Pumpkin Pickin' and Corn Mazin'

This is the first year that we were able to go and "pick" our pumpkins for carving. We bought some gift certificates for half off to this u-pick pumpkin place just south of town. I thought we were going to actually pick our pumpkins off the actual vine, but we get there and there are just pumpkins laid out in random piles all over. Kind of disappointing, but the kids still had fun picking their perfect pumpkin.


We brought along our little neighbor boy, Talon, if you were wondering who the new addition was in these pictures!

Jacob tackling the top of the kiddie straw maze:

Mia finding a quick way out of the maze:

Ethan getting the straw out of his shoes:

Mia just riding a tractor just her size:

Asia having fun in the maze:

That night we decided to go with some friends and go to the corn maze just outside of Shelley. Mike won these tickets from the radio station. We went out to dinner to Mrs. Powells and then it was off to the dust bowl. There was a thin layer of dust everywhere so the kids basically had a bath in dust the whole time. We started with the second hardest maze which was about 2 miles. The kids liked finding the different check points throughout the maze. Then we decided to do another shorter maze which turned into a longer maze because we got lost! Ha! The kids were pretty done after that one! I think their favorite thing was this little train ride:

Jacob could've rode this thing the whole time and been content:

Asia and Mia after their fun train ride:
Mia and Ethan after the train ride:

It was a pretty fun day with perfect weather! This is not usually the case the end of October in Idaho. But we enjoyed it while it lasted...

Randoms

I just wanted to post some cute pics that I've taken over the last couple of months.

So, have you ever wanted the kids to do something creative without the mess? Well, how about painting with water? The kids LOVE to do this! They find things all around the yard to paint; stairs, play cars, rocks, banisters, etc. If they spill their water, no biggie. Just fill it up again. No mess, no fuss! Luv it!

One night, as I was checking on the kids before I went to bed, this is how we found Jacob. Comfy:
Just a cute pic of Jacob, hangin' out, watchin' some t.v.:We have some new neighbors that moved in across the street and they have a daughter named Mia. Crazy! They also have a son named Jake. It's quite the coincidence. Anyway, Mia is 13 and she loves to decorate cakes. So, one day she was decorating a cake for her friend's birthday and she asked Asia to come over and decorate a cake. This is her creation, fondant and everything:
And here's Asia playing soccer for her second time. She is a very fast runner when she wants to be, and can kick the ball pretty hard if she wants to, but it all has to be her idea! So if you tell her to do all of these things, she won't do it! HA! Needless to say, this will probably be her last year of playing soccer. She just didn't have that much fun playing. We still have to find a sport that she likes. Maybe basketball...Here are the kids trying out the vampire teeth while decorating for Halloween:
And Mia trying on the ninja costume:I think that's it for this post. Now on to the Halloween pics finally! (hopefully)

Fun Times

So, the first day of school was August 30th. Asia and Ethan were not too excited for it! I guess it was such a fun summer that they didn't want it to end! Asia has Mrs. Roberts who Ethan had for first grade as well. She's one of those teachers who is pretty strict, but gets the kids to get their work done and they learn. But since Ethan already had her, he had to tell Asia all about how "mean" she is. So, maybe that's why she didn't want to go to school! Hmmm. Anyway, they're both doing really well. Asia is reading at a third grade level and she's already on plus-8's in her "mad minute". Ethan is a very smart boy, but he has trouble paying attention and listening. He gets everything right on his homework and tests, but he has to constantly be reminded to do a question he skipped over or do a whole back side of a test that he forgot to do. Hopefully this changes soon!

Here they are getting ready to leave for their first day:

The next week was Labor Day weekend. My parents and Naomi came down for a visit. We went to The Riot Zone with them because it was their $10 deal. You could go and do everything and anything for just $10 a person. It was so fun!

Jacob loved doing these cute kiddie paddle boat thingys. You have to paddle with your hands.

He got to ride this huge teeter-totter too. It has a bell at the top of this pole that you have to try and ring. It took Jacob a few tries and a bit of help from the attendant, but he finally rang the bell!

