Tough Stuff

Here is what we have been dealing with since March 10th. It is not fun.

Wyoming

Our second trip of the summer was to Wyoming to visit my family. The day we arrived in Lander, Josiah turned 5 and I turned 30.

 

Here is Josiah with his ice cream cake.

 

Since Josiah was born on my birthday, my birthday often goes un-noticed, but this year Jason and my sister made it special by making me a homemade pecan pie.

 

Before we arrived in Lander, my dad buried some treasure at one of the local parks. He made a map and gave it to Josiah. Josiah got us to where we needed to go. I have a video of the treasure hunt, but not a picture. Here is picture after we found the treasure. Later in the week my dad took the boys down to the bank and they got to deposit there treasure into their own savings account. 

 

Grandpa and his boys at the park.

 

We helped my dad build an overhang at a neighbors house.

 

One of the days Jason and I got away and went on a hike. We walked 4 miles on the Stough Creek Trail. After 4 miles of uphill, the trail opens up and you get a beautiful view of the inside of the Wind River Range.

 

My toughy lifting rocks. :)

 

At the end of the week we went up north and visited my Grandma, aunt and cousins. We spent the evening at the fair. This is us with my grandma.

The next day we had breakfast with my grandpa and then we started driving toward Oregon. The next post will be pictures at Yellowstone.

Nebraska

This by far has been the busiest summer we have had. Jason had some extra responsibilities at work this summer. But scattered throughout the busyness we made sure to take some vacation. At the beginning of the summer we headed to Nebraska to visit Jason's grandparents and extended family.

 

To get to Nebraska we flew to Denver. Then Jason's sister and her husband let us borrow their truck so we could drive the rest of the way. They saved us a lot of money. Both boys have been on a plane when they were babies, but this was the first trip that they would actually remember.

 

Jason and Josiah on the plane.

 

Amanda and Jaron

 

After a  nights stay in Denver we continued on into Nebraksa. While traveling through Nebraska, we stopped at the Cabela's in Sydney. Here is Jason and the boys looking at the stuffed animals.

 

We stopped in Ogalla, NE for the night to vist with Jason's Grandma Swick and Uncle Chancy and Aunt Teresa.
The boys with Grandma Swick.

 

Here is Chancy and boys watching a tactor on the street.

 

After two days of traveling we finally made it to our destination, Sargent, NE. Jason's Grandpa and Grandma Hansen have farm. While on the farm the kids enjoyed playing with the kittens...

staying cool by playing in the pool...

 

reading books with Grandma Debbie (Jason's Mom)...

 

playing cards with Grandpa Chuck (Jason's dad)...

 

and going on 4-wheel rides with Great Grandma Pauline (sadly I do not have pictures of this).

 

 

We had really good time, even if it was over 100 degrees everyday. It was good to get away from the busyness for awhile.

Daddy we love you because...

Thank you Daddy for all the sacrfices you make to provide for our family. Thank you for always making it a priority to spend time with us even when you are really busy. We love you!!

Changes

Lots of changes have going on in our life and around the house. The biggest one is Jason graduating with his Masters. We received his diploma in the mail yesterday so it is official. It is nice to not have school work hanging over our heads when he gets home. When he is home, he can focus on hanging out with the family.

I would like to say that since Jason has finished school that life got less busy. That has not been the case. We are redoing the front yard. We are making progress, but it is not going as fast has we would like because of the other stuff going on in life. The grass is coming in nicely. The pathway is a slow process, but we are almost ready to start laying the rock. You can see the outline of the path on the left side of the picture.

Today we found a table with 2 leaves and 6 chairs for only $200. The chairs are solid wood, but the table top isn't. We wanted solid wood, but after a year of looking, there was no way to get table this size with a solid wood top for less that $600 and we just are ready to put that kind of money into a table. I am okay with that because this table will provide the extra space we need to have people over for dinner without everyone feeling squished.

I was mowing the yard a few weeks ago and almost ran over these little guys. It had been awhile since had mowed because of the rain.  I saw something black in the grass and thought it was a rock so I stopped the mower to move it. I realized what I thought was a rock was a nest full of birds. Mama bird made the nest up against the house on the south side. We had the birds around for about a week before they were big enough to leave. It was fun to have them around.

That's fun we are having at our house. Now I better get outside and help Jason work on the pathway some more. :)

Fun outside

Here is what we were up to this past week:

Playing in Jaron's crib.

Playing on the slip and slide. This is Josiah's friend Samuel.

Going to the park.

Eating snacks.

Hope you are able to get out and enjoy the weather, too. Now I am off to mow the lawn. :)

School pictures

Here are some pictures of what we did last month in school. Josiah is getting better at writing. He is getting better at sounding words out. 

Jaron likes to participate during school also. I typically just give him worksheets or a whiteboard to draw on while I work with Josiah. Jaron learns a lot just by listening. He's learned a lot of his shapes and numbers that way.

Last month was fish month. I bought a full fish for the boys to study one day. Here is Josiah explaining to Jaron the different parts of the fish.

We also went to the aquarium and read lots of books on sea life. It was a fun month. We are winding down school for the year. Josiah likes school, so I will probably continue to do worksheets with a few activities, but not spend as much time working on it during the summer. Because Josiah turns 5 so close to the kindergarten cut off date we will keep him home another year.  I've talked to a lot of people and they all said you want to keep a boy out an extra year because boys mature slower than girls.