A Little Summer and a Little Fall

Yay!  After this post I will have finished catching up from summer.... although I may also be a little behind from fall.  The next few posts are going to be a little brief because I want to catch up but I still also want to document what we have been up to the past little while!

This summer was our 5th anniversary!  August 12th, 2011 we got married in the Columbia River Temple.  I cannot believe it has been five years!  What a ride it has been!  Logan took us to my parents house for the weekend so he and I could go on an extra long date.  He didn't tell me what he was planning but we got ready for the day and went out.  In the car he told me that our date consisted of four different events.  The first thing we did was go to the mall.  Logan took me to one of my favorite stores, Downeast, and told me to pick out a fancy dress for our date later that night.  I loved getting to pick out and try on dresses and accessories and Logan even seemed to enjoy himself too.  We went out and bought him some new church shoes as well.  It was fun just spending time with my good friend.

Then he took me home and told me to get all done up for our date at a fancy restaurant.  My sister Lenise helped me curl my hair and I painted my nails.  It was fun to feel like I was getting ready for a big dance or something like when I was younger.  My sisters and mom watched my kiddos the whole time.  For dinner Logan took me to a really nice restaurant right on the Columbia River called Cedars.  It was sooooo so so delicious! 

Afterwards we went to a movie, the new Jason Bourne movie.  Logan loved those growing up so it was fun to get to see that... although Logan has turned me into quite the movie critic (he has had five years to do so) and so the pair of us together are pretty hard to please!

For the fourth event Logan took me to the place where he proposed to me, up on Badger Mountain to a place called "Top of the World".  You can look out and see the whole Tri-Cities and at the base of the mountain is the Columbia River Temple, where we got married.  We had a good laugh because it is a place that is notorious for young couples looking for a smooching place and there was actually a couple sitting in the exact spot Logan proposed to me so we had to drive around and find our own place but it was nice to just sit and look out at the view.  I have always wanted to raise my family in the Tri-Cities, the way I grew up with family and cousins all around.  This summer Logan has begun to really feel that desire too.

Every year for our anniversary we take a picture like this (although we racked our brains and can't for the life of us remember what we did last year for our anniversary and I can't seem to find a picture of us holding up four fingers! haha!)

Some summer fun activities playing with shaving cream on the back porch!

I had some good experiences at the temple this summer, finding peace during a crazy time.  It is such a blessing to live near a temple.  I am so grateful that the church is working hard to make that a possibility for more people around the world.

This summer we decided to go on the ward camp out.  I had been wanting to go camping all summer and just try it out and see what it would be like.  We decided the ward camp out would be a pretty tame go at it so we tried it.... and we learned our lesson.  We don't think we will EVER go camping again!  Or at least not with a kiddo as young as Tommy.  Elsy absolutely loved it, so I think three will be our cut off age.  I like the above picture because you can see Tommy in the background doing what he did for almost the entire trip, beg to get in the car and 'drive' which we let him do for quite a while.  Logan cooked us some hot dogs and we at lots of Pirate Bootie.

After eating we went on a little walk.  While Tommy tried to jump in the lake, the three of us sat up on the path.  From the time we arrived at the camp site (which was just at Ensign Ranch) Tommy acted nervous.  I think he could sense we were going to be there for a while and he wasn't sure what to think.  He was pretty clingy and fussy.

At bed time we read a few stories and we all got cozy.  That was my favorite time, all of us in the tent with cozy blankets and flashlights, getting ready for the night.  I know this picture makes it look like we had a wonderful night but we most definitely didn't.  Everyone fell asleep alright but at around 12:45 everything went wrong.  Tommy woke up and wouldn't fall asleep.  And he was inconsolable!  Like he would just cry and cry when he usually calms down okay when I hold him.  I was shocked that Elsy slept through most of it, but Logan and I had a hard time.  We were worried about keeping other people in the ward up who were camped around us and we felt bad because we knew Tommy just was scared and didn't understand where we were.  We would get him calmed down for a while and he would just lay there with wide eyes as if paralyzed with fear.  Around 3am Logan loaded him into the car and tried to drive him to sleep.  An hour later he came back with no luck.  I think Tommy may have fallen asleep around 5am.  It was a long night.  And then we were all up by like, 7am.  Yuck.  It is hard not to be cranky when you don't get any sleep.  I am sure if we went camping more often Tommy would have gotten used to it, but that's the problem, we don't! Haha!

To escape the crankiness we headed out for a mini 'hike' in our pajamas.

Then we went on a little canoe trip!  You can't tell much from this picture but Tommy was just so dirty by the end of the trip.  I feel like I got some satisfaction out of that part just because I feel like when your child is dirty you know they are having at least a little bit of a good time, right?

I think Elsy had the most fun out of everyone on the trip.  She loved canoeing, hiking, sleeping in her sleeping bag, the glow sticks and flashlights, everything.  We all went home and had a niiiiice long nap.

I thought I should include some pool pictures, since we love to swim!  Only I don't have very good pictures of that.  This summer as Logan would be building the entertainment center, after working in the sun he would go out and float on his back at the pool in our complex.  I have been pretty bummed with the pools around here because they aren't heated at all and nobody puts covers on them so they are always dirty from rainy weather and ice cold because it doesn't get very hot here.  We had a very rainy summer.

