ROCK CLIMBING

This summer Bubba took Gage and I rock climbing. Once was all it took to convince us that this was a sport that we really enjoyed. Gage is getting his Christmas presents early this year and I convinced him to do the same for me... I asked for rock climbing gear. I was so excited. We made our first run with our own gear while Bubba was still available to teach me how to belay.

Bubba lead climbing. I'm not to this daring yet, but maybe one day.
Gage belaying.
Gage being real daring and letting me belay him. It felt so retarded the first time I did it but it was a lot better by the end of the night.
Gage climbing.
Trevin and Cheyenne sit patiently in the back of the truck watching until Gage tells Trevin it is time to get ready for his turn. Trevin as usual loves this kind of thing. Gage made him a harness the first time he came with us and Trevin always makes sure it is in the backpack before we leave. Trevin prepping for his climb. He is very independent and doesn't want any help once he is all hooked in.
Trevin climbing.

Getting a few pointers from Mom and Dad.
Cheyenne always wants in on the action too. If Trevin can do it she can too!
She actually climbed, with help from Bubba but she reached for ledges and pushed up with her feet. She was so excited.
With it getting dark earlier, we are hard pressed to fit in runs. But hopefully we'll get to go a few more times before it gets too cold. I really like that this is a sport that the whole family can get involved in and I can't wait for a few more years when the kids can really get into it.

CHEYENNE in the spot light

For the last week or so I've had Trevin watch a Leap Frog Letter show. He loves it and wants to watch it all the time. He has started picking out letters everywhere. On our shirts and on signs while we are out working. He'll see a letter and tell us what it says. It is so exciting to see how fast he learns. But nothing has been more impressive this week than when I started asking Cheyenne what the letters say... at barely 18 months old Cheyenne knows all the sounds of the alphabet!

We put her on YouTube. If the embedded video isn't working CLICK HERE to check out my little girl showing off how smart she is.

Ward Campout

Our ward camp out was really late in the year, it was scheduled for September 11. Our little family was excited to go, we missed it last year and we haven't been camping at all this year. Gage got off work a little early so we could get set up and enjoy hanging out with everyone from the ward. Turns out every one had checked the weather and had seen that it was supposed to get really cold that night and this is the turn out. We had 4 families come! Everyone else's loss, WE HAD A BLAST!

The whole crew.
Trevin was so excited to set up the tent, you can see it in the top left corner. Then it was time to build a fire. Trevin and Cheyenne both had fun watching dad. They were both really excited when we pulled out all the stuff we needed to make Crabtree Soup!The soup was delicious and just what we needed on a chilly night. We had lots of fun hanging out by the fire. The little kids that were there decided it was a lot of fun to set their marshmallows on fire. Cheyenne figured out that putting her hands in her pockets kept them warm. I think that Trevin and Gage ate a whole bag of marshmallows between the two of them.
When it was time for bed, the kids and I headed to the tent to start bundling up. They each had their PJs, then Their regular clothes, then two jackets, and hats. Like I said we knew it was gunna be cold that night.
The plan was for Trevin and Gage to share a mummy bag and for Mom and Cheyenne to share the other. This didn't work out so great. Cheyenne has never really been the child that will fall asleep in your arms, she likes her own bed, where she can spread out. By midnight she had woken up screaming, because I was in her space, 3 times. So we decided to pack up and head to the truck for the night. Trevin and Gage each got their own sleeping bag at that point. Cheyenne got the front passenger seat of the truck and a blanket. I got the driver's seat. We ended up turning on the heater in the truck a couple of times through out the night. It was really cold, I sat awake and watched the thermostat from inside the truck...41...36...32... by the time it was time to wake up the thermostat read 26 degrees! Yikes! I was more than excited to get out of the truck and start a fire. To bad we forgot to bring the wood inside, it was all frozen. Before long the sun came out and we all thawed. Trevin and Gage said they were both really warm in the tent (Gage slept just fine in shorts.) Breakfast was really yummy pancakes and sausage.

I love this picture of my two boys.

Random Summer

I had Gage load all of the pictures from his phone onto the computer so I could add pictures to previous blogs. To my surprise there were lots of other summer pictures that I had forgotten about. So here they are, some of the random fun things that made up our summer.

