Jackson Trip, End of Football Season for Caleb, Fall Fun at the Corn Maze, Josh's New Calling

Just a few things to report on here so far for October! I expect the next post will be full of Halloween pictures in a couple of weeks, so before I get into that here are a few things we have been up to.

Jackson trip - So for Spud Harvest break (the first week of October) we didn't do any big trips this year. In past years that has been our time to visit Wisconsin, since the kids have off school for that week. And most families around here do tend to either go to General Conference in Utah or travel someplace warmer, such as Disneyland (in California, which people here just drive to.) But since we went to Wisconsin in August and are going to Disney World in January, we just kind of stayed home all week like bums! Caleb was dog sitting for our new neighbors, the Dennis', who moved in about a month ago. They are empty nesters and she is a teacher's aid at the elementary school so Caleb already knew her, but they had to go out of town to visit a daughter and her new baby, so they asked Caleb to dog-sit for their little shitzu, Mesa. Everyone in our family had fun babysitting her. She stayed at their house but came over to ours sometimes to play during the day. But anyways! We decided towards the end of Spud Harvest week on Friday to drive to Jackson and go swimming at their indoor rec center pool. It's a really pretty drive this time of year and Avery, who has been anxiously awaiting snow, was super excited to see snow at the very top of the mountain during our drive. We even had to get out and throw a couple of snow balls! So that was our first taste of snow this season... but a little more was to come about a week later for us in Rexburg!

Caleb's last official game for football really was last Saturday. But they they decided they needed to also do play offs, etc. and since his team had done pretty well they had to play in one more game. The played on Saturday the 14th against Saint Anthony and won 18-6. So it was a good note to end on for them. But it was pretty funny that morning because we woke up to about an inch of snow on the group! As they were playing their game it was slowly melting and I think by the end of their game it was about gone. But it was time to be done in my opinion because snow means no more standing outside to watch football. Caleb had a lot of fun and plans to play next year but I think he was ready to be done for now and have a break.

Fall Fun at the corn maze - One night while Gabe and Josh were at a scout camp out, I took Caleb and Avery to this corn maze just outside of town. They had so much fun that Gabe and Josh had to come back with us again the next week. So here are some pictures of that! The kids always love going down this big slide. We went there for the first time last year and it's become our favorite Fall fun place here (since we can't very well go to the Little Farmer in Wisconsin). It usually takes us about 45 minutes to find our way out of the corn maze. It's really pretty big! They even give us a map and we still get lost. They also have this little train that Avery loves to ride. I also had to post this picture of the moon. It looked so spooky as we were leaving the corn maze that I had to text my photographer friend and tell her to get her camera out and climb out on her roof (she lives by us and does this often to capture the moon haha) So this was the picture she took for me that night of the October moon! ;)

Pumpkin contest - The kids at the elementary school always decorate pumpkins for this little display in the library. Caleb insisted I paint him a rocket raccoon pumpkin (from "Guardians of the Galaxy", which he is also being for Halloween) and for Avery we did Cinderella's pumpkin carriage. They each got a book and a certificate for participating (what everyone gets. lol)

Josh's new calling - And finally, just when I got released from Cub Scouts and called as the Bulletin Board specialist and was thinking we would get a break... Josh gets called to be the Ward clerk in a student ward on campus. So basically we will be attending church Josh-less for the next three years in our ward. That sounds fun with three kids, right??? No. Not really. But hopefully we will figure it out!
That's all for now!

Fall is here! Trips to Montana and Utah, Badger Game, Boy's Bedroom Update, and more!

Well school has been in session for almost a month now and suddenly this week the temperature seems to have gone from Summer to Winter. I hate how Rexburg does this some years. It will be so hot it's melting your face off one day and then the next day you're wearing your winter coat and drinking hot chocolate! Can't there just be like a month of beautiful 60-65 degree Fall weather?! Is that too much to ask!? But I guess considering the weather that some other areas of the world are getting lately (hurricanes in Texas, Florida, the Caribbean islands) and fires in Canada, California and Montana (and Idaho!) I guess I shouldn't complain about 50 degree weather. But dang it seems cold this week. I'm hoping it gets warmer again for a few weeks before Winter hits us!

The kids are all getting into the swing of school. Gabe is liking sixth grade and his teachers. There was some locker drama on the first day about him getting a crappy low locker next to some annoying kid, but he handled that himself and talked to the teacher and got a new one that met his standards. haha Sometimes he complains about gym class and kids that cheat at sports, but if that's his biggest complaint that isn't too bad. lol He always is a pretty responsible kid about his schoolwork so I don't really have to worry about him getting things done and getting good grades. So that's nice! He got a ukelele about a month ago, I can't remember if I mentioned this, so he has been working on learning some easy beginner songs on that! I also steal it sometimes and try to teach myself things.

