33rd and 1st

Over the weekend, we celebrated my birthday. I turned 33! We spent the day at the field and watched the boys play football. Honestly, there is nowhere I would rather be than cheering for my kids. After football was over, I packed up the kids and Scott stayed home to work on the tile. (Upcoming post soon!) Its interesting how much less and less you need as birthdays come. I didn't have a cake this year or open any presents, but the people around me made me feel special. 

And today we celebrated back to school. The kids had their first day and they did awesome. They all woke up excited and ready to go. The minute we pulled into school, they took off running to the playground, leaving Kyle and me all alone. I am so proud of their confidence and strength. It was fun watching them find friends and see their excitement. Cache started first grade this year, which left me and Kyle alone for the day. It was oddly quiet. I spent the day cleaning up after summer and getting the house in order while simultaneously entertained Ky and Luna. Yes, Luna. She was quite needy today as her boys left. They came home happy with a million stories and ready to go back tomorrow! I love this time of year. I know most people love the fresh new start of the New Year, but I feel like back to school is a more appropriate time for goals and kicking off the "new year". Honestly, I missed my kids...but I was soooo happy to have our routine back. (Tayden, 5th grade. Beckett, 3rd. Cache, 1st) 

It was a great summer. But I think its going to be an even better year! 

Gods Country

Last Sunday, we headed up to Ashton to have dinner in the mountains with our friends. I wasn’t too excited to go until we pulled into the pine trees and fresh air. There is something pure about being on that land that makes life easier and let’s you breath a little easier. It was the perfect evening and gave me the energy to get through the last week of summer. 

The kids caught frogs all evening and Scott and I were able to go on a little four wheeler ride. It is beyond beautiful. 

We took Luna with us this time. To say she had the time of her life, is a huge understatement. She swan quite a while with the boys and then rolled and rolled and rolled in the dirt. She was the dirtiest I’ve ever seen her. 

She required a major bath at the self serve dog wash. I’m talking, two looooong hours. But she came out sparkling clean. 

It’s hard to not want to spend every weekend up there. God is good. And it’s good being in Gods country is even better! 

Harvesting

Cache loves to garden. Beckett likes it well enough, but when it comes to harvesting and process the foods, he’s all over it. Especially when a knife is involved. 

We’ve been eating the zucchini as fast as we’ve been picking it, but this week we got extra. 7 cups in the freezer for bread. 

He was such a huge help and helped me prepare 6 bags of soup. I have to include the recipe, because it’s my favorite and I never want to loose it. 

I love sharing my passions with my sons!! The extra one on one time is best!! 

Temple Long Johns

A little glimpse into a conversation I had with my two youngest as we were putting away laundry.

Cache: I can put my long johns in my underwear drawer, right? Because you and dad wear those white long johns for your underwear.

Me: No, they aren't long johns. They are special underwear you get when you go to the temple called garments.

Kyle (looking quite perplexed): I am NOT going to the temple than.

Cache: Ky you have to go to the temple to get married. If you don't get married, you'll have a really lonely life.

Kyle: Its fine. I'll just have kids.

Mennear Love

I had a chance to hang out with both my siblings this week. It was really great to be together again! 

The kids really loved having some extra time with Coda as well. I’ll tell you what, he sure is growing into a wonderful young man. 

After Justin went back to Texas, my mom and I had the chance to go to the temple together. I haven’t been with her in quite some time, so it was really special for me to spend the evening with her. 

I’m lucky to come from the Mennear clan. They are a great group of people and I love them dearly. 

Thing after Thing

I've been wanted to blog about our latest trip to the lake for over a week now. But things just kept coming up one after another that kept me from blogging.

Things like the fire by near the INL that evacuated Scott and all other non essentional personal and curtailed him an extra day. Two bonus days in the middle of the week with Scott really threw off my schedule and the last thing I wanted to do was blog while he was home. We were able to get some work started for the flooring project and began taking the trim off the walls. He has pictures of the fire, but has to have them approved from his superiors before we can share them. So hopefully more details to come.

