Getting our FALL on

 

 

It is hard to believe that fall is here. Even if we are still swimming . I hear that it should be cooling down soon. I will believe it when I feel it.

 

 Lane asks every day if Halloween is tomorrow. Nope, not quite yet. They both change what costume they want to be on a daily basis. Due to that I will be going to Party City 4 days before October 31st. Not too close to the Halloween Eve crowd but close enough to where they still have things in stock.  Then they can choose if they want to be Spiderman or Batman or the Green Lantern... or a ninja or a skeloton. Pretty sure Rusty will choose what Lane picks. That seems to be the common trend at our home right now.

 

 

I thought it would be fun to have a special Halloween after school snack. It was hard to choose which spooky donut they wanted so I solved the problem. One dozen, please! I liked the pumpkin spice donut the best. I would know because I tried all 4 of the seasonal specials. And when I say "tried" I don't mean one bit. Like more than half of the darn thing.  The jack-o-lantern glaze came in a close second. 

 

 

 

 I felt like a good mom with a plan for once and came home from our festive treat to decorate the tree all Halloween-y. The boys were way diggin it. I never let them help decorate. It drives me nuts. I also very not like (trying not to use the word hate) when they want to help me in the kitchen. When other moms say it is one of their favorite things to do with their kids I know they are lying. So point given, they were very proud of their tree and I'm pretty sure it was arranged about 20 different times throughout the evening.

I never have anything cute outside of my front door so I made this wreath. It didn't turn out exactly how I pictured but oh well. It will only be out there for 2 months anyway.

The big K

Lane started KINDERGARTEN this year! Leave it to me to blog about it a month later. He had been waiting all summer long for this. Seriously. The best part is that uncle Craig is in 6th grade at the same school! That has got to be a weird feeling for my mom. 

We went to meet the teacher the day before where he got to find his desk and color a picture about himself. Can you tell he loves to pose for pictures?

The big day has arrived! He was dressed and ready to go the second he hopped out of bed. Too bad he had to wait a few more hours since he goes to afternoon, half day Kindergarten.

 
He teared up when I walked him to his classroom but his teacher said he stopped the second he sat down. It has been smooth sailing ever since.

And this is how I find Rusty while Lane is gone. Enjoying his alone time with free reins of the remote!

Last Half Of July



I turned 29 (insert mid life crisis). I told Casey that for my thirtieth I will  need to be in a "happy" place, literally, or else I might just be on the floor all day long. I said Hawaii might do the trick.

I did have a great birthday! The boys surprised me with a mint chocolate chip ice cream cake from Pets n Robins. Which really is Baskin Robins. That's what Lane calls it for some reason. Then they were off to play with cousins all day while Casey and I spent some quality quiet, NO KIDS time together.

We went to Oceanside CA! It's funny how we go to the same place every year but each trip brings different fun, new things.

My mom, the social bug that she is, meet this older couple at church and started to chat and the next thing we know we were invited over to their beach mansion for waffles with some of their married kids. It was a hoot. I don't have any pictures (didn't want to seem like tourists) but it was amazing. I think our parents are life long friends now, ha!

Harbor Fish n chips

Many, many hours on the beach! Lane is a pro boogie boarder.

Jefferson's friend Ryker came with us as well as Griffen, Craigs friend.

This is probably our 20th trip to Sea World...and it never gets old!

However, I do not do the rides. Because you get soaked. I hate being wet and damp all day. Worst feeling in the world. So I take the pictures. I love how Stephanie has no idea what's about to hit them. She is waving happily at the camera while my dad spots Casey at the water gun machine with a pocket full of quarters. Yep that's right Jefferson, you know exactly what's about to go down.

SOAK CITY! I love that Griffen thinks the wet-er the better.

until the ride ends.

and the sun starts to go down and in California it is chilly at night.

but our little family stayed dry and warm.

More beach time!

the second Rusty would get wet he would strip naked until his suit dried out then he would put it back on. That was his constant cycle all week. Needless to say his bum line isn't so contrast anymore:)

Pizza on the beach for the last night.

