a concert at the gorge

last weekend craig and i went with our friends to a concert at the gorge. it was a perfect night and the views at the gorge are breathtaking.

the place was paaaaaaacked. and even tho it was just the zac brown band (a relatively clean country band) the patrons were (hmmm. how do i put this nicely) not the classiest of souls.

kaitlin and me. and my country garb!

a great night with great friends.

back to school 2013

the boys started school last week. tagg kindergarten and sully preschool. they were very excited.

a few nights before the first day of school tagg had his meet-and-greet. his dang name tag and desk were so cute! he loved every second of it.

finally, it was the first day of school and it was the first time i saw tagg be a little nervous. it made my heart hurt. but he boarded the bus like a brave guy.

a few hours after tagg left, i took sully to his first day of preschool. before we walked inside he got a little sad and said, "but mom, i dont know my letters." again, i got a little lump in my throat. my boys know how to do it to me! but as soon as we walked in the classroom sully was as courageous as can be and never looked back.

the second day of school wasnt such a blur, so i got a chance to take a few pictures of tagg getting on the bus. walking tagg down to the bus stop, with sully, on our fantastic brick road is one of the coolest things i have ever done. 

ward campout

a few months ago craig and i were asked to be in charge of this year's ward campout. we had never been to a ward campout so i felt a little out of my comfort zone. but that didnt mean it wasnt going to happen! so a month before the campout i made these posters to put in the church hallways to get people excited.

then, the week before the campout we passed around little reminder fliers.

finally! it was time to head up to ensign ranch. my boys were in complete heaven.

im not thaaaaaat into camping but this fantastic river was right behind where we pitched our tent. beautiful.

such a sweet little guy!

after scouting out the area around our tent we made our beds. when we first got there i thought "holy crap. we are going to burn up during the night. there are 500 million blankets." didnt matter. i still froze that night. :)

before it got dark the kids played hide and seek. i loved watching tagg & sully play with the big kids.

i borrowed some kid's bike so i could go around the campground and tell everyone when to meet for smores.

there was a state wide fire ban. so we werent able to do a normal big campfire. but this propane firepit did the job. not 100 percent sure THAT was even legal. oh well!

setting up for smores.

when ensign ranch emailed me a week before the campout and informed me that there was a fire ban i freaked out. it was hard enough to get people to come camping but camping without smores?! i was sure craig, the boys and i would be the only ones up there. so i put together these little smores mix bags to lure my friends up there.

it turned out the propane firepits worked out wonderfully and even had the added bonus of not making me smell like sick smoke. loved it!

wouldnt want to plan a campout for 130 people with anyone else!

after smores, songs and a devotional we passed out glow sticks and the kids had a blast. this picture doesnt do it justice, but it looked so cool to have the neon colors running around in the pitch black.

i put it off for as long as i could but at some point we had to "go to bed".

even though craig and i didnt sleep for more than three hours or so that night it was still totally worth it. tagg & sully had such a great time.

the following morning craig and i woke up and served breakfast (not pictured: a hot chocolate bar!) to everyone. who doesnt love a good old costco muffin (really, its basically cake)?

i still cant say i love camping but we had a great time. we loved spending time with our friends and family out in the sticks!

sully's ORANGE birthday party

sully turned three on august 15th and he requested an "orange" (his favorite color) birthday party. 

right before his friends showed up he sang 'happy birthday' to himself. i seriously could eat him.

we had all of sully's favorties: orange tic-tacs, vanilla/vanilla cupcakes, orange izze drinks, tangerine jelly bellys, megan's famous sugar cookies and......

my mom's INSANE baked caramel corn. this stuff is crack.

sully's little crown. do you think he'll wear one when he's 17?

as his friends arrived, we had crafts ready to go. beaded name bracelets and decorated mini picture frames. all orange of course!

hard little worker bees.

before lunch, the kids played around on the waterslide.

but then JIMMY JOHNS arrived and not even a waterslide can keep people away from that goodness.

my boys and i might have a slight addiction.

lunchtime!