We did this last year and I decided to do it again this year. Who knows maybe we'll make it a tradition. This hair cut is always followed by a buzz cut after about a week.
The kids were so excited when the weather got warm, we love to play outside. Everyone knows that summer time means Parade time. We go a great spot all to our selves at the city parade. With no other kids around us, we ended up getting candy from EVERYONE! Trevin and Cheyenne loved the little flags that got passed out and they loved getting candy and other prizes.
We went to the fair after the parade. Trevin got to try the super big slide with his cousins. Trevin also won a bag of army men from the gator toss... but nothing compared to the loads of candy our kids brought home.
I'm not sure when this next picture is fun, but I'm sure Trevin was thrilled to be working with Dad at the time and even more excited to ride this fun toy.
I always said I would never plant petunias, it is what my mom plants and they're way pretty, but I wanted something different. After a failed attempt at a flower garden last year, I planted petunias this year. And wow they have taken over! Here is a start of the season picture next to a middle of the season picture. They grew way more than I expected and filled out the flower beds great. They didn't stop growing and have now taken over. They are taller than some of my baby bushes that we planted a 1 years ago! Maybe I'll plant petunias every year!

IMAGINATION

A couple of weeks ago Trevin crawled over to my feet and started barking. "Ruff, Ruff, Treat." I asked if he was Trevin the dog. He barked and told me, "No, I Buster." After a couple of days of Trevin pretending to be a dog, Cheyenne decided to join in the fun. When I asked Trevin who his puppy friend was, he told me "she Joey."

So please meet Joey and Buster. The two cutest puppies in the WORLD!I love the imagination these two have and I love that they feed off each other. If one of them decides to be a dog the other quickly plays along and lately we've had a lot of barking in the house. What is their favorite thing to play as dogs..."Chetch" (aka Fetch). They pick up whatever object we throw with their mouths and everything. I can't get over it because this isn't something that we encouraged or told them to do. Trevin knew dogs picked things up with their mouths and Cheyenne will do anything that Trevin does.

Buster playing fetch...

Joey playing fetch...
Joey and Buster will both ask for "bones" if they want a treat while being their dog selves.

One Sunday morning Cheyenne woke up early and Gage and I could hear her playing on her bed, panting. After a couple minutes we figured out what she was playing... DOG of coarse! What 17 month old doesn't wake up and first thing decided she should be a dog. We laughed so hard. Trevin wasn't far behind in figuring out that "Joey" was around. Before we knew it we had two puppies to try to get ready for church. We actually had to leave "Buster" strapped into his chair at the table until he turned back into Trevin, because dogs can't go to church. What a life!

LABOR DAY

This Labor Day weekend was full of surprises and was a roller coaster of sorts with it's ups and downs, literally any figuratively. We planned a way fun weekend up at Bear Lake. We only made it up once this summer and we were really excited about going again. Gage recently got a new calling at church, Elder's Quorum President. I am so excited for him and he is nervous and excited, I know he'll do great. This is was his first week so we planned on coming home Saturday night to set up chairs for church and to be here on Sunday for the block meetings and all of Gage's other meetings and then head back up to the lake. Thus the ups and downs literally. We got to the Lake on Friday evening and had a fun night out at one of the local burger joints. Cheyenne tripped with matchbox car in her mouth just before we left the house Friday, she cut her tongue and I think the back of her throat, she refused to swallow and had drool dripping out of her mouth and wouldn't eat anything. Luckily she decided ice cream was OK to eat and by Saturday morning she was back to her usual self (thank goodness mouths heal fast!). Trevin loves the trailer and thought it was lots of fun to have everyone on the same bed to watch a movie, Dad even slept with him all night, since Cheyenne and I ducked out of the movie early to steal the other bed.
We slept in as much as the sun would let us. Lately Trevin loves the 'Go Dog Go' book and in it it talks about night being a time to sleep and it's time to get up when the sun is up. So When it is dark outside Trevin will tell us, "Its dark outside, a time to go a bed." and then when he wakes up in the morning and it's light outside he'll excitedly say "Mom, Dad, The sun is up!" or "The sun is awake!" I love it. So we woke up when Trevin figured out the sun was awake and we got ready to go to Minnetonka cave.
We had tried to go up once before on a rainy day but everyone else had had the same idea, we got up there and bought tickets and had about 20 minutes before our tour started. We told Trevin there are bats in the cave and got to show him some pictures. He was so excited by the time we headed into the cave. Cheyenne was happy to wander for a few minutes.
At the mouth of the cave, we could already feel the cool breeze.

