Passing Through

This past weekend my brother and his family came by for a visit on their way home from vacation.  It's always fun when someone passes by our town but was really fun to see them since they have never been out here before.  His daughters are just the cutest (and sweetest). 

Left to right top:  Kelsey, Bailee, Karsyn

Bottom:  Sadi and Emmrey

It's been a long time since I have got to just visit with them, and it was nice to catch up...even if it was a short visit.  The kids had a fun time playing together and it made me wish we lived closer to family.  Sadly we see them so little my kids couldn't remember who was who although Chase loved playing with "what's her name again?".

I have so many good memories of growing up with Mark.....getting paid to answer those phone calls from the school so he didn't get in trouble for ditching, late night sundae's from Wendy's, sleeping out in the backyard, and lots of other good times.  He hasn't changed from the fun brother but is now a fun husband and Dad.

Thanks Smith's for stopping in for a visit, we welcome you anytime!

First Day of School

Yesterday was the first day of school for my kids.  I wanted to try something different for the first day of school pictures, and thought when I took these outside in the sun they looked really good...when I downloaded them I was not thrilled...oh well.  Kelsey started her Senior year...really!?  She is still a baby. 

Chase started 3rd grade.  The night before school as we were laying out every one's first day outfit Chase decided his new clothes were not going to cut it.  He insisted he needed to dress "really nice" for the first day because everyone looked nice the first day(apparently new clothes don't meet the standard).  So at 9 p.m. I was doing laundry to wash this button down shirt he was sure was the right choice.  Then I get this silly cool face in every picture!

My little Sadi....first grader!  She knew exactly what she was wearing.  When we went school shopping it HAD to be a dress (this girl loves dresses).  She chose well, and looked so big made me teary eyed.

 The kids were really excited and all got up early and could not wait to get to school.  Lunches packed...

 Backpacks ready....

Off we went!  This year Chase and Sadi both got new teachers...I mean completely new to teaching.  Chase's teacher is Ms. Yentzen.  She has a southern drawl which I love, and we are excited to get to know her.

Sadi's teacher is Miss Pluta.  She seems really adventurous and fun and I think Sadi is going to have a great year!

After school we had our back to school dinner and got to hear all about every one's day.  We didn't hear much about Sadi's day, as soon as I picked her up and asked her what she did, she said "I forgot".

 Even Matt enjoyed our cafeteria style dinner...poking fun I think.  He like shuffling through the "line" and asking if he could sit at our table.

 I let the kids write something about their day which was fun to read.  Chase raved about how fun his teacher was.  He said they played games all day.  Sadi wrote she did 1 to 100, and Kelsey wrote she finally got a top locker...and she already hates Pre-Calculus.

 After dinner it was time for homework......

My homework!  Blah!  50 plus pages this year....anyone else think this year there were WAY more than last year?  Seriously 3 kids paperwork took me over 2 hours!

Summer Nights

Summer flew by...again!  We had a ton of fun this summer and really packed in a lot of fun things.  One thing Sadi's teacher encouraged me to help her with this summer is reading comprehension...she can read like a whiz, but ask her what she read and she becomes short term memory challenged.  I decided to read to the kids every night which besides maybe 2 nights out of the entire summer we did just that.  This is what most nights looked like at our house...

I tried to expose them to some of the classics and give them a taste of some fun books.  We read from Authors:  Barbara Park, Ronald Dahl, Judy Blume, E.B. White, Beverly Cleary, and Thomas Rockwell.  It's been awhile since I have read some of these books and was surprised I wasn't a a fan of all of them.  HUGE SPOILER in Judy Blume's Superfudge about Santa....NOT A FAN!  I had to literally fumble through that chapter and make up my own ending.

The last book we read which was really fun was How to eat fried worms.  Since we ended this book the night before school we celebrated by having something Billy's mom makes him in one of the chapters...a whizbang worm delight!

Sadi wasn't sure she wanted to eat worms...until she saw the kind of worms we were having, then it was down the hatch!

It was a fun way to spend our summer nights, although I'm pretty sure Sadi still suffers from "I have no idea what it was about!"

Oh the places you'll go...

This summer we set a goal to get out more and explore....hiking that is.  Now with our kids in the past hiking has NOT been fun...AT ALL.  Sadi Someone is constantly complaining.  They are too tired, they are too hungry, they cannot walk another step without dying!  This year has been quite different.  We have had what I am calling "off your butt" success! 

We started out with a simple hike.  Flat, short, but very scenic.  This is Spooner Lake which is a great easy hike for little legs, but the scenery is fantastic!  It's hard to believe we have never done this hike (2.5 miles) because it is so close to us.  There are lots of markers telling about the wildlife and flowers as you walk around the lake.

The second hike we did was also another fairly easy hike.  It was somewhat spur of the moment.  Kelsey was enjoying her summer of sleeping in too much to get up and enjoy this one with us.  We hiked Davis creek (1.7).  This is one hike Kelsey and I have done before.  It was a beautiful day and we had a picnic at the lake...and Sadi loved there were so many furry friends there who wanted to share her lunch.

I'm not entirely sure what was at the end of this hike we went on in July with Matt's brother and Kyle and his girlfriend.  It was suppose to lead to Crater Lake...it was entirely uphill, rocks the ENTIRE way.  We made it just over 2 miles but never saw a lake.  It was difficult!  It had some beautiful views of the valley and a foot searing river we had  got to cross.  Someone else Matt picked out this hike, and after decided I needed to read hikers reviews carefully before I agreed to anymore like this one. 

One of our usual hikes we do every year with severe whining smiles is the hike at our favorite campground.  The hike to Grover's Falls (3.0).  This was one of the more difficult hikes we did.  Lots of hills and switchbacks, but even our blind little dog made it with no whining. 

