Welcome Fall!

 We had a magical night tonight. We packed up a simple picnic and headed for the mountains- well, a trailhead about 10 minutes from our house. We ate and watched the sunset and took in the beautiful fall colors. The boys played in the dirt, Ben and I got a few quiet minutes to talk, and we all watched in awe at the beauty surrounding us. We live in a beautiful place. Life is good.

Labor Day Weekend

Our Labor Day weekend (and the week leading up to it) ended up being super crazy and fun and full of family activities! On September 1st, Nate and Halie got married. Since they were in town for a week before the wedding, it was full of family activities, showers and parties! We got in a lot of family time. Aunt Heidi was here from Boston as well- which the boys really loved. This was also Chase's first real week of school, so there was a lot of excitement (and late nights) going on at our house!

The wedding was beautiful and the boys were the cutest ring bearers there ever was. Hudson was fairly uncooperative all day (like we changed him at the venue from his PAJAMAS that he refused to get out of all day into his little suit- at 5:00 pm), and luckily they had a "kid room" at the venue where he could play with toys, watch a movie and eat brownies to his little hearts content! Chase went back and forth between the dance floor, greeting various guests, and the kid room. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are a few I got. 

 Saturday and Sunday of that weekend we got together as a whole family again (minus the honeymooners) and had two BBQs and hung out all together. By the time we got to Monday, the actual holiday, we were all exhausted and kind of partied out. I wanted to do something to make Labor Day at least a little special and unique, so we went on a hike. My mom and Heidi joined us and we had a great time!

As fun as it was to have family in town and multiple nights of parties, it was nice to get back to our normal routine. Now we are in the groove of school for Chase and preschool for Hudson! We started a little co-op preschool, and I'm teaching for September and October. Right now we only have three kids (we are still hoping we will find another kid or two to join) and it's been really fun. Hudson has thrived and is learning a lot. He learns so differently that Chase does, which has been fun for me to figure out.

Here he is on his first day of preschool- my baby is growing up!

Back to School

Years ago I read about a tradition many families do for a back to school feast- some type of special meal to celebrate starting a new school year. Since we officially started real school this year, Ben and I decided to start this tradition in our family. Since we were just getting back from vacation (and I didn't want to spend a ton of money) we kept things fairly simple, but we still wanted to make it special, a little different from our usual family dinner. I made crowns for the boys to wear (Chase loved his, Hudson was not quite so sure) and a back-to-school banner for our backdrop. 

 For our menu, I wanted it to feel like a party, so we decided on kabobs! They always feel festive to me. I cut up and marinated chicken, zucchini, red onion, grape tomatoes, bell pepper and pineapple and Ben grilled the skewers. I made a tomato-bread salad, that I loved (turns out I was the only one). We finished off with fresh peach pie, made from peaches from our trees, and vanilla ice cream. It was a delicious meal!

After dinner (and baths and haircuts), Ben gave Chase a special father's blessing. Chase was very reverent. Afterwards, Ben asked Hudson if he would like one too. Hudson said, "Yes, but only if mommy does mine." We explained it didn't work that way, and then Hudson said, "Okay dad, but make it short, okay?"

Then it was the first day of school! He was so excited to go! He wore his brand new Nike's and the shirt he's been saving all summer for the first day of school. I walked to school with him, he held my hand the whole way, and I couldn't believe my baby was heading off into the world!

 He got Mrs. Miller in the morning kindergarten class- which is just what we were hoping for! He has his little friends Ella, Luca and Paisley in his class. In fact, on the second day (when parents didn't stay) Chase and Paisley nervously walked into the school together, holding hands, and my heart about burst! I know he will make a whole slew of new friends, but I'm so glad he has a few little friends to start with!

We are "carpooling" with Luca. I walk the boys to school in the mornings and Luca's mom picks them up. We both only have room for one extra kid in our cars, so it worked out perfect for us. Walking to school in the mornings has been fun. We live about one mile from the school, so it's totally doable. We are going to try to do it every day until the weather gets bad.

