Back to school!

Ashton was so excited and happy to go to his first day of first grade, but a little nervous. We'd gone the night before to back to school night and met his teacher Mrs. Rawlins. She is the new first grade teacher and so far we really like her.

Anyway he opted for taking a lunch that first day and he and I walked to school. I loved that he held my hand the whole way and really wanted me to walk him into his classroom. And I've been loving that he still wants me to take him almost to the door every day and be right outside the school to pick him up every afternoon. I will enjoy that as long as I can, knowing that it may not last much longer.

Hanging up his backpack...

 Sitting in the first row :) Lucky #11 again!

He is really loving first grade. When I pick him up, he goes on and on about all the stuff they did. He loves music class, art, P.E., going to the library and of course RECESS! As well as getting to eat lunch with his friends every day. He really loves when they get to do anything science related and is excited that he'll get to participate in the science fair this year!

I went in to volunteer last week not realizing that his teacher didn't really need volunteers yet, so she just had me tag along when the class went up to do a reading test to determine what level reading group they'd be in. Anyway Ashton and one other little boy were in there forever! In fact Mrs. Rawlins took the rest of the class back to the classroom and had me wait for Ashton and the other little boy until they were done. I kept wondering what was taking SO long, so I asked her the next day and she said that they just keep letting them read as many levels until they can't read the words anymore. So he took so long because he was reading so well! I'm so proud of him...he's in the highest reading group :)

As I was sitting there worrying that something was wrong for him to be in there so long!

Anyway I think we are all loving this new school schedule. We loved our summer, but it was time to get back to school. I miss Ashton, but to be honest I don't miss the fighting between him and Gunnar! Some days they are best buddies, playing good for hours...but man there are days when they fight like BROTHERS!

I LOVE this picture of them...especially since as I was taking some pictures of Ashton that first day, Gunnar ran out and wanted to be in them and Ashton did this all on his own :) I love Gunnar's happy face in it! Oh how he loves his brother!

And oh how I love this boy! First GRADER! Can't believe it!

Under Construction...

Yes my blog is ugly right now...I'm working on it :)

Fun Bear Lake Weekend!

 We spent the weekend before school started over at Bear Lake. We stayed at Ideal Beach in one of their new "hotel rooms". We debated cancelling since it was only about 10 days after Lars' surgery, but we decided that he could sit around over there just as well as he could over here. It was such a fun trip! And actually Lars did most of the stuff we did...thanks to his knee-walker. So much nicer than crutches! He even took it down to the beach.

We got there Saturday afternoon about 3:30 and checked in. Our room ended up being so nice! And so convenient. We could park almost right next to it. The boys LOVED it because it had BUNK BEDS!

Actually that was pretty much why we chose it :) And we love Ideal Beach. It's so fun to have the sand and water a 5 minute walk away, as well as a swimming pool, miniature golf and big park to play on.

Of course the first thing they wanted to do was swim in the swimming pool, so I figured we might as well get it over with :) Oh how I hate swimming pools. Usually Lars will just take them in, but these days everything is pretty much up to me. Funny how many things you learn to do if you have to.

Anyway it was fine and they actually didn't want to stay and play too long, so that was nice. Then we mostly just hung out in the room and went to dinner that night, then watched a movie. They slept so good in those bunkbeds (after they finally fell asleep that is...little stinkers!)

Sunday we got up and had our breakfast we'd brought along, then got ready to go to the beach.

Now that I could do all day.

Give me a good book and I really could lay there for hours. And usually the boys will play and play for hours in the sand and water too.

Well not that day.

 They played for maybe an hour and wanted to go back to the room. So Lars took them back and I stayed a couple more hours. I think they just really wanted to play on the bunk beds!

Then after awhile we decided to go try out the miniature golf.

 It was lots of fun...Ashton and Gunnar loved it.

 About halfway through my Mom and Harry came to visit and take us to dinner. I'm glad they were able to come over and hang out for awhile. Then later that night we took the boys down to play in the park in the dark. They were having so much fun on this old slide!

After another good night's sleep, we got up and got ready on Monday morning and headed home. It was a fun way to end off our summer and I think we'll make it a yearly trip!

I love this last picture...I thought it was so cute how Gunnar (usually Mommy's boy all they way) wanted to hold Lars' hand on the way back to our room from playing at the park in the dark...

 Oh and just to reminisce a little...here are a couple pictures from our trip over to Ideal Beach a couple years ago. (Ashton was only 4 1/2 and Gunnar about 15 months)

How can it be?

...that this little boy starts preschool tomorrow?

I really just can't believe it. It seems like yesterday that Ashton was nervously starting his first day, and that was 3 years ago.

Time flies by way too fast.

I am hoping and praying that the first day goes well. But I'm also being realistic and preparing myself to have to walk away from a crying, very sad Gunnar :(

I know once he gets used to it, he's going to love it, but this boy is still so attached to me. I still love it, but it makes things like this SO hard! Did I mention that I play all of his kickball games with him? (I'm getting pretty good too.)

Anyway we'll see how it goes...

