Preschool!!

What a stud. I know that Cole has been preschool age for a long time now, but this year he is actually doing it! It's more of a joyschool co-op than anything else, but I think it is perfect! There are seven kids total in the class, and we just rotate whose house we do it at each week. It's two hours a week each Tuesday which mean I only host once every seven weeks. It really has worked out well and most importantly, Cole loves it. I can hardly believe he's going to kindergarten next year. Wow!!!

The beginnings of fall!

Our summer ended with two big trips back to back and now that we're home, it's nice to get back into the swing of things and back into our normal routine. That means we're back to exploring new places in our area! I was just talking to someone yesterday about how Spokane is very much full of hidden treasures. These places aren't things that you can look up on google, they're just things that you happen upon, or someone mentions to you..."You know what, you should check this place out..."

So, we found two new favorite spots these past two weeks. One is a quiet little park, right on the Spokane river in Post Falls, ID, only 10 minutes from our house. It's the perfect spot for throwing rocks, a favorite past time for my boys. And the other is Liberty Lake County Park, which we've been to several times, but we just came across the deck that takes you out onto the marshy area of the lake and has the most beautiful view of Liberty Lake. The boys love it and all the trails to walk through and the deer practically walked right up to us. Cole thought it was awesome but Logan was terrified, and so was I haha.

After such a hot summer with all the wildfires and smoky air, the cooler weather is such a welcomed change. Not to mention, I love cold weather clothes so sooo much better than my summer clothes :) I went through all our clothes and put the summer ones away, and pulled out their cold weather clothes. It's so fun seeing Logan in all of the clothes that Cole used to wear when he was his age. Cole seemed so big back then but Logan still seems so small to us! Funny how that works.

This fall we are excited to get our hands on some of those dang famous pumpkin doughnuts up at Greenbluff, and all the Halloweeny stuff too. I am such a sucker for Halloween :)

Happy beginning of fall, everyone!

Roadtrippin' to Utah

It was a very last minute decision, because I was supposed to be heading to Arizona, but when my mother in law cancelled our Arizona plans, I quickly decided I needed to head to Utah anyway, because my youngest brother Bryant was going into the MTC. It was a fun trip but also a little crazy since I went without Steve. He wasn't able to take a week off of work to come. I ate lots of delicious Utah food and we went to the zoo and IKEA!! But most importantly, I saw my family! And the boys got to spend quality time with their cousins! I hadn't seen my dad and brother Bryant since Christmas 2013 so it had been quite a while.

We had made all these plans of what we were going to do, but the first night I got there, Emma's kids came down with the stomach bug. I KNOW. I really think I am cursed when it comes to traveling with kids because this year they have gotten sick every single time we have taken them on a big trip. Because of course, once Emma's kids got sick it wasn't long until my kids got sick. I do, however, consider it a miracle that I never came down with it, especially considering I cleaned up Logan's throw up ELEVEN times!!! Poor baby. So, yes, that part of the trip was stressful, but I know that it was still worth it and that it was right for me to go. If for nothing else than Waffle Luv, right?! hehe, just kidding.

Also, I didn't take a single picture with my real camera, even though I had every intention to do so. But that's just an indication of how crazy this trip was. So, that is why these pictures are all in a jumble. Iphone documentation right here!

Thirty on the Thirtieth

Steve turned 30!! On the 30th of August!! So, knowing me, I take golden birthdays very seriously and I tried so hard to make this a special birthday for him. I invited all of his friends to dinner in Coeur d'Alene but I didn't want to just leave it at that, I wanted to do something extra special. So I told everyone that we would be going cliff jumping at this popular jumping spot not far from the restaurant. But as luck would have it, one of the craziest wind storms happened that afternoon and blew so much dust and smoke and whatever else into the air, cliff jumping just wasn't sounding appealing to anyone including me. I also had a special surprise planned for Steve beforehand which included the lake and getting wet but the wind storm ruined those plans too. (And Steve still doesn't know what the surprise is because I want to surprise him with it next summer or something!!)

So, it ended up just being dinner with friends and I brought "Nothing Bundt Cakes" with my own added golden sprinkles to share with everyone. Steve loved them because he requested them. And they really are so good!! Even the sprinkles were pretty tasty ;)

I had Steve open up that blow up golden crown as a gift while we were at dinner with our friends and I was so surprised that he kept it on! He actually loved wearing it haha. Deep down I think Steve really does love having some birthday attention ;) When dinner was all over, we decided that just him and I were going to go cliff jumping anyway. The storm had pretty much blown over by then anyway. We'd never been yet and I really wanted to make his day memorable. So we did it! We both only jumped in once and it was more like jumping off a rock than anything else, but who cares! I'm totally counting it and I know he'll never forget it. He hates being cold hahaha.

Happy 30th GOLDEN birthday Steve!!! I sure love you.

C h i c a g o// a little video.

I'm just going to throw this little video in here. I was finally able to get my Windows Movie Maker to work after months of having issues with it. (Don't download Windows 10, it's awful!!) I had way more footage than it would allow me to put in the video, so I'm kind of bummed about it. This will just have to do. Either way, it brings back happy memories :)

C h i c a g o // Downtown

Oh Chicago. What a fun trip. Whenever I think back on this trip, I know it will always be happy memories of Steve and I being annoyingly giddy together as we walked around the city (with no kids in tow!!) It was our first time leaving the kids for that long and we felt like we were on our honeymoon again. We went with Steve's sister Alyse and her husband Johnny and we had so much fun with them. It was their first time leaving Melanie too, so it was all very exciting for us.

We instantly fell in love with this city. It's just so much fun and seemed so down to earth for being a big city. Everyone seemed so friendly and happy, we couldn't help but feel the same way. I think "Blue Chicago" is a good name for it because blue really is its color, probably because it's right on the water.

I loved seeing the city lights on one of the evenings we were there. One of Johnny's co-workers lives in Chicago and let us come to the roof of his apartment building and the views didn't disappoint! It was right after the sun set so the sky was all sorts of pretty colors and I went a little crazy with the picture taking ;)

And the Bean! I thought the Bean was so cool! I've never seen so many people in one spot taking selfies with selfie sticks! Ha! We were right there with them (minus the selfie stick part..) and we got some fun shots. All I wanted was to re-enact the scene from "The Vow," right after they got married and are running underneath the Bean in slo-mo. But with so many people around and the fact that both Steve and I have really really bad acting skills, well, it just didn't happen. Haha.

After our first day there, we joked that we could live in Chicago. I'm not sure that will ever actually happen, but I'd visit again in a heart beat. And maybe if I was feeling up for it, we'd take the kids with us since it did seem like a kid-friendly city!