Caleb is a smart kid and seems to always get good grades on his tests. (He says, "I am the second smartest in my class." Not sure how he came to these conclusive results but ok, that's fine. ;) However, getting him to do his daily reading and do more than just the basic requirements on his homework assignments is a struggle. He just doesn't see why he would ever do even a smidge more than is required. That just doesn't make sense to Caleb. If he's doing what is required then that's good enough for him and that means he can move onto socializing with his friends, which is way more important that going the extra mile on his homework. (Eye roll.) But at least Heavenly Father gave him a strong brain and he learns things quickly and easily. Which is good because if he actually had to work hard to learn things we would all be in trouble. He just doesn't care about schoolwork as much as he does about being with his friends and being the life of the party.

He is also doing football right now, which seems to be taking over our lives. It wouldn't be so bad except that Josh somehow got roped into being a coach. So basically almost every week night, Josh gets home from work at 4, showers and changes, he and Caleb quick eat something, and then they are both gone until 7:30 for football practice. It makes it pretty pointless for me to try and make dinner. Gabe, Avery, and I eat a lot of grilled cheese and sandwiches lately. Here is a picture of him with his best buddy and friend from his class, Kayson (note the size difference. lol)

Avery is enjoying kindergarten every day in the afternoons. She also is taking a dance class every Thursday from 4-5 at Fuzion. She so far says she really likes this dance class (she says even better than her other one!) I hope she sticks with dance and always wants to do it.

Some other things we have done this past month include going to Montana, where we visited Aaron's family and my dad and Melissa, who had flown out for a visit. Avery was totally enthralled with Melissa's dog, Arissa. She pulled it around in a little wagon and held it on her lap every chance she could get. The smoke was in the air as we drove from Rexburg to Montana on Saturday evening and I caught this shot of the sunset between the mountains. Luckily Aaron's house was never right in harm's way of the fires!

Then we went to Utah for Labor Day weekend to visit with Stacey and Kamrie. There was this event called "Swiss Days" that I had always wanted to go to (it's like a giant craft fair/vendor fair). So me and Stacey and Kamrie and one other girl went to that while Josh took the three kids swimming at a local pool with a couple of water slides. It was the last swimming outdoors of the year! One last water day! They probably had a LOT more fun than I had. It was HOOOTTT at Swiss days and we left early we were so miserable. Then we stopped at Ikea, which led me into a giant brainstorm of how I wanted to redo the boys' bedroom. (More to come on that) Then that night Stacey took Avery to a movie (a cartoon about ballet called "Leap" and Kamrie took the boys to "Spiderman" (who knows which number), and me and Josh went out to dinner with some old friends, Kyle and Jamie Fransen. On Sunday we let Stacey take us on a hike up past Sundance. It probably would've seemed a lot easier (maybe) if it hadn't been hotter than the blazes outside. We were so sweaty and tired. Caleb took off his shirt for the whole walk home and walked in just his basketball shorts haha. But it was very pretty! We went to this waterfall called Stewart Falls. It gave me flashbacks to our hike in Hawaii. I always like the IDEA of going on a hike and then i get about halfway through and I'm like, "Why did I think this would be fun?" haha But then I look at the pictures and think "That was so pretty, it was so worth it!" So here are some pictures of the hike and us with Stacey and Kamrie at the pizza parlor and the Nickel Arcade:

THEN! About two weeks later, I went down to Utah AGAIN (this time by myself) and did the giant Ikea shopping trip. I had decided it was time for a redo on their room, since the loft beds that Josh built almost four years ago have become kind go outgrown. They had little desks underneath them that the boys could sit at. but those boys have gotten so tall that their heads are practically scraping the top of the beds! So I repainted the whole room in tones of blue, with some mountain silhouettes on the wall. Then I bought new white and navy striped bedding and some drawer units to make captains beds (mattresses on top of the drawers). It was quite the redo! I'm waiting on some throw pillows I designed and some wall decor but here's the current picture. My friend, Shalee, helped me with those awesome signs with their names on them! Here is the before and after. I think it makes the room seem a lot bigger and more open.

Also while I was in Utah that weekend, I got to attend my first session at the Salt Lake City Temple. I've been to visit that temple many times but never gone inside, so it was a cool experience! Then that night we had dinner at the cheesecake Factory, which is also a cool experience lol. The next day was the Badger vs. BYU game. I wore my Badger shirt and Stacey wore her BYU shirt. We had gotten tickets from a friend of hers for only $30. My mom, Jesse, Norb, Heidi, and more from Fond du lac had flown out just for the weekend to see the game so we met up with them to tailgate on Saturday at about noon and then walked to the game together. Then that night we went out to dinner at Tucano's. It was fun to see my mom, even if it was just for a brief time! Also, in case you missed it… the Badgers stomped BYU like 40 to 7 or something like that. The BYU fans were not happy.

