.fall.

Fall is officially here, and it is a beautiful thing.  I'm keeping the windows open to let in the cooler air, and we have packed away the summer shorts sandals.  I always feel some excitement as the seasons change and usher in a different pace and rhythm of life.  Fall feels like a deep and vibrant breath before the hibernation of winter.  I look forward to it every year!

At the end of August we celebrated by Grandma's 91st birthday.  She is still full of so much joy and energy for life.  She holds a special place in our hearts!

 The last day of summer vacation, we lived it up by going to the park, splash pad, lunch date, and a big back to school feast.

These little humans sure are something else!

Finn and the neighborhood gang that all entered Kindergarten.

In September,  we had our annual neighborhood block party with plenty of food and fun for the kids.

Labor day, we met up with some old friends for a day a Wheeler Farm, lunch, and swimming.  Again loads of fun for the littles.

E might be our little water baby!

Meg started pre-school, and hasn't looked back.  She adores her teachers, and can't get over the fact that they do crafts AND have a snack every time...her dream come true.

We've been enjoying the cooler weather with plenty of hikes and excursions.  The kids particularly loved the top of Butterfield canyon where they could look down on the copper pit.

Three little lumps on a log

Another favorite place is the Bonneville shoreline trail.  Finn triumphantly climbed this rock by himself, and of course Meg and dad had to follow suite.

E and I taking in the view.

My world!

Finn has been the garden steward this year, and has been diligent about picking the produce as often as it appears.  Despite his best efforts, the zucchinis was still quite elusive.  These behemoth zuke was finally plucked when it grew to big to hide.

Amongst all the parties, was our stake's harvest fair.  We thought it would be a fun thing to do with the kids, but sometimes reality has a way of slapping you in the face.  The little dudes were so far gone by the time we got there, that we only lasted about 30 minutes before they were all in nuclear meltdowns.  AT least we have one happy photo with all of us before it all fell apart.

Finn ran in his first jog-a-thon fundraiser for his school, and knocked out 1.5 in  20 minutes...not bad for a 5 year old.

Last week we experienced our first vomiting in the car.  I know...three kids and this is our first time.  I'll count ourselves lucky.  We were stuck in traffic for a good 35 minutes and poor Meg kept crying out that it was so stinky.  Finn was just relieved to be feeling better.

General Conference weekend, we made the most of the nice weather on Sunday evening, and drove over to suncrest to check out some new places to walk.  Being out in nature sure brings a lot of joy into our world.

Last Monday I was feeling frazzled and frustrated with life.  I was just about to loose it after Meg had spilled a cup of juice (I absolutely hate spilled juice!), when Finn ran in to show me the rainbows out side.  I was still fuming about the juice, but looking at those rainbows helped put things into perspective again.

We will be out of town visiting my parents for Halloween so I haven't really put too much effort into our fall festivities, but my kids would not forgive me if we didn't go pick out some lovely gourds.  So we made our way over to a cute little local farm and picked to our hearts content, and munched on donuts in the process.  It's a beautiful thing to be a kid!

.setting of summer

August is winding down and finally cooling off as we get close to settling into a rhythm when school starts next week.  Finn will be heading to Kindergarten, and Meg to preschool.  I'm excited to watch them continue to grow and learn.  Of course there's a part of me that will always want them to stay little and innocent, but mostly I'm excited!
Roy and I hit our 9 year anniversary, and spent a night away up in midway at the Homestead.  After 9 years, I can say that Marriage is something that doesn't just happen, it's something that has be nurtured and worked at.  Roy is my partner through it all and continues to love and respect me as his equal.  He is a crazy hard worker, and still makes me laugh until I get hiccups.  I love his little quirks and willingness to serve constantly.  He's a rockstar!

 wearing niece Jessie's old lady sunglasses.

 View from our room

 at the top of the Homestead crater

We have filled up the remaining few weeks of freedom with fairs, carnivals, and a little Olympics...just because we could.

 Meg watched a little of the gymnastics competition, and mostly just loved the pretty "tards", but she did try her hand at a few trampoline tricks to improve her tumbling skills.

 With the cooler mornings, we've managed to get out for a few walks.  Most of the time E ends up on my shoulders making me do most of the work.

