Finally

I finally got Bonnie to wear the dress I made for her ages ago.  I had one photo of her wearing it and then all summer it was a no go, she wouldn't wear it.  Thankfully a few weeks ago I was able to convince her to wear it on the same Sunday Charlotte wore her dress.

You notice as she walks closer you see a bump on Charlotte's head.  Yeah I don't know where the heck that came from.  These days she just appears with new bumps all the time, it must be from walking.

Wordless Wednesday - the 9 month old edition

Camping again

This past weekend found us camping out at the Bruneau Sand Dunes.   It was really quite fun and a relatively short drive to the park.  We arrived early enough to pick a nice campground with some shade, there is not a lot of trees there.  We unpacked the kids and began setting up a tent.  As we were setting up the tent the only other campers there at the moment showed up and asked if we'd already paid for our spot.  When you pay for this camping spot you put your money into a big basket thing that the parks people pick up later, so if someone had paid for a spot and left without leaving any proof that they are camping there, it's basically free game.  The husband looks at his wife and says, "Well that just Great!"  I felt kind of bad but oh well, we referred to him as grumpy for the rest of the trip.

When we first got to the park we stopped in at the visitors center.  Inside they had a lot of animals and birds stuffed and moving around as if they were real.  They had a Golden Eagle feeding her babies a dead bunny.  The kids were full of questions, what happened to the bunny, why is it dead.  I tried to explain to them that the birds need bunnies like we need meat or cow.  Yeah it didn't click but it was fun.

After setting up the camp site we just sat around while the kids ran.  It was surprisingly hot.  After dinner we headed up to the sand dunes, unfortunately we forgot sled but we still had fun.  We parked and the kids raced off to the mountain of sand.

They ran up part of the hill and then I noticed them crawling up the hill.

I realized that they may just need my help and couldn't figure out why I thought these two little ones should go on their own.  So I headed up after them.

I stared walking up after them and realized why they were crawling.  It was hard to climb up and have your feet sinking into the ground while you did this.  By the time I reached Chas I was really thinking I should of brought some water.  It felt like I was breathing in sand.

We finally made it to the top.  It was really really cool.  I felt like Lawrence of Arabia while we walked the ridge across the top of the sand mountain.

I tried to get the kids to walk down the ridge instead of going straight back down the hill.  It just seemed very steep to me.

 It was really fun to say the least.  I think at this point scooter was trying to figure out what the heck we were up to.

Once we were down we hiked over the the astronomy area.  The parks has a huge telescope that you can look at the stars.  They also have a pair of Navy binoculars that you could look through.  I wasn't able to see anything but clouds through the large telescope but the binoculars were awesome.  We were able to see the moon and it was so neat to see it three-dimensional.  We also moved the binoculars over the the sand dunes and watched people hike.  The kids could focus on them easier then the moon.  It was just really cool.  Unfortunately we didn't get to see any stars so we headed back to our camp.

When we got back a ton more scouts had showed up and were playing football by us.  I laughed and thought it was a good thing grumpy didn't camp where we were camping because of the kids.  I asked Jay when he thought the kids would quiet down, he said around 11pm.  He was right.  Luckily I was so tired it didn't matter.

Time Really Does Fly

It doesn't seem like it's been this long but so much has changed.

I was watching Charlotte try to walk around the back yard today and thought it just seems like yesterday Bonnie was learning to walk.  I also found proof that it was really Bonnie who started the screams that now all the kids love to do, just for fun half the time.

Wordless Wednesday

Corgi Monday

Scooter just wanted to stop in and say Hi!  He's been missed on my blog for a while.

Precious

The other night the kids and I headed out to the backyard to read a few books.  We've moved a bench I recently put back together toward the middle of the backyard area.

Here is Bonnie being silly on the bench.  As we were sitting there reading a few books I heard this thudding coming up behind me.  I kind of cringed knowing that wouldn't save us from whatever is coming towards us.  Once the thudding stopped I turned around and there she was.

This is Precious.  She is our neighbors cow but now is our friend too.  She likes to come over anytime she spots us in the pasture. She comes over and we feed her apples from our apple tree.

Well two nights ago Grandpa stopped by and we told him about Precious and our reading books outside.  I secretly think she wanted to be read to also.  So we all headed outside.  Unfortunately Precious was all the over at the other end of her field.

At first we couldn't even see her, but then I spotted her.  We began calling and waving our arms for to her.  We called and called and called.  Even the kids were calling for her.  She walked a little bit away from her barn and feeding area.  Then she saw us and trotted over.  I rarely see cows run but Precious must like us because she ran all the way over to us.  We were all so happy.  We began to reward her with plenty of apples from our tree.

Then Grandpa found some apples too and began feeding her.

Then we thought we should probably go inside, but then she gave us this face. 

So we gave her a few more apples.  But then it was time to go inside and go to bed.  So we all said goodbye.

 

Never did I think we'd have a big cow as a friend, but we definitely love her.  She shows up now whenever we are outside. 

Wordless Wednesday

Hot Air Balloons

This past weekend Boise decided to do the hot air balloon lift off, I'm sure it wasn't a last minute decision.  Anyone in town could get up early and head down to Ann Morrison Park and watch the balloons take off. 

Saturday morning came and we dragged ourselves out of bed while it was still dark!  We headed over to the park and saw the droves of people.  It was a little more busy then I had realized.  But thankfully Daddy knew what to do and he took us into the middle of the balloons, no standing on the side for us.  We were feet away from the hot air balloons while they filled up and then took off!

Chas is always happy for a photo opportunity.  The two oldest kids loved watching the balloons take off, even given the loud noise.

I don't know if Charlotte like the balloons or not but she tolerated us dragging her off to the balloons.

The balloons they just kept blowing up and up and up.

By far our favorite balloon was rocket.

Then we discovered we were surrounded by pirates!  We do love pirates at our house.

You may not be able to see but that small flag is a pirate flag.  We noticed a few other balloons had pirate flags.

Then the show finished off with a Coca Cola balloon.  When the sun was behind the balloon the color was so bright.

But then it wasn't over. The weather changed (I didn't feel a breeze) and a few balloons passed over us to move to a different clearing to try to take off.

While we were heading out they began the port-a-pottie knock over contest.  Yes the balloons got low and began knocking over port-a-potties.  It was pretty funny.  Of course we were getting hungry and a certain someone was done with sitting in her storller.

The poor girl was just hungry.  We got her home and few and she was the most pleasant little person for the rest of the day.  Which was so nice considering the rough teething week we've had.

Next year we are marking our calendars and heading out to this fun hot air balloon event again, it's a family must do.

First Day of PreSchool

Last Wednesday Bonnie headed off to her second year of preschool.  She just loves it there.  She still prefers to be goofy or not be in photos at all.