Our very own little pumpkin patch!

Thanks to the library giving Shelby seeds at the first story hour we went to, we have our own little pumpkin patch! The girls, especially Shelby, had a lot of fun this summer watering and taking care of our pumpkins.  Yesterday was the harvest ~

Five pumpkins for our family of five!

Celebration!

Josh and I celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary this past week (even though our anniversary is next week).  My sister and her family were kind enough to keep the girls for six days while Josh and I went to Seattle.  We had a marvelous time together!  We saw two movies (in the theater!!!), went to a musical, a football game, the aquarium, and lots of touristy things.

Night at the musical, after a very yummy dinner at the Metropolitan Grill!  

Some fun friends we made while eating lunch at a Pike's Place Market restaurant.  

 Pike's Place - fish (above) and waiting in line for donuts (below).

 The Huskies football game!  So much fun and LOTS of rain!!!

We were in the 3rd row at the 15 yard line!!!  Great seats!

Our room at the Cedarbrook Lodge. 

Seattle. 

 At the aquarium - we got to see this diver feeding the fish.

 Outside the aquarium - a beautiful view.  We both enjoyed seeing the HUGE ships.

We had such a blessed time together, especially since our girls had a blast with the Bonus family!!!  Thank you, Kim!!!  And Adam, Emily, Nathan, and Abby for keeping good care of our girls.  We love you guys so much!!!

Preschool and project

Shelby has been having a great time doing preschool at home.  She loves it and everyday asks if she can do school.  I am very thankful for her excitement about learning!

We usually use the dining table, but with Josh working on the bathroom floor...

We got booted!  :)

And the girls have enjoyed it!

Here's a cute picture of Vivian sitting on her "heels" ~

Not as much rain as Colorado...

We are glad to report that our family in Colorado is safe.  It is sad to see the damage across the state.  Please check out my sister-in-law's website on how and where you can give to help in the relief efforts: Fru-gal.org.  Thank you!!!

We had a rainy day up here and the girls wanted to go out first thing this morning!

 We walked around a bit and enjoyed the cool, wet weather.

This afternoon we made our trek up to the mailbox.  It had been raining on and off all day long, so I knew there would be a chance of rain on our walk.  Sure enough, after we got the mail it started raining!  But it wasn't bad and we had fun.  We all had light jackets on, so really just our hair and legs got a little wet.  Vivian had some post-rain, crazy hair!  And earplugs?  Umm, yea.  The girls found the bag from my weekend retreat and Vivian has had fun wearing earplugs around the house.  Hehe

This is Shelby's new favorite outfit: she got some new jeans with sparkles and pink dots and she loves them!  She prefers to wear her pink polk-a-dot tank with them.  Sweet girl!

Did you catch that??  A retreat?  Yes!  Our church does an annual women's retreat and I was able to go this year!  It's just a 24-hour gig, but it was a nice time away.  There were around 60 women from Curlew, Republic and the surrounding area that went to Lost Lake for Friday night through Saturday evening.  We had a sweet speaker who shared about the Hand of God.  I've never done a study on the Hand of God, but I think I may now!  I was blessed and encouraged.  And I had some great fun laughing with my sweet friends.  Even though few of us slept more than a wink (some lady was snoring, cows were moo-ing, my head my pounding, we were sleeping on uncomfortable bunks, etc) we really enjoyed the time away and the time of learning. Saturday afternoon I really enjoyed as we hiked up above Lost Lake and talked about Thankfulness once we reached the summit.  I was blessed to meet new ladies and talk to some ladies I don't usually get the chance to talk with.

Josh and the girls hung out at home - worked a bit on the bathroom, had a campfire, slept outside in the tent (well, Vivian slept in her crib), and had dinner ready when I got home on Saturday night!  Josh is such a great husband and daddy!!!  I am very THANKFUL for him!

All in a days' work

From carpet in the bathroom...

To this!

Both Shelby and Vivian "helped" throughout the day.  It looks great and Josh did a wonderful job!  Next weekend will be our bathroom!

Fire and s'mores

What fun we had tonight with a fire in our fire pit!  It was in the upper 60's and cooled off as we sat by the fire.  Vivian would not get near it, which is a great thing!  She thought it was hot before she even got close.  We were very glad about that.  Shelby did great helping Josh build the fire and get the roasting sticks ready, etc.  Josh is such a good Daddy - love that man!  And then Shelby did great roasting her marshmallows!

Vivian is saying "Cow!" as she hears the cows moo-ing.

"Cheese!"

Chatting away as she roasted another marshmallow.

The smokiness was a little too much for my nose to handle, but we had a great time tonight!

Best VBS day!

Shelby and I did VBS a few weeks ago here at our church.  It was a great time of her learning and I enjoyed helping out.  (Vivian was able to stay home with Josh, since it was just in the mornings ~ they had a great time together!)  The first day of VBS was the best.  A professional pottery guy came and let each kid make their own mug and trivet!  And there was some time after the kids were done for the adults to do a mug, too.  It was so fun!

 On the left is my mug.  On the right is Shelby's mug and her trivet.  

 We both stamped flowers at the bottom of our mugs. :)

 Shelby holding her mug and Vivian holding mine.

All week at VBS Shelby was helped by Megan Jo ~ a sweet gal who loved Shelby so much!  Megan Jo did each craft with her and helped her at lunch, etc.  It was fun to watch.  Also, Megan Jo's older brother, Hunter helped Shelby a bit, too.  Shelby was excited to know another Hunter.  Our friend Hunter in Sanderson was the best boy I have met - always kind and loving to Shelby and included her on everything and helped her anyway he could.  We miss our Sanderson Hunter!!!