Pumpkin Carving

So we had a small crew over to carve pumpkins for FHE.  Addy and I had already carved one down in Utah but we'd left it behind and I love to have at least one lit by the door on Halloween night, so that meant we needed to carve another.  Since I also have a little independent child, she of course didn't want to share the pumpkin so Dad helped cut out her own creation and I did the other one by myself! Hmmm, thinking back maybe I am the one who is hard to work with.

She was pretty proud of that pumpkin!

but it still wasn't good enough so she ended up cutting another design on the back all by herself.

It can be a little exhausting working with a 5 year old!

She was even more delighted with this side of the pumpkin.

After 5 attempts at a family picture, this was the best that we got!

Harlans freaky pumpkin.

Our amazing pumpkins all ready for Halloween night!

Camping

One activity that Mitch wanted to do before summer ended was to go camping with the family.  After our camping adventure last year with the bears, I made sure we went to an actual campground so there would be several other people around to scare the bears away!  To be honest, I was a little hesitant about going because we'd been having so many issues with the Addy girl (just packing up was a nightmare!) plus we have a new baby.  Since it was only for one night and we were going with good friends, I tried to have a good attitude.  We went up to Island Park to a place were Mitch used to camp as a kid.  It was beautiful but next time we won't choose the site right by the highway, those trucks get pretty noisy at night! 

Addy helped set up the tent.

Spent some time coloring while we got the fire started for our tin foil dinners.

Mitch maning the fire with the little man.

He loves his hands...they are always a slobbery mess.

Playing a rousing game of Uno while we wait for our dinners to cook.

The kids even got to watch a show before bed while the adults played Canasta.

After our delicious breakfast of pancakes, eggs and sausage we shared some lovely songs around the campfire.

Then packed everything up and headed up to Big Springs to see the fish.

Turns out we had a really hard time finding the fish. We had to look far under the bridge and we still only saw a couple.

This little guy was amazing!

On the trail to Johnny Sack's Cabin.

Hehe..I love this picture.
This is at the outhouse of the cabin and I told Addy to pretend like she had to go to the bathroom.

Our only family picture from the trip. Thankfully it is a pretty good one!

On our way back to the car so we could have our picnic lunch!

Turns out we need to go camping more often!  Our kids did awesome, meaning we had no melt-downs from the oldest or the youngest!  To top it all off when Addy was asked what her favorite thing was she said...spending time with my family!  Pretty big deal since lately we have been the worst family ever to her.  My attitude about camping has greatly changed.

Outdoor Movie

The other night we hosted a backyard movie and invited several neighbors.  It was fun to see the kids getting excited and snuggling with their blankets.  Brayden fell asleep at the beginning of the movie which was awesome and Addy ended up falling asleep towards the end of the movie but most everyone else stayed awake!

hiking

We have such great adventurous friends.  It had been dumping rain in the late afternoon and still looked like it could be stormy and yet they all came anyway!
And the pictures pretty much say the rest.

This girl has serious style!

Caught in a very happy moment!

I will say it was so much easier to carry this little guy on the outside of me for this hike.  This way he wasn't squashing my lungs so I could actually breathe!

celebrating our independence

A quick run-down of our 4th of July.  

It pretty much included us inviting ourselves to a few gatherings.

The only thing we had officially planned for the day was the Idaho Falls parade in the morning.

Some of the crew for the parade.

Have you ever seen a camel in a parade before? This was a first for me.  It even peed in front of us for like 5 minutes...the kids thought it was pretty cool.

They even had the baby but it was a little tired of walking.

After the parade we ended up at a relative, of a relative, of a relatives house.  Needless to say it was someone we didn't know and we showed up anyway for a BBQ.  You can't celebrate the 4th of July without a BBQ it just wouldn't be American.

That afternoon we debated about sticking around for the firework show that night. With a new baby I didn't want to fight the crowds or be out that late so we headed back home.  We ended up once again inviting ourselves over to our neighbors to play in the water and eat dinner. 

Addy wanted to pose for the camera.

And another pose.

Once it started getting a little dark we put jammies on the kids and started with the parachutes.  I really didn't think they would even work because we bought the cheaper ones at the stand.  Turns out they all worked and some of them even had two chutes.  

Once it really got dark we put on quite a great show since we combined fireworks with several families on our street.  It was great to be home and socialize with people in our neighborhood since we are always gone on the 4th.