So far my reports from school (after just one week) is that he's working on cutting with scissors (something I never do with him at home), writing his name (he's learning to turn his "s" around) and he loves recess, computers and library!

So far Hudson seems to really enjoy his one-on-one time with mom while Chase has been in school (although sadly, life has been so busy this special time has mostly been running errands or Hudson watching a screen while mommy was busy with other stuff. This should start getting better!) However, Hudson is always very excited when his brother gets home from school! Hudson will start our little co-op preschool next week.

We are doing this thing! Real life with a kid in school! Our life suddenly feels so structured! We started Chase doing a job chart each morning before school to work on earning a little allowance. His jobs are making his bed, cleaning up his room, emptying the garbages, and setting the table. If he gets all his "x's" each day he gets a dollar at the end of the week. So far he's been very motivated. Right now I remind him to get his chores done, but if he whines about doing them he doesn't get a x. We are going to work up to him remembering to do it all on his own each day. It feels so good to have predictable, happy help with cleaning up in the morning! I think school is going to be great this year!

End of Summer Fun

We squeezed a lot of fun activities into our last few days of summer! We had a fun Nana adventure to the Treehouse museum. The boys loved it there! We love Discovery Gateway, and the Treehouse has completely different stuff! It's a completely different experience and we had a great time. Afterwards Nana treated us to lunch at Blue Lemon, which made a big impression on the boys! Hudson has asked to go back to Blue Lemon several times since (we haven't).

Sometimes we go visit Papa when he's working at various farms on projects there. This particular Saturday we weren't doing much so we headed out to see what was going on, and hopefully the boys would get to ride a tractor. At one point, Ben (a younger farmer my dad works with frequently, who is super nice to the boys) rode over on a four-wheeler. Hudson questioned why Ben was using a four-wheeler and he replied "because I'm lazy and I didn't want to walk." Later that morning, Ben had Hudson with him on a tractor ride and they stopped in the onion field so Hudson could pick an onion. Hudson turned to the Mexicans working the field and said, "Hi guys! This is Ben. He's lazy." We all had a good laugh at that!

One day at playgroup another mom gave me this brilliant idea- freeze the boys little toy dinosaurs in ice! Then they can be little paleontologists and dig them out! We did this a few times and it's a hit! Ben traveled for work quite a bit in August, and some of the days didn't go super smoothly on my (and the boys) part. This activity saved us! 

We have met up with some neighbors at the park several times. I'm so thankful to have such wonderful neighbors with so many kids to play with! Chase loves running around with this little group- Luca, Adam and Jazmyn. They are all the same age and get along really well. 

Papa Ray came to visit! Ray came into town for a few days and we packed in a lot while he was here! He did swimming/BBQ night with us, came to church with us, and then the boys really wanted to show him the Union Station! So we went and saw the trains and the boys (and I think papa Ray) really loved it! They watched movies with him at night and they all ate Oreos together and just really had a great time! Ben and I did our best to convince Papa Ray to move out to Utah when he retires next year (and I think maybe succeeded?). His visit was great timing, right after Ben had been traveling for two weeks, and Ben's work schedule was a little lighter and more flexible, so Ben was able to spend a lot of time with his dad. 

 Nana wanted to take Chase on a little date to pick out a new back to school outfit. He loved having one on one time with her and apparently was very specific about his outfit choice. He has some clear preferences. Then they went to get ice cream at DQ- and Chase surprised her by asking for a very specific blizzard she hadn't heard of. Well we've been watching a LOT of Olympics at our house, and Dairy Queen has their commercials on frequently- Chase was clearly paying attention! (We normally just use netflix, so our boys aren't used to commercials) He had a great date with his Nana, when I asked him to take a picture with her he was just standing next to her, but he immediately pulled his little knees up and snuggled right up next to her. He loves her so much.

