August Adventures and more!

 

 

I had a couple of nephews born this summer and here's Nikki with one of her new cousins, Wesley, who was born at the end of July.  I don't remember the exact day.  She's been really wanting me to have another baby so this will have to do for now.

The first weekend in August we took a trip down to Utah to visit my brother and his family and my mom, grandma, and Hansen family.  Here's Nikki and her cousin looking fancy at Walmart.

This is where my boys got to sleep, on their cousin Gideon's bed.  They thought it was pretty fun.  They had a space blanket and an Incredible Hulk blanket.

Use the force Jack!  Or in this case, the Kinect.  We found a game even he could play!

The boys playing games in the hallway and making a nice mess too.

My Hansen cousins made a cousin Olympics in the backyard at Grandma Marsha's.  Here they are lined up with name tags and even a torch, which Gideon had held during the opening parade march around the yard.  It was a great idea and lots of fun for the kids!  They did some tossing games, running & jumping games, and obstacle courses.

Had to show at least one of the events, the standing long jump.  That's a pretty good leap there Gideon!

The very same night that we came home from Utah (Aug 6th) Garrett lost his first tooth!  The funny thing was that I didn't even know he had a loose tooth!  It was bed time and he was laying on the couch and tells me "my tooth fell out" and it fell on the ground in the front room, but we found it and the Tooth Fairy made a visit the next night (after he could show his friends his tooth).

We got a good groupon deal online and went to a new glow in the dark mini golf place with Chris and Tamara and Katelynn.  It was fun!  Of course you can't see us glowing because the flash was on but if you go be sure to wear white or some color that will glow with black lights!

Nikki all ready for her first day of 3rd grade!

Garrett's first official day of Kindergarten!  Unfortunately he had a bad toothache this day so he didn't want to smile.

They have free breakfast at the schools so I went in with the kids on Garrett's first day.  His toothache also caused him to not want to eat hardly anything and later he threw up.  But after I came around lunch time and helped him get food in his stomach he felt better.  We took him home to change his shirt but then were able to take him back.  He loves school and wishes he could go every day!  Nikki was the same way when she was in Kindergarten.

Garrett's first homeowork assignment, which he was so excited to do.  His first parent and me project as well.

The cause of Garrett's toothache turned out to be an abscess from a decayed tooth.  So this is his first visit to the dentist office where he got that tooth pulled by his uncle Casey.  We later found out that he has a lot more problems going on in there that we're going to have to get taken care of as well.  Yikes!  Feeling bad for not getting him in sooner!

So we decided to get Jack's teeth cleaned and checked too while we were there.  He was so zoned into the tv show he was watching on the ceiling that he barely noticed anyone doing anything to his teeth.  Luckily no problems with his teeth and he did great!

Yesterday my neighbor friend and I rearranged my front room after she and her hubby helped clean the carpet with the cleaner they rented for doing their house the day before.  I really like this arrangement!  It helps separate the front room from the kitchen area and makes it feel more cozy.  And I just didn't like the way we had it before, especially where we had the green couch.

And here's another view of it.  But it's even better in person so I just need visitors now  ;)  Maybe some day I'll get a nice little rug for the middle area but for now I like it!  (oops, forgot to fix the pillow on the couch before taking the picture)
 



Lewiston and Silverwood

As promised here are more pics from our time with Curtis home and our vacation around Idaho.  This time it was up to northern Idaho to visit my brother Stillman and his family.  We also decided to try out a new theme park that none of us have ever been to before.

The drive up to Lewiston was absolutely beautiful!  We had pulled over right here to take this picture in Grangeville I think.  I just couldn't believe how beautiful everything was and why I had never been up this way before!

I loved the yellow fields.  I believe those are canola plants.

Our first outing when we got to Lewiston was to the Zany Graze restaurant where there was a clown making balloons for everyone who wanted one.  Nikki had the penguin; Jayden had a motorcycle; Jack had a dog; Alex had an orca (killer whale); and Garrett got a train.  He was the best balloon artist we have ever seen!

The next day it was off to Silverwood theme park near Coeur d'Alene and the first ride we took was the train since it was about to leave anyway.  This train ride is a lot better than the one at Lagoon!  It takes you back into some beautiful scenery and buffalo, and halfway they stop to have a little train robbery show where they had everyone putting their hands up!  It was pretty funny.  They did a good job.