Oh and I still have about 10 other posts I need to catch up on, but somehow it just doesn't happen. Maybe soon...

Our fun river trip!

We had this trip to Swan Valley planned for months, and were getting SO excited for it, and it almost didn't happen. 4 days before we were set to leave was when Lars re-tore his achilles tendon.

Our original plan was to camp two nights, and float the South Fork of the Snake river and fish during the days. Well obviously camping was out of the question, but we decided that it would be okay to still go, but rather than camp we would stay somewhere and still float the river and fish on Saturday. We had Aunt Kelli come and watch the boys and we went with our good friends Nate and Brianne, and actually it turned out to be such a fun weekend...we stayed at the best little Bed & Breakfast and had a great time hanging out, playing cards...

 ...laughing and just really enjoying our last few days before Lars' second surgery.

We went up Friday afternoon and checked in, stayed the night, then got up and had an awesome breakfast, then put the boat in and floated down and fished all day Saturday.

It was so fun and relaxing and such a beautiful day and we all caught some fish.

We pulled over and had our lunch we packed and stopped and got out and fished a few other times. We got off the river that night and went to dinner at the same place we'd gone the first night...this place called the SaddleSore Saloon... 

Here was where we stayed...

This was just one little cabin on The Hansen Guest Ranch.

We loved everything about it and will definitely go back. After staying Saturday night, we got up and had another amazing breakfast, then packed up our stuff and headed out.

It was such a fun weekend without kids and so nice to know that they were being well taken care of and having so much fun without us! Thanks again Aunt Kelli :)

The big 35!

Wow...it's weird to even type that. 35. Really? Can't believe it. Don't feel like it. But I guess it's true.

 I am 35!

I had a fun birthday...I woke up to a cute little voice outside my bedroom door saying "Your lunch is almost ready Mommy!" Then breakfast delivered to me in bed with these cute cards the boys had gone and picked out for me...

 ...and this paper with hearts glued to it that Gunnar told Lars he wanted to make for me. On his own. Love him :)



Here I am in all of my 35 year old no make up glory...yikes.

Then Lars had to go to work all day so we just hung out at home. Gunnar took a good nap while Ashton played at a friend's house, so that was a gift in itself! Then Lars surprised me and had my Mom and sister come down for dinner...we went to Olive Garden, then he had a bunch of friends and neighbors come over to have cake and ice cream after we got home.

He is always good to plan something fun to celebrate my birthday...thanks for a fun day hun :)

Camping!

Well at least we got one camping trip in this summer before Lars' re-injury. And it was so much fun! We LOVE camping!

This year we went to a place close to where we went last year over by Bear Lake...on the Idaho side, actually in Paris, Idaho. It was at the Paris Springs campground.

After getting there and setting up in our assigned spot (which happened to be a spot with very little shade, and was right next to the trail up to the springs), we decided to move all of our stuff to a different spot about 15 feet away, that had a lot more shade and didn't have people walking by every half an hour.

Before we moved, we did the very short hike up to the springs...it was really pretty.

Anyway, our new spot turned out to be a great camp spot and after we settled in, we cooked our first ever tinfoil dinners. They turned out really good actually and Ashton and Gunnar thought it was a pretty cool way to cook our food.

Then of course we had to do our S'mores, and they were having so much fun roasting their marshmallows. Well mostly catching them on fire, then laughing and laughing.

I love these boys!

Then it was the best time of the day...bed time!

 After way too much goofing off in the tent, they both FINALLY fell asleep and slept really good all night. This year we got them their own mummy sleeping bags and I swear they didn't move or make a peep all night long.

And it didn't get very cold so I actually slept pretty good too. Poor Lars never sleeps good camping :(

Anyway our second day up there we got up and hung out around camp for a bit, then drove down the road a little ways and fished this little creek for an hour or so. Lars caught a couple of fish, so we kept them so that he could show the boys how to clean them, then cook them.

 It was Ashton's first time doing it (Lars let him cut the second one open.)

 This is what he thought about the whole process at first....hahaha!

But then when he got his turn, he thought it was pretty fun. I love this picture of them with the fish all ready to cook...

So we cooked them, then Lars took one bite, spit it out and that was the end of our fish. He said it tasted like ash from the fire.

Oh well...it was more for the experience of it!

Later that day, we drove up to these ice caves a little further up the road.

 They were pretty cool actually.

 I was the only one that set foot in them, because Lars didn't dare with his leg and it was too scary to try to take the boys in, but maybe some day we'll go back.

Then we went back to camp and hung out and roasted hotdogs, then marshmallows again, then got ready for bed again.

The boys were FILTHY!

 So we took them over and washed them off good, then finally got them in jammies and to sleep again. Another good night of sleep.

Unfortunately right when we got up, I had a text saying that my Mom had been taken to the emergency room the night before and had broken her collar bone and had to get staples in her head where she'd cut it open. I had no idea what happened till my step-dad texted me that she'd had an accident with one of her horses while she was being pulled in her little cart by it.

So we packed up and were going to head up there to see her, but decided it would be better to wait and go later in the week when she had her surgery.

So we just headed home. It was such a fun trip!