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!

Tractor Rides

This afternoon we stopped by the shop to say "Hi" to Dad and I needed to learn how to do a couple of things on the computer. Trevin and Cheyenne love going to the shop, they not only get to see dad, but they get to see Bubba, and Grandma(sometimes), and PAPA! Trevin was especially excited to see Papa today. Trevin said Hi to Papa and then Papa asked Trevin if his dad had taken him to ride on the tractor. The answer was no. So Papa told Trevin "Go ask your Dad if you can drive the tractor." That is all the help Trevin needed. He hunted down Dad and said "We go drive a tractor?!" Trevin didn't stop asking about it all day! Dad brought home the tractor keys that night and we had a family outing to the farm. Trevin was pretty excited. They climbed in the tractor and drove around the field.Then they moved some dirt around with the big scoop.
Trevin was so excited.
Next they drove around some more and then I think Trevin's favorite part... they dug a huge hole with the backhoe!

Trevin loves tractors and his favorite is a backhoe. This must have been a dream come true for this little boy! His face lit up when they were getting ready to dig and then he got this look of concentration while he was helping dad with the controls.

Cheyenne had fallen asleep in the car, but she was pretty excited when I woke her up and she saw the tractor. We had lots of fun watching!

After a few minutes Gage asked Cheyenne if she wanted a turn and, oh boy, she did. She had been fine to watch, but as soon as Gage made mention of her driving the tractor she couldn't hold still.

We even loaded the whole family in for a couple of minutes. We had so much fun and we were so glad that Papa suggested it!

The A Team

All summer Gage has been the sub for a softball team. We have loved getting to go and watch the games! We knew lots of people on the team which made it even more fun to watch... Uncle Trav, Uncle Mike and Justin all were regulars and then Gage played most of the time too.We had lots of fun, Trevin loves baseball and we play in the back yard all the time. He is getting so good at hitting the ball. I love how observant little kids are, we went to one game and the next day I found Trevin with Gage's metal bat out in the garage. He tapped the bat on the cement, then held up the bat and shook his behind, then he would swing the bat and trow it across the garage and run in a circle! I was shocked, could he really learn all that from one game! We got some old bucket lids and taught Trevin how to run the bases and how to pitch and tag people out. By the end of the season Trevin was a pro. His baseball gear became very important by the end of the season too. We found some baseball cleats at Savers, Trevin knew exactly what they were when I picked them up. He said "Running shoes like dad's for Trevin!" He wears those "running shoes" everywhere. Right now there is no other option for shoes in his mind. Next up he pulled out his ball and bat and mitt they go to every game, and anywhere else he can sneak them in. Last his basket ball shorts, black socks and "team shirt." Trevin is very quick, he figured out that dad wore these things to the games and he wanted to too!

A lot can change in a few short months! Even the team changed. Two weeks before the end of the season, Wazzy (aka Trav) moved away to med school. We would miss watching him, so the first game we went to after he left, we decided to represent. Trevin and Cheyenne were really excited to get their faces painted, and we painted Brinlee's too. Sierra was the artist that made Trevin shirt into an awesome team shirt with Trav's name and number on the back.
We have had so much fun cheering on the team, but our favorite person to cheer for was DAD! you can see him up to bat in the next pictures.

Go A Team! We can't wait to watch again next year.

Carrots and Bruises

Our garden has been a little neglected this year, but luckily it still decided to produce. Trevin and Chey love to help pick the vegetable and water. One day I had taken the two of them out to the garden and helped them each pick a carrot. Then we went to the hose and washed them, and then they got to eat them. Trevin thought it was so cool! He wanted another one and I told him that dad would help him get another one when he got home (10 min away). Well Trevin never forgets anything and he grabbed dad as soon as he got out of the jeep and lead him to the garden. Trevin just expected one carrot like I had gotten for him, but dad picked a whole bunch and Trevin was thrilled. He showed dad where they needed to go to wash the carrots and even let Cheyenne do some of the work!
Our carrots were really yummy with dinner!

So this part of the post should have come first since Trevin has a bruise on his head in all the first pictures. Oh well. Trevin is quite accident prone, I'm sure it is because he is little and because he is a boy but he gets himself hurt all the time! This was just another one of his many bumps, but I figure I need to make note of some of them, so I can show him when he gets older!

We were at Sugar and Chief house, all the grandkids were playing outside and Trevin tripped on the concrete. Unfortunately his head took the majority of the impact and he had an instant goose egg! We decided to head home and baby our little boy. It was bed time, but I didn't want to send Trevin to bed right away, especially if he ended up having a concussion or something. He was more than excited about getting to lay on Mom and Dad's bed to watch a movie. He hauled in his Lightning McQueen pillow and blanket while I got him some ice. We chilled for about an hour and a half before he fell asleep.

I couldn't decide which picture showed his goose egg better, so you get to see them both.
This thing stuck around for about two weeks. Poor kid!