 E's preferred method of eating orange slices is to clamp them between her teeth, and leave it there for an hour until all the juice is sucked out.  I love that little nut!

We are lucky to live so close to family and the county fair and get to go every year with our cousins.  This year E was really having none of it (combination of the heat, and no sleep).  The only time she wasn't screaming or crying was when we stopped for some cotton candy, and the petting zoo where she could get a closer look at these little goats.

 Meg is very cautious about life in general, so the fact that she got this close to a goat was pretty awesome!

 I let Finn and Meg each choose one ride they would like to go on.  Finn had his heart set on the giant slide, and Meg was over the moon about the little car ride...until it actually started moving, then tears...lots of tears.  She made it around maybe 5 times, before she realized that she wasn't going to die, and then this...

 SMILES FOR MILES!

A few days ago we had a scary ordeal when Finn went missing for about an hour.  I had told him to clean up his toys downstairs while I put the girls to bed, but when I went to down to check on him I couldn't find him anywhere.  Pretty soon we had the whole neighborhood looking for him, and the police were called.  Luckily, we had a neighbor come over and look through the house again, and discovered him under the sheets of the bed in the guest room...the one Roy had crawled across and looked completely empty.  So besides aging 10 years, and looking like an idiot, all is well!

Our neighborhood always throws an end of summer carnival, and the kids always love it!

 This year, E scored some sweet glow in the dark bracelets, and then proceeded to hold up her arm the rest of the night to prevent them from falling off.

 Finn and his buddy hunter ran themselves silly doing all the activities and chasing down candy from the candy cannon.  Pretty much a perfect night for little boys.

and Meg...well Meg found her favorite teenage girl friend and stayed latched to her the whole night helping out at the fishing pond booth.  We are lucky to have good neighbors who love our kids and look out for them.

.crazy dog days of summer.

it's hard to believe that we are already half way through our summer.  where has the time gone? with scout camps, trying to finish a large order of signs on top of the celebrating Independence Day and Pioneer day it has left little time for anything else.  But for the sake of the kids we have tried to get out and enjoy as much as we can.

for summer solstice we splashed at a splash pad,

 squeezed into tiny bathing suits,

 indulged in ice cold snow cones (take note of Finn's brain freeze agony),

 swung on tire swings,

  enjoyed a summer picnic for dinner,

  and stayed up until dark to light sparklers and basically run around crazy because we could.

 We wanted to spend as much time together before Roy left for his week long scout trip so we took the train down town the weekend before and just did whatever we felt like.  The church history museum had a fun children's exhibit that the kids spent lots of time playing in.

 we ended the trip with dinner in city creek, playing in the water fountains, and eating caramel apples.  It was one of those times that I just kept thinking how perfect the day was...everyone happy and together.

Roy's campsite was closer then usual this year, so he invited us up to have dinner one night.  It started raining when we got there, but the kids were not thwarted by it and happily ate their watermelon and hotdogs.

The 4th of July was as exciting as ever.  We have discovered a sweet spot for the Riverton parade that is  right at the beginning, and in the shade...it's well worth showing up an hour before hand just to see the littles in total rapture of it all.  E was particularly stoked this year!

 Among other delights of our summer was the sandpit episode where Meg and E both ended up with copious amounts of mud dumped on them.  I'm sure it all started out as fun, but ended up with sad soiled girls.

Meg has been doing tumbling this summer, and if you know her at all, you know she is in total bliss. She often asks if she can get her "tard" (leotard)  on and go to tumbling.

 Finn welcomed our first case of strep...of course at the most inopportune time.  thank the heavens he is an easy sick kid.

 most of the last two weeks have been spent cranking out signs, 18 to be exact.  Between friends and family we have managed to pull it off with the kids not being too neglected.  It's definitely not a pace I can keep up all the time, but glad I had the chance to hone my skills.

being so busy, everything else has taken a back seat, including my yard and garden.  The weeds are growing aplenty, and when I finally spent 5 minutes and walked through it, I found three GIANT zucchinis nestled under the giant leaves of the squash plant and two decent sized cukes.  E gladly took one from me and ate it straight up.  Sadly this past week we were told by city officials not to eat our garden produce because our secondary water has been contaminated by a toxic algae bloom...yeah... we totally missed the boat on that one.