The Scenic Route

We headed to Island Park this afternoon to be with the Murdocks at their cabin. We decided to take the more scenic route through Bozeman and Big Sky. It was gorgeous! The last hour of the drive was in the dark but the stars were amazing. My heart is in the mountains.

We had quite an adventure when we arrived to their cabin. We pulled up just a few minutes before the Murdocks and when we got out the boys found a skunk. Someone threw a rock and the skunk sprayed! It seeped through the cabin walls and we are in the process of airing it out now! 😆 Hopefully we can get rid of the smell!

Schools NOT Starting Party!

All our friends started school today and I’m not going to lie, as a homeschooler it is hard to hear all that excitement of the first day of school and feel so separated from it. There are so many things I love about public school. But we’ve chosen to homeschool this year and we are going to make the best of it! We won’t be starting until after Labor Day so we had a school is not starting party today. We went to the jump place for a few hours and then out to lunch at McDonald’s where the little boys played at the play place for another few hours. The kids were happy all day and for the most part even got along! It ended up being a really good day. I may be missing some things about public school but I really am going to focus on all the great things about this extra time we’ll have learning and adventuring together this year.

Soccer Season

Kade had his first soccer practice tonight with his new team and new coach. He enjoyed practice and has a great coach. It should be a good season!

Family Night

I love our family nights together. Especially when I see the kids getting to spend time cuddling with their dad. Family time is the best.

Brothers

Ryder and Luke had to go to bed last night before Kade got home from his dance. They wanted me to make sure that Kade came and hugged them goodnight when he got home. It was really sweet that they didn’t want to miss out on a hug from Kade! I made sure to take pictures so the boys knew that he really did come in to say goodnight. And Kade made sure to make the pictures funny!

They all laughed about it this morning.

Sunset Bike Rides

It was very hot today but we enjoyed the morning with a walk by the river and the sunset with a short bike ride around the neighborhood. Luke is loving his new bike. He put his water bottle on the back of his bike for our evening ride and made sure to stop for a water break. Such a cute boy! He also says ‘I love you to me’ in sign language now. I’m not sure what brought it on but I love it! 

Kade worked all day on the farm and then went to a stake dance. He’s a busy boy! But he’s loving life.

Boating with Friends

We brought Kade and Tenley’s friends Elliot and Mae on the boat with us today. It was a lot of fun having them along! We got there early and it felt like we had the lake to ourselves. It was cold in the morning but the kids swam a lot and then everyone took a turn wakeboarding and skiing. Even Ryder got up on the wakeboard for his first time! Kade has made a lot of improvements on the skis and wakeboard. He was getting air on both of them. They also went for some fun tube rides and Kade and Elliot got some crazy air. I think they were as high as the boat.

No crazy boat stories today, luckily. Just a really fun day with good friends. Days like this make the headache of a boat so worth it.

Outdoor Picnics

The weather has been so perfect this week! My runs in the morning have been cool and breezy and then the sun comes out and warms it up just enough. I had a picnic outside with my little boys for lunch. It’s been a stressful week and good food and the outdoors with my boys made it so much better. And then Tenley has been practicing the song “River Flows in You” on the piano and I could hear it through the open windows. It was a pretty great picnic!

Puppies

Our neighbor rescued some puppies and before she adopts them all out, we were able to go over and play with them. Kade wasn’t as in to the puppies as the rest of the kids but everyone else had so much fun. They loved playing with them. They were pretty lucky.

Tonight Luke rode a bike around the neighborhood for the first time! I’ve been needing to put training wheels on his bike and I finally did tonight and he rocked riding it. It was such a beautiful night and we enjoyed our walk/ride. He’s such a cute little biker!

Fancy Lights

Brad loves his gadgets. He bought some fancy lights for our house on Amazon prime day. After he put them up a few weeks ago he found out that they were broken. He couldn’t control the lights like he should be able to. After a few back and forth calls with tech support they sent him new lights and Brad was able to fix the problem tonight! Luke loves them the most I think! He especially loves the ‘American’ colors! 😆 

Kade

Kade turned 14 years old today! It really feels like once they reach 12 then the next years just fly by. I love the ages my kids are at and I really don’t want them growing up anymore! It makes me sad to think about how quickly the next few years will go by. Kade is truly such a great son! And he’s the best example to his younger siblings. We are so lucky to have him. We got to go mini golfing today which was fun. The weather was overcast and cool which made it nice. And then we had a pizza party at home after he had opened presents. It was a simple but fun birthday!