Bunny watching

It's so fun letting the bunnies roam the yard! We put veggie scraps out for them regularly,  near the door so the kids can watch them munch.  

Pretty leaves!

Such a unique fun time of year where we have gorgeous autumn colors everywhere! 

Boo at the Zoo!

Lily is allergic to Charity!

Straightening things out...

Lily, Lily, Brianna, Lily

I wish my girls were here all day to play with the Abrams kids I babysit weekly!! It'd make it so much easier. I'm happy to provide this service for my friend...but the kids are happier when there are more of them :)

So cute it's scary

BOOing 👻 👻 👻

The kids had SO much fun tonight BOOing 6 neighbors! It's such a rush going out at night and ding dong ditching.  They absolutely loved it! 

Kitchen Schooling

I'm not super into cooking/baking. Eat to live,  not live to eat.  But of course it's still an important skill,  and I'm realizing it's my responsibility to make sure my kids know the basics. Like the names of the tools.

So we emptied out the entire drawer and put them back in only after she learned what it's name and function is!

Bennett's playdate

Boys need boy time! No school thanks to parent teacher conferences,  so they all got to have friends over for a few hours. 

I was really glad Bennett wanted to have Gabe come.  His parents recently adopted him from India.  I don't think he's had a lot of playdates.  Bennett is really sweet to him. Bonus: Gabe's dad is one of Brian's customers,  so it's good to keep a good relationship :) 

Couples who donate blood together....

Brian doesn't love giving blood. I wouldn't say he HATES it...but he definitely wouldn't be there if I didn't sign him up. And remind him. Several times. But he goes without complaining too much...especially since they give out treats at the end. 

When he says, "I don't enjoy this." I just sweetly respond, "neither do I. But I bet the people in the hospital don't enjoy having to GET blood donations."

So every 8 weeks, up to 5x/yr, we hang out with needles in our arms :)

Leaves!

Nappers!

So sweet!

And moments later he started SNORING...so naturally I took a video.   The kids like watching it over and over :)

Cousins in gray!

   Lindsay texted this picture to me from their Portland trip for Lucy's baptism!

Halloween prep time!

We busted out the bins of Halloween STUFF! It's the highlight of the holidays when those bins come upstairs!

Good to be home!.... almost.

Just landed in LA. 
Phone blew up with texts finally coming thru.  Pandora works again!
Bleary eyed. 
Hard to believe just this morning I was at a gorgeous Costa Rican beach watching huge iguanas sun bathe.

2 more flights and 9.5 hours til we're actually home! 

Noteworthy, from the airport

Top photo : About time someone started up Chelsea's Food Services!  I've been having to feed myself, plus all these other people,  for so many years.
Now there's a company dedicated to the job!

Middle left: spotted this scent at a duty-free shop.  A couple sprays and suddenly I was totally back in 9th grade. Scary.

Middle right : sent this to bro Steve and dad Steve.  Funny. 

Bottom left : for for Spokane airport's newest contribution to supporting mamas! 👏👏👏

Bottom right: 

It was sparkly.
It said Spurs.
Brian couldn't control himself.  

Chicago Trip Recap

Well, I say "Chicago" trip - but we actually spent just as much time in Michigan, and a bit in Indiana. So maybe we'll call it.... The Great Lakes trip! Or Lake Michigan Trip!

Or...escaping the children for the weekend! 
Really though, I'm not even sure how exactly we decided to do this...
I mean, it was pretty simple I guess... one evening in July-ish, Brian was reading the blog  of our friend Jeremy Van Tress, talking about his battle with 

 ALS.
It was super sad, yet inspiring. 

Brian said, "let's go visit him!" and I said, "um. ok...I'll go see how much flights are. Maybe we can use my Southwest reward miles." And I looked it up, found a good deal, and booked it! Well, after checking with Jeremy's wife Courtney. She was all for it.

We decided to keep it a surprise for Jeremy. Here's Jeremy's blog post about our visit: https://jeremyvantress.wordpress.com/2017/10/07/surprise/  It's such an incredible feeling to know I made a difference in someone's life. Someone who likely doesn't have much life left on this earth. 
But boy, you wouldn't know it by the way he lives!! He's all positive, humble, grateful, and just - HAPPY! Praying for miracles for that faithful family. It just breaks my heart to know his sweet kids won't get to know him like I did - so physically strong and capable. Life is so unfair and hard sometimes. But I'm glad this poster gave Jeremy the message I wanted him to have from me.

On to the rest of our trip.
Well, starting with Day 1, hanging out in Downtown Chicago! Mostly at Navy Pier. It was SO great! We rented bikes and cruised around Lake Michigan area. Brian loved seeing the sports stadiums.  Lots of interesting art and architecture everywhere. TONS of diversity... we'd walk down a street and hear 10 languages going on! We were going to stay downtown but accidentally cancelled our reservation (long funny story on that one...it was Brian's fault!! :)  So we ended up staying at a cheap scary place a bit outside of downtown. It was half hilarious, half horrifying. 

After our visit with Jeremy we drove through Gary Indiana because I had a weird fascination with and intense desire to check out this place that is supposed to be one of the most dangerous cities in the US and most economically depressed.  Well it lived up to my expectations! It was crazy! Boarded and busted up businesses, no signs of a healthy economy, no diversity (100% black - we drove thru several neighborhoods), dogs roaming around, women in super inaprop clothing walking around lotsa smoking and drinking.... wow.
It was like another world.

