Camping - ish

Labor Day weekend we went camping with Amber&Dan and their good friends Chrissy&Doug. If I'm honest, we didn't actually camp. we went early in the morning and left after bedtimes, but we didn't sleep there. We decided there was just too much stuff we would have to buy to make camping happen, and I'm not totally into all the dirt and bugs involved with sleeping on the ground.

Anyway, we got out there and the kids immediately set out getting dirty. What was I thinking putting this kid in a white shirt?

Everyone else had been there for two days already, so the kids were anxious to show me their find :) Luckily it was secure inside a jar, but I have never seen a scorpion not in a zoo, so I wasn't getting very close.

*note* for some reason my pics won't resize...sorry they are so small!
After breakfast we headed to the little Nature Center that they had at the campgrounds. It was small but very interesting for everyone. They had a bunch of stuffed animals (is there another way to say real animals that have been stuffed?) There were displays of bugs, fossils, and other interesting finds from the area.

Have I mentioned how much I love living next to my sister? I love it. I'm grinning now just thinking about it. we run into each other in the stores, babysit each others kids, and are able to do so many fun activities together as families! Anyway, here we are expressing our joy :)

 

Alex loves being Uncle Alex so much also. I think here he is appeasing Teagen, who's strolled got commandeered by Olivia. 

 

 

And then after lunch was nap time...yes we did try to nap our three kids under three on a blanket in the middle of a busy campground. I don't remember actually thinking it would work, but these kids were dead tired, and really needed a rest time. Carter actually did sleep for a while, but the bigger kids mostly played. They loved laying with moms and big kids, sharing pillows and blankets, and crawling all over while we were just laughing at our attempt to do a community nap time.

 

Oh yes...someone else fell asleep too :) I almost forgot our success story!

The pictures don't do justice to the heat that weekend. We were in the middle of the desert, with very little shade, and it was HOT. After lunch we didn't feel like climbing the dunes, so we stayed by the RV hookups and had a water fight. It was the kind of water fight where we all wanted to get wet, so we just ran around laughing at everyone's clever strategies. I love the second picture where you can see both two-year-olds using their water guns for a team effort :) I remembered about halfway through the soaking that I should have brought more clothes for the grownups, not just the kids, but it didn't end up mattering because the heat dried me before it got dark.

I wish I had pictures of dinner. Amber found an awesome recipe for gourmet campfire quesadillas that included beans, mushrooms, corn, meat, cheese, peppers, lime, cilantro...yum yum yum. It was a perfect dinner, and makes me want to make a campfire just so we can eat them again. We pretty much just hung out and played for the evening, then made s'mores to top off our night before heading back home. Carter's first experience didn't disappoint, he was covered :). Both kids loved it of course, and they had a blast sitting around with their cousins, no bibs or mom telling them to stay in their chair, and mixing their food with sand and still eating it :). Camping is heaven for toddlers.

 

August in BOISE!

We are picking up from our move to Boise on August 17th. I'm not even going to get into the skipping around of this blog, but here goes :)

The night of August 16th we spent in a hotel on the way to Boise. We planned to drive the entire way on the 17th, but had the entire truck packed by 1 and the cleaning done by 4...what else did we have to do but leave? I was more than anxious to reunite our little family, see our new (and first) house, and become a resident of Meridian, Idaho. so early in the morning we took off for the last of our drive. I had the kids in the van, and my mom was driving the moving truck (THANKS so much!) My mom, along with many other friends and family, was indispensable this summer and during the entire moving process.

The kids were great for the drive, but driving with only one adult is hard. My kids aren't old enough to get stuff for themselves, so there were a few times I had to pull over just to hand back a snack or plug or sippy cup. Needless to say, seeing the Welcome to Idaho was a wonderful moment for me.

Here is Amber directing the moving truck back. I still can't get over how beautiful our house is. We are so blessed to have been able to get such a wonderful house for our first home. I knew from the moment I drove up that Alex had done a wonderful job, and that this would be a great adventure.

Yes the first personal belonging in our house was the golf clubs, that sat in the garage during the week that we owned the house but had not moved in yet.