And last but not least, somewhere in between all this we went to the Southeast Idaho Fair in blackfoot (pretty much what you would expect from a fair… lots of ghetto rides and overpriced fair food, which we skipped and went to Chick Fil A afterwards..) but the kids had fun on the rides!

And Josh had a day where he had taken the day off to go fishing and then his friends bailed on him and I had TONS of Etsy work that day (I think it was a Monday which are always the worst) so he and Avery went to Mesa Falls together in the morning. (Some stranger took that picture for them haha)

So I think that about covers it all! It feels like Summer is officially over and we are headed towards cold weather soon. So in honor of the end of Summer, here were a few last pictures of the beginning of September when we had our last hot days.

Last ride on the Carousel for 2017:

Last cotton candy at the Carousel:

Last sit in the tub outside in the backyard (mom had already deflated to kiddie pool… haha)

And a cat picture just because it's cute… who doesn't like a good cat picture??

Next post, there are bound to be some Fall Fun pictures of pumpkin patches, jumping in leaves, and maybe even trick-or-treating depending on how long it takes for me to post again! ;)

Baby Max, Wade Lake, Huckleberry Picking, Wisconsin Trip, Eclipse, First Day of School

Wow I need to play a serious game of catch up!

In the past six weeks since my last blog post, my good friend, Sam, had her baby boy, we have taken a trip to Wisconsin, witnessed the first complete solar eclipse in North America since 1979, had some end of summer fun, Caleb started his first football season with pads, and all three kids started back up at school! Also, another fun note, I FINALLY got realized from my calling as the Cubmaster!! Whoohoo! Celebrate! Caleb was sad to hear that news, but don't worry I told him, I will still attend his Pack meetings. Just this time as a mom instead of the Cubmaster!

We had our last Pack night that I was in charge of the day of my last post, July 19th. It was a crazy 48 hours to say the least because starting with the evening of the 17th, I was up late getting Avery's mermaid birthday party ready. Then the party went on basically the whole next day and then the next day, the 19th, I had to do that outdoor water day Pack night for the boys.

Then that night, which was Wednesday night, I was on the phone with my friend, Sam (and neighbor), and she said "I hate to tell you this but I haven't been feeling well today. I may call you tonight if we need to go to the hospital and have you come stay with my kids…" And I was thinking "Oh gosh please no… she's not even due for two more weeks… please at least wait until morning to go into labor and then call me… I am SOOO tired…" I even said a prayer that she would just hold off labor for another day so I could get my sleep. Funny story, then after my prayer I opened my scriptures and this was the exact verse I read:

Romans chapter 13, verse 10:
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep

Hahaha! So I texted her back after I read that and told her about it and I said "So I guess I will put my ringer on just in case." Sure enough, at about 1:30am her husband called me and told me her water had broke and they needed me to come over and stay with their kids so they could go to the hospital. So I ended up sleeping (kind of) from about 3am to 7am and then her kids started to wake up. Then I got them dressed and ready and we came back over to my house where Josh had left for work and Gabe was left in charge! So I was a mom to five kids that day until we had to leave for Caleb and Gabe's last soccer games at about 5:30 and then Danny (Sam's husband) came and got them. It was quite exhausting. That night I think I went to bed at about 8:00. But baby Max arrived safe and healthy and all was well.

On that Saturday we made this drive out to Northern Idaho/Southern Montana (about an hour and a half) and found the beautiful place called Wade Lake. I have to post some pictures of that! The water was soooo clear and we had borrowed some little kid kayaks to play around on. The kids had a blast!

I have to make note of the fact that we also went huckleberry picking on July 23rd. Every year it varies a bit but the huckleberries were just coming on and we found some good ones at Kelly Canyon!

The just a couples days later, on Wednesday, July 25th, we left for Wisconsin! We drove to Bismarck the first day and stayed in a hotel there. Then we arrived in Wisconsin on Thursday night and met up at Culvers with Grandma Sue, Grandma Dahlke, Rachel, Brayden, and Jasmine! We quickly realized that Brayden is still a human tornado but as least he doesn't randomly bite people in the butt when he sees them anymore. So that's an improvement. Avery and Brayden actually got along a LOT better this year than they did last year!

While we were in Wisconsin the first day I did a lame craft fair (or should I say tax write-off opportunity lol) where I tried to sell my awesome woodland animal dolls! I did sell one and I guess considering there were about 10 people there that's not too shabby. haha But it actually work out well because then when we got back home to Idaho a local boutique wanted to buy them all to sell in their shop. So I was able to sell all of them in one shot and now I can just use our trip as a nice "business expense."

