One Last Summer Swimming.

Carter had a random day off of school the week before Labor Day (yes, that long ago), so a bunch of friends and I took advantage of another friend's hospitality and had a pool day at her neighborhood pool.  The pools everywhere, in town and neighborhoods, would be closing after Labor Day weekend, so we wanted to get as much swimming in as possible before the season was over.   Thank goodness we went swimming that day too, because Labor Day weekend ended up being like 75 degrees, and it was too cold to swim.  So this ended up being the last day we went swimming. :(  I feel like this summer we didn't get too many days of swimming, either, because it was such a cool summer.  Excluding that last week in Aug when it reached 90 + every day BUT Labor Day weekend, pretty much we only had one day when it was in the 90's, and all the other days it was maybe mid 80's. It just wasn't warm enough to swim.

So yeah, I took the kids swimming.  They have lots of friends here, and they all had fun swimming together.  Megs and Carter took off to swim with their friends, and Derrick pretty much spent most of his time (although NOT documented) jumping into my arms in the big pool.  Over. And over. AND OVER.  My arms were so sore that evening! :)

 

Jackson Louthain and Derrick 

My cutie patooties, Megs and Carter, getting into the pool.

 Don't you DARE!

PSYCH! 

 

This boy is so spoiled because how on Earth can you say no to that face?????

End of Summer Hike

In one of the last days of August, when the weather was a wonderful 80 degrees, Bo and I decided to take the kids to a park nearby.  The kids played for a few minutes on the toys, but then decided to ditch that and go play some good ole fashioned baseball.  Or at least have batting practice with a cheering section. :)

For awhile Bo and Carter played catch, but then Carter busted out the bat.  He actually got in quite a few hits too.  Maybe there is still hope for a Major Leaguer.  It's one of Bo's biggest dreams, lets be honest.  Megs spent the time playing with Derrick or cheering with me.   Derrick was the cutie he always is, and walked around with Carter's mitt, trying to gather all the balls he could get. He eventually worked out a system with Bo, where he gathered the balls that Bo threw or Carter hit, and take them back to Bo, then be off to go get more.  Great exercise all around. :)

After baseball we decided to take a little hike in the woods near the pike.  They have lots of trails, and we have hiked the "easy" ones often.  Carter was the photographer for the hikes. :)

 

My Little Genius

The other day I bought some ABC cookies from Trader Joe's and had given some to Derrick in a bowl.  He pulled one out and showed it to me and said, "O, Mommy! O!"  I looked down, and sure enough, it was an O.  I was proud of him, but lets be honest, all kids learn O first and think every letter is O.
THEN, he pulled out a Q.  I thought again, that this would be an O to him, but he responded, "Q, Mommy, Q!!"  !!!  He totally got it right!  At this point I was in shock. 
NEXT he pulled out a D and said, "D! Duh Duh Duh, D!"  I was pretty much jaw dropped, speechless at this point.  The kid is 2!!
After that he pulled out an M, but was holding it sideways, and said, "E!" then I told him if he held it another way it could be another letter.  Next thing I knew, he was holding it the right way and saying, "M!!!!"
Oh. My. Goodness.  What a little smarty!!   I'd like to say it's all in the genes I gave him, or my excellent mothering, but really it's probably due to the apps he plays on the IPAD all the time, namely Starfall.  He loves that game.  Plus he's watched the LeapFrog's ABC movie tons.  Either way, I'm still way impressed and proud.
So I guess if he's playing on the IPAD or watching a movie tons, it can't be my excellent mothering.  ;) hahahaaa.

The Indiana State Fair

You can never attend too many fairs. ;) 

I almost wasn't going to go the Indiana Sate Fair this year, since Bo wasn't interested in going at all, but then I had a friend call me telling me they were doing a "Two dollar Tuesday" in which everything was $2, and I was sold!

We went while Carter was in school, and while I did feel kind of bad that he wasn't going, I consoled myself with the knowledge that Bo and I were taking him, and just him, to Percy Jackson, Sea of Monsters, later that week for date night. 

Megs and Derrick pretended to be farmers at one station, which was fun, but their favorite part was riding on the boat ride.  I don't ever let my kids ride on those rides, but since it was only $2, and my friends were having their kids do it, I decided to go ahead.  I'm a push over. :) 

They also got to go on a pony ride.  I wasn't able to take pictures because I had to walk next to the pony with my kids, but it did happen, and they did love it. ;)  Well Megs did.  Derrick says he did, but he didn't change his facial expression one bit the whole time he was riding.  The pony guide was making him shy, so no emotion whatsoever was shown while on the pony.  But he loved it. :)

 

Waiting to ride the pony with their friends! 

