Blessings.....

We have been blessed with busyness lately it seems.

A wonderful time with our neighbors celebrating the 4th of July. We feel so blessed with where we live. The neighbors all pull together to put on a wonderful neighborhood 4th of July party.

We all gather at the community water park and use the BBQ's shared by some of the neighbors and cook up some meat and share side dishes and desserts we all bring. It's such a great time to get to know people we live close to that we hadn't met otherwise.

I have a picture of neighbors hanging out enjoying the waterpark and the bouncy slide they rented for the kids as well.

And a picture of our great neighbor Tony starting to line up the little ones for the parade around the waterpark :-) the kids love it :-) A sweet boy let Colin drive his gator while Alexander followed along in Colin's :-) there were a few bikes and tricycles and even a wagon all decked out.

Other activities have included going camping twice.

Once to Pine Flats Hotsprings..... we tried it last year but there just wasn't much water, this year though it was perfect!!!

A morning with hot chocolate by the fire.Our campsite couldn't have been better! We were right next to the woods and the boys LOVED going on little hikes and we let them so long as they could see us it was great. Another great event for us was our little boy who apparently isn't so little anymore lost his first tooth a few days before we left but this was the first picture I got of him ;-) his teeth are SO little can you even see the hole :-)
Another camping trip was suppose to be to Ponderosa in McCall but with the weather turning unseasonably cool for August we decided to not head up so far in elevation and went to Bruneau Dunes instead. It was fabulous! It was a little windy the first day but it made for great kite flying :-) and we once again ended up with a GREAT campsite right next to a big grassy area the kids could run and play and climb trees and fly their kite.
We took them to the dunes as well. Colin is the one racing to the top.

Colin doing the "I feel like I'm in the desert where's the water pose" ;-)

On the trail from the observatory they have there also heading out to the dunes.

It's always amazing to me to watch the children when we are camping and how they find ways to entertain themselves without a single toy.... just the dirt, trees, sticks, and each other. They sat here talking and playing for about 1/2 and hour giggling away ;-)

One of the many bugs they found on our journey :-) we had to take a picture of course :-)

Harrison's favorite hangout when we are camping :-) passing time with his favorite past time activity as of late... sucking on his toes :-) Nathan says he gets that from me :-) always putting my foot in my mouth.

Both were such wonderful times away with just our little family. The littles did so well and had such a good time both times. They asked if we could just build a house at each campground :-)

Other happenings have been......
A short visit from my mom and nephew Matthew.
A short visit from one of Nathan's brothers and his family Kevin, Atsuko, Aiyana and Kian.
And just the normal busyness of life with four littles :-)

Below are just a few fun shots of miscellaneous times and things.

Here is Colin showing mom that YES you CAN hook a bike trailer to a Gator :-)

And here Colin is getting his first lawn mowing lesson.. he did quite a few passes on his own.. with Nathan close at hand of course :-) it won't be long though before Nathan starts passing on the outdoor chores though :-) Colin is in such a hurry to grow up and have big boy responsibilities.

Harrison is growing up too. You can't see it very well but here he is drooling over the grapes he is trying to reach for :-) He is getting too big to be sitting in a bouncy seat ;-) he sits up on his own now though so he doesn't really need it. He just likes to be close so it came in handy when fixing dinner. I guess it's time to pull the high chair out of the attic :-)