Sidewalk Art

This summer the kids have had a lot of fun drawing all over our cement pad in our driveway. Riann got a couple of boxes of sidewalk chalk for Easter and her birthday and our driveway has because an art museum between her, Colby and the neighbors. It's fun watching her start to show interest in drawing things other than scribbles and people seem to be her new favorite thing. Late one afternoon, after nap time we were enjoying a beautiful day outside and Paul had just gotten home from work and Riann came running up to him yelling, "LOOK DAD!!! I DREW YOU!!!!" She is so cute!!!

Labor Day at Grand Targhee

Paul and I have been wanting to take a hike up to the top of the Grand Targhee Resort for a while now and with the weather being so nice the last few weeks and with the holiday we thought this would be a great time to go. We've done a few other hikes with Colby and Riann and they did great so we decided to go ahead and go as a family. We knew we wouldn't have time to do much hardcore hiking, and that wouldn't have worked with the kids, but because they have a chair lift to the top we thought we would enjoy a scenic day and just go. After getting everyone ready we headed up to the mountain and had a fun trip getting out there. The kids were happy and didn't mind that it was a little bit of a drive out there. We've been having bad fires in our area so we were a little worried about there being too much smoke in the air but it ended up working out just fine. Once we got out there and above the smoke it really wasn't too bad.

We had a great time while we were out there. We brought up a picnic lunch and sat at the base of the mountain and ate. The kids loved eating outside and watching everyone come and go on the lifts. Once we were done eating they were excited to get going so we packed all of the stuff we weren't going to be taking up the mountain back in the car and got on our way.

On the right is the main entrance to the resort. On the left the main lift up to the very top!!

I don't like the lifts by myself and even less with the kids but they enjoyed riding all the way up to the top. We had to split up because they only allow 4 bodies per life and even though Roslyn was attached to me they needed us to go separate. On the way up I was in front of the kids and they had a great time riding with daddy.

Going up and all around.

The view from the top is absolutely stunning. One of these days Paul and I will hike up to one of the other peaks you see in the distance but we'll probably have to do it without the kids because I heard they are pretty heavy duty hikes. Paul has been up to this spot a few times snow boarding but it was really cool to get to go with him and see it for myself. This area of the country is so beautiful!!

The amazing view from the top. Next time we'll do some actual hiking around.

The kids had a great time at the top, even though we didn't let them wander very far. We were right on the edge of a VERY steep ledge and we didn't want them to get too close. We had a great time resting and just enjoying what was around us. There was so much to see up there and it was just wonderful to feel the peace of being out in nature.

Riann and Colby "playing" at the top. They didn't get to go too far because it was steep on all sides of us but they had a good time digging around. You can't keep these kids out of the dirt!!

Pictures from the top. We had a great time. God's creations are AMAZING!!

Rainn taking a picture of me taking a picture of her. She thought it was pretty silly. I didn't crop anything on the picture she took of me. She did the zooming all on her own.

The photos Riann took of all of us on her camera. She's getting good!!

All of the signs from the top. Apparently, as you can see from the sign on the bottom left, we weren't supposed to hike down the direction we went. Didn't see the sign until we got back to the lift... oops.

All of us at the top. Aren't those mountains amazing?!

On the way back down we stopped for a few photos from the valley. There was still a lot of smoke down there and we wanted to get a couple of shots showing where we had been and what you could see throughout the day.

All of the fires have been out to the west of where we were and we didn't think it was too bad when we started out that morning but as we got closer we could see that the smoke was settling into the valley pretty bad. The picture on the top is of the mountains on the way in. It was really hazy. We had gotten some breezes while we were up there. On the way back it had cleared quite a bit and that is shown with the picture on the bottom.

The kids had a great time and were happy and had a lot of fun just playing around with each other. They love being silly and making each other laugh and Paul and I really enjoy watching them play together.

Being silly on the way home. Riann and Colby just HAD to put their feet out the window after a long day of hiking and Colby had the sun in his eyes most of the way home, so we gave him Paul's hat to block it. He chose the most effective way to get the sun out of his eyes. I think he did a pretty good job.

Here are just a few of the beautiful pictures we got of the mountains and of our hike. It was so great to spend the day outside in such an amazing place.

I've said this before but I could take pictures of these mountains all day long. They are beautiful and I'm so glad I finally got to see them up close. Next time we'll get much closer!!

Paul's Instagram edit from the top. I LOVE this photo!!

Paul has a panorama app on his phone and he used it to take these photos. If you go to the links they are also interactive.
http://360.io/72PFAZ

They're pretty amazing.
http://360.io/vdtaKk

We had a fantastic day. It was so fun to be outside together and have just some us time. It's been a while since we've gotten that with Paul working so hard and just having finished up with school. Days like this don't come along very often and we're so glad we took time out of our week to just be together. We got a lot of amazing pictures and had a fun time building memories that you just can't fake. This was a good day!!!

Celebrate Youth

This year we got to participate for the first time in the "Celebrate Youth" program here in town. I didn't know this was something they did every year and we were excited to go check it out. We'll defiantly have to give ourselves more time next year so we can do more of everything. The kids had a great time doing all of the activities and collecting goodies. We were hoping it hit up the bouncy house but they closed it down earlier than we thought they would so we missed out on getting a chance to climb in. Next year we'll do better. This program is for all of the youth in the Madison and Fremont school district boundaries. It's almost a kick of to school program and local community organizations come out to tell the community that they are here and how they can help. Then they have a huge raffle and dance for the older kids at the end. I wish we had known about it in previous years. It's a lot of fun to be a part of a smaller community that puts on events like this for free so the kids can just enjoy being out while getting to do something different from our daily routine. Below are some pictures of the fun activities they got to participate in.

Riann doing an obstacle course to win a prize.

Colby and Riann had to toss their fishing poles over the curtain to "catch" a prize.

In this one they had to scoop up the ducks, I think they got to pick two, and whatever number was on the bottom of their duck was the number of prizes they got to pick out. I think this was Colby's favorite, he went back numerous time to pick up more ducks, even though he didn't get more prizes, and he was very excited about his "bracelets".

They gave the kids milk with their "sack dinner" and Colby LOVED his chocolate milk. He hasn't been able to drink it very often because he has a similar chocolate allergy to what Riann had but we can give it to him in small doses and he was in heaven tonight!!!