And really the rest of those last few weeks of summer was spent watching the Olympics. They are the best! We seriously turned them on almost every night and loved cheering on our amazing athletes and country! Chase was always thrilled when the USA won a medal. And Chase decided his favorite athlete is Katie Ledecky, after watching her completely crush the competition (and her own world record) in the 800 M swim. He kept talking about how she was the greatest swimmer ever and how she must have taken a lot of swimming lessons. (I guess we didn't fully explain to him the hype around Michael Phelps...) It might be good that the Olympics are over now, maybe we will actually get something done in our evenings and get the boys to bed at a good time?

I'm actually kind of exhausted when I look back at our summer. I had a lot of plans and goals and dreams for this summer and it absolutely lived up to all of it! We spent loads of time in the pool and outside, adventured and enjoyed the beauties of nature, got a few trips in (including our one without the boys!), spent a lot of time as a family, spent a lot of time with friends and loved ones, and played and played. It was a summer for the books! 

Yellowstone

On Monday morning of our last full week of summer I asked Ben if he'd want to go away that weekend, maybe to Yellowstone. He surprised me by saying yes! So I texted Aunt Sue to see if we could use her cabin (she'd offered before) and she said yes. So in about 15 minutes from the time the idea started we had booked a little family vacation to a beautiful place!

The boys had never been to Yellowstone before, but they were both so excited when we told them. They are such little adventurers- they just know that they love trips and they've loved every place we've taken them in the past. Chase is super into geology and earth science stuff, so I knew he'd love the hot pots and geysers. Hudson loves animals- so we had both their interests covered in one place! 

We left Thursday after Ben got off work. The boys did great on the 5 hour road trip and we rolled into the cabin around 10 pm that night. Hudson kept remarking that "this cabin is so toasty!" It is a beautiful, cozy cabin that was the perfect place to relax for a few days. As soon as we got there, Ben was regretting that we didn't have longer to stay. 

Friday morning we set off for the park! Neither of us really remembered just how BIG the park is, and how long it can take to get from place to place. The drive is so beautiful the whole time that we didn't mind too much. The kids actually did GREAT considering how much time they were in the car. And usually we hopped in and out of the car frequently, stopping whenever we saw something interesting. We saw three big sites the first day. The first one was the paint pots. The boys LOVED this! It's only a mile hike/walk around them and they marveled at the colors and loved the bubbling mud. They are such a unique experience, and the boys definitely appreciated it!

Then we headed to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We had to go there, because it's just so beautiful, and Chase really wanted to see a waterfall. We admired it's beauty and took a few photos, and then headed to Old Faithful. 

This was really not the most organized, or direct, way to see the park. But we were kind of being spontaneous and just enjoying being together. Old Faithful (or New Faithful, as Hudson calls it) lived up to the hype for the boys- as did the Huckleberry Ice Cream we got in the lodge. We got there at the perfect time and even got to see the Beehive geyser go off- which apparently isn't too frequent. Hudson made the old lady standing next to us chuckle as he (loudly) exclaimed his go-to phrase of "waiting is HARD!" when Old Faithful erupted a whole 4 minutes later than anticipated.

After all this excitement we headed back to the cabin for a low key late afternoon/evening. We've found this works well for us when we travel- busy mornings (our kids are early risers, so we are too by default) and then a chill, relaxing afternoon. The boys and I went on a little walk while Ben worked for awhile and stumbled upon some people we know- my Aunt Karen and Uncle Rick! (They have a cabin in West Yellowstone too, so it's not like it was too random to see them- we just didn't realize they would be there the same weekend we were.) It was fortuitous too, because they lent us some binoculars (that we used the second day to see a bald eagle!) and tickets to the Grizzly Discovery Center, which were also greatly appreciated!

Saturday was busy too! We got an early start and headed towards Yellowstone Lake. It's a long drive, but we saw lots of wild life on the way! We saw many Buffalo- even some swimming across the river- and a few elk. We hiked the Storm Point Trail out by the lake and it was incredible! Such beautiful views and so fun with our little hikers! Hudson won for most improved hiker on this trip, he did great! Ben only carried him for the last little bit. It was while we were out at the lake that we saw a bald eagle, which was thrilling to see in the wild. 

