Feeling proud ...

Yesterday I woke up around 2am with a horrible headache.  I tossed and turned for a few hours and finally got back to sleep around 5ish.  At 7:50 my oldest walks into the room and wakes me up.  I asked her what was wrong and she said "Mommy, its 7:50 and we have to go to school".  My head was still pounding and I was feeling sick but as my brain started waking up to what she was telling me I felt panic run through me.  I started to get up and was apologizing to her and she said "its okay Mommy, we got dressed and I made waffles for us and brushed Mikayla's hair and made our lunches." I just looked at her through my fuzzy morning eyes and felt tears building.  I couldn't believe my little daughter got everyone all ready and let me sleep in.  I was proud of her for doing it but a little sad too that she didn't need me.  She is growing up and she is amazing me every day.  She is such a polite little lady; she's self-motivated and always wanting to make people happy.  I love you Caitlin!  You make Mommy very proud.

Fall Fun....

Last week we met our friend Jaime and her little man Finn for some fun at Farmstead. It was cold but at the least the sun was out and we had a great time!

This chair must have belonged to Papa Bear - it was too big!

Kaylie getting some awesome air on this really cool jumping tarp thing... whatever it is I want one in my back yard!

Nothing like a good photo opp in front of a cute farm house with a little something extra in the window.

Corn guns - sweet! There were cows on the other side of the fence waiting to eat the corn that flew over the intended target - I just wonder how many got hit by the corn.

Dang - they will eat anything - including a stroller!

No worries Finn - I'll save you from the mean little horse!

Caitlin making sure the goat had the "good stuff"

Half way through the maze we got to climb up the look out to see where we were.

Thanks Uncle Ben and Aunt Liya for helping us discover how much fun jumping for photo's is!

Ahhh - Vacation in Paradise!

We had a wonderful privilege of being able to go to Polly Bemis this last week for a final vacation of the summer. This place is so amazing! It's located on the Salmon river and the only way into the ranch is by airplane or river boat - we did the river boat. So we left Boise and 4 hours later we're on this beautiful piece of land in the mountains. I'll post more tomorrow about the ranch and some pictures I took of the drive up, the breath taking mountains, the scary road we had to take and of course pictures of the property. Today I've posted pictures of us at PB and in McCall. We stayed in McCall for one night on our way back to Boise. I absolutely love McCall!!
Get ready for a ton of pictures...

Family photo opp at the Polly Bemis Ranch sign that Irene sculpted!

Family photo opp 2 - all of us on the river boat heading back down the river.
We took the kids on a 2.5 hour hike - part of which was on a steep trail that lead to this wonderful location with amazing views!
So dashing!!I think we were looking at something pretty interesting- can't remember what though.
The girls acting like monkeys by the Monkey fort that was made years ago by Irene - we added a little to it on this trip. The girls are not posing in this picture - they really are exhausted from the hike!Playing in the Payette Lake in McCall
Digging in the sand!
Mike and Kaylie enjoying a little ice cream!On our last day we went for another hike in Ponderosa State Park and went Huckleberry picking!
The girls playing around in Huckleberry Bay!
Kaylie is working on her rock climbing skills - she takes after me on loving to rock climb!
We found "Huckleberry Heaven" in Huckleberry Bay (how fitting, eh?) We all got addicted to the hunt for the wonderful pieces of goodness we found
My mom used to take me Huckleberry picking every year and we always had so much fun - now I got Mike into it as well. We picked and picked for 2 hours and then we finally had to tear ourselves away.
The Pancake House in McCall is the best Pancake House ever! I used to go here with my grandparents when they lived in McCall and then we made it a family tradition to dine there every time we went up to vacation. It's a great place but be warned that the pancake truly is the size of the large plates and you only need one! The summer went by so fast, I truly can't believe that the kids will be starting back at school tomorrow. We had a fun summer full of new experiences and new life changes. I'll reflect more on that later.