September 2011

Is September ever not a fun month? We had a great September. And it was wonderful to not have school starting as part of it. I love that Sam is DONE!!!! Anyway....

Isn't this kid cute and sweet and handsome and just a stud!? We think he is! And he's actually quite the clown underneath all that too:)

Sam completed his first triathlon the weekend after we got home from Utah. I was a little bummed that I didn't do it, but logistically it would have been a nightmare with 3 kids, a nursing baby, etc., etc. He had a great time and did a great job. He did it with a few people from our ward...and isn't the one below a character?

LucyMae likes to get her hair done now...thank you Tenille:) (no sarcasm intended in that....I actually like that she will let me do it now). And we've found that sponge-curlers do not hold. Her hair needs a hot curling-iron to hold and a fair amount of hairspray. She really like this one.....or was that me that really liked it? Well, I guess we were both pretty proud of how cute she looked and found it worthy of pictures...

More time at the park....we never get enough of swings and playgrounds. I wish we had some in our backyard....but then they would just take them for granted right?

Last visit to Storybook Island for the season...they close Labor Day weekend....so sad. We had a such gorgeous weather all month, and all fall for that matter, we would have spent ample time at Storybook Island had they been open. We were glad to get what we got though....

Evening walks after Sam gets home from work were frequent this month as well. These kiddos and their dad LOVE going on walks. I do too, but there's something special about the way these girls love going on walks with dad...I think it's pretty cute:)

More Storybook Island pictures....obviously out of order....

We thoroughly enjoyed the harvest of our garden this year....and it was plentiful. This meal consists of things only from our garden, or very locally grown (except I guess for the juice and butter....I have not yet learned to make my own butter....) The chicken was a gift from Sam's friend who comes from a farm in North Dakota...what a bird eh? Even the watermelon was from our garden...it was good,  but we picked it a little too early darn it...it could have been so much sweeter.

It's been really fun to have a 3-year-old this fall. I started a Joy School group with some other moms and kids so that LucyMae could have that experience. I CANNOT believe how difficult it was to find people willing to commit to Joy School....I just thought Joy School was that cool that everyone would want to do it.....In the end I found 5 moms willing to do it, but only one day/week. The program is designed and written for 2 days/week. So we've been combining lessons and trying to cover all the material, and it's going well and been a great a experience for me and LucyMae (as I'm writing this mid-March) - a huge learning experience for me in how to do Joy School and make it work best, and how much fun it is to learn with a 3-year-old....it's so much fun....no wonder they call it Joy School.....

Anyway, to supplement the day off of Joy School each week, I tried to fit in as many fun and educational playgroup activities as possible. We did Reptile Gardens a couple times, the Dinosaur Park (too windy to be fun or effective that day darn it), one of the MANY caverns tours around here....all with pictures below at some point....

It was so fun to see LucyMae eating the whole experience up....she LOVED checking out all the crazy reptiles and had wonderful questions about lots of them. This little girl makes me happy!

And man were these girls loving on this tortoise....hugs and kisses galore...Samantha was the funniest....look at her coming out of that kiss above...and no fear!

The only picture I got at dinosaur park because it was so crazy windy and cold that it was all I could do to keep my kids from crying....or maybe I didn't even succeed at that...

And then our wonderful friends, the Balls came to visit us.... FINALLY!!!! Just kidding, but we don't get many visitors other than family here in Rapid City. We had a great time camping with them at the Buffalo Roundup Arts Festival

We love the free pancake feed when we wake up in the morning....it makes camping SOOOO much easier with kids. And then we wandered around the festival for a while....

We couldn't leave without trying the buffalo-chip throwing contest....I don't remember who won, but I think LucyMae was pretty awesome, if I remember right?

And then it was an even awesomer day because we found out that it was FREE National Parks day or something, which meant that we were able to visit Wind Cave National Park for free....and it was awesome!!!!! The kids loved it, we loved it, it wasn't too long, but still long enough to feel worth it...

What can I say, we thought it was really cool....and we really like caves....and we really like hanging out with the Balls. It was a good time all around, and then to top it all off, we ate at the Alpine Inn....YUM!!!! This is the only picture (below) that has anything to do with the Alpine Inn though....it's just where we parked across the street from the Alpine Inn. I wish I had gotten more pictures of us with the Balls....I somehow failed to do that....as I'm writing this mid-March I'm realizing how short a mother's memory really is....I am soaking up every minute of my non-pregnant, non-nursing life right now, and am starting to take it for granted. As I look through these pictures I am reminded of how tethered a nursing mother is to her baby. And Ben, although a wonderful, happy kid, really has his moments and is kind of needy. Add a 1.5-year-old and a 3-year-old to the recipe, and I was quite often one exasperated and tired mommy.....oh how quickly time seems to fly....especially in retrospect eh?

Here are the pictures of our playgroup trip to Black Hills Caverns. These girls had such a great time....kind of funny that it's all girls, but it works out well. I was a little over-ambitious with this one....getting all 3 of my kids through this one, without Sam, was a little crazy...especially when there's big, dark holes everywhere, and Samantha is having a breakdown because she wants to be carried everywhere (which was no easy task in the narrow tunnels with Ben on my front....) We survived though....

The entrance to the cave/caverns...not really a cave, but lots of little tunnels everywhere....

And that basically sums up our September....in pictures anyway....I need to get my calendar out and try to remember if there is anything I should, but am forgetting to write about. I do need to remember how challenging it was for a while there with these 3 kiddos though....it's getting easier as they get older (and more difficult in some ways), but I HAD MY HANDS SUPER FULL!!!!!! I wish I was a good writer so I could sum it up well....I'll work on that one...