Made me so grateful for the relative "bubble" I get to live and raise my babies in.
Then ON TO MICHIGAN! (after a bazillion toll booths - what gives?! So glad we don't deal with those on our side of the country!)
I got to cross 3 states off my bucket list! This was the major motivation for us to take the trip to Michigan at first...but man, I had NO idea what we were in for! This little beach town of New Buffalo is just fantastic!! Awesome beaches - totally felt like I was at the ocean. And we had the WHOLE place to ourselves!

Brian made that comment to a hotel staff and she was like, "Um, yeah. Most people are working and in school right now. It's September. Plus it's usually cold by now. You got lucky with this weather."
It was seriously magical. We just roamed the huge beaches, cool wooden walkways,  lifeguard tower, lighthouses, and of course I had to journey far out onto the wall of big slippery rocks. To feed my need for rebellion. Going beyond the "stop" sign does that for me too.  Well it's not that I need to rebel...I'm just pretty certain that's where all the adventures are to be had!

And I was right!  Such a perfect Michigan introduction.  Better than visiting Detroit I'm guessing  ;)
Our hotel was so great. We could've stayed in a Hampton/Hilton/Best Western for slightly cheaper, but I love NOT staying at chains. They're all the same. Local inns are so much more interesting.
My favorite part was riding our beach cruiser bikes around the town. The hotel provided them, so cool! Loved it. So free-ing. In a perfect world, I'd never drive. I'd get to ride my bike everywhere.
Brian was jazzed to find a super legit little Italian restaurant. And a drink called "DANG!" I picked up a bunch of great take-home gifts for Mom, Mere, Meg, and a little magnet for us :)
Finishing up with some cool panoramic shots from Brian's phone. Still getting the hang of how to do those right.

Bunny cage renovation with Papa

My dad is my hero!

And hero of all bunnies! 

When I was a kid he built a beautiful cage for my wabbits. Now he built one for my kids and their widdle bunnies! Well,  re-built.  It previously was too big to fit on the side of the house,  and I did NOT wanna tromp thru the cold snow all winter to take care of those animals in their big cage behind the shed.  I needed it right next to the house.  Then the kids would be more likely to actually play with them! And keep their water dish clean! Yay! 

Brian went to North40 and picked up a Hale of bay.  Bay of hale.  BALE OF HAY.  

Now the bunnies and eat their beds,  haha!

Carrot,  the big brown boy bunny, gets to roam the yard freely this week while the girls are caged.  Next week they'll switch.  Carrot caged,  girls go hoppy. And we'll keep up this rotation indefinitely because I'm not paying $135 to neuter him.  Widiculous wabbit.  

Charity and the pig and the pj

Two of Charity's favorite things! The guinea pig and the show PJ Masks. 

How fast her mood changes...

Goes from elated and ecstatic 

to grumpy dumpy in seconds.

Then back to happy!

Oh the mood swings of a 3 year old... I love it!!

Playdates with Bethany!

Sunny Fall day with a cousin! ☀   

Being serenaded by a handsome man outside my window!

What a view!

[heart]

Fast Kart Racing!

Had SO much fun playing with my sisters!  We actually got gift cards to this place from Dad last Christmas and hadn't used them yet.  So we went! It was the night of our Half Marathon, so we were all a little sore. It was funny hearing all the grunts and groans everytime we stood up and sat down.

It was such great timing - we had the whole place to ourselves!

I was quite proud of myself - I did something the employees had never ever seen, in their 6 straight years of working there.   I span around in circles! Donuts, they called it. I just thought - what happens when I just keep the steering wheel at a hard right for a long time? And what happens is... spinning in circles! And getting lapped several times. But that's ok. The winner isn't the fastest... the winner is the person who has the most fun :)

Fast Kart's fancy bathroom!

Ballerinas and tomatoes 🍅 🍅 🍅

I sent the girls out to go pick tomatoes for Megan and they happily complied! For a few minutes. Typical chore-attention-span of their age.  Our 17 plants have done a good job this season! Honestly, we gave away more tomatoes than we ate, I think. It's so fun to give people a big bowl of sweet yummy bright orange tomatoes! 

Dressing up with friend Preston

They love getting in costumes!

I don't mind taking care of Preston and Lily every Wednesday from 7-4...I mean, I didn't really realize what I was volunteering for when their mom asked if anyone was available to watch them during the week.... but I'm happy for the opportunity to provide a big service to someone.  It's a lot of work, and reminds me how hard that stage between baby-toddler is!  And how much mess a 4yr old can make!

A note from Bennett 😌😍😌😍😌😍

He was supposed to be sleeping.
But he slipped this note into my room.

Yah you better believe I snuggled him!! 

Might just frame this precious piece of paper. 
OH that sweet boy!!
I'm gonna die of an exploded heart! 

1st grade homework stress

Homework stress for me, not them,  of course.

These "All About Me" life timelines hastily thrown together yet somehow decently cute represent 3 weeks of procrastination, 2 hours of lost sleep last night when I suddenly remembered at 11pm that they were due,  $20 in printing cuz I couldn't narrow it down so just printed 105 of my favorites, and a 7am trip to Fred Meyer to pick them up.  But their machine was slow,  so we were late for 8am piano lessons then late for school.  

Really great to start off the week with a win like this.  

(Brianna is laughing pointing at her favorite pic - Bennett covered in stickers as a baby - her toddler handiwork)

Making temple cookies 🍪

Brianna commented that she feels like we don't do a lot of baking anymore. Or that we've EVER done enough baking.
 Hmm...
I disagree, and I have photos to prove it.
Nevertheless, her feelings are real, so we baked.
Cookies.
A healthier version with some substitutes to give it some actual nutrition...but it's still a cookie, and it's still baking.
We utilized our temple cookie cutter, which is always fun. And the twins did a couple ninja shapes. 

See that pear? We grew that in our backyard! It tasted far better than any cookie could.