Back to School 2012

First day of first grade

Luke is hiding behind us...can you find him? 

First graders wear tie shoes, mom. 

There is something sweet about a kid in a cross walk. I can't help it. 

I wonder why he is smiling like this again...

As soon as we got to the playground, three friends were waiting for him. Josh didn't even say goodbye, just took off with his buddies.  

HILERIE VISITS

HOOT HOOT !  Hilerie and I ran the Livingston Night Owl race on Friday night.  It was 4 miles long and started at 7 PM. Prizes were awarded for best costume, and in my opinion Hilerie got robbed!

Crossing the finish line!  So happy to be done, so happy to be running together, so happy to have another tu-tu clad race in the books. 

Rebecca joined us, though we didn't end up running it with her, we still had to have a trio picture .  

Saturday we broke away from the anniversary party to run in the BozeMonster muddy run.  It was fun - 3 miles with 11 obstacles. Look how clean we are! 

This is the after shot.  Rebecca was such a fun trio partner. I love this because you can't tell we have striped socks on.  I loved this race and this day!  Doing a belly slide (like I was heading for home base) into a mud trough was one of my favorite things I've ever done. 

Ty is our new fishing buddy

Hilerie and her son Ty came up for the weekend. Saturday morning we took the three boys fishing in Josh's "secret spot" and we had so much fun.  Since Hil and I are rarely together with our kids, this was a super sweet moment.

Josh caught a few bass.  He kept doing this silly little Gomer smile...

We were getting all ready for fishing - so excited to be doing this together!

Josh and Ty putting the first worm of the day on the hook. 

A real anniversary party

We celebrated Mike and Bonnie's fortieth anniversary on Saturday evening with many friends and family members.  We'd be preparing for it for a while, and so Luke knew we were having an anniversary party but he wasn't too sure what that meant.  Late into the party as we sat around the fire, Luke said "mom, now that I know what a real anniversary party is, I want another one."  What a sweet boy.  A big thank you to all of those who could attend and make this such a special day for us all!

A rare group shot with all 10 of us.  The last one was in Feb 2010 at Disneyworld! Mickey Mouse kept Luke a bit more awake than this party did...

Bonnie and her brother, Clayton, enjoying a moment together. 

Mike made a low country boil, and here is the bounty spread out on newspaper.  

Jen and I worked hard to make a photo memory book to surprise them.  Many people contributed letters, photos, poems, etc for this special commemoration. 

We're a goofy family!  

Paradise Valley

We went camping on the Yellowstone this weekend.  We had 8 trailers and a total of 28 people there -- ranging from 3 months old to 62 years old. It was a super fun time.  Mike got creative after a few inspirational juices and climbed on top of one of the trailers to get this group shot.  

Josh had a great time with his two best friends, Kyler and Gabe.  They played in the water and the sand all day -- and his Keens are here to prove it.  

Luke had a lovely time as well, because as much as he likes to eat matched with how much food was available.  Sunday morning he got inventive and brought his folding chair into the trailer and declared himself the King of Eating.  No truer title has ever been bestowed.

My favorite part of the kids' activities was the Bigfoot hunting/trapping/chasing/battling that they did.  Sunday morning 6 of them decided to build a fort to hang out in.  It progressed to this -- complete with a front door, a window and an escape back door in case Bigfoot shows up.  They even had Grampa Harley test it out and act like Bigfoot so they could try out their escape route. These kids' imaginations are so fun! 

This is our silly Lukey looking at us through the window in the fort. 

Marches to The Beat of His Own Drummer

This is my current favorite picture of Josh.  He got to go to a spur of the moment swimming pool play date with Gabe and he was just fired up about it. He grabbed a backpack to put his swim gear (aka goggles) in, but then decided he better wear his snorkel as he biked over.  When I told him he looked awesome he said "I know"  and when I asked if I could take a picture, he said "yes, but put it on your phone so when you swipe it I come up"  -- yes, Josh, you can be my lock screen picture. 

His shenanigans didn't end at the bike. This was his Olympic Dive for the competition at Ryles.  Gabe said if it hurts it's a good dive, but I think Josh was going more for style points than the ouch factor. 

Painters

Josh helped me paint these boards last week. He is pretty good at painting, I trust his work on a job like this. 

However, Luke does not do trustworthy work and was banished to painting "anything you want" with water.  He was surprisingly on task and painted for longer than Josh did.  

Backyard Baseball

My parents visited last weekend so they got a chance to see our very own Bad News Bears.  They loved hitting off pitcher Grampa Wright.  

Josh is an intense pitcher -- checking second base and winding up with the leg and everything.  Where did he learn this? 

King FiddlyFarter is not intense. Period.  

He thinks everything that is long and skinny is a gun. 

Sleepy

These silly boys fell asleep together one night last week -- we think it's so cute (and rare) that its worth a picture. 

An Interview with Josh

I interviewed Josh on his birthday (which I realize was nearly two months ago...) and talked a friend into jazzing it up for me in this fancy format. Thanks Keely!  I love this boy. I hope when he's older he'll realize what a kickass little kid he was.

Floatin' the 'Stone

Sunday we took a float trip on the Yellowstone. We were sure that Josh would love every second of it -- he's become quite the little fisherman lately--but not too sure Luke would love it.  Last time we tried to get him in the boat he refused and said he was too scared of falling out.  After a week's worth of subtle brainwashing, we got both boys' buy in and off we went.  The experience was lovely, even if the fishing was a bit slow.
(sorry for the crappy pictures...I am guessing that a young man named Luke smeared his fingers all over the lens. Just sayin')

This was so neat to watch -- Josh and daddy fishing side by side.  

That toothless smile won't last long...there's already one big scrabble tile of a tooth coming in.  He was smiling a lot in the boat!

This is a happy Luke. He was not scared as long as I was holding onto him. 

The only fish of the day!  Josh caught a whitefish (which is what he wished for when he threw a wishing rock into the river..) and he was thrilled!  The boys kept calling it a Mountain Whitefish like it was some elusive species.  

Luke doesn't really care about fishing, but he loves playing on the shore.  He was helping to anchor our anchor here.  Belt and suspenders.

Luke said his favorite part of the day was rowing the boat. 

And before we knew it, it was over.