The other thing that has kept me busy has been non stop phone calls with window people. Allow me to explain. As Scott was tearing down trim, I asked what he thought about buying a smaller couch for upstairs so could we push our dinner table out a little bit to open up our dining room. He said that was fine, but we would have to sale one of our couches first. I knew we could get more money for our basement couch, so I planned on selling it and moving the upstairs couch downstairs. I listed it for sale online for $1,000 but Scott told me that wasn't enough. I raised the price to $1500 thinking that no one would be interested. I was wrong. The couch sold four hours later for the full price of $1500! I was ecstatic! Later that night we started to move the couch downstairs, but we got stuck. It won't budge. The couch is too big! So basically we're down a couch for nothing. I sold the good couch for nothing. Absolutely nothing! Feeling frustrated and defeated we went to bed. The next morning we decided to call some window places to see if they could remove the window so we could put the couch in through the window. We're waiting back to see if that will pan out, and boy oh boy am I crossing my fingers!

The last reason I've been so busy is my favorite. My brother has been in town. I have spent every waking hour I can with him. I've taken all of one picture, but it sums up his trip perfectly! My boys can not get enough of Uncle Justin. Especially Kyle. He loves him so much. My brother can't go anywhere with out the little side kick following him around. It makes my heart so happy!

But here I am, with a quiet few minutes to finally post pictures of the lake. We are falling in love with this place more and more. So much so that there is talk about buying some land of our own. We would co-own an acre with our good friends, the Snarrs. The land is completely undeveloped and there is a lot of work thats needs to go into it. But the thought of our boys helping clear the land and help build a home away from home is extremely appealing. And having a place for our family and future generations to gather at is dreamy. We have been researching it out and the more we think about pray about it, the more it feels like the right thing to do. We will begin negotiations with the land owner soon and I'm hoping it pans out.

Week long Fun

Isn't it funny how fun seems to sneak up on you. I had no idea that last week was going to be so great. I mean, I knew it was going to be good, but I didn't know how good.

Wednesday: The week started off with a spontaneous trip to the water park in Rexburg. We went with a group of friends, so everyone had someone to play with and everyone was happy. I love this water park because it isn't too big and the water isn't too deep. The big boys were able to go off and play with friends. Even Cache could go in the lazy river without me, as long as he was with someone. The kid area is great and Kyle had a blast hanging out there. As for me, I enjoyed some friend time myself. I love this group of ladies!

Qwayde and Beckett

 Drake, Tayden, Mason and Luke. 

Kyle and Norah 

Jodie Hansen, Stacey Packard, Meghan Fransen, Kristie Denning, Calyn Peterson.

We played longer than I anticipated and had the sunburns to show for it. We rushed home to see Echo and the kids. They were only here for a few short days so we didn't want to miss out on a minute. 

Thursday: The next day we took the Mennears to Rigby Lake to go kayaking. My kids could not have been more thrilled to have another fun day in the sun. The whole time, I kept mentioning we needed a picture with all the kids, but do you think that happened? Nope! I was bummed, but we had a blast with Coda and Gracie. They are growing so quickly, but they are so great to hang out with their little cousins. And my boys absolutely adore them. Coda had a secret hand shake with Ky, played non stop with Tayden, indulged Beckett and laughed at Cache. Gracie was equally as great and kept the peace between all the boys. She kept up with them and played just as hard and made sure they all felt special. They are the best kids around. My favorite part of the lake was watching Kyle paddle with a shovel! 

Friday: We said good bye to the Mennears and went on with our day. I had to run an errand and as soon as I got back, Scott said, "Hurry and pack. We're going on a date." The kids were ready to stay with my parents, the dogs were situated and everyone was waiting on me. I threw together a quick overnight bag and we were off. After about an hour of begging him to tell me what was going on, he finally conceded. He was taking me to see HUGH JACKMAN!! Now, its no secret I love Hugh Jackman. Alot. He is my all time favorite male actor and just so darn handsome. So to say I was thrilled, is a huge understatement. Scotts company bought out some box seats for the show, so he was able to get a great deal on seats. We watched the show, ate good food and enjoyed our time together without the kiddos. And I especially enjoyed Hugh. He was incredible. Best show ever. 

Saturday: To end the fabulous week, we got to see our good friends the Turneys before he headed back to Idaho. It just so happened that our paths would be crossing in Utah and we were able to meet for breakfast. It was a short hour, but worth a million dollars. I love these people!

It was a wonderful week!