It took all summer but we finally got Elsy confident enough in her puddle jumper to go swimming in the big pool all by herself.  She is pretty water shy which drives me a little crazy since I am a swimmer and love the water, as well as was a lifeguard and taught swim lessons.  So I have had to really exercise my patience and let her get used to the water on her own but I think it finally started to pay of there at the end.

Look at this smiley guy!  He had a rough summer with teething but by the end was smiling so much more!

Elsy upgraded to a bigger bike that we found at Value Village.  It was $10 so I couldn't help myself.  It is Pinkalicious and has a diamond bike bell and Elsy told me tonight that it is perfect.  We bought her a rainbow sequined helmet to top it all off.  She learned to ride it very quickly and all summer would ask to go ride at the blacktop at our complex.

One of our favorite parks we discovered because of my friend Carissa Wood was Big Rock Park.  It is not your traditional park, but has a some mounds of dirt with piping through them that your kids can craw through and then has a slide built into a hillside.  And of course, there is a big rock you can climb on! Haha.  The best part is a long zip line that we all love.  Tommy can even do it!  Its so cute to wrap his chubby legs around the rope and watch him fly along.

This girl completed the summer reading program at the library!  Tommy did too but he didn't want to take the picture.  She was so happy with her medal and paper for about five minutes. Oh brother.  What happened to getting a new book to keep from the library when you finished the summer reading program?  I have been pretty disappointed with the awards the past couple years.

I completed my summer reading challenge, only a little late.  Our ward challenged us to read the Book of Mormon in the summer.  I ended up reading three chapters a day and so it took me a little longer than the summer but I was so grateful I did it.  This time I tried to keep in mind more how it parallels our day and I was blown away at how closely our world resembles theirs.  It was hard for me to read it because I was having a really hard summer and had a lot of things to do but I am so grateful I made the sacrifice to read it because it really brought me a lot of peace during a very trying time.

I love morning visits from these two... usually!  I mean I love them when they are like this!  All smiley!  Usually I wake up to Elsy in front of my nose crying about being hungry. 

Tommy is starting to finally get old enough to walk with Elsy and I in parking lots. However, he sure hates to hold my hand.  If I can get Elsy to do it he will hold hers.  Elsy has always stuck so close to me in parking lots but Tommy is a bolter and it really scares me.  Sometimes I still carry him if he lets me.

We went to visit Logan at his work for lunch for the first time in a long time.  Tommy didn't want to take the picture haha but we had fun.  The kids love going there because they have a snack closet and free juice to eat... as well as an always full jar of peanut M&Ms.

We went to the Children's Museum a lot this summer as well.  I just love what the protective goggles do to my kids cheeks.

They sat an put puff balls in test tubes with tweezers forEVER.  I am constantly amazed at how easily my kids are entertained sometimes and then sometimes nothing will make them happy.

Elsy started Joy School so Tommy and I have had a lot more outings with just him and me.  IT has been fun to get to know him more and I really feel like he has come out of his shell now that he gets so much one on one attention.  At first he really didn't like it, but now he loves it.

Here is the only picture I got of Elsy at her first Bomber football game.  The kids got bored after a while so we took all the cousins over to slide down the giant cement H on the side of the grassy hill.  It was so nostalgic for me to get to see them having fun doing exactly what I used to do when I was little going to my first Bomber football games.

Elsy absolutely loves puzzles.  Which makes me excited because I love puzzles too... Logan does not.  So when she is older I will have a puzzle buddy!  Yippy skippy!

We went to visit my family for Labor day and we went out to visit the graves of our family members.  We went to see my Grandpa Merkley, our family friend Rube Peterson, and my dad's brother Kenny as well as some great grandparents.  It was a beautiful evening and we fed the fish and swans in the pond, another fun nostalgic thing I used to do with my family growing up.  Elsy, Hannah, and BooBoo ran around the rose garden path the way I used to as well.  They are such good buddies.

My mom carried Tommy around.  He is really great at pulling hair when he is up there.

And now, if you can't tell from our change in attire, we skip into autumn where we are a lot chillier.  We had to discover shorter walks, because the walk around the lake was just to long for the cold weather.  (Now that we are into deep winter we don't even go to our short walks sadly).

We got our first Christmas toy magazine and the kids had a blast looking at all the pictures and seeing what there was to see.  We don't have regular TV so thankfully my children don't beg for toys but they did like seeing what was out there.

In the evenings, since it is to dark and cold to go for a walk around the lake or to play at a park, we usually play Trap with the kids and wrestle.  Trap is a game my dad played with my siblings and I where he would just hold onto one of our limbs while the rest of us tried to pull the trapped one away without getting trapped as well.  It always ended with tears when we played it but I have tried to tone it down with my kiddos.

The kids love their daddy.

When Elsy was little I used to take her to Story Time at the library every single week.  I decided to start taking Tommy while Elsy is at Joy School.  He also loves Story Time but for much different reasons... like playing with the string on the curtain blinds, playing with the floor outlets, or just running amuck.  Elsy used to sit on my lap and do all the songs and listen to all the stories but Tommy is just not like Elsy.  When I DO convince him to sit on my lap and do a song he is so shy about it.  It is adorable.

And lastly, I had to show you the difference between a set table by Logan (on the left) and a set table by me (on the right) Haha!  It happened like this almost every day until I showed him these two pictures.  He laughed and has done a whole lot more thorough job since then.  Its funny how if you just have a chat about things with your spouse, instead of expecting them to do what you want, things actually start happening. :)