A Busy (wet) Day...

Tyler was on-call Saturday the 20th and my parents had just gotten home from their trip the previous night, but my new friend Maria had called me weeks in advance to do a 5K women's event with her. My parents were great to watch the kids and I was excited to get a morning off and exercise at the same time! However, I woke up to gallons of rain, East Coast rain! I couldn't believe it! We were very wet before the race even started...

Afterward, we were even more wet! It was still really fun. I was able to get to know some girls in my ward a little better and being soaking wet was an okay price to pay for friendship, freedom, and a work-out! However, I was REalLY, ReAlLy, WET!

That same day Chantelle went to homecoming. Her dress was perfect and, in spite of an ear infection, she looked awesome! (Chris looked pretty good too I guess :))

MmMmmMmm, chocolate cake!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU, COLESON BUDDY!
Mom and Dad had been on a week long trip to the Oregon Coast and got home just in time for dinner on Coleson's Birthday, the 19th. That night we opened a couple of gifts but we didn't truly celebrate until Monday (once Tyler was finally home from call for the weekend). I love this picture of all three of them, who looks the most excited? His sisters LOVE birthdays!

Addellyn was bursting with birthday excitement all weekend long. She picked, (proudly) wrapped, and then decided that she owned this super soft rhino ("yinosus") for Coleson's Birthday. Coleson was very mad at Addellyn for taking his new gift away, as you can see! Coleson has been screaming at Addellyn like this LOTs lately, especially when they are in the play room and she steals a toy, so I was glad to get this snapshot for the memory books.

Coleson has been very into throwing trucks/cars or balls and then he chases them and throws them again, chases, throws, chases, throws, etc. all around the house, it's the best game! So we made him a truck cake, not that he would care what it looked like as long as it was chocolate cake covered in frosting (chocolate and sugar are Coleson's best things in life, can you tell?)

Coleson enjoyed playing with all of his new toys, and fighting his sisters for them, but he was pretty quick to find his favorite toy: the high chair, buckeling and cleaning/eating the crumbs from beneath it. His favorite part of the night was eating the cake! I don't know if it's easy to tell or not but he was super excited to see the truck and the picture is blurry because his arms are flailing out of anxiousness.

Went to the ZOO!

And we had a blast! There was all kinds of fun things to look at, sit on, and play in...

Makinzie had a blast at the zoo. She loved the meerkats so much that we had to find a picture of them on the internet for her to take to show-and-tell at school. She thought they looked like they were watching a movie and talking to eachother, she had their personalities and familial positions all mapped out.

Addellyn loves animals in cages/behind glass she always gets super excited when she sees dogs or cats around too, but when they are next to her she becomes scared and has to be held (her whole body even trembles). So, we were very impressed by her willingness to touch the turtle.

Coleson was perfectly content hanging out in the stroller with a bucket of fruit cereal. It is so great that he's willing to just go along for the ride (most of the time).

Addellyn is ALWAYS talking about seeing the animals (or swimming). She asks when we can see more animals every night at dinner, and she is continually told that the animals have gone night night...we'll have to visit the zoo again soon.

First Day of School (26 days of school late!)

August 20, 2008 She's growing up sooo FAST!
It took all summer, but we finally figured out how to get Makinzie into Kindergarten. She now goes to a private school right behind the Adventist Church down the road (the public schools would make NO exceptions). She was super excited to go on her first day. The only thing that could have made the day better would have been a ride on "the big yellow school bus" but that will have to wait another year.

Makinzie is a few leaps ahead of the others in her class (she's a little bored with counting, writing numbers and letters individually and learning their sounds) but she is glad to have a few new friends and a wonderful teacher. We are glad that she is learning a little bit of patience and the need to listen/pay attention even if you think you already know EveRyThInG...

Makinzie was EvEN MORE excited to go to her second day of school (her smile was a bit more genuine :))! And Coleson seems to be happy and excited about a lot of things a lot of the time, he's such a fun little boy!

I think Addellyn was the MOST excited about school starting. She now has her very own backpack and lunch box (Kinzie's old ones). She helps get the mail by loading it into her pack. She also MUST ring the door bell EVERY time she enters the house!
Every day she jumps for joy when Logan's bus comes to the house to pick him up for school. We go out and watch him get lifted on to the bus (in his wheelchair) and then we wave good bye and watch for the bus as it goes around the horseshoe and passes back by the house a second time on its way to school. Her eyes pop out of her head with excitement and surprise every time the bus again passes the house, I know, it's hard to believe that you can see it leave, but then it's right there in front of your eyes once again. We love it! And thank goodness for the awesome bus driver who waves every time...

Twin Falls- I Love to see the Temple

On our way home from Sun Valley, we went to the Twin Falls Temple open house and we were able to walk through the beautiful building before it was dedicated by the Prophet. The inside was amazing and the kids, especially Makinzie, enjoyed seeing what a temple looks like up close.

Addellyn started screaming "Temple, temple!" as soon as we rounded the corner and she could see it from the road. She was SUPER excited! Excited children make the world a happy place, don't you think? :) Coleson took his turn to be really (loud) excited as soon as we were inside the temple (in a room that echoed super well) and everyone else was quiet, of course!

And a trip to Twin Falls would not have been complete without seeing "the falls." Coleson was thouroughly enjoying himself crawling around and eating random scraps of rock, bark, leaves, etc.

Makinzie and Addellyn were amazed by the amount of water and Addellyn really thought it looked like a great place to go swimming! (She has been begging for a swimming pool EVERY day since we have been back from Sun Valley...we are going to have to find her one, and soon!)

SuN VAllEy (out and about)

It was fun to be out enjoying nature with the family (especially since Tyler has started back at the hospital again). Sun Valley is a beautiful place to spend a weekend (but WAY too expensive to spend much more!).

Sun Valley/Ketchum were fun little towns to walk around and in and out of the unique shops. The kids especially loved the caramel apple shop and the art gallery that had a GIANT wooden chair as well as a few wooden flamingos and other animals out front. ( I don't know if you can tell, but Coleson's face is CoVereD in caramel, and he's holding the stick :))

It's a little hard to see because of the lighting and the need to quickly take a picture before I could really check to make sure my camera was on the right setting, but Coleson gets complete JOY out of feeding other people, especially Addellyn. He seems too little to be feeding himself a sandwhich, let alone his sister...and then he giggles with glee when she actually takes a bite.

Grandpa and Dad thought they could trick him by putting his little feet in the freezing water, but instead, he loved it and the girls promptly took their shoes off to join in the fun (until at the end, they were all completely SoAked!)

VaCAtiON to SuNVaLLEy (around the house)

We decided last minute (as soon as Tyler knew he had a few days off) to meet Tyler's parents in Sun Valley for a much needed vacation. We had a wonderful time at the annual craft and art fair, the free symphony concerts, shopping around town, and just hanging out in our nice condo!
We watched a lot of Olympics there in the condo... Coleson especially loved to cheer America on! :)

Makinzie gave an excellent family home evening lesson on being grateful, and she was very happy (and grateful) to have evryone's un-divided attention!

The kids loved swimming the best. We went out to the pool every day that we were at the condo. The pool was just outside our front window and Addellyn begged to go swimming every time she looked out the window, no matter the time of day (or how cold it was).

We could also see the ski slopes from our front window, as well as while we were swimming. The mountains were green and beautiful. It was so fun to be up in the mountains again.