Just made me laugh...

Today Logan came in from playing outside..........he was so excited about something.

He was running through the house calling........"Mom guess what.....Mom guess what?"

He finally found me switching laundry in the laundry room.

Logan said, "Mom guess what?"

I replied, "What Logie Bear?"

Logan said, "I just saw a toot wittle wabbit (cute little rabbit) in the font (front) yard!"

He started to describe how small and cute the rabbit was and.....

not a minute later he asks me, " Mom can we shoot it?"

It just made me laugh!

He is so Justin's son and that comment right there proves it.

Justin still reminds me of the time in college when we were with a group of friends and saw a family of quails crossing the road. They were so cute.....

but you know me..... I made the sound of a shot gun being cocked and

fired off when I saw them.

Justin said my comment was awesome coming from a pretty girl and he knew I would be a great "catch"! Justin loves that story and loves that, for him, I am the "perfect" combination of Tom Boy and girly girl. What can I say I grew up between two brothers...........great memories I have of the River Rat's...our club all growing up. Many kids who grew up across the river remember the River Rat's!!

The BIG Day!

So I have a TON of blogging to do to catch up. I keep hoping to find some time to do that but life just isn't slowing down. I am determined to keep my blog up because the one blog book I made turned out so great. The kids love to look back through it and remember all the fun things we did............so I will get caught up.......just not today.

So I am going to start with more recent stuff and go from there. This is Kiersten and Hunter on the first day of school. Kiersten is in 4th Grade...........Hunter is in 2nd Grade............and they both have Mrs. Skinner's.......and the strings teacher is also named Mrs. Skinner. We need to come up with nicknames real soon.

Styling kids huh? Logan was so sad to not be starting preschool the same day so I let him wear his new outfit and backpack. The kids were excited for school. I was sad to have to give them back. I have really enjoyed this summer. It went by so fast! I had many more fun things I was wanting to do with the kids so I was sad to have this day come.

Watch out boys......and mom and dad!

We are hoping for another great year of school at DPA!

Cluff Family Reunion

This was such a fun reunion. It was laid back and just plain fun.......even Justin commented on how much fun the reunion was this year, which is a big deal if you know Justin and crowds! The kids always enjoy playing in the sandbox! Justin was upset to hear that his mom had never actually been in the rail so he went to her cabin and made her go on a ride with him. They actually went Geo Caching and had a great time. It was cute to see Justin so insistent that his mother go on the rail! She is a true Geo Cacher now! Mr. Grant and Tanner These two look quite alike..........both stinkin' adorable and chunky!

Even the younger kids commented on how much these two looked alike. It will be fun to see if they still look alike next reunion. It was so fun to see cousins, aunts and uncles we don't get to see regularly. My kids look forward to this reunion ever year......actually every other year now. What a great blessing to spend time with family at Sherwood Forest! The food was delicious and the company even better!

Mr. Water Snake

One of the days we spent at Black River the boys caught a water snake. They were so excited. Actually to correct myself, they caught two water snakes that day. The first one Logan wanted to let it "play in the water" and yeah that meant it got away.

He kept saying, "Why da Wada Nake not tum back to me?"

So yes the older boys were upset with Logan.........but we got luck and they found another water snake shortly after.

They talked me in to letting them bring him back to camp with us and they loved feeding the snake bugs and minnows.

Mr. Water Snake #2

Who could resist these BIG BROWN EYES?

It was interesting to watch the snake eat the minnows!

Black River

When Justin came back up on Wednesday he was totally different. His attitude had changed drastically..........he said he'd thought a lot about what we'd talked about regarding doing things that our kids are interested in. He said I was right......which I should have gotten in writing for future reference! So he surprised the kids by buying a fishing and hunting license while he was back home. He told the kids he wanted to be able to help them put their worms on the hook and fix their lines when they needed him. Hunter was the most excited but I think Justin was a close second. They talked and talked about going bird hunting together and future fishing trips.

Since we had had so much luck fishing at Black River with the Moore's we decide to go back there when Justin got back before heading over to the Cluff Reunion.

While at Black River, Kiersten had a great time catching beautiful butterflies. Mr. Grant was so good and loved watching us fish. Justin is such an amazing dad! I am blessed to be married to him and am so grateful to be where we are at in our relationship..........eternity won't be long enough at this point!

Mr. Grant was so funny with the fish!

He thought that fish was the funniest thing in the world....that was until I got it a little too close and he actually touched it! He wasn't so sure about it then. It was so fun to watch him taking in his first experience with a live fish! Ahhh I just loved watching him!

Justin was a great sport all day at Black River! I felt really bad because Hunter caught one fish and I caught 5 fish, while Justin didn't catch anything. But he truly had changed since our last fishing excursion..........he was a bit bummed but happy to be with his kids enjoying life together. And really life doesn't get any better then that.........choosing to enjoy life, even if that means not catching one fish...it's still a personal choice whether you enjoy it or not!

