Sisters

Brandie recently had surgery and needed some help with Danica and her recovery. Since we are in Boise now we are so much closer to her and my family so I jumped at the chance to go help! I left on a Tuesday morning and it took about 11 hours to drive there (not bad...when we were in MV it took us 20 hours to drive to CO). I took Shane and Lainey with me and the older 2 stayed behind with Jeff as they had to go to school. Jeff was so wonderful and supportive and made this whole thing work with his work schedule. The kids were troopers too to be with out mom for a whole week. So I arrived on Tuesday night and planned on staying until Sat. morning then driving home. While I was there I took care of Danica and my kids, helped Brandie with doc apts., made freezer meals, cleaned, organized and oh ya, we had a ton of fun and laughing too! It wasn't all work. :) The end of the week came and I hadn't finished everything I wanted to for Brandie so I worked it out so I could stay a few more days until Monday morning. I am so glad I did. On Sat. morning my mom's back went into muscle spasms and she could barely get out of bed. She was supposed to watch Danica that day for Brandie because it was her first day of school. So I was able to help by watching Danica for the day plus I finished those few last things on the list of stuff to get done! It was a great trip and I feel so lucky that I was able to go and help Brandie when she needed it. I love her so much and we love that sweet little Danica! What a blessing she is to all of us. We are lucky to have her! Here are some pics from my trip.

Grocery shopping with the 3 of them

She's so beautiful!

Cousins playing

Cookies at Grandma's are the best because she puts whip cream on the top!

Play time with Grandpa and Grandma

Stroller rides

Playing at Auntie Brandie's park

Boxes are so much fun. Shane and the neighbor boy are hiding in the other 2 boxes

Moulton's for a Visit

Recently Aaron, Kira and family came to visit. We had so much fun while they were here!! The weather was amazing and we know how the Moulton's like to stay busy so we fit in as much as we could for one weekend! That goes for the food as well. :) We ate so much that I could have fasted for a week after and been fine. But that is what the trip was all about...amazing friends, good food, and a lot of fun! Below are pics from our weekend together.

Here's proof that even little ones remember those they love!! This is Lainey's reaction when she saw Brian. She hugged him and wouldn't let go for a good 5 minutes. So special!

We explored a park in Eagle by the Boise River. Super fun!

All the kids skipping rocks in the Boise River

The girls love their alone time!

We took them to a place in Meridian called The Farmstead. They had this huge rocking chair at the front so we had to take a pic.

Lainey tried to hatch a pumpkin! When that didn't work we went on a Hay ride around the pumpkin field.

Then we headed into the ginormous 18 acre corn maze. This thing was huge! The aerial view of it was amazing. They carved the corn to look like a guy in a canoe going down the Boise River. Every year they do a different design. It was really cool. Lainey was determined to walk the maze on her own!

Ahh...the Boise big toy!! Pressed board, a pvc pipe slide, and a giant black tube slide! It may look country but it was so fun and we are thinking of building on in our backyard!

They had a big corn box for the little ones to play in. We found corn in the most interesting places!

Our goodbye lunch. We definitely didn't want it to end.

Moulton's, we love you!! Thank you so much for making the drive and coming out to see us!

Downtown Boise

This weekend we took the kids to the Boise Art Museum and then spent the day in down town Boise. It was so beautiful. The trees are changing colors! I really want to thank Abigail for this day. It was her idea. She had seen the Boise Art Museum when we were in town on a different day and asked if we could go. So we planned it and it was such a great museum. They had all different types of art and the current display was of all local artists. We had a great time looking at all the different pieces and it really got the creative juices flowing. They have a really fun exhibit their for kids. A room where you can explore and touch everything. They had a big magnetic wall where you could move magnet pieces around and make designs. A giant chalk board for drawing art. Puzzles and computer design programs to make art. The kids really got into it.

Wyatt's Art on the chalk board

the big magnetic wall

After the museum we walked over to the capitol building and took some pics. It's a beautiful building and the kids loved climbing the stairs.



Then on our way back to the car we walked through a really pretty courtyard, not sure what it's called, but it's right in front of the Quest Arena and the Boise Center. There was a great fountain to play in and some little iron boys that Wyatt just had to wrestle with! It was a great day as a family!

One Last Boating Trip

I think it's official...we went on our last boating trip of the season tonight. I can't believe it's October 1st and we were still able to get out in the water. What a late summer we are having! When Jeff got off work we packed up and took the kids, and the dog, up to Black Canyon Reservoir for a few hours of fun in the warm sunshine. It was 90 degrees today but cooled down to about 80 degrees when we went out tonight. We had so much fun riding on the tube. Nothing but smiles!

Lainey is a little dare devil with her arms up!
(And just so you don't think I'm a bad mom, Abby was holding on tight to her life jacket the whole time!)

Oscar loved the boat. It was his first time on the boat since he was a puppy. He did great.

After a long and bumpy ride on the tube Wyatt decided to do some reading!

Lainey found the big orange buoys and pointed them all out to us.

We had a great summer of boating and we are looking forward to exploring the other lakes in the Boise area next summer. Now...bring on some fun winter snow to play in!!

Never ending sunshine!!

I don't mean to boast or brag but well, I'm going to! We are LOVING the weather here in Idaho. It is 1 day away from October 1st and it was 85 degrees and sunny today. Lainey is still wearing her sundresses and we are all in shorts. We are soaking in the vitamin D for sure! The only thing stopping us from playing out side is the sun going down!

Here's the forecast for the next 5 days in Star! Love it!

Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday	Monday
88° F | 50° F	90° F | 47° F	88° F | 49° F	83° F | 45° F	70° F | 40° F
Clear	Clear	Partly Cloudy	Partly Cloudy	Clear

What goes around comes around!

Wyatt's been into trying to scare everyone in the family lately. He walks around the house all quiet hoping to surprise someone and yells, "Ahhh" as he jumps out from behind a corner. He thinks he's so funny but not everyone in the house likes it, namely Shane. So Jeff thought he'd give Wyatt a taste of his own medicine this morning. Wyatt was downstairs brushing his teeth and Jeff snuck down the stairs stealth like and jumped out, yelled "Ahhh" and scared the pants off of Wyatt! Jeff scared him so bad that he was shaking and screaming and crying. Judge us if you like but Jeff and I thought it was so funny! We couldn't stop laughing and after a few minutes when Wyatt finally calmed down he was laughing about it too! I wish so badly that we had gotten his reaction on camera but I would venture to say that we will have another opportunity since Wyatt hasn't seemed to learn his lesson. This afternoon I heard him several times jumping out and yelling "Ahhh" at some unsuspecting family member somewhere in the house. I think he's getting our whole family in the spooky spirit of Halloween!

Boys and their toys!

Jeff's been talking about getting the kids started on riding dirt bikes for a while now. So...here we go! We sure are having fun on this new little XR50.

It's amazing how quickly the kids pick up riding something new. Way to go Abby and Wyatt!

Goofballs!

And, so that the kids don't have to ride their dirt bike alone...here's Jeff's new toy.