Sandy Point

We spent two different days this week at a place called Sandy Point Beach up near Lucky Peak Lake. It's also at the end of that bike path in our last montage. We had so much fun, and the weather was perfect! I'm a little sad we didn't discover this place earlier in the season when it was so hot. Oh well. For the second visit we invited some of Richard's family to come as well. What a blast!

Labor Day week

Here's just some things we've done in the past week and a half. We went to the zoo when it was open late for the summer hours to see if the animals acted differently. A few of the nocturnal animals were awake, but not many. We got to hear the lion roar though, and that was cool. Of course we forgot to take pictures, so we went to the rose garden in the park and took pictures there. The kids love their sandbox, as you can see, and practically live in it. For Labor day we took the kids in the bike trailer for a ride along the river to have a picnic in one of the parks below the dam. It was a fun family outing, and although Gabe was unhappy for some of the ride up there, I think the kids enjoyed it overall. It was a beautiful evening, and the perfect weather. Richard and I had fun taking pictures of each other while trying not to crash our bikes.

This weekend we met up with members of Richard's family and went to Art in the Park where all sorts of artisans come to sell their work, along with food vendors and musical entertainment. It was fun to look at all the amazing stuff. The kids of course were mostly bored (when they weren't trying to touch things they shouldn't), but they enjoyed the cotton candy at the end.

Summer's End

We've been having fun so far since school started. It's been mostly warm here in Boise (even reaching nearly-record highs), that is, until we planned a picnic at the park. It's a really cool park, and it even has a splash park portion that we were not able to take advantage of the day we went. We were freezing and about got blown away. It was still fun though, and we're happy to be back in Boise with so many of Richard's family members nearby. By the way, we just figured it out that Boise has the largest population of Samuelsons (immediate family that is) and so we think more people should come visit. :)

The kids and I have fun here at home, and we see Richard more often than we ever did in Jackson. As you'll see in the montage, most of our mornings are slow with the kids running around in their diapers. I' ve been hoping to potty train Ethan, and my kind sister-in-law gave us some 'big boy pants' but the closest he's come to wearing them is running around with them on his head. Boys...

Along with the crazy weather, they had some strong winds that knocked over a huge tree onto the roof of a house down our street. We went for a walk and took pictures. I'm not sure if anyone was living there or not. Luckily it hasn't really rained much.

We were able to enjoy some of the warm weather, though, by going to the park, as well as building monkey houses and playing in the water right here in our own back yard -slash- jungle (they haven't mowed in ages, and the tree has cool hangy-down vines all over). Richard and I also worked hard this Saturday to build an actual sandbox for the kids. They love how roomy it is, and I love the fact that it is across the yard and so when they cross the grass most of the sand gets brushed off, instead of migrating straight into my kitchen. The fabric on the lid (and on the bottom for that matter) was some heavy duty stuff I found at the D.I. for 3 bucks. Pretty hideous eh? And to think they were curtains! I'm sure you'll see more of this sandbox in the future. We made it so that will disassemble and move with us since we move so often. We'll just have to keep getting sand whenever we visit Rexburg. (We get it from the sand dunes. Is that legal? Don't answer that, we don't really want to know.)

Oh yeah, a funny thing Ethan did today -- We were in church and I realized how unruly Ethan's hair was, so I grabbed a little baby brush that happened to be in our sunday bag and began to brush his hair. He shied away and covered his head saying, "No mommy, I want to be a boy!"