Ethan on the other side of the teeter-totter:

Here's what Ethan wanted to do the whole time; rock climb:
The go-karts were a fun thing to do also. Here's Mike rounding the corner:

Asia and my Mom ridin around. My Mom wanted to ride in a car all by herself so she could be faster! The 2 person cars are not fast enough for her! But Asia was too scared to drive one all by herself.Speedy Gonzales:

Small guy in a huge car:These smaller go-karts were more Asia's speed:
Ethan going with Asia to appease her. He thought these were too small and too slow!

Camping at Palisades

It was nearing the end of summer and we hadn't gone camping yet. The kids had been bugging us all summer to go, and finally we found a weekend where we had no obligations! Yaaay! So a-camping we went. We knew that it could be a rainy weekend, but we were willing to brave it. We drove through rain on the way up, but there was no rain at our campsite. Phew! We started to set up camp and a few raindrops started to fall, but nothing major. Here's our lovely abode for the night:

Ethan couldn't wait to get started on building a fire:

A couple of pyros:

We got the fire just right and loaded our bellies with s'mores. Then it was off to bed. We brought the pack 'n play for Mia to sleep in and the other three just slept all together at one end of the tent. It worked out pretty well with only Mia and Jacob crying in the middle of the night and only one time each! Yaaaay! I can handle that.

I don't know what time it was, but the sun was just coming up (so around 5 or so) and we hear this downpour of downpours. Awesome! (sarcasm) It only lasted for about 15 minutes or so, but I was worried about how wet everyone would be when they woke up. Everyone stayed dry, thank goodness, but that was not the end to the moisture. We all got up, got dressed and started making the fire. As we were eating our breakfast, there was loud thunder and lightning everywhere. Then, it started to hail! Big marble-sized hail started pelting us in the head. We tried to just hide under the trees for shelter so we wouldn't have to go into the tent with our muddy shoes. That worked, for the most part, except for Jacob who got pelted pretty good in the head a few times! We survived! It felt like forever for the hail to stop, but I'm sure it was only a few minutes. Once that passed by, we had beautiful blue skies and warm weather. We finished up our breakfast and headed down to the reservoir to play in the water and hike.

I love pictures of people from behind. I think it's very nostalgic or something like that. Or I just like butts! So I took every opportunity to do this, as you will be able to tell: Then we just played in the water, skipping rocks and throwing big rocks into the water.



Then it was time to eat our lunch. Mmm nothin' better than a hot dog cooked on the open fire. Ok, maybe there is, but that's the best way to eat those nasty things!

Then it was time pack up and go home. We made it out just in time. While we were pulling out of the campground, it started to rain again. Another Phew! So, we took the family camping. Check that off the list! Now we should be good until next summer!

The Rexburg RUSH

Mike and I decided to do another triathlon in August. It was nice because it was close and the weather was A LOT nicer than the triathlon we did in May. I was able to practice the bike and the run portion the week before the tri, but Mike had no idea what he was getting himself into! It was ok though, because he can do anything!

The race started at 8am, but we had to get there by 6 to get everything set up. Here we are at transition 1 where we go after we get done with the swim portion and hop on our bikes:

Our bikes are cheapies from Walmart, so they are very heavy and very slow. It was frustrating having people pass you when you know you could be going faster on a better bike! Grrr! But I don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a bike just yet. Mike and I just had to make up the time in the running portion. That's the easiest part for me. Although, this run course was a killer! We had to go trail running up a very steep dirt trail that killed my sprained ankle. But once we made it through that, it was all downhill from there, literally. It was perfect weather for a traithlon too. It felt so good to cross the finish line and complete something I never thought I could do! We had fun and are wondering what to do next year now...

Huckleberry Pickin'

Last year we weren't able to pick huckleberries for some reason. So since we had ran out of them (sad sad day), it was imperative that we make it up there this year. My mom and dad were visiting so it was fun to take them with us and help us pick. Right when we got to the picking spot, it started to rain. Of course! But you know what they say about Idaho weather: If you don't like it, wait 5 minutes and it will change. So we just waited and the storm passed over us within 5 minutes. We picked until it was too dark and we couldn't see the berries anymore, and then we picked for just a bit more! It gets kind of addicting! When you find a good patch, you don't want to stop picking, since these berries are such a hot commodity. We called it quits, finally, and went home with about 4 quarts of berries. I jammed them with fresh garden raspberries, froze some to enjoy in pancakes and waffles and in ice cream, and ate some fresh with cereal and with ice cream. Yum Yum!
Good Times!