
• Our big boy is 22.5 pounds.
• He is a messy eater... I'm thinking I need to teach him to use a spoon and fork :-) Maybe then he will stop rubbing his food in his hair! Oh, and he hates bibs and tears them off seconds after I put them on, thus the perpetually messy clothes.
• He loves pulling himself up to standing and can stand for a few seconds on his own without holding on to anything. 

• He also loves windows.

• He is fascinated by the dishwasher. I have to empty or load the dishwasher when he's not around. I turn my back for two seconds (just long enough to put some silverware away) and he has managed to climb up on the door!

• He has discovered the joy of opening drawers and removing their contents. He can also kind of open cupboards, but doesn't like when he smashes his fingers in them!
• We did sleep training (again) this past month, and it is wonderful. He now goes down pretty well for naps (most of the time) and at night. His bed time is around 7:30 pm and he sleeps until close to 5. If I get him up to feed him, he often goes back to sleep until 6-6:30.

• Bradley likes the front carrier, so I try to put him in that when we go places like the library or on short walks.

• He still loves the playroom and thinks his sister and brother are the best. He always wants to be where they are. 
• He has decided he really likes the swimming pool... maybe that's because it's warmer now than it was at the beginning of the summer? In any case, I'm not surprised, seeing as how much he still loves baths.

Summer Break 2016 - Week 7

Week 7 of our summer was relatively uneventful :-) The highlight was when Kylee and I went to watch the BFG. In anticipation of the movie coming out, we read the book together this spring. We read every day, but only a few pages at a time, so it took us a while to get through the book. Kylee loved the book, and I have been so excited to take her to the movie. I was a little disappointed when she got invited to see the movie at her friend Katie's birthday party before I could take her to see it... but since I'm good friends with Katie's mom (Sally), I invited myself to come along to the movie portion of the party! I had such a good time sitting next to Kylee and listening to her laugh throughout the movie. Treasured memories!

Garden Update

I am LOVING our garden this year. I have always loved having a garden, but it just seems to get better and better. This year we added two new garden beds (taking our total to 5), plus we added a row of raspberries and a half whiskey barrel up by the house (I hope to add a couple more of these next year). I just love love love looking out and seeing all our beautiful produce. And what's even better is when we get to eat what we have grown! So far this year we have enjoyed strawberries, peas, lettuce, cilantro, tomatoes, raspberries, basil, and jalepeno peppers. We also got a few peaches off our peach tree that were delicious!

Here's to hoping for a bounteous harvest as we continue through the summer and move into fall!

Neighbor Campout

We have some really great neighbors and have been wanting to go camping with them now for like three years! We finally made it happen this last weekend. We made plans with three different sets of neighbors and booked sites at Union Creek Campground in Oregon, just a couple hours from Boise. All of our neighbors have trailers, and since this was our only planned family vacation for the summer, we decided to splurge and rent a trailer ourselves. And boy, was that a good decision! We loved it!

We booked this 2017 trailer through RV Share, and it was perfect for our little trip. It was extra nice since Bradley is so little and it wouldn't have been as much fun having him with us in a tent :-)

The first day at camp was pretty relaxing. The kids did a craft and made some camp rocks, we took a walk down to the reservoir and threw rocks, and we enjoyed an evening by the fire.

Saturday was still relaxing, but filled with some more activities like a morning walk and a fun scavenger hunt. Matt helped the kids build this awesome fort. They spent pretty much the entire day there. We were informed that only kids 10 and under were allowed in there!

We also spent some time down at the water. The kids had fun taking turns going out with Matt.

One of my favorite parts of the trip was our big dutch oven cookoff. We had lasagna and three different kinds of enchiladas. For dessert we had cobbler and a smores dip. Mmmmmm, I wouldn't mind eating like that more often.

I realized a few things on this trip...

• Even though camping is a LOT of work, it is good for my soul. It is so nice to just be out and enjoy nature.
• I need to get a stand or something so I can cook dutch oven easier on my back patio. It really is a great way to cook.
• Camping with friends makes camping so much more fun. Kylee and Tyler had a blast having so many friends there with us. And I enjoyed the time with them too!
• We really liked the trailer, but what Matt and I really want is a cabin. We immediately started looking for property when we got home from our trip. We would love to go in on a cabin or some land with a couple other people. We would still need to save money up before buying one, but we will be thrilled if we can swing it one day.

Summer Break 2016 - Week 6

Our big highlight for week 6 was our camping trip with neighbors... but that deserves its own post :-) Here are the other favorite events of the week.

Monday
Another Passport to Boise stop with Stoked for Science. We learned about the physics surrounding water rockets and then made and launched our very own :-) It was pretty cool... Matt wants to make our very own water rocket launcher!

Wednesday
Another Passport to Boise stop took us to Scentsy headquarters. The kiddos got to make their own fragrance, design a warmer, and take a tour of the main headquarters building. I was bummed we didn't get to see any of the manufacturing... maybe another day! The highlight for the kids, or at least Tyler, was taking pictures with these giant stuffed animals :-)