L to R:  Whitney and James Pike, Derrick, Gemma and Evie Shirley, Leo Daley, and Megs. 

 

Oh, my kids. They crack me up.

Today Megan and I were playing with her little princess dolls in her doll house.  There was one mom, tons of daughters, and a baby. 

At one point in our little playtime, the baby needed to go down for a nap, so I used my princess to call to everyone else in the house and tell them they needed to come outside to play so the baby could sleep.  Megan, who's princess was The Mom, told us we needed to do chores.  I asked her what chores she was going to do, since she had my doll doing the laundry, mopping, and windows.  Her response? "Mom's don't do chores."   !!!!!

I then paused the playing, looked at her, and asked, "Do you really think I don't do chores?"  She shrugged and said, "You help the kids do chores."

HUH.  The eyes of a child.  I'm glad my husband at least recognizes I do SOMETHING around here. :)

 

AND THEN..... 

 

Carter came home from school talking about how a boy on the bus was telling him how he could sell his "gold rocks" (fools gold he got at the Mark Twain caves) at pawn shops and get lots and lots of money for them. 

Bo later found him on the computer, with the words PAWN SHOP FOR GOLD STUFF typed into the search engine. 

That kid.  When he has his mind set up, it is as good as done.  If he doesn't make his first million by the age of 14, I'll be in shock.  I'm thinking an MBA is in his future.

A little of this, a little of that

WOW.  August flew by FAST.  I guess that's what happens when school starts.

We have been pretty much occupied with trying to remember how to live in a schedule. :)  This summer was just so relaxing and casual, with no set times to wake up or be somewhere, that jumping back into the responsible world has been quite the adjustment. :)

Carter has been in school a month now, and we think we're finally getting the hang of life again.  Megan started preschool last week and is loving it.  Carter started soccer about 2 weeks ago.  He has practice two nights a week and a game on Saturdays.  He is in love with soccer.  He asks to take his soccer ball everywhere. :) 

Megan started dance just yesterday.  She love, love, LOVES dance.  She told me she forgot most of the moves, so she just "copied the girls around me." :)  Megan has become obsessed with coloring, and will spend a good hour or two coloiring pages we print off the computer for her. She is also trying her hardest to read!!  She's doing pretty good too.  I'm so proud of that girl.  She'll definitely be ready for kindergarten next year.  Oh yeah--she turns 5 on Sunday.  5!!!! 

 Derrick has been loving having a little more one on one time. All he asks in life is to have one of his parents "sit by me" or be near him pretty much at all times.  Not to much to ask. :)  I'll gladly snuggle next to that boy.  He is such a snuggle bug.  He also loves going to Carter's soccer and watching him play.  He's pretty much Carter's number one fan.  It is so cute to hear him cheering, "Go  'ter!!!!!!"  --Yep, he calls Carter " Ter".  Or sometimes he'll say "Tar-Ter"  :)

So that has been our life here lately.  Bo's schedule this year has been a lot nicer.  He has more days off, which has been WONDERFUL!  I hope the rest of the year is as nice as these last couple of months have been. 

And, for you faithful readers out there......Bo got offered a job last night!!!!  The contract hasn't been signed yet, but it is on it's way here!

Where???  Tri-Cities Washington!!  YAY!  We are way excited.  We weren't ever planning on being back in our home state, much less very close to our home towns (1/2 hour to hour away), but a really good job just sort of presented itself to us.  My dad had happened to be working in the temple a few months back and was talking to one of his fellow workers, who happened to be the DIRECTOR of an ER in Tri-Cities.  He told my dad they were short staffed, and that he had been really busy. My dad then casually mentioned that his son in law would soon be done with residency and that ER was his department too.  Well the Director told my dad to give Bo his number, and now, like 2 months down the road, we have a really sweet job in Washington!!!!!!  We feel really blessed, and as you can tell from all the exclamation marks, very excited!  We can't wait to be next to family and home.  Through all the time we've been in med. school and residency, we've always referred to Washington as home, and now it's officially going to be our home once more!!!!  Feel free to be excited with us. :)