after lunch the kids took turns whacking the pinata. (i learned my lesson this year and used the least amount of tape possible to put the pinata together. lets just put it this way: last year, tagg's number '4' was freaking fort knox)

then sully opened presents, we sang 'happy birthay' to him and he blew out his candle.

before each friend left, i took a polaroid picture of them with sully. then they washi taped the picture to fit in their personalized frames. it was so cute.

grandma cheri and great grandma joan got a picture with the birthday boy too!

sully picked out his favorite little orange treats/toys to pack up in the favor boxes.

i love that orange is sully's (and tagg's!) favorite color. its so odd/cute.

family shot after the party was over.

honestly, the cutest human. ever. how did i get so lucky?

sandpoint

we just returned from our annual week in sandpoint. this year's trip was amazing! the evening we arrived, we went straight to work at picking raspberries in becky's unbelievable garden. my boys couldnt eat them fast enough!

the next day was sun sun sun. who knows what my brother is doing the background of this shot.

fun on the boat.

this year was tagg's first time tubing. he freaking loved it.

and sully loved being the official flag holder-upper.

on our way to bridge jumping.

25 feet up. active train tracks. its pretty intense. this is eli going for it.

i mean. you can baaaaaarely see me but this is my jump.

after bridge jumping we came back for more fun on the dock. the boys were ready for their ride on the jet ski.

a big obsession during the week was fishing. lets just put it this way: i actually had to go into a store and ask where they sold their live worms (in the walk-in cooler, next to the miller lite, btw). this is the huuuuge large mouth bass tagg caught all by himself. he was so proud!

sully, getting a push on max's bike.

it wouldnt be a night in sandpoint without a fantastic meal made by these two beauties. that night it was citrus chicken tacos with homemade salsa, mexican rice and guacamole. so good.

proof.

every night my dad would walk the boys over and put coins down on the train tracks. sully is giving my dad bunny ears in this shot.

running across to the train tracks to put their coins down. and then every morning we would rush over to find the boys' smashed treasures. it was so fun.

first s'mores session of the week.

it was very fun to have rachelle and taylor there with us this year. last year they were just barely beginning to date..... now theyre an old married couple! :)

the definition of one's eyes being bigger than one's stomach!

the next day sully caught HIS first fish.

more tubing for max and tagg.

navy blue and white striped twins.

the only tubing partners my mom could handle were tagg and max. and even then she had to get off because they wanted to go faster. :) 

that night my cousin was kind enough to babysit so we could go out to dinner. spuds never disappoints. 

however, we did opt out of ordering desserts from the restaurant so we could rush back home to do s'mores again.

i sure dont love the smell of campfire but i DO love my little campfire buddy.

never a dull moment (or meal!) at the rands' lakehouse. that morning it was chocolate chip pancakes with homemade vanilla syrup.

after breakfast it was more fun on the water. craig tried wake surfing for the first time and was a champ!

and grace's request for the day was a stop by the drive-thru gas station.

that night my mom and i watched the boys fish and had a little photo shoot.

when the kids were all in bed and we had finished our second dessert (and i dont mean second helping of the same dessert. i mean we made two different desserts every night) we had our dance party.

the next day we took the boys into town to get kettle corn (best i have ever had) at the farmers market and to play at the mini splash pad.

cute brothers.

then we went back to the house to squeeze in one more afternoon on the lake.

craig wake surfed a little more. 

and i admired my new friendship bracelets. no week at sandpoint would be complete without a new set of these puppies.

sully finally braved the tube! and loved it. i had such a fun time tubing with my two boys.

our last campfire.(my friend introduced us to the idea of switching graham crackers for slices of granny smith apples & normal hershey bars for almond ones..... trust me. its amazing)

my favorite hostess on the planet earth. how does she do it? i want to be just like her.

on our way out of town we stopped by the tracks to pick up the last of our smashed coins. i'll miss hearing the boys get excited when they heard a train pass...

every year i think "this was amazing. how will we top it?" but honestly, i think this was the best year yet.