Living the life

The days of summer are coming to an end. In just a couple weeks Jack will start a new chapter in his life...all day kindergarten. For the last 5+ years Jack has ben with me all day, every day...except for a couple hours twice a week for preschool. But soon he will be spending most of his time away...it will be a big change that I'm not looking forward to. But in the meantime, I'm enjoying these last, long days of summer.

We finished up Jack's first t-ball experience. Over all it was okay, we had a good coach and a good team, but t-ball was too boring for a 5 year old. Lots of sitting around waiting to bat and waiting to catch a ball. 

 The best part was by far the trophy. Jack is so proud of his trophy.

 We visited our local swim beach

 And played at the parks

 We went hunting for insects in the river:

Lily found mostly mud

 Luke caught the insect of the day

 But I can't remember what it was called

We've spent lots of time at the pool and even Lily is becoming very comfortable in the water

Jack and Lily practicing their "kung fu" moves

Lily surprised us all with a very fast and easy potty training experience

Luke found an easy way to put Jack to sleep: read him "The Princess of Mars"

Lily continues to amaze us with her language skills

More pictures from family visit

Here are some more pictures from when Luke's family was out for a visit

Hiking Devils Backbone

View from the Keyhole

Painting with Grammie

Jack learning from the best

Waterworld

Lily painting with Grammie

Camping

By the bonfire

Blowing bubbles with Auntie Amanda

Hanging out with Grammie

Hanging out with Auntie Amanda

They love their Auntie!!

Best part of having a garden

My garden has started producing! Lots and lots of tasty treats we get to pick every day. 

Broccoli

Lily looking for veggies to pick

Baby eggplant

Jack planted these green beans and they
are now almost as tall as him

Green beans are as tall as Lily

My garden! 

Fresh picked carrots 

Jack is a pro carrot picker

My one big cucumber

Baby bell peppers

Jalepenos

Jack always wants to carry the bag
with our harvest

A day's worth of garden food. Strawberries,
carrots, basil, cucumber and broccoli

The taste test of our cucumber

All the hard work has paid off and we are loving our bountiful garden!

Frontier Days

After 7.5 hours in the car we decided to make a stop at the Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The kids were so excited for the carnival rides!

$20 and 5 rides later we decided to stop in at one of the old fashioned photo booths:

Then we went to explore the Frontier Village where they had a jail

A petting zoo...

An area to mine for gold

Jack showing off his piece of gold...which he traded in for a sucker

The kids took turns milking a fake cow

And played in a teepee 

The last hour of the drive home was a cinch as both kids were completely exhausted.