First Stop: Couer d'Alene

We set off on our first great adventure together this summer.  A road trip to and around Montana.  Ty and Nikki were in Idaho for Nikki's sisters wedding so it was a perfect stop for us.  We left about 3am and rolled into Couer d'Alene at 11am.  We boated until the kids were tired then jumped back in the car around 4pm.  We made it into Bozeman around 11pm.  Ryker finally fell asleep around Butte at about 10pm.  He was up from 3am to 10pm with only an hour nap after boating.  What the heck?  In the morning, he said he couldn't sleep because he was too excited to go boating with Ty and Nikki.  After, he kept telling me he needed to stay awake so he didn't miss anything.  It's DARK kid!  Close your eyes!  I bribed him at Missoula, by letting him pick out candy if he would eat it then try to sleep.  He tried, but was still too wired to sleep for another two hours.

Cosmos enjoying a break from the car.

 

Ryker loving watching the wakeboarders!

They had just as much fun at the dock as on the boat.

Thank you Hoagland's for the perfect pit stop! 

 

Daddy's Girl

When Seth would leave when Ryker was little we went to great lengths to help him through it.  We recorded Seth reading books, had videos of the two of them playing, made Ryker a photo album with pictures of the two of them, and every night before he went to bed I told him his Daddy loved him and we'd talk about what he might be doing on the boat.  With Kya, it seems she's more attached to Ryker so we didn't worry about her as much.  Maybe she's just getting to the age where she's understanding or missing him more, or maybe she's been missing him a lot all along, but this summer she had a pretty tough time.  She found some pictures of Seth this summer and was really sad.  She would carry them around with her and it was difficult to get her to snap out of it.  I printed a bunch of pictures of her with him for her to keep and showed her a bunch of the videos of him reading books.  That's about the only thing that would make her happy sometimes, but then she would want to call him even if just to listen to his voicemail message.

She loved this one of Seth playing with Ryker as a baby.

She would carry this Zune around all day sometimes and play it over and over. 

At Play

These two lucky ducks have a fabulous playroom.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Stewart, they have these great organizers.  Someday, hopefully they'll figure out how to put stuff away in them.

 

Kya  really came into her own style this summer.  This was her berry picking outfit for the day.

 

I soaked these punks!

Growing with their food

Raspberries!

Blueberries!

Currants!

Ryker likes to go through all the farm eggs before we put them away.  He loves that they are all different colors and sizes. 

Eating what they've picked

I'm usually not into gadgets or small applances that only do one thing, but if you like cherries and you have kids or like to freeze them, you NEED a cherry pitter.  They are awesome!  I only bought it because my kids were going through sooooo many cherries and I had to pit all Kya's for her.  I'm always on the lookout for things that help them prepare their own food and when I saw this, I took a chance.  Ryker now pitt's Kya's cherries and she can do it herself if he'll give it to her.  He also pitted a half gallon for me to freeze. and I pitted a flat in about 10 min.  It is amazing!

Eviction Notices

This little guy was too high so he gets to stay until Seth eradicates him.

 

His buddies living on our house weren't so lucky though.

This little guy got to stay as well since he was acutally in his nest at the time.

All these beams are a pretty inviting for birds.  We're either going to need to get a sneaky cat or get some nail stips for the tops.

Summer Jobs

I stained our deck this summer and the kids did a good job of keeping themselves busy.  They didn't do a good job of keeping their clothes on, but that's beside the point.

Left side:  before, right side: after.  What a difference a little stain makes!

 

They used to be happy with squirt guns, but they've moved on to each needing their own hose!  Whatever works in order for me to get a little work done.

 

Ryker helping me put a bunch of stuff into the crawlspace.  He's quite a "worker" and is always looking for a "job" to do.