Man vs. Mud

RB and I did our first Man Vs. Mud run. It was a blast. I wish we had more video and pictures of us as we went through but I'm glad we have a few because of the people that we went with. It was filled with obstacles that were easy to difficult, to freezing to hot. We had a great time! 

Mud run, we will return! 

School Again

A new school year has already arrived. I'm in 5th, MJ and RB are in 4th, Lil is in 2nd, and Buddy says he is in "Buddy School." I'm grateful for my sister and a good friend who got first day of pics for me. Lil is in the Duel Immersion program again and seems to be liking a whole lot better than last year. MJ has a guy teacher this year and really likes that. I hope we all have a great year! 

We were supposed to have a back to school movie night before school started. However, that didn't happen. So we had one after the first week of school. We had about 21 kids including mine. We had popcorn, popsicles, cookies, brownies, drinks, and parade candy. I think they all had fun. I know my girls loved it. Plus, I know some parents liked it because they went on dates. Overall, it was a successful night! RB, Chel, and I even got a game of cards in. 

Yea for school!

Grandmas and The Fair

Going to grandmas for Sunday dinner is always good. The kids love to make hollyhock dolls too. Now we need to get some starts and get them growing at our home too!

 

The fair is always a bitter sweet. Fun to go but it means an end to summer. The kids loved the parade and then the rides. We were lucky to have used all of our tickets right before the downpour of rain. The rain lasted the rest of the night too. So we walked around and saw MJ's blue ribbon for her crafty Christmas tree, saw some animals, and then had a little dinner. It was a good night. 

Goodbye summer and hello to a new school year. 

McCall, ID

At the beginning of summer we decided we needed a last little hurrah vacation before school started. We have never been to McCall, ID but have heard wonderful things about it. So we booked our condo and looked forward to it all summer long. We decided to take some stops on our way up. We first stopped in Twin Falls and saw the falls. We also stopped at the temple and walked around it. 

Next, we stopped at the fossil beds sometime after Twin Falls. RB loved it and took a ton of pictures to go with his 4th grade curriculum. The kids were a little weary at first but then found a hands on learning corner and loved it. They didn't want to leave. 

In this one small town they had these cool trains. They do scenic tours and dinner rides on the weekends. Buddy was happy to see the trains of course. 

Finally we made it to McCall. As we were unloading this is the sight we had. Beautiful! We decided all of our vacations this summer have been rainy. We still had a good time though even though our outings were planned around the weather. 

We started with a nature hike and some good parkour. The hike was only a mile long and we could have gone much farther. That is good that our kids are getting used to hikes. 

Another thing we did was tour the smoke jumpers base. This was full of cool facts and interesting things to see. We got to sit inside the plane they jump out of. Ms M was being her typical 2 year old self, but besides that the tour was great. 

Our next adventure was finding a good mountain bike trail for RB. Lil tried to follow and didn't get very far. Then MJ took a turn. Luckily we found a really cool dirt bike trail that was a loop. The kids LOVED running and riding on the trail. So while RB rode his own trails the kids got to run and play. 

After our biking fun, we headed to the beach. The kids like playing in the water even though it was a little cold. Then we created a two headed mermaid, and built a sand castle. All were good times. 

 We had so much fun in McCall. We are planning another trip up there some time. Next time we will bring everyone bikes though, try to find more beach areas, find more hikes we can go on, and go to the hot springs.