Celebrating 3 happy years with Lincoln

In the days leading up to Lincoln's  birthday he would tell people:  "My birthday is coming over!"  On the day of his birthday he was super excited to have balloons and the sign we made especially for him, he kept bringing me over to the sign and pointing out the pictures the kids had drawn and the letters on it etc... When we left the house he told me his birthday was at home.  So cute.  He helped me make his cake and wasn't really happy that the diggers I put on it weren't for him to play with immediately.  In fact he was more excited about "digging" the cake when the time came than blowing out the candles.  That's Lincoln for you.  

We decided to use Lincoln's birthday as a good excuse to christen the deck and fire pit.  We invited some families over to cook smores, eat cake and celebrate Lincoln's birth.  We even made homemade root beer.  I was really excited for the root beer...so yummy and reminds me of home. 

Happy Birthday my sweet baby Lincoln.  You make our family complete. 

-The proud 3 yr old with his digger birthday cake

-Full view of the cake-I am really happy with how this turned out, sometimes I surprise myself at how good I can copy someone's cute idea. 

-Homemade root beer!!!!!

-The birthday boy getting ready to blow out the candles

I finally let him "dig" the cake.  Now that I think about it, I don't think he even had a piece, but he dug out a good hole. 

-This was the star present of the night.  He wouldn't open anything else, we really had to save the rest of the presents for the next day.  

-Hudson and Lincoln trying out the digger

-Look at all the loot.  Happy and lucky Lincoln. 

Fire Pit/Deck project complete!

The fire pit and extension on the deck are finally complete. Any extra pennies and any extra minutes/hours/days/weeks we could scrounge up have finally paid off. These are the best before and after pics I could come up with. You get the idea.

-Before-(we relocated the sand pit to the other side of the yard)

After

Before

After

The fire pit gathering-if you build it they will come!

We are so happy with the final results. It is so much better for a good group of people and good flow between the house and the yard. Come and make some smores with us. We even had a BYO tin foil dinner night-Happy times.  

Priest Lake Mountain Bike Endurance Race

It is that time of year again!  Mountain biking days are at their finest.  Kevin and I both did the Priest Lake 32 miler and it is a brutal course.  The first 6 miles are a good steep incline and then the next 10 are up and down but mostly up.  During the course there was a 5000 elevation gain/loss.  I of course never saw Kevin after he left the starting line, for that matter I really didn't see many people out there.  The course is so difficult that once you have your position, there really isn't much passing.  At the last minute I decided to bring my I-pod, best decision I ever made, it helped keep me sane.  I finished the race in 3 hours and 26 minutes and Kevin finished in 2 hours and 35 minutes.  Kevin took 3rd overall,  I took 2nd overall for women and 16th overall.  Sounds crazy but it was really fun! 

-Just before race time

-Happy finishers

-Ginger and me-she did the 15 mile course and took 1st.  Yay Ginger!

Julie, Steve, Kevin and Billy-one of the views from the race-we went up a few weeks ahead of time to check out the course. Funny story here, these guys were telling me that their wives wouldn't be caught dead spending their Saturday out Mt. Biking with the boys.  I wouldn't rather be any where else.

Kootenai Health kids triathlon

Conor participated in the Kootenai Health kids triathlon a few weekends back. This is a great kids tri that Kootenai health puts together. They make it really authentic and they have tons of volunteers and great support. The only bad part is that since Conor is in the oldest group, we had to wait a long time before he got to race. Once he got out there, he did amazing! what a fun way to spend the day.

-Love how official this race is-markup #649

-Conor is the one closest to the camera

-Rockin the bike here

-30 ft to the finish line-he just passed those kids and he was making sure they weren't coming up on him

-Finished!  He is all wet because he dumped water on his head

We went to Scruds burger joint after Conor's big finish.  He got to write his name on the wall because cleaned his plate.

