Grandpa's first visit without snow: Aug 16-25

As part of our backyard improvements we have finally bought a firepit and chairs for everyone to sit on. It only took us 2 years... I know... sad.

The kids were having a great time having rolling races in the backyard until they noticed they were getting tiny cuts from the grass. In an effort to protect themselves they donned the carrying totes for our chairs and continued to roll around in the grass... weirdos! Dad chillin' by our new fire pitGoofin' around in the yard

Ethan's first cub scout activity was the Space Derby. The boys and their siblings were invited to make rockets to later race with the other boys and their families.

This was a great activity and kept them engaged in sanding, glueing, shaping and painting for the better part of the afternoon. This was a great grandpa activity too since he spent a good 10 years as a cub scout leader in the 80's. Sadly I do not have a picture of Ethan with his finished product, and I was unable to attend the actual Space Derby which sounded fun. The real hit however was not the Space Derby itself but the awesome backyard it was hosted in. Check it out...
Aug 19 Space Derby



We took dad up to Sparks Lake
where it got a little toasty, and Abby and Ethan engaged in a little sibling rivalry

Abby lookin' for frogs

Caught one! (actually a bunch :D)

Saturday August 22nd we headed out to the Central Oregon Airshow.

It was a perfect day for an airshow. Not too hot at all (notice we ALL have chairs!! :D)

Grandpa's always up for an airshow.

It was a pretty small scale airshow. This was the only jet they had, but it was still a fun, entertaining afternoon.

We also went floating down the river, but it is a bit risky taking the camera down the river, so we don't have pictures of our float trip I'm afraid.

It was nice having dad visit with some nice weather. The only time he has visited us in the last 8 years was in the winter, so it was great to go out and have some summer fun!

First snow fall?? on Oct. 4th???

This morning we woke up at 6:45am to Ethan jumping on our heads telling us: "Get up! Get up! Come see I wrote my name in the snow... It's snowing outside!" I thought there was maybe a skiff of snow (it IS after all OCT. 4TH), and then Ethan threw up the blinds to show us the accumulation outside, and it was a pretty good snow!

The kids were so giddy with excitement to go out and play in the snow. I think there is nothing like the excitement of kids on the first day of snow. They are so thrilled, it's just like they've seen it again for the first time. It is so fun!!
The first snowfall is always so fun... especially so when it was so unexpected!

It continued to snow until early afternoon and we ended up with a couple inches of snow to play with in the afternoon.

It was especially nice that it was General Conference today, so we didn't have to go to church and could stay at home with the fire and hot chocolate :-D