Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Summer Birthdays






Anders turns 14 and Hans turns 2.  It's so hard to believe on both accounts.  Anders is excited to go to a larger Jr. High next year.  A little nervous.  He does miss his Charter school friends and I think he realizes what a great opportunity that was to know so many kids and have the teachers and administrators know them so much as well.  He also loved his 8th grade core teacher and I'm sure he'll miss her teaching style.  It was perfect for Anders.  We appreciate the unique experiences he had there.  He looks so forward to the new chapter coming up in his life.  Every time I look at him I think he has grown.  My sweet and easy and peaceful little Hans has turned into me energetic, crazy bundle of energy.  WOW!  I thought I got off easy with my last one.  Either that or I thought I had perfected my parenting skills and had really done a number on this last one.  He has done what Elli did when she was 18 months old.  When Hans turned 18 months, almost to the day, he realized he had his own agenda and could enforce it.  It feels like he runs our household!  His eyes are always huge, like he just saw the greatest thing he has ever seen in his life-except he's that way all the time!!  He is completely excited about the world and enjoys every minute of it.  That also means he's into EVERYTHING!  I'm feeling old.  I can hardly keep up.  I absolutely crash into bed every night!  He loves animals, especially elephants and grandma and grandpa's horse Pepper.  He also LOVES tractors, loaders, back hoes etc.  Like Bret says, these 3 little boys will either keep us very young or cause us an early death!  We love them!



Miniature Golfing





School is about to start! Very bittersweet!  We decided to go miniature golfing for our Family Home Evening on monday.  Bret admitted it wasn't as he imagined.  Things are pretty chaotic with the 3 little boys.  It's a total free-for-all!  Anders and his new found, 14 year old, too cool attitude struggled to see the beauty in the little boys craziness and excitement, but oh well!  It was memorable and the crazies woke up the next morning talking about more golfing, or as Hans says, "more dolfing".

Gorgeous George!




Bret and I were so excited to have an opportunity to go see George Strait in concert.  We both absolutely LOVE him.  Not only do we love his music but what a classy guy!  We went with Bret's sister and husband, Keri and Jess and their friends Laura and Jonathon.  He did not disappoint!!  He sounds fantastic live and we all had a ball!  After the concert, we sat in the car for over 2 hours before we even moved a car length.  Perhaps USANA should do something about their parking situation.  That and the many inebriated groups around us had no effect on the overall excitement we felt at our first (and hopefully not last) George Strait concert!

Fishing With the Boys




The boys love to go fishing together.  Finn asks incessantly!  They finally found a few hours to go to Strawberry.  They had a ball!

The Salmon River










Bret and Anders went to the Salmon River with the 14 and 15 year old boys in our ward.  It was a challenging trip but one that stretched him tremendously.  They rafted and kayaked.  It was frightening to learn how to roll over and calmly find and pull the ripcord and pull the spray skirt (with you attached) off the kayak while holding your breath.  The first time for Anders was tricky and caused a bit of panic.  After some gentle coaxing, Anders tried again and felt comfortable enough to ride the rapids (class 2&3).  He did great and Bret said it was wonderful to see Anders get over fears and keep trying.  They rafted stage 4 rapids and several boys (and leaders for that matter) were bucked out.  What a great experience for an almost 14 year old boy.  These pictures are of the boys getting ready for their trip while we were at the ranch.