Trevin did such a great job, he walked the whole mile tour (total in and out) and had lots of fun counting the stairs. There had to be about 400 each way. He liked all the rock and so did Cheyenne, Gage is tough and he carried Chey the whole way, which can't be easy with how squirmy she was trying to get down. We had lots of fun and our tour guide did a great job keeping the kids entertained. Trevin and Chey were awesome, neither one of them cried at the end of the tour when they turn out all the lights and you get the chance to experience "total darkness" and they liked pointing out all the boogers on the ceiling, aka stalagmites.

The kids fell asleep on the ride back to the trailer, so we decided to go for a drive and listen to a book "Mocking Jay." Then when we got back to the trailer we ate and before we knew it Chersti and James and kids were up to join the party. We had lots of fun playing for a few hours and then it was time to head home for church.

I was excited to be home on Saturday night, I didn't feel all that great, but I made it through with Gage's help and support along with family helping with the kids while Gage was out. By Sunday I was feeling much better, church went great, Cheyenne and I got to help in the nursery, which was much better than wrestling with her in class or walking the halls. Gage finished his meetings and we were in the car again. You think after so many hours int he car our kids would get sick of it, but this time they slept, the whole way! When we got to the trailer the kids played with their cousins and I got dinner ready. We got to play a couple of rounds of 'sequence' with Ryan and Alex and got beat all but once. Then it was off to bed.

Monday morning we decided to head up to Bloomington Lake. I wanted to try the rope swing, since I passed on it last time and Alex hadn't been before. There were quite a few people there, it being Labor Day and all. Alex thought we were plotting a trick against her when we made her put on a bathing suit before we left, she thought we were joking about the rope swing. To her surprise everyone was really jumping in the lake with a rope swing when we made the hike in. Trevin loved watching everyone jump in and even counted down for them and cheered them on. Literally everyone (Dad, Bubba, Alex, Mom and complete strangers!)

Trevin chillin' out on the rocks watching everyone take the plunge.

Dad was the first in from our group. Trevin and Cheyenne sat with mom and thought it was awesome!Right after Dad went in Trevin wanted a turn, I knew this would happen so I packed his swiming trunks, all it took was taking off his shirt in the cold weather and he changed his mind.

Bubba's Back Flip...Alex is next...Some of these pictures are blurry because they are taken from a video, but I needed the proof that I went in! Me... My cheering section, Trevin even told me when to go!
A family picture at Bloomington! If you haven't ever been, you should! It is gorgeous!
Bubba and Alex posing for a panoramic shot.The rest of our trip was full of just relaxing and great views of the very blue Bear Lake! Maybe we'll try to make it up for one more trip...

TODDLERS

A surprise around every corner. That is what you get when you have two toddlers. I'm sure many of you are very aware of this fact, but some things just have to be recorded... and I would hate to allow Cheyenne's latest scheme to get forgotten.

I didn't take a picture I was too worried about trying to clean up the mess. I'll try to paint one in your mind. I was upstairs in the kitchen working on cards with Trevin being my "big helper." Cheyenne was quietly keeping herself entertained. (Yeah that should have been the first hint!) After about 15 minutes I hear Cheyenne "Mom... MOM... Hep(help)... Scuck" coming from the unfinished portion of our house. I think,"Great." It is a disaster area from construction and then I added to the mess this morning with card stuff. I can only imagine the mess Chey just added. I walk in, she isn't in dad's tool corner and she isn't in my scrapbooking corner... she is on the computer table that sits smack in the middle of the room, computer tower knocked over, all the paper piles that had been on the table are now spread across the floor. She is very excited to see me, since she accidentally pushed the chair away from the table (her only escape route). Next, the worst part... she hands me a pencil and says "See." OH I SEE IT! She drew me a lovely picture all over the computer screen! Not just a small picture in one corner, my entire screen is covered with pencil. After trying to erase it with an eraser for about 10 minutes (which doesn't work). I finally call Gage, fortunately he is calm and tells me to just "Google" it. Luckily I've erased enough of the screen that I can see the blurry words of other unfortunate mothers that have experienced the same thing and worse. Most used a Mr Clean Magic Eraser, but I've seen what that can do to a finish on walls and didn't dare try it on my computer... so after more blurry searching... minimal Windex on a soft cloth, WORKED LIKE A CHARM! Cheyenne is forgiven and back in Mom's good graces!