Friday, October 7, 2016

Exploring the Magic Valley

We've gotten to live in so many amazing places.  And it never fails, we never explore them until we're about to move away and it's the last possible opportunity. :D

We took a day to go explore the Hagerman Fossil Beds and 1000 Springs Hot Springs.

We never actually got to the fossil beds.  While exploring the fantastic visitor's center, the guide persuaded us that it wouldn't hold the attention of young kids and that we should check out a nearby waterfall instead.  




1000 Springs hot spring was expensive but warm and fun.  The Carnley family joined us, which made it more fun.

Odds 'n Ends!

All four kids collaborated on this project - a firehouse for the Rescue Bots. There was red paint EVERYWHERE in our house but it was so neat seeing them all work together.

This shall be known as the Sunday Reed refused to wear anything but flip flops to church.  At first I tried to protest but his obstinate defiance was just too cute.  He ended up wearing flip flops to church for most of the summer.


This girl! :D

I get my hair cut approximately once or twice a year.  I love it, it feels amazing, and I love my hair for two days afterward. I should do it more often.



Cookies 'n Milk


"More cookies, please."


This kid has my heart!

Phone Odds 'n Ends

Gracen came home with this paper from church one week. "I know that Jesnsu loves me when I see..." and Gracen wrote "my Grandpa's orchard." Oh I love it! :) 


 All Eli wants to do these days is play strategy games.  He particularly has an interest in games that take 4+ hours like Monopoly and Risk.  Let's just say he's not able to find someone who is willing to play as often as he wishes.


I try to take at least one picture of each house that we live in.  It usually happens somewhere around moving week. :D  Good bye, Twin Falls house!  So many hard things happened while we lived here but lots of good things too.  Of course we always miss the people when we move on.

Addie and Reed and their love for green smoothies! Love it!

It seems like Addie had more than her share of sickness during her first 18 months of life.
Sick babies are hard to me.  Besides the lack of sleep and extra laundry it creates, I struggle to slow down and put other things on hold for their sakes. When I snapped this picture, I was taking time to comfort her.  Believe it or not, the house didn't (completely) fall apart and the other kids were still fed.  And I learned that there is something very near heaven about nursing one of these sweet innocents in their time of need. Thankful for learning moments like this one.

Adelyn has started insisting on things like sitting up to the table and using utensils.  My sweet baby is getting bigger!

One of the first pictures of summer.  We sure miss Soli and Niko!

End of the Year Carnival

The end of school carnival was so fun.  We took Soli and Niko, our neighbor kids that we just love, and met up with the Hiatts when we got there.

Bouncy houses, yummy inexpensive treats, a mini train, balloon animals,
so much fun.







Kindergarten Graduation

I'll be honest, I kind of feel like kindergarten graduation is overemphasized.  Is it really such a big deal?

But for some reason I got totally emotional at Gracen's.  My baby girl is growing up!  So my emotionalness resulted in a lot of pictures. :D




Mrs. Crittenden, or "Mrs C" as the kids called her.




Saying Goodbye to Boise Friends

It has been WAY TOO LONG. But I'm determined not to give up on this blog! So it's catch up time.


A few months before we moved, I texted my old neighbors to see if any of them could meet me at the park.  They were all WONDERFUL and dropped everything to be there!  

I LOVE THESE WOMEN! Each of them has such different strengths and each of them are amazing. I will always cherish our Boise time and the friends we made there.



And this moment.

I hope I can always remember the feeling of this moment.  We were laughing and my chest was FULL of warm joy.  It was one of those moments that time froze and I just was happy.



 I can't believe how blessed I am with amazing friends in my life!

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