Other fun things we did included the Fondy aqua park (like a giant inflatable obstacle course on a pond), Mount Olympus in Wisconsin Dells, swimming at the city pool, family pictures with the whole crew (that was an adventure), eating a LOT of food (so much that I actually think I ended up with a case of food poisoning or something. I don't know but my stomach FREAKED out and then the last few days of the trip I ended up on a chicken soup only diet. It was so sad. I wanted to eat so much more Wisconsin junk food while I was there… lol) What else? We went to the zoo in Madison, we went to Kohler Beach one day and swam and played in the sand… it was a really busy fun week. We tried to have something planned for every day. One thing we had wanted to do but never ended up happening was the Packer's training camp, so maybe next year that will happen. Our last day there was Sunday morning (so we were there for about 9 days) and we left at about 7am. It's always fun to go there and do all the fun little day trips we do as a family but I'm always ready to get home too.

This year, once we got home it was time to get into football/eclipse/back to school prep mode. Everyone in the U.S. probably heard about the eclipse that was happening on August 21, 2017. But we had found out about a year ago that Rexburg was in the "path of totality" meaning one of the few cities in the U.S. that would get to see the TOTAL eclipse, where the sun was completely blocked out by the moon for approximately 2 and a half minutes. So we were all told by city officials to stock up on food, prepare for power outages, gas shortages, and so on! So I went and filled a couple extra little 5 gallon gas tanks and I had to do some grocery shopping anyways (since I left my pantry and fridge pretty much empty when we left for wisconsin) but I didn't go toooo crazy! Well guess what, everyone was exaggerating a crazy amount. There were some extra people in town but I wouldn't say it was any worse than the first week of the college semester when all of the families are dropping off their freshmen. It wasn't too bad. Traffic got jammed up on the highway in the few hours right after the eclipse but that was about it.

But I have to say, seeing the eclipse WAS pretty awesome. We went over to the school across the street and watched it from the big empty field on the east side of the building. It happened at about 11:30am and it had been about 70 degrees, but it dropped down to about 50 degrees as the sun got blocked out in a matter of minutes! Avery was like, "I'm cold!!! Let's go home!!" haha We all had out little eclipse glasses on so we could look up and see it in the couple of hours before it was "totality" and then in that two minutes of "night time" we were able to take the glasses off and run around crazy for a minute! It was a really cool experience! If anything it just made me really grateful for the sun and for the warmth it provides! lol

Then after the eclipse it was back to school time! I feel like it really snuck up on me this year. I didn't even do much shopping for the kids except for a few pairs of pants! School started on Wednesday, August 23rd. Gabe is in sixth grade and this is his second year at the middle school. The big excitement for sixth grade is getting lockers and then switching classes on your own little individual schedule (in fifth grade they rotated classrooms, but as a whole class, not individually mixed up) But when Gabe cam home he was upset about getting a bottom locker and underneath a kid that was kind of rude and had BO. haha I told him to be a big boy and talk to his teacher about it the next day before school and just see if he could switch. Then next day he came home happy because we was able to switch to a different (higher) locker. ;) I'm glad he's getting to the age where he's old enough that I can tell him to handle his own problems. I would've called for him and talked to his teacher probably two years ago. But he's a big boy now! Time to handle it yourself, kid!

Caleb is in fourth grade at Burton, the oldest grade at the elementary school across the street. I can't believe he's this old! He has a teacher he requested, Mrs. Bargabos, and a couple of friends in his class. No complaints so far! He also is super busy with football. Josh got roped into helping coach on the first day so those two have been gone almost every weeknight from about 5:30-7:30 for the past couple of weeks since we returned from Wisconsin! It's very time cosuming, but hopefully it teaches him about hard work and maybe gets him into better shape too. haha He's the biggest kid on his team and I guess if you weigh more than 95 pounds you have to have an X which means you can't run the ball. So I mostly watch him just run into other kids and knock them down at every game.

Avery started Kindergarten this year! I can't believe the day is actually here! She is in the afternoon class with Mrs. Williams. So far she seems to like it! She has a few friends that are in her class that live in our neighborhood. I feel like the drama is already starting with Avery because she is super happy one second and then gets mad at someone a second later. Then usually they make up pretty fast. But it's exhausting trying to handle all of her many emotions! Her best friends are Sailor, Adrie, and Ashlin.

So that is the update for the past month! I am pretty happy to get into routine! While I will miss the outdoor fun of Summer and the waking up late, I felt ready for this Fall and the school year to start! :) Here's to having all three kids in school!!! It felt like it would never come but here it is!! Whohooo!!!