Back to School 2013

Time to put away the flip flops and trade them for backpacks. The kids are headed back to school. We had mostly happy faces at our house on the first day of school, Conor wasn't all that excited, but he wasn't sad. I was pretty happy, I love to get my daily 6 hours of not entertaining kids back.  Josie was excited for everyone. Lincoln...he was OK with the kids leaving and he even got his backpack ready to go just because that was the routine in the morning, but when "Sosie" didn't come home in the next few hours he was not very happy. He asked for Sosie probably 8 times that first day of school.

Conor is in 5th grade this year and has Mrs. Carroll. So far he thinks she is fabulous! Josie is in 1st grade and has Mrs. McQuilken. In my opinion Mrs. McQuilken is one of the best teachers on this planet, so I am ecstatic, Josie also thinks she is pretty great.

Side note-Josie lost her front tooth a few days after school started. Hopefully she gets the replacement before Christmas and we don't have to ask Santa for it.  And Yes...Josie is making her Christmas list all ready.  

-Conor and Josie

-The 5th grader

-The 1st Grader

-Josie and Mrs. McQuilken

-Conor and Mrs. Carroll (Conor did not want me to take this picture)

-A straw fits perfectly in that gap

Labor Day Weekend

For the last official weekend of the summer we headed to the water once again. Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen brought their giant motor home up.  We took advantage of the moving house and found a place to camp and spend time at the water. We didn't have much notice of their arrival, or a lot of time, so we went up to Loon Lake. The nice thing about Loon Lake is that it is only 20 minutes away from home. Perfect! The kids got to ride and sleep in the motor home and play at the beach the perfect combo.  There was also this really great playground right next to our camp spot with an old fashioned push merry go round, hours of fun.  The train tracks were about 100 ft away from our camp spot.  The train only went by twice, which was actually a fun bonus for the kids.  At night Lincoln was not excited about the train.  He plugged his ears for a 1/2 hour after it past.

-Conor and Josie jumping off the diving board

-Adult's relaxing in the sun and sand

-Grandpa rented this paddle boat for an hour of fun. 

-We would paddle to shore and gather rocks so we could take them out to the middle and watch them sink to the bottom.

-Lunch break!  Lincoln couldn't get the soda in fast enough, so he tried 2 at a time.

-Josie in front of the motor home

-Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen posing for their romantic sunset beach walk - ha ha.

-hanging out inside the motor home.

- Enjoying the late summer day with Grandma and Grandpa

-How lucky are we to spend time with this beautiful lady? 

Lazy summer days!

Looking back through the pictures on the camera, makes me wistful, summer is just too short. Here are a few snap shots of happy times spent with friends and memories made. 

-One beautiful Friday morning I was able to go kayaking down the Little Spokane River with some incredible women from my ward.  It was a really fun time for sure. 

-This good looking group of gals hit the town to see Sara Bareilles and One Republic-We might be a little bit older, but we still have a little fun lfet in us!

-One Republic

-Mckinley came all the way from Florida to visit, so Paige and Caleb came back for an afternoon of fun.  It was like old-times in the neighborhood.  Conor was in heaven.  I can't believe how much these kids have grown up in the last 3 years.   Conor, Dakota, Caleb, Amanda, Mcinley, and Paige

 

-An afternoon at the South hill pool with the Willards-we happened to be sitting out because of a pool contamination -ewww.

-We have had some really fun play dates this summer-Here are Bree and Josie. 

-Conor and Dakota.  These two have been inseparable this summer.  Dakota moved in 3 houses down early spring, and he has been a real blessing in our lives. 

-Julie and Jinger -Once again I have to say good bye to a good friend.  Why oh why do our friends leave us? 

-The Shoemaker family gathered in our kitchen for the last time.  This was especially exciting because the electricity went out and the thunder and lightning show was amazing.  Lincoln is plugging his ears in the back.  The light you can see is from Kevin's crazy powerful bike lights.  It all made for an extra special last memory with this amazing family who we will miss so much.  They are headed to Vancouver, Washington-lucky are the people who's lives this family touches next.  We will miss them so much, but wish them the best.