With awesome help from the Amber's family and their good friend Doug, unloading the truck was a fast job. In fact, Amber had lined up some neighborhood help to move the piano and bigger things, but it was all done by the time they arrived. I would be lying to say it was stress-free, but it took quite a few disagreements about where to put things before I was off Cloud Nine. It was a very interesting experience to move into a place that Alex had seen, planned out, and been in for a week but I had not seen. I am normally the decision prompter in our family, mostly because I am always making lists and plans in my head and on paper. This being said, I like to receive input or encouragement to make sure everyone, especially Alex, is happy with what I am doing. I wasn't very easy to deal with for my easy-going, relaxed husband, who just knew it would all work out. Luckily our moving help knew just the right time to leave the room :) and with only a medium amount of stress we got everything in its place.

The biggest struggle was the piano. This house is all windows (a wonderful feature, might I add). The only wall in the entire living space big enough for a piano was the main (and only) whole wall in the family room. Also the place that the TV should go. Before we moved, I planned to put the piano on one side of the wall and the TV in the other corner. When we got the piano in place, everyone started saying that it was really bulky, was going to take over the room, etc. It just didn't look right. And we were back to the drawing board. This is where the women and men split. Men thought that the downstairs bedroom would be as good as anywhere else, but that is our playroom, and the women were strong in the belief that such a valuable piece of furniture couldn't go in the room where my two toddlers would be playing unsupervised. I was at a loss. I really wanted this house to be able to flow and have at least some magazine-worthy qualities, even though I will never be the decorator that it would take to have a magazine-beautiful house. Dan (O Brilliant One) pointed out that the only wall in the living room had a big fireplace, that we weren't really planning on using. I had thought about having it removed, but didn't want to mess with the value of the home. He said we should just put it in front. So Smart! It may be a little weird, and if you look closely it does look awkward, but it was exactly the solution we needed :).

So we spent the evening getting the kitchen put together, all the beds together, and most of the boxes started if not empty. It was like a treasure hunt, because we had a lot of stuff that had been in storage for over a year. I had no idea what was in a few of the boxes, or what my descriptions of the contents in my spreadsheet meant. (Note to self: if you make a shorthand, remember what it is :)). I was thrilled to have my mom and sister there to help me explore and provide input on what would work where and how we should group items in the different drawers and cupboards. There is a lot of decisions to make, and my brain was on overload for sure.

The kids did great the first night, I'm sure from a combination of exhaustion and elation at having their human jungle gym dad back. The next day it was back to the grind organizing and unpacking, and I was glad for my little helper who was anxious to wipe out cupboards and clean with her new gloves :)

Just one of the many castles and forts that were in our back yard for the first three weeks that we lived in a house. It was so fun to have no chance of rain and just be able to leave them all out there to explore for so long!

We ate at Amber and Dan's the next night, and our awesome situation began to set in. How fun for my kids to live just blocks away from such fun cousins. We see them at least twice a week (sometimes every day :)), and Olivia is always begging to go play with her fun cousins and their awesome toys.

We wanted to do something fun before Mom left to go back home, so the next day we went to Eagle Island State Park. It is a fun man-made beach on a little river outlet. we played in the sand and water for a long time, and had a super fun picnic when we got too tired to swim. There is also a big playground where the kids ran out their energy again before we went home. Such a fun outing!

This wasn't our first trip to Lowe's, but has been our most expensive so far :). I just loved that we each had our own thing to drive...

And this is what happens when you crack the door to get some fresh air and then go upstairs to get clothes on! Carter was lost out there in the boxes, but having a blast. We also spent some time exploring the neighborhood. I had a hard time explaining to O that even though these people are all our neighbors, we can't just go play in their houses or garages. We have one friendly little girl :)

 On Saturday, while Alex was working, the kids and I (along with Mom, Amber, and their family) took in our first football game of the season! It was Kade's team, that Alex helps coach. Unfortunately Alex isn't able to go to any of the games (he works every Saturday), but he really enjoys coaching, and it was a blast to go watch. Also, an added bonus of our new house is that we are a short walk to Settlers Park. This is where Kade plays, and we go to this park regularly. More pictures from the playground coming shortly :).

The kids might have been less excited about watching football than the moms were, but I got a few cute pics of the boys :)

Right before the game, I picked up my first Bountiful Basket in Idaho. Such a great deal, and I love getting a wide variety of produce that I would otherwise skip. If you don't know about Bountiful Baskets, you should definitely check out their website www.bountifulbaskets.org. It is a produce co-op that delivers locally, and I love the value and variety that I get. For our family of four, I usually do it about every other week, because it's a LOT of produce, and we have a hard time going through all of it.