We went to the Grizzly and Wolf Discovery Center, which is a really cool place to visit. We got to see the bears up close and see them search for food and interact a little. I am relieved we didn't run into one in the wild- seeing them behind a fence is great for me! Hudson is our bear lover, so we knew he'd love it. 

 Then we stopped by Rick and Karen's again to return the binoculars and they suggested we take their Razor out on a ride. The boys LOVED it- especially Hudson was all giggles. He's a thrill seeker, this one (except slides- those are scary.)

We drove home on Sunday. Usually the boys do really well on road trips, but I think this one had a little more driving than we anticipated (with all the driving we did around the park while we were there). Within twenty minutes they were asking "are we there yet?" So the drive home felt...long. But it was still worth it! It was such a great, albeit short, vacation! I'm so glad we did it! I feel so blessed this year, we've taken several trips with the kids, and thanks to such generous family and friends, never paid for a hotel. It has made all this travel possible for us and I'm so so grateful for it! We've had amazing adventures with these boys and made great memories with them. 

Updates on the Boys!

Chase at 5 1/2 years old:

• He's so ready for kindergarten! He is so excited to go. It starts August 24th and Chase has been counting down the days.
• He totally understands numbers and math and how it all works, which amazes me because I don't really work on math stuff with him. He had this conversation with my mom one night that completely surprised us all:
• Chase: Nana, did you know I ate 3/4 a waffle for lunch?
• Nana: You did! And how much waffle would you have if you had 4/4?
• Chase: A whole waffle! You know how I know that? Well, if you have 2/4 that is 1/2 a waffle. And 1/2 + 1/2 = 1 whole waffle!
• He also can do simple addition in his head and likes me to quiz him on little math problems. He often writes them in the driveway in chalk.
• Has really gotten into bike riding this summer. Some mornings I'll put Hudson in the stroller to go on a walk and Chase will ride his bike- we usually go three miles and he can bike the whole thing. He rides his bike several times a day and is always asking for someone to take him on a bike ride.
• Is a total fish in the pool. He's really perfected his diving this summer and has now learned to run into a dive. He is completely competent swimming in the deep end. It's been fun to watch him work so hard and succeed at this skill.
• He's starting to get really helpful with chores. He sets the table, makes his bed and cleans his room, and loves to help me mop floors.
• Is such a "plan-aheader" (just like his mom). I realized that since his job is to fold the napkins and put them on the table (while Hudson does place mats), each night he pre-folds four napkins and leaves them on top of the pile, so they are easy to grab to put on the table the next night! 

Hudson at 3 1/2 years old:

• Has the most charming, infectious, mischievous smile! It's impossible to stay mad at him.
• Still has explosive tantrums, but way less often and seems to recover faster. We feel like he's moving in a good direction. His recent thing though is during a tantrum he has to strip off all his clothes and continue the tantrum completely naked. 
• Loves to go off the diving board with his life jacket on with a huge smile on his face. He's made a good start on being a competent swimmer, but isn't totally into learning yet. So he's mostly in a life jacket and we will work more on it next summer.
• Almost always calls Chase "brother" and all day long I hear "Come on, brother!" He loves playing with Chase and they have become the cutest little friends. 
• Always complains about going to church, but he really loves nursery and now loves to tell us all about what he learns there.
• He's such a tease- it comes so naturally to him.
• We have to force this child to drink liquid. We try to only give him milk and water, but whenever he gets his hands on lemonade or chocolate milk he'll down several cups in one sitting. Other than that, we are lucky if we can get him to drink a cup or two a day! The pediatrician told us he hasn't heard of kids doing that before, and just encouraged us to keep working with him.
• Is still such a cuddler, which we love. Whenever I read to him, he just melts right into me. 
• He loves babies. A few of our good friends have newborns and Hudson is always asking to hold them, and is very attentive to their needs (bringing them toys, putting binkies back in, etc.) He's going to go nuts when his new cousin is born next month!