Happy Fall Y'all!

Well I've made a new goal.  No more low quality phone camera pictures.  Ugh.  As I uploaded pics from this month I realized not a single one was done with my nice (but extremely heavy and not easy to tote around) camera.  Sad.  Time to get that ol' bad boy out and enjoy the art of it again.   I miss it.  Starting Oct 1st I'll attempt a pic a day, with my artsy fartsy camera.  But for now, you're stuck seeing my life through the grainy, blurry lens of my phone.  (though in defense of my phone, the cameras have come a long way in the last few years!!  I should find a pic I took from my first phone with a camera.  Ty didn't even look human!  ha!)




So September started they way it ALWAYS does (well at least the way is always has since 2006) by celebrating the birth of my eldest child, TY! He is officially in the double digits!!! That means I've been a mom for 10 years!  Does this make him a pre-teen?

 

He requested a waterslide cake to go along with his summer birthday party theme. This is what I came up with. So fun!

 

Bryan took him and a couple of his friends and his brothers to Seven Peaks water park for a day of fun.

 

Later we celebrated with his cousins and had cake and ice cream.

 

And opened a couple presents.

 

 His favorite present being a pair of roller skates. Rad. Last time I was on those babies I was his age, hoping someone would ask me to couple skate at RollerTowne. It really is crazy to think that in 10 more years he'll be an adult. wow. SO many huge things are right around the corner for him. Scary and exciting all at the same time.

 

After the weekend of partying was over it was time to throw ourselves into the craziness of fall!  School had started for the boys already, but Tessa got to start preschool the first week of September.   I can't believe all that I have is a crummy camera phone pic of her on her first day. Boo. She seriously looked so cute.

 

We also started a few new extra curricular activities. Brans and Cason decided they wanted to "get strong" by doing gymnastics (Dad was the big influence here. He attributes his agility on the slopes to his years of gymnastics, helpful in throwing yourself off cliffs when you're skiing apparently). They've LOVED it and swear to me that they get stronger each time they go.  I've seen them comparing their muscles in the mirror :)

 

This little munchkin started Irish dancing, yes we're talking Riverdance kind of stuff.  Sorry I don't have a grainy pic of that yet. But here she is with her doggy body pillow.

 

 Ty started flag football. It's been a WAY better experience for him verses his experience with tackle football a couple years ago.   His specialty is interceptions (which usually turn into touchdowns!)

 

Don't be jealous, but check out the backdrop for his games. Ahhhh, heavenly!

 

And Cason has begun piano lessons. Makes my mama heart happy.

 

Now just think about how busy my little family is with all of this new fun.   Now think about how awesome my mom is to agree to come watch this busy bunch while I flew off with my husband for a week in Hawaii!! Yeah, she rocks.

 

 So while I was away, giggling with my mother in law,

 

And laying out at the beach reading a good book and sipping a virgin pina colada…

 

 My mom was taking the best care of my most precious people (I was so glad she sent me pics like this of the things they were up to!)

 

It took me a couple of days to relax and stop thinking about how much my kids would enjoy everything I was doing. Especially when we were doing fun things like wandering around the Disney resort that was next door to our condo.

 

Or when we were snorkeling with dolphins.

 

Or when we were consuming large amounts of island fruits. (my kids would take fruit over candy… and that's saying a lot!)

 

But after a while I immersed myself in the amazingness of where I was (Ko Olina is where we stayed, pictured right behind Bryan).  I took advantage of the time I had with my sweetheart. No distractions. No laundry. No alarm clocks.  Just relaxing paradise.

 

 The condo we stayed in was beautiful. (the kids woulda loved the pools!  see there I go again.)

 

The company was so enjoyable.

 

The private little bays were amazing. (perfect for kids)

   

And the food was dreamy. (Something I'm SO glad I DIDN'T have to share with my kids!)

 

 I'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds while I was there. Who can resist places like Monkeypods, Kahuku Grill and Roys.

 

Of course, Bryan still had to stop all our fun to glue himself to a TV twice to watch the BYU football games.

 

But then we were right back to golfing

 

and reading books (without interruption!)

 

 and sightseeing

 

and visiting with friends (some of our friends from residency were in Hawaii at the same time for the oral surgery conference…. the conference Bryan never actually attended).

 

and going to the Hawaii temple

 

and lots more laying out by the beach.

 

I think one of our highlights was zip lining. It's a new gig in Kahuku, just opened a few months ago.

 

 I still can't believe we got my mother in law to do it! She was awesome! Did everything everyone else did. Including the repelling and flipping herself upside down for one of the zip lines!

 

It took 3 hours and Bryan and I couldn't stop saying, "Oh the boys would LOVE this!" We will definitely be back with our kiddos some day to do this again!

 

 But after a week, as the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Lucky for me I had 5 good things waiting for me at home!

 

 My mom had kept my babies safe and more than well cared for.  (can't you tell by my mom's feet that she's just so cute!)

 

 She had read to them, did homework with them, studied the scriptures with them and even dared to go to church with them (5 kids vs 1 adult on a church bench is no easy task!).

 

 She painted nails and got kids ready for school and birthday parties and gymnastics and football practice. It's like she had done this kind of thing before :) wink wink.

 

I had to give her the biggest high 5 for not freaking out when a mouse was caught in a trap and the kids attempted to feed it and keep it alive.

 

 My kids are pretty lucky to have the grandparents that they do! Wish I had gotten to spend as much time with my mom as my kids did, but a day after I got home she had to fly back to California.  My kids were so sad to see her leave.

 

When I got back things went back to our normal… except this little guy suddenly was glued to my side. Every time I left the room he'd scream and cry until he found me. Pretty sure he was afraid I'd suddenly disappear on him again.

 

Then, a couple of days later, it was my sister's turn to leave on a fun trip with her husband. So I volunteered to watch her 3 boys (payin' it forward!)

 

My kids loved having their cousins around for a few days.  We had bike races.

 

We had movie nights.

 

We cuddled.

 

 And they even accompanied me on my visiting teaching outing (yes I can walk on over to do my visiting teaching… only in UT :)  We all had lots of good fun together.

PS Did you notice the crunchy orange leaves beautifully scattered about in that pic??  Hello fall!!!!



The little hints that fall was fast approaching led me to break out the Halloween decor earlier than I ever have.  I just couldn't wait!

  

Happily the weather totally cooperated!  It had shifted to a wonderful wet dreariness. That meant dusting off the boots and pulling on the cardigans.  bliss.



Of course it doesn't exactly look like full fledge fall outside yet.  Trees are still green.  Weeds are still green.  Ugh.  So done with our dirt and weeds landscaping.  But we're trying to change that!!  After a few weeks break from construction we've begun work on the house again. This time on the outside.  Not sure if we're going to get all the landscape in before winter but we're sure going to try. First task:  retaining the river.  Thus the 8 million boulders piled in our backyard (this was the fist load of about 5!) Hopefully we'll have grass just in time for it to go dormant and get snowed on!

 

And so it begins.  The count down to so many fun things ahead.  It's how we get through life.  We enjoy the season we're in and look forward to the seasons beyond.

It reminds me of a quote I had written in the cover of my scriptures in college.  "When you become reluctant to change, remind yourself of the beauty of autumn"

Deep thoughts.  :)  Happy Fall y'all!