Here's where we stopped and that's one of the train robbers, who knocked out our conductor inside that little shed.

At the train depot.

And what's a trip to the theme park without riding the carousel?

Getting ready to watch a fun magic show featuring Nick Norton.  We were in a dark room and yet Jack is still wearing his sunglasses.  Funny kid!

This is the first roller coaster Garrett and Nikki have ever ridden.  They were scared by the end of it but by the end of the day Nikki was addicted to the big roller coasters.  Although next time we'll start with the kid roller coaster, which we found later.  All the kids enjoyed that one.

Who said an elephant couldn't fly?

Love this shot of Jack and Daddy on the ferris wheel.

I think this was Garrett's favorite ride.  Because the lines were pretty short he rode this one lots of times.

Having fun together!

You WILL get wet on this ride!

In fact, you may get soaked!  I was glad Garrett and I sat out on that ride.  We stayed nice and dry.

We wore these kids out!

Since we hadn't eaten dinner yet we stopped at Texas Roadhouse in Coeur d'Alene.  Jack was so tired he slept the whole time we were there.  No need to order anything for him.

It was a very fun day and so glad we went!  Now time for the long ride back to Lewiston, which was about 2 hrs.

Even though I took a lot more pictures than this, that's all the pics for today.  I can only post so many.  Hopefully I will get more pics posted sooner next time.

Summer vacation with Curtis!

It has been a crazy, busy, fun summer so far!

Curtis came home for 2 1/2 weeks at the end of June and that's when most of the craziness began...

The morning after Curtis came home he got straight to work on cutting the boys' hair and putting the bunk bed together!  For the first time in 8 1/2 years we have finally taken the crib apart and put it into storage.  Poor Jack didn't like that too much.  He cried over losing his crib bed (the side was taken off so it was like a bed).  Although I think it helped that he is still sleeping on the crib mattress since we didn't have a chance to buy a twin size mattress yet.  So he has the crib mattress and the sides are surrounded by homemade cushions that I recently acquired from my grandparent's.  The cushions in the back had to be folded up so it looks like a futon.

We celebrated our 10th anniversary by eating at Tucanos with my brother Stillman and his wife Michelle (they were celebrating their 9th anniversary).  Don't worry, we are not drinking anything alcoholic, hehe!  It was some sort of tropical fruit drink and very yummy!  And Stillman introduced me to Tucanos' grilled pineapple and it was delicious!  Didn't need dessert after that!

Nothing like a father and son playing some ball.  They were warming up before Garrett's t-ball game.

A camping we will go!  Pit stop on the way to Stanley, ID.  This ride was really the first time I remember getting car sick in my life and that's the main reason we stopped here.  I was very close to losing what little breakfast I had on the side of the road.  And no, I'm NOT pregnant.

We made it to Stanley where we camped next to Redfish Lake.  They had a little play area, mostly these big beams to climb on and a tire swing.

The Sawtooth mountains behind us are just beautiful!

Nikki was having fun making faces for the camera.  Jack wasn't sure about riding this swing until we forced him to get on and then he loved it!

Jack just finished eating a few of his favorite cookies.  Oreos!

These two were crazy enough to get in the FREEZING cold water.

After having tin foil dinners and smores, we popped some jiffy pop popcorn.  And it was good!

I couldn't resist!  It's been so many years since I've been on one of these!

The next day we met up with Curtis's parents in Donnelly, ID at the SISCRA campground, which is very close to my grandparent's cabins.  We brought our new ladderball game and played a few rounds.  We ended up sleeping in that white tent his parents had set up and his parents were in their RV.  It was nice not having to get our tent out again.  We also played a round of Yahtzee where Curtis actually scored 2 Yahtzee's in 1 game!  Needless to say, he won!  We also played a fun little game that I think was called "Pass the pigs".  That's a good one to play with the kids because even they were winning against the grownups. 

Love being outdoors with my family!

We had a hard time getting Jack to cooperate for this picture but at least he's looking!

Having some fun in the lake behind my grandparent's cabin since there wasn't a good place to swim at the campground.

It was a bit windy that day at the lake so we didn't swim too long.


We played games, roasted hotdogs, popped more popcorn, swam in the lake, and visited.  It was fun being up there with my in laws!

This was the first part of our vacation.  Stay tuned for more!  Next will be our trip to Lewiston and Silverwood!