Chillin' in AF

The last post started with Ezra holding a kitty...this time it was Caroline's turn. This kitty belongs to Ella and Teddy. We started out our week in Idaho by spending the morning with the cousins. Ezra and Caroline dearly miss their beloved cousins and had been looking forward to seeing them again ever since we moved. Aunt Heather graciously allowed us to come over even though she was busy getting ready for company and baking cookies for the upcoming Bible conference the Aberdeen meeting hosted.

The two newest cousins had a fun time getting to know one another. I think that this set will be another case of double trouble in their time!

Heather has wheat next to her house again this year. Boy is it beautiful! I do miss all the planted fields.
Sunbathing beauties : )
And boisterous boys! Speaking of double trouble.
The boys enjoyed the slip 'n' slide in the hot sun.

Teddy and Caroline have traditionally fought like cats and dogs. However, on this trip they seemed to turn over a new leaf together. They were overheard to say things to one another like "We're friends now!" and "Now we'll be friends forever!"
Grandma was very busy keeping Levi from eating leaves, grass and sand. That boy is on the move!
Because I was still solo-parenting I did not get many pictures during the week. But we had lots of fun going to Monday night volleyball, visiting Lexie's house for a play date for the kids and a haircut for mommy from Lexie's mom, going to the park, visiting our old library and relaxing with Grandpa and Grandma. On Thursday evening, Tadd arrived and boy were we glad to see him.
Grandma had the touch : ) This next segment is a montage of different folks holding Nora.

Sweet Mitchell is always so good to our children.
Caroline and Aunt Trudy--special friends. Lucky for Aunt Trudy, I'm not posting the picture of BOTH of them picking their noses, hehe.
This girl will climb anything and jumps from everything.
Miss Kris is probably still catching up on sleep after all the work she put into the hospitality food at the Aberdeen Bible Conference. And I'm still holding onto all the extra pounds I collected from all the meals and snacks there.
Caroline Avy and her very special Auntie Avy. We miss you, Auntie Avy!
If there's anything cuter than little girls in pretty dresses, I don't know what it is. We miss you too, Abby and Trevor.
We sure do miss our Aberdeen friends!
We enjoyed the two and a half days of the Bible conference and the picnic the day after. After all of those festivities we had a day to relax at Grandpa and Grandma Idaho's house with Daddy. Daddy and Grandpa took the kids to the fish hatchery to check out the fish.

And while they were gone Grandma and Caroline stitched up some of Ha-ha Hor-hay's (Curious George) busted seams.


And Tadd changed the oil and got the car all ready for the family trip to Tamarack, Idaho...which will be documented later.

Where to Begin???

The logical place is, of course, at the beginning. It's just that the beginning is so long ago and I'm having trouble keeping up with the here and now. So this is going to come at you in small bursts. First off, our big adventure began July 8th as the kids and I loaded up the van and headed to Idaho. Since we were daddy-less for the drive, we decided to take it real slow and easy. The first day we left at lunch time and only planned to go as far as the Tri-Cities area. A wonderful family we happen to be friends with agreed to take us in for the night. The kids had a blast playing at their country home complete with lots of animals and lots of kids.

Ezra found himself a kitty whose hair matched his own.
These kids are used to animals and taking care of them. It's fun to watch.
The sun looks nice and friendly in these pictures, but don't be deceived. It was over 100 degrees and HOT.
Ezra was allowed to head out and help feed the animals the next morning.

"Goatee" is the baby goat the boys of the farm were bringing up from babyhood.
He was still drinking bottles of milk and Ezra got to help give him his morning bottle. After a delicious egg and cinnamon roll breakfast, we loaded back up and hit the trail again. That day's goal was to get as far as Boise where we had a motel booked.

We made it safely to Boise and lost an hour in the process. Our motel had a pool and we took a dip--no pictures though because my hands were quite full enough.
The next morning the kids lounged in motel beds and feasted on donuts and bananas while I loaded up yet again.

From Boise to American Falls was a mere 3 hour drive...and we finally reached our end destination--Grandpa and Grandma Idaho's! Boy were we excited to get there. More on our week in our old stomping grounds at a later date.

We Have a New Three Year Old in the House!

Happy Birthday to my precious Caroline Avy.

Last evening while Grandma was getting her a birthday pedicure she started complaining that her cheek hurt. By the time she got home she was crying pretty hard. A trip to the urgent care revealed double ear infections. Hmmm...fun birthday surprise. Although, she did come away with lots of fun gifts from the friendly children's urgent care staff.

Today should only get better!

Kids

Some fun shots I forgot to post from back when Jacob and Emily came to visit. All three kids joined them in their bed first thing in the morning.

I almost titled this post "A girl and her bike" because our little Kine is quite attached to her bicycle these days. She mastered going for long rides, going up steep hills and using the brakes. She's currently working on taking off her training wheels. She has practice sessions each week with her Daddy. She has a much better attitude than her brother did about this whole matter. And when she gets off her training wheel-less bike she walks with more swagger than I can even describe.

Sometimes the tricycle out back can be just as much fun.
Brother and sister: friends!
Ice cream and bikes, what describes summer better?
Our little Nora is 4.5 months old now. She weighed in at 3 pounds 3 ounces less than her sister did at her 4 month appointment : ) And yet, she was still in the 90% for her age. Haha, Caroline was quite obese.
Here she is modeling her summer swim suit--a gift from Aunt Emmy.

Now why is that a grown woman's chunky style thighs are just not this cute in a swimsuit???

Caroline and her other baby Nora.
This is how you ride double. Of course, it inevitably ends in a fight...like most things do with a 4 year old and his almost 3 (going on 16) year old sister.