Farewell meal at Phil's before the drive home.

It was a great trip as always!

My favorite month of the year!

I love, love, love July! At the beginning of the month there is an awesome holiday. At the end is when we leave on our coveted beach vacation. And the week before that is my birthday! I LOVE JULY, it's such a happy month!

We kicked the 4'th off with swimming lessons. Normally I would have been bugged that she didn't cancel swim lessons for that day but since we go first thing in the morning it was nice to have something to do before all of the festivities. Plus the weather was super awesome. 80 degrees in July?!

My mom has a group picture on her camera that I need to snag but that afternoon we had a big BBQ and swimming at my parents. The best part was that Casey's parents and Melinda and Stephen and some of our nieces and nephews came too! I love joined family parties, you get the best of both worlds:)

At night we went out front where we played with sparklers and visited with the neighbors and watched about 3 different firework shows going on around the city.

Sometimes Rusty doesn't get to catch a nap if we are out and about. If that happens you can find him like this on the floor about 1 minute after getting home.

The boys had their last day of swim lessons on Thursday. It is kind of bittersweet. Nice to not have to drive over and sit in the heat for an hour, 3 times a week. But they absolutely LOVED going and are such good swimmers because of it. Lane is ready for swim team next year!! Miss Carolyn was already teaching him how to do his racing dive and all. He is growing up so fast! This is the cutest video of Rusty having a race on the last day. The whole lesson he kept asking to have a race. One of the moms was nice enough to video it for me on her phone then email it to me.

I wish it would post bigger. Rusty is on the left with the yellow swim suit.

This isn't just a July occurrence... more like a weekly occurrence:) It had to add it because this time I didn't bother to take off their jammies for our traditional Saturday morning donut run. Saggy diapers can wait for donuts!  I guess I can't say every Saturday. For sure on the Saturdays dad is at work and can't make his special waffles.  If you haven't been to Midwestern Meats for their awesome donuts then get your buns over there pronto! Their buttermilk bars and cherry fritters are to die for. But I can't leave out their maple long johns or cinnamon frye's either:/ 

The beginning of July was also a busy month of church activities for both Casey and I.  Casey put together a "Man"richment for the Elders quorum. He made a 9 hole miniature golf course in the cultural hall. It was really cool! And it only took half the day to make. Have I said it was really cool yet?  In the picture it looks like a huge mess but each hole was really detailed. Actually, the next weekend we went miniature golfing at Golfland with Casey's cousin and his wife. The best score for 18 holes was 43 and the best score at Casey's "man"richment was 35 (for 9 holes) so it was a pretty tough course!

He had an award for the best dressed golfer. Which meant he had to follow his own rules. Remember that Casey isn't fond of costumes or wearing pink of any manner. He made an exception just once. For church purposes:)  Goodwill never fails.  He wouldn't even let me take a picture of him.

I was in charge of our annual clothing exchange for relief society the following week. This was my second year in charge (hoping my last). It really was a great activity, just TONS of work. I had great help but if you have ever had a garage sale before, you know what a huge under taking it is. There were so. many. clothes! These were all the clothes that we had set out right at the beginning. People started showing up and before we knew it those piles were double high! It was crazy!

We also had some crafts for them to make like headbands out of old T-shirts and pop tab bracelets. After 2 hours I looked over to all the clothes and it didn't look like anything was dented. People were leaving with garbage bags full of clothes but there was just so many!

We filled the back of Casey's truck plus the back of a Tahoe AND a minivan with all of the left overs.

Goodwill was closed so we found a drop off box in the parking lot of Bashas. That started to fill fast but I was not about to drive around town dumping clothes off in random parking lots all night. Melanie to the rescue ran and pulled out the income tax business flag out of the grass and started shoving the clothes back to make more room!

With a holiday down, church activities done we are only half way through my favorite month! I can't wait for the last half to begin!

"Camping" day-cation!