Here's the pictures from our first family trip to Settlers Park. It is a huge park with a big playground, a musical garden that I love, and a huge waterpark.

This picture is awesome to me. A friendly neighbor brought these yummy (and healthy) cookie bars over to introduce themselves. A family with two young children that lives very close to us. We have met all of our neighbors, and have been at the receiving end of garden surplus more than once in our time living here. We love how friendly our neighbors have been, and O loves playing with all the friendly neighbor boys.

One afternoon Olivia found an injured dragon fly in the back yard, and was amazed by it. She was careful not to touch without asking (YAY!!) and got Dad to help her find something to hold it with. I just loved how loving her smile is here :)

No explanation here...just smiles all around :)

Another bonus of living here is kid sharing! We love having cousins over all the time, and also the benefit of bringing our kids to Amber and Dan when we need or want some date night time. On the 28th of August we took all six kids to Settler's Park to play at the playground. We went with the intention of playing on the playground and skipping the water feature (we weren't at all prepared for wet kids), but after an hour of playing and running around, we were all too hot to ignore the water. Kids faces in the first picture were just too priceless :).

I was very proud of Olivia this week, and wanted to share this next story of the sweet spirit that she brings to our family. We learned this week that one of Olivia's cousins in Oregon got burned quite badly in the kitchen. We spent the day unsure of the extent of the burns, just knew she was in the hospital. Olivia overheard me talking to Grandma Mary on the phone, and wanted to know what was wrong. After I fumbled through an explanation about the accident and how important it is to not touch in the kitchen, as well as hoping that our cousin gets better very soon, she immediately said that we should go give her a hug. Her first reaction was to give comfort, and I just loved that. I had to tell her that she was too far away, but before I even finished telling her that, she asked if we could send her a card and present. I was all for that, so we went home and she colored a cute picture and sent her a little game to play before she could go back outside. Even typing this two months later, her thoughtfulness still impresses me. She is only two, but immediately wanted to help her sweet friend when she was hurting. Also, the burn was less than we initially thought, and our little cousin is already back to playing an healing quite nicely.

I spend a lot of time sneaking into rooms so I can overhear the instructions that O is giving Carter and her toys. To say that she likes to be in charge is a gross understatement. She always has a plan and wants to execute it her way...I wonder where that comes from?!? :) She also has quite a few books and songs that she knows by heart, and I love to hear them with her little changes ('row row row the boat, gent-y down the...COOKIE!!').Anyway, this particular morning she was struggling because Carter was up playing with everything she wanted, and he kept switching to whatever new toy she got out. This is a constant battle, and they are slowly learning to play together. After refereeing a majority of the morning, I was a little less than patient, so when she called me in to the playroom again I came in with a slightly impatient aura :). She wasn't deterred, she just told me:
'Carter will rock baby because he is on the rocking chair that belongs to me and I will read the book and sing to my baby because Carter no know how talk'. YAY for tag team parenting! Both kids were totally happy with the arrangement, and they sat there singing and rocking the baby for quite a while before Carter found a ball to distract him.

I'm proud of the handiness that owning a home has taught me. I usually just leave whatever needs fixed or arranged for Alex to get home, but I am a great assistant, and I love using power tools :)

Here's a few pictures from the first BEAVER GAMEDAY!! We got up and dressed early so we could go garage saling and run our Saturday errands representing our beloved Beavs. This is the first year of my life that I haven't been to at least one football game (some years as a kid I'm sure I didn't go, but I went to a lot because my birthday falls in football season). I'm going through major withdrawals, and this was the first day that I may have gotten a little choked up about missing Oregon. I love the entire game day experience, and have loved the last few years with my new Casqueiro family, who does the tailgate to the next level :). We will have to plan trips home around home games in the future.

First attempt at a somersault :) He ended up just laughing stuck there until he fell over.

And the kids playing peek-a-boo in a storage bin. All of these pictures remind me just how much time I spend chasing these two around. They go from one thing to the next in a matter of minutes, but I love every second of it (okay EVERY second is a stretch. I really love my kids though).

 This little cutie can't wait until he is big enough to play football ...

And that was August! We are loving our new home, and being able to play and explore the Meridian/Boise area together as a family.