You might not think these things are very adventurous, but they are for us, and they're memories we like to think of. First, there was Caden's Pump it Up Party (which we did not miss because of arriving at the departure time this year...just like to bring it to your attention that I read the invitation correctly this time, as opposed to two years ago). We always have a blast with the Hernandez family and the kids love to jump and play on the inflatables. Note the picture where Isaac helped even Natalie to participate.
Next, Ellie lost her 2nd tooth. She was so proud to pull that sucker out all by herself!
We also got new colors on our house: instead of drab on drab, we have burgundy shutters and a sage door on drab house. Hooray for color! We also got a new roof, but that's not very exciting from a picture-point of view.
Then there's Friday afternoon piano lessons. Of course, I didn't get any pictures of actual piano
playing; there's just the evidence of an hour's wait from each kid. Isaac usually spends the hour reading before he goes (not pictured). Noah builds stuff. And when he earns a candy bar by working hard for two weeks of practice, he builds something to cart around his new treasure.
And Ellie usually pulls out a game...except when she gets my phone and takes a million selfies outside the front door while she's waiting for us to get in the car.
And, of course, there's the option of exercise while you wait. It can't be any of your typical,
do it yourself exercise; nope, they make it a team effort!
Swift Team's Cross Country season started up and we got a picture at the first practice at Nani Falcon Park. Only Noah was officially on the team at this time (he's the fifth from the bottom left).
Isaac had a field trip to the Outdoor Classroom and we (Natalie and I) volunteered ourselves to come along. It was hot, but fascinating and fun. The teacher, who calls herself a Grandma Barbie, was super dynamic and told great stories. The video I had of the angry-looking scorpion was too big to upload, but here's an amazing spider we observed in the grass. I can't remember what kind it is, but we had to be super quiet to avoid disturbing it as it trapped flies.
Isaac crossed over to Boy Scouts! He felt weird about it because he wasn't 11 yet, but the leaders all assured him that it was okay. We took a video because Jared was working in El Paso.
Natalie had more cuteness adventures.
And Isaac got hit by a truck while riding his bike. Jared was also out of town for that. Isaac is one lucky Little Dude, though: got away with a bone bruise on his tailbone. Basically, he got a spanking for crossing at a dangerous bend in the road and it took several friends' watching the other kids and several hours' wait to find that out. Oh, and a big, fat co-pay that came in the mail later.
So...obviously it wasn't easy to have Jared gone nearly the entire month of September. I thought Ellie's picture for me was sweet: it was meant to comfort me. "We'll be happy without Dad anyway." Art is the biggest way Ellie processes her feelings.
Isaac had a fun time in GT one day at school: they got to go all over and take pictures of would-be "letters" in their name. Here he is with two of his GT friends and their names. I saw this in their classroom during the GT orientation and had to take a picture!
The best adventure is always General Conference; it started on the last day of September and this year I got this crazy idea to print and cut and laminate for hours so we could have this:
Ellie was ready for fall fashion to immediately begin.
The best part of the weekend, as much as we love Conference, was having Jared come home from El Paso! He had been there for a few weeks, working, and we missed him terribly.
It wasn't long before Jared left us again (back to work in El Paso). We got right to work and attended the church service project. It was a lot of fun spreading mulch at two dog parks with our friends. Of course, the real play time was afterward, climbing trees and going to the playground on the other side of the parking lot.
