Summer's Last Hurrah

I've been going through pictures and since I've been a horrible poster the last few months, I found a few things that were worth catching up on.

 Elise hosted a fashion show for Merry Grace.  She modeled some of her favorite outfits and styles.  It was awesome and we clapped a lot.

 Paige wasn't one to be left out, so she joined in a modeled a few of her favorite outfits, too.  Mostly hers didn't match, but she truly loves them and we clapped a lot. :)

 My Grandma's African Violet bloomed beautifully.  It might seem like a little thing, but it made me happy to see it look so wonderful.

 We had a fun picnic with friends.  Elise and Emmy hosted a "shop" for Merry Grace and Ally, which they loved.

They named the shop Sunshine 'n Shade.  It was super cute.

Luckily, everything was free, which was a price we could all afford. 

 Total peace.

Total cuteness.

We've had a wonderful fall, but looking back at the beauty of summer leaves me a little nostalgic for the warm sunshine.  I guess that's the beauty of each season and the different kind of beauty each one brings.

State Fair

One of our favorite parts of fall is our annual trip to the State Fair.  It's so much fun.  We went with Uncle Neal, Aunt Amanda and family.  Its really nice because every child has a buddy when it comes to the rides.

As usual, the rides were awesome, the food was fried and fabulous and my feet were aching by the end of the day.  But it was wonderful!

Merry Grace and Ally on the swings. This was one of our first rides.

 Ian and Charles Allen on the swings.  (That face kills me!)

Elise and Emmy. :)

 Paige and Parker had fun together, too.  They weren't big enough for the swings, but they found lots of fun things to do.

 The hot air balloons were one of their favorite things.  It was tucked away in the corner of an area and there was hardly ever a line.  In fact they were usually the only ones on the ride.  They sweet ride operator let them ride over and over as long as there wasn't anyone else in line.  I think they got about 6 free rides.

 The slides were fun, too.

 The corn on the cob is probably my favorite fair food.  As usual, it was AMAZING.  When something is  dripping in butter, how can it not be great?

 Elise and Emmy did this trampoline jump thing.  They went super high.  They were going to do a flip, but I think they were jumping higher and faster than they thought, so they passed on that part.

 Ian, Charles Allen, Merry Grace and Ally rode the "Super Shot" which is the tower that drops takes you up and and drops you back down.  No thank you.  I was actually really worried for the girls, but they were super brave and didn't seem fazed by it at all.

 They all really loved this roller coaster and rode it several times.

What a fun day!  And what a cute group of kids! :)

Color Me Rad

Cory and Ian participated in this 5K recently.  They had a lot of fun getting ready for it and running in it.

Here was a "Before" picture.  This is how they looked when they left the house.  

Too cool.

 Uncle Neal, Aunt Amanda and their son, Charles-Allen, ran the race, too, which made it lots more fun.
You can imagine that those boys had the time of their lives.

 I love this! :)

 Early in the race, Ian was still looking pretty clean.

 But it didn't take long for that to change.

 I think the dirtier the boys got, the happier they looked. :)

 Oh yeah!!!

 Here's a great "after" picture.  

 I love this kid! :)

 They had a great time and it was a good experience for all of them.  Great memories. :)  I think they're all ready to run again.

Camping Trip

One night Paige was talking about Pa, Cory's dad, and she wanted Cory to tell her about some of the things they did together.  He named several things, but Camping really caught her attention.  She was intrigued with the idea of sleeping in a tent and cooking food outside.  So she made Cory promise that he would take her camping.

So we tried to make that activity happen with a camping trip to a State Park near my parents house.  Unfortunately, after everything was packed and loaded and we were on our way, we realized we were not going to make it to the park before the gates closed.  When we called about it, they did say that we could park at the bottom of the mountain and we could hike up with our stuff to our campsite.  The idea of walking our tent, supplies and four children up the mountain did not appeal to either Cory or I at all, so we opted to camp in my parents backyard.

At first we were a little bummed to not be going on our "official" camping trip, but it turned out to be an even better experience than we imagined.

When we got there, my Dad had an awesome bonfire built and going strong.  So Cory set up the tent and we immediately made S'mores.

They were delicious!!!

Paige had fallen asleep in the car and didn't wake up when we brought her inside.  She is clearly a prime candidate for sleeping on the ground.  Anyone who can comfortably sleep in this position will do just fine on the ground.

We got our beds made and cozied in for the night.  It was definitely a chilly night and even with all our blankets and warm clothes and a bonfire outside, we just barely stayed warm.  But it was really fun and we all enjoyed it.

 The next morning we got up and my Dad got the bonfire going good again. (That was a really nice feature of our new and improved campground!)

 Cory and I got out our cooking stuff and made bacon, eggs and pancakes.  Everything turned out delicious. In fact, we all thought the pancakes were perfection, even better than at home.

My Dad made homemade sourdough bread that morning, so that was an added camping treat we couldn't have had at the other campground. ;)

 So we spent the morning relaxing around the bonfire.  It was wonderful.

A huge thanks to my Dad, who kept our bonfire roaring.  And thanks to the kids (especially Ian) who kept the fire stoked with logs, kindling, and trash.

The kids had so much fun camping that instead of the one night we'd planned to camp, they wanted to camp a second night.  So we did.  We left the tent up and did it again.

 We also love Grammy and Papa's dog Rufus.  He's a sweetie, but he does like to give you a friendly lick now and then. :)

 The second night we had another bonfire to celebrate my Uncle Maury being in town and my Mom's birthday.

 We love cook-outs!!!

 Grammy had a yummy cake and some cute helpers to help her blow out all the candles.

 It was fun having everyone together.

 

 I love that little snuggle-girl, Paige, who would rather be on someone's lap than anywhere else in the world.

 My cute "little" Elise, who really isn't so little anymore...

It was such a fun weekend.  Part of what made it so fun was that everyone had a good attitude.  Even when our plans changed and things didn't go exactly like we thought they would.  Everyone was chipper and happy about it and it turned out to be one of the most fun activities we've done.  Everyone wants to go again and we LOVED the cool weather for camping.  We loved the bonfire, no bugs, and snuggling under the covers to keep warm.