Lovin' our Pool, soakin' up the end of summer...

We have had a lot of fun in our pool this summer!  Sebastian seems to be a natural.  He kicks his feet, he uses his arms, he likes to float on his back, he loves to jump off of the ladder and in to the pool.  It amazes us because it seems like he has been swimming for years.  He's quite the fish!  Gabe loves to get in the pool and relax in his floaty.  He is usually the last one out of the pool even if he is cold.  Abby just gets in for a short time and then she is ready to get out and likes to just play in the backyard.  Austin likes to get in the pool with the boys and play with them or he enjoys searching for the diving sticks at the bottom of the pool.  One day we hope to have an inground pool!

Vinnie & Austin are looking for the diving sticks...

It's the start of another school year...

We have two MAJOR milestones for this school year.  We have one that is leaving Elementary and beginning Junior High/Middle School and one that is starting Elementary.  It is hard for me to believe that Austin is starting the 7th Grade!  Where has the time gone?  I can still remember my 1st day of Junior High and now I have a son this age!  Crazy how fast they grow up.  We live far enough away that he will be taking the school bus this year.  He is pretty excited about that.  For some reason he seems to be excited that the bus comes at 7:12 am...EARLY!!!

Austin had his 7th grade orientation on Thursday Aug 25th so he went to school for a 1/2 day.  His "official" first day of school was Monday August 29th.

Then there is my little Gabe who is starting Kindergarten?  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  Already?  It is way too soon for him to be starting Kindergarten.  He will be in a Diagnostic Kindergarten class.  We are super excited about his teacher, she seems really mellow and very understanding.  She has worked with Autistic children for the last 12 years, so we feel very blessed to have her as Gabe's teacher.  He will be going for 1/2 day.  He leaves the house at 7:45 am and gets home at noon.  He was very excited to see the bus come to pick him up.

Gabe's 1st day of school was Tuesday August 23rd.

Sebastian will be going to pre-school again this year as well as next year too.  So he still has a little time before he is off to Kindergarten.  His bus picks him up at 8:35 and drops him off back at home at 11:15.  He is only gone for a couple of hours and only goes on Tuesdays & Thursdays.  He loves school and enjoys having friends to play with.

Sebastian started school before all of them, his 1st day was Thursday August 18th. 

All of my boys are off to school!  It sure makes it quiet around here having the 3 of them gone.  Abby seems to enjoy the one on one attention that she gets from us during this time.

Austin gets braces!!!

Time for Austin to get his braces.  He has mixed feelings about this, lol!  When I had mine put on back in March he wanted to get them then so we could go thru it together but he had a couple more baby teeth that needed to come out first.  He asked me if I would wait for him before getting mine but I told him NO WAY, I was ready for mine.  So here we are 5 months later, what a way to start the 7th grade!

BEFORE...

AFTER....

Just a couple of years...*sigh*

Yellowstone National Park Day 3

Actually this is the last day of our trip, however we did not go back into Yellowstone this day.  We decided to get up and head toward Ashton, ID and go up to Cave Falls.  Before leaving our cabin, we got some fun photo's on the front porch.

 Now it's time to get on the road..

First, we stopped at my Great Grandpa's schoolhouse that he attended.  I always love to see this schoolhouse and can remember my Grandpa telling us stories.  You know, the stories that begin with "When I was a kid we had to walk miles through the snow and up hill...", he wasn't kidding!

We finally made it to Cave Falls nearly 45 min later, I had forgotten that a good  part of that drive was on gravel road, but certainly well worth it.  I was a kid the last time I was at Cave Falls.

LOVE this photo of Abby with her arms folded!

The Boys had so much fun throwing rocks into the river!

It has been so fun to share my childhood memories with my kids and my Hubby, it was also a lot of fun for me to take a walk down memory lane.  Austin will definitely be here with us next year!

Now time for our road trip home, 5 hours later and we were home!  The kids did great!

Yellowstone National Park Day 2

Our original plan was to do the lower loop of Yellowstone the first day and do the upper loop the second day.  We ran out of time on the first day and we didn't want to see the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone in the dark or feel rushed to do so because daylight was ending.  So Day 2 is going to be taking our time and going to see the Grand Canyon and view the upper and lower falls.  Next year we will do the upper loop.
We headed out the door around 10:30 again and it was raining and cold.  Unfortunately we did not have jackets or rain gear with us so we stopped in West Yellowstone and all found something to wear in the cooler wet weather...but of course once we got into Yellowstone it had stopped raining and felt a bit warmer.  Our first stop was a buffalo on the side of the road..

I love Abby's face in this photo!

She says "Buppawo" (buffalo)

Gabe wasn't interested in getting out of the car to see.

Next we made it to the Upper & Lower Falls.

Looking down into the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone..

And of course, he was being a pill AGAIN!

While Gabe and Daddy were taking a potty break Sebastian and Abby had another plan in mind..

We stopped and took pictures of upper falls and then went to the lower falls and I thought it would be best if I just got out of the car to check out the terrain before we took the kids.  We opted not to hike down because the trail was pretty steep and about a mile long, maybe when they are older.

By this point it was time to stop for a picnic.  Perfect time to try and get some cute pictures..

Abby loves my macaroni salad!

After our picnic we decided that we would head out of the park and go back to Big Springs to feed the fish.  My Grandpa said that the best time to see all the fish would be around sunset.  Perfect timing, by the time we get out of the park and get to Big Springs it should be close to sunset.

MAJOR BUMMER...STILL NO FISH!  Just more seagulls.  We decided that we had brought all of this bread to feed to the fish and during our trip it had sat in the hot car and got all mashed up by the kids so lets just feed it to the birds.  The kids had a great time throwing it over the bridge and watching the birds go crazy over it.

Another great day!