Sunday, September 22, 2013

September Means School Starts!

Gabe has been having a fabulous time this summer and now it's over officially today, the Autumn Equinox. But that means Fall has begun officially, too.

Gabe started his second year of preschool with Miss Julie. He is going a full 3-days a week now :) He is loving it! Lots of fabulous art projects and learning of his numbers and practicing his ABCs!

Let's see. We won a really nice grill through Archie's work at the yearly Summer work party at Cow-a-bunga. So we've been doing some grilling! Archie enjoyed putting it together and leaving out a few screws here and there ;)

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But Gabe got into some crazy antics a couple of weeks ago...well, not his fault, per se. But a friend accidentally threw a wooden object at him on Memorial Day and he ended up getting a pretty deep cut. It was a bloody horror show when he came up the stairs...blood just streaming down his whole face. His two friends and brothers came up the stairs so devastated. They literally thought they had killed him and that they were going to jail cuz that's where bad people go. So sad.

We thought we could close it up and he'd be OK, but another few days later we went over to a friend's house and she has a German Shepherd who has an infected ear...we don't know exactly what happened but the next thing we know the dog has her mouth around Gabe's head and his would was reopened. No, visible bite marks or anything. But it was pretty scary. So we took him into the doctor and has his little cut glued shut, finally. It's healing!!!!

First non-stitch! They glued it! Such a trooper.


Such a trooper. It was pretty traumatizing hearing the screams as they put the glue on him. :( But a sucker and an ice cream later and he was good to go!

Archie's  brother came down to stay for a surgery he needed performed and we helped him recover and spent time with him. We ended up going to the super duper Scheel's store that has a freakin' Ferris Wheel in its store! Lots of fun things to do with the kiddos...a play place, an aquarium, and pictures with sharks and fish that we 'caught.' (wink wink).

Fun day at Scheel's!!!

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Let's no forget soccer! Gabe started for the first time this year! He's enjoying it so far. He's not the most athletic out there, but they are all having so much fun and that's the most important thing.

Good and windy at soccer tonight :)


Gabe's first soccer game tonight!


We also headed down to the first ever Provo Pride Festival. It was small but great. Lots of people and vendors and local groups and churches supporting the GLBT community. We even got to make a noodle necklace made out of rainbow pasta! I love being able to teach Gabe about love and acceptance and caring about others.

Gabe showing of his Pride Festival rainbow necklace!


Lots of gorgeous sunsets and clouds this month too :)

Beautiful sunset tonight!

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Bliss!

I'm having a little Fall Equinox party today and I'll post about that later :) Happy Fall everyone.


Monday, August 26, 2013

August Fun!

August went by in a flash! I don't know where it went...swoosh and out the door :)

Gabe had swimming lessons with his friends Alex and Lizzie!

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We went camping again with some more friends where we really roughed it. We tried to find a walk-in campsite but by the time we got up there on a Friday, they had all been taken. So we tried out their dispersed sites aka no running water and no toilets! So Archie dug a latrine and we headed to a store and got some extra water. It was really fun. We camped really close to a forest enclosure and the kids went and played in their all day. We ate yummy food and had some yummy beers and a campfire to end both nights :)

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We made Magic Power Shields and talked about the Plains Native Americans and listened to some fantastic music while creating art and learning of other cultures!

Gabe's magic power shield. We learned about the Plains Native Americans today :)

A transformer near our neighborhood blew out the other night and knocked out the power for a few hours. So we gathered with our neighbors and talked and let the kids play outside till the lights came back on.

We had fires on the other side of the mountain that made for some pretty sweet sunsets and clouds.

There were some sweet clouds going on today :)

Archie had his work party at Cow-a-Bunga water park and it was spectacular for Gabe! He keeps asking when we can go back :)

Fun times at Cowabunga Bay!!!!
Cow-a-bunga!

And he has started soccer this year. He's had his first practice and his first game happens tomorrow night. He signed up with his neighbor friend and so far loving it! Sports for your kids become so much better when you are not coaching :) Yay to enjoying soccer this year!

So it's been a fantastic month and now onto school! Gabe starts his second year of preschool next week.

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Sunday fun times with friends

Battle Creek Sunday hike!!!!
Sunday hike with Gabe

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And can't resist Shadow

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Or Wolfy

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Camping at Mirror Lake!

My friends invited Archie and I and Gabe up to go camping with them last weekend and it was so fun. We decided one night would do us since we are always weary with Gabe and camping...But they had two boys that Gabe played with the whole time.

They brought up their water-rafting raft and handcrafted some oars and we went on the lake. A thunderstorm followed us up but it wasn't too bad. We got off the boat right as it started to downpour. Luckily we didn't see too much lightning!

Camping up in the mountains with a beautiful lake and beautiful trees hit the spot. We sat around the campfire and drank some beer, roasted hot dogs and marshmallows and gazed up at the Universe. With no light pollution, the sky at night is gorgeous.

The only thing bad about camping is the sleeping. I don't sleep well and even less so when camping. But one night ain't too bad. Gabe got to see experience nature and getting dirty with friends and we got to relax with friends in nature. We even saw a couple of deer run through our camp!

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Our beautiful campsite


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Gabe sleeping peacefully in the car!


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The deer that ran through!

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Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Cousin Time!

Archie's brother Logan and his family all came down this weekend for vacation! They stayed with us for 4 days! Fun times for little Gabe since he has no siblings :) It was a full calendar with the Dinosaur Museum, swimming pool, splash park, Discovery Museum, movies, and all around kid mayhem!

It's great for Gabe to see his family since Uncle Logan and Aunt Sarah and their four kids live in Oregon. Now they are headed off for more than two weeks worth of camping and dinosaur site exploring!

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Gabe had so much fun with his cousins this weekend! He is sad to see them go.


It was fast and furious but oh so fun!

Monday, June 24, 2013

Family Pictures 2013!

It's been almost 2.5 years since we last got our family pictures done! Way too long, I know. At least once a year, right?

Well, my beautiful friend Jill agreed to take our pictures up at a lovely site in the mountains!

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I think they turned out pretty good. :)