It turned out to be a great trip!

Hunter's fish got eaten by the crawdads, which he thought was awesome and wanted a picture of it so he could remember. I am grateful for a life full of health........I don't always choice to be positive either don't get me wrong, but I am always happier when I do!

Moore Fun!

Justin had to go back to work Monday and our good friends the Moore's happen to be camping in Alpine the same weekend we were so we made plans for Hal to catch a ride back to Pima with Justin while Stacy, her four kids, my kids (minus Grant) and I stayed up camping. My mother-in-law offered to keep Mr. Grant if Justin would bring him when he came and she would bring him back on Tuesday when she came up to the Cluff Reunion. It was really nice of her even though it was hard to let him go. My first time away from him over night........but shoot she's a better mom then me so he was in great hands! The first day we fished at Black River we caught 10 fish........Kaden caught 5 and I caught five. The competition was on! Kaden kept telling me, "You are like a really tough mom!"

Rrrrrr Logan and Brinner just can't resist each other.

The picture is blurry but yes that is me kicking Logan in the butt! No need to call CPS it was a "gentle tap" that's all :)

What a good looking group of kids!

We had so much fun fishing!

Stacy and her four crazy boys!

Stacy posing sexy by the tree. Really she was trying to "hide her gut" but since she actually doesn't have a gut she didn't need to do that.......silly Stac!

Wow look at all those Rainbow trout!

Hunter and Kendall were so proud. They each got to reel one in and loved every minute of it!

Logan thoroughly enjoyed gutting the fish. He just wanted to "play with the fishies!"

Boy and Fish Guts

Kaden just couldn't believe I would help gut the fish.....I won a lot of points with him because of my fishing skills!

Every evening we would go on a rail ride. It is such beautiful country and the weather was gorgeous! And of course Logan and Brinner were silly as ever!

It was tons of fun! We had a wonderful time and were sad to see the Moore's leave on Tuesday.

"Can I really go that high?"

That was Logan's comment when he saw how high the ski lift was. We took the kids to ride the ski lift at Sunrise Resort. You can ride the lift up and down as many times as you want. You can hike down if you want and a lot of people were taking the lift up and riding their mountain bikes back down.

The kids were a bit nervous about this adventure.....

The Indian guys were very nice to always help the boys get up in the sit so they didn't get knocked down by it. You forget how fast the seat is coming around.... at least it felt fast with little kids to try and get on it.

Up, Up and Away

I only took a moment and then the kids lost their nervous feeling and were in complete Awe of the beautiful scenery Heavenly Father and Jesus have created for us. It was a great opportunity to talk with the kids about how much Heavenly Father loves us and what a beautiful earth we have to live in.

At view from the top was breath taking!

Justin and I talked about bring the kids back up when they are older and mountain biking down. I hope we remember to do that!

It was a little crazy to go down the ski lift since I never had before.........usually you are skiing or snow boarding down the mountain. The top corner were you get on the lift kind of took your breath away.

Love My Kids!

One of my favorite things to do is to spend time with just my kids..........no friends, no neighbors, no cousins........just them. Not that I don't enjoy spending time with everyone else, but to share moments with just my kids and Justin is pure joy to me. It makes me think of what heaven might be like in a way.

I hope Hunter always wants a picture with his Mom!

Logan loved jumping off the lift and running to get out of the way.

Hurry Logie......Hurry! It was really fun and we loved watching the people mountain biking down the mountain. Wow some of the really got going fast!

Rainbow Camp Site

Mr. Grant LOVED his early birthday present......the 4X4 wagon.

Justin on the other hand did not like the wagon and thought it was a waste of money. I thought being up in the mountains for 9 days with a 10 month old I would need something to pull him a round in. After the first day Justin made the comment, "that wagon is really handy to have." I felt like saying, "what you mean the wagon you thought was a waste of money?" But I refrained. It did end up being a great thing to have camping and ever since. When we got to our camp site the kids were thrilled to find a fort already made.

What more could you ask for......a fort in the mountains!

They spent a lot of time playing in their fort.

Mr. Grant had a good time.......between the wagon rides, crawling in the toy hauler, and sitting in the walker I borrowed he loved his first camping adventure!

It wouldn't be a complete camping trip without roasting marshmallows and making smores. Oh my favorite......I usually can't stop with just one smores!

I will always think of my dear friend Stacy Smith whenever I make smores! She is the Smores Master and always will be in my book!

Love my Mr. Grant! Even though he really wanted down so he could eat rocks!

He loved the walker.....thanks Gloria! He could only push himself backwards but loved it none the less.

I love, love, love Robeez shoes! We loved Rainbow Camp grounds and hope to make it a yearly tradition!