This was one of my favorite hikes, Margaret Lake(5.0)...even though the trail is not so easily marked, the scenery the whole way was gorgeous!  Chase likes to take along his new binoculars for bird watching and we were trying to locate the woodpecker here that was so loud we were sure he was above our heads, but never could find him in the dense forest.

We made it to the lake, and had a nice lunch on the rocky shore and the kids dipped their toes in the water.

We have found with Sadi as long as we have lots...I mean lots of water and snacks she is fairly content to hike.  But her favorite thing to do is pick a bouquet of wild flowers on the way back from every hike. She has come home with a beautiful assortment after each hike...some smell prettier than others.

It has been fun to get out and explore and see nature at such a beautiful time of year.  We have been able to see some valley's at such a different view.  This hike had some great (distant) views of Lake Tahoe. 

We have also found some great hidden lakes that someday we will get down and explore.

 A few weeks ago we went on one of our longest hikes...but so rewarding and beautiful.  We hiked to Galena Falls (6.0).

The hike was easy...or maybe were getting in better shape.  The falls were so beautiful and the kids were able to kick off their shoes and play in the water here right below the falls.  This was in the running for my favorite hike of the season.

I thought nothing could beat the scenery of our Galena Falls hike, but I think this next hike won out all others at least for me.  Our next hike led us to Winnemucca Lake (not sure how it got it's name since it is in CA.)

The views along the trail were amazing.  This is looking out at Capels lake across this mountainous valley.  The trail was fairly easy going from thick forest areas to wide open areas filled with fields of wildflowers (although most have already peaked).

The trees along the trail were like none I'd seen.  They twisted and looped but all eventually reaching up...actually some reaching down.  Sadi and Chase named this one along the way the Lorax's tree (because you could stand on it).  Made for some nice places to sit anyway.

 About a mile and a half in we hit frog lake.  Not to big in size, but a nice resting point with some great views...although the kids were disappointed no frogs in site.

 Another mile or so from frog lake we came to Winnemucca Lake(5.8).  So pretty and the water so clear.  You can see on the mountain just behind the lake there is still snow there.  Mind you this is Mid August so that was pretty strange.

After lunch the kids played in the water some and Kelsey got a crazy polar bear urge to jump in and swim...she did it, head under and all!  We then walked around the side of the lake and picked up a snowball for a little mid summer snowball fight.

It was a beautiful day, and such a nice way to spend time with the kids. 

Sadly this was probably the last hike for the summer for us with school starting next week.  We trekked a total of 26 miles this summer..not bad.  We are hoping to get a few hikes in this fall before the weather turns to cold, however fall may be starting already because on our way up the mountains yesterday there were many, many trees in full autumn color! 

Joker Face

Wednesday was the big day for Kelsey.  No more being called brace face...tinsel smile....nice grill (all nicknames we may have used).  The day the braces came off!  How excited she was to walk into the orthodontist office and finally...FINALLY see her name on the board.

She could barely contain her excitement sitting in the chair for the last time with braces on, 

It was pretty cool to watch them take them off, I never knew they came off all together in one strip.  It happened so fast, I missed actually snapping a picture of them coming out.

Checking out her smile in the mirror for the first time....



The Dr. always gets a picture with his patients at the end of the treatment period.  He has been so great, and I think has really peaked Kelsey's interest in the field of orthodontics. 

I though it was so cute they gave her a bottle of sparkling cider to take home to celebrate her beautiful smile.

Now Matt has given her a new nickname...Joker face.  She is always smiling and checking her teeth out in the mirror.  Although sometimes you have to ask "what are you smiling about", it's nice to see her smile all the time!

Weekend Fun

My sister Susan and niece Tori came to visit this past weekend and bring Kelsey back home (she has been visiting in Utah with them for the past few weeks).  Although they only stayed for a few days we tried to squeeze in as much fun as possible.  We spent a day up to Lake Tahoe and had a picnic on the beach.  The water wasn't too cold, but it was windy!

Tori and Kelsey had fun walking the beach and looking for treasures.  These two really do wish they were sisters.

The beach also had a playground which was perfect for Chase and Sadi.  They were entertained all day between the playground and building sand castles. 
We spent one day kind of lounging around but did manage to fit in a craft project.  Susan needed some stick horses for a party and I found this image for horses made out of pool noodles...how cute are these?  She made Chase and Sadi one of their own, and they rode these ponies all afternoon.

They were also able to be here for Matt's birthday.  We spent all day shopping and then went to lunch.  Matt had a work meeting later in the day so when he was done we barbecued and ended with his favorite...carrot cake! 

Kelsey left the day after she got home for a Key Club conference in California so she missed out on most of their time here.  Chase and Sadi tried to convince them to just "call in sick" to their jobs and stay longer but alas all too soon it was time for them to go home...boo! 



Room Makeover

A few months back we switched the girls rooms.  It was way past time for Sadi to get a big girl bed, and Kelsey definitely did not need any more room for "important stuff" to keep.  I kept thinking I would wait to post photos when I got everything just how I wanted it.  Although it has been done for months, we have been so busy I forgot.  It was really fun to decorate Sadi's room.  I knew exactly how I wanted to paint/decorate.  I chose hot pink (just for the main wall) and accentuated with black and white.

She loves having a big girl bed, and having so much more room for her little stuffed friends to sleep with her.

She also got a new bookshelf, and dresser that matches.

The whole room is designed with a world traveler feel.  On one wall we hung these clocks which tell the time in a few famous cities.

One of my favorite things in her room is the lamp shade I made for her.  At night the New York City skyline peeks through. 

Kelsey's room is painted and that is about it...she is too busy to decorate (or clean) it so I guess maybe when she does get around to decorating it may be at her college dorm!