The End of the Summer

We've been back in internet land for a couple of weeks now and I've been busy.  We decided it was time to move Seth out of the living room and into Landon and Sam's bedroom.  The crib takes up so much space so we tried putting his mattress on the floor for a few days.  He woke up at least twice a night with that experiment so I moved him back to his crib in the living room and he slept through the night.  So I caved and put the crib in the bedroom and he's been sleeping fine.  This way Chris can eat breakfast in the kitchen and not worry about waking him in the early morning hours.  In order to get his crib in the bedroom I had to get rid of the clutter in the boys room.  It took me a whole day to sort it all out.  This motivated me to de-clutter my bedroom, which took me another day.  The house is still not as clean as I would like it but it's a work in progress and over the next few weeks the goal is to clean all the floors(carpets included) and scrub the walls too.

With that said I now choose to jump back to the end of July and post the last pictures of our summer adventures.

At the end of July we took a trip to Utah to visit family.

This is Landon and Sam with their cousin Andie. While Chris and I were setting up our tent they decided to put "war paint" on their faces (ie the dirt) they cleaned themselves up a little before we made lunch, but I think this is the only picture I took at our campsite.

We spent a fun filled day at Bear Lake as well.  The boys loved playing in the sand and the water.  Sam's favorite time was spent on the boat with his cousins and Landon really enjoyed riding on the jet ski.  The best part for me, was when my sister-in-law took Seth off my hands so I could go out on the jet ski with Chris.  It was like a mini date.  Keili was a BIG help with all my kids.  She even carried Landon when he didn't want to walk through the algae to get him to the boat.

In the tent I set up a sleeping space for Seth just above my head so I could help him in the night.  He really liked sleeping with everyone so close together.  He loved climbing all over us during the night.  On our last night I put him down to bed and went back outside to help Chris clean up dinner.  When we finally were able to climb into the tent I found Seth on the opposite end of the tent.

He enjoyed the not sleeping part of each night so much that we were able to put him to sleep in some unconventional places during the day.

One of the days was spent hiking to a very cold (beautiful) lake with the kids.  I was so proud of my boys.  Sam and Landon walked the whole 8 mile hike.  It was a hard one for us too.  Moscow is only 500 feet above sea level and our home at Sandpoint was at 4500 feet.  So I could really feel a difference amount of oxygen in the air at 9000 feet.  We were rewarded for our efforts when we arrived at our destination and were able to cool our feet in the freezing lake.  Chris and Shawn stripped down to their garments and swam across to the other side and even my little boys got naked and went swimming.  I think Seth kept hoping the water would get warmer with each dip, and Sam wanted to swim out with Chris.  Landon took one step into the algae and put his clothes back on.  

We were so dirty and tired but it was really nice to hang out with the family.

After four nights camping with the Boyds we drove to my parents house to get clean and sleep for a couple of days before our long drive back to Sandpoint.  

We enjoyed our time with family this last summer.  It was nice to see my sisters and my brother's HUGE pumpkin.  

Chris worked for one more week and we spent one more day at the beach before packing, cleaning and leaving our summer home.

It was a great summer.  Chris LOVED his job.  I don't think I've seen him that happy in several years.  Seth learned many new tricks.  Walking, going up and down the stairs, and coning his brothers into pushing him around in a box just to name a few.  He loves playing int he garbage, especially with broken egg shells.  This last week he discovered a new way to get away with it. 

He also loves to stand up while eating. This week he's decided it would be fun to try to climb out of the highchair without my help.  It's an ongoing fight I have with him.  I prefer him to put his feet up on the tray rather than fall to the floor.