A boy and his dog.

A boy and his very tolerant dog.

Caleb is 4!!

Patrick has a co-worker who says, "I'm not Catholic, but I do believe in purgatory. It's called Chuck E. Cheese." Well, we celebrated Caleb's birthday in purgatory! (Thanks to Aunt Jenn who gave us a gift certificate last Christmas.) But it was an evening to celebrate Caleb and he had a blast! The grown ups ended up having fun too.

I do believe this is the first picture of all six of us! Looking sane and happy before we hit the games.

Caleb's in the tube.

At the Whack-A-Shark game. We adults quickly figured out this was an easy game for us to get a lot of tickets from so we shoved the kids out of the way and took a turn!

The boys on the 4-Wheeler.

Then home to open presents. Is it bad that I quick put some in the closet to bring out on a rainy day? He hasn't asked where they are yet...

If you spend much time with Caleb you will soon realize he has quite a love for bugs, especially beetles. The following picture will show you what he thought about the gift we gave him, a book called An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles. It's not a kids book. It's written for someone with a biology degree... or a degree in coleopteriology? but it has tons of pictures and he squealed with delight over it. And he takes it to bed with him.

We have a saying in our house, "There's only one Caleb." He bring so much delight to our family with is quirky ways. One example is when we started to sing "Happy Birthday" to him he quickly started waving his hand around and asked us to stop. So we stopped and he proceeded to sing "Happy Birthday" to himself.

There's only one...

We are so blessed to have this precious boy in our family!

Idaho, Glow Sticks and Giant Marshmallows!

We spent the first week of September at my parent's home in northern Idaho. One of the exciting things about going to the Silver Valley is you get to visit Walmart a lot. Why? Well, there's really nothing else to do there. So while wandering the aisles of Walmart (without children which is a break in and of itself!) I found some $1 Glow Sticks.

Mama's swing hanging from a crab apple tree.

Daniel's lifelong dream of fishing came true. He talked for days that even though he didn't catch anything, he got a nibble and that was SO COOL!

Another great find while wandering the aisles of Walmart: I found these GIANT marshmallows, seriously the size of my fist.

Fall!

During the four Falls we have lived in Colorado, we've never gone up to the mountains to see the aspen trees change color until just a few weeks ago. Apparently, we went during their peak because everyone else in Colorado had headed to the mountains as well and traffic was horrendous!

But we had a wonderful time hiking at Kenosha Pass on the Colorado Trail.

We walked in the open awhile and enjoyed really nice views of the South Park Valley.

Daniel and Caleb are turning into great hikers. They can go several miles now and do more difficult terrain, which means hiking is more fun for Mommy and Daddy!

The bright, yellow aspens surrounded by the pines.

We entered an aspen grove that had to be one of the prettiest places we've seen!

Could this be Frost's yellow wood?

This is the only time anyone looked happy sitting here. The bugs started to swarm. Poor Eli got stung on the face so it was time to leave!

Before the sting and still relatively happy.

Nadya did go but she slept most of the hike in her Ergo. She was laying on the ground until I realized how many bugs were around!

I took a trip down memory lane

Can you guess who's who?

Okay, so the baby with strawberries on her onesie is a give-a-way!

an unsuccessful attempt at getting the boys to pose

This is why I don't blog more often! Or send my mom more pictures!

I canNOT get all three to give me a pose at the same time.

And it just gets harder with each kid we have.

The one good shot is of their backsides....


A little time spent editting and we have three cute, black-n-white bums.


I'll just say I meant to capture this pose.

Can't help but love this boy...

I love giraffes!

I always have. They remind me that God is the creator of funny things.

If you're ever having a bad day, just look at a giraffe.

You can't help but SMILE!

And one of the reasons we love the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs?

You get to feed and pet the giraffes!

And look into their beautiful, brown eyes.

sometimes my kids are just cute!

two of my favorite guys

Pray for Ava

I want to ask anyone that reads this post to please follow the link:

http://joshuajoelhunter.blogspot.com/

Ava Hunter is the granddaughter of the senior pastor of the church Patrick and I went to for over ten years in Orlando. The blog is written by Ava's dad, Josh. Ava was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer just 10 weeks ago. The family thought they would have 12-18 months with their daughter, but it now looks like without a miracle, Ava's time here on earth will be much shorter.

Obviously, the Hunters want as many people praying for Ava as possible so I'd love for you to pray for her if you feel led. But I also think you will be touched and encouraged by this father's willingness to leave his child in the hands of God.

The Elbert County Fair

Since we're really trying to get into this whole "country" thing, we thought we should make an appearance at the county fair.

It wasn't a county fair in the sense there were lots of clowns and rides. It was free and mostly a chance for 4H kids to show off what they'd been up to all year. Several kids from our church were showing their bunnies, chickens and goats. We even got to see one girl who we love dearly participate in a horse show.

The boys loved it. There's no such thing as too many smelly farm animals for them.

Waiting for Miss Brianna to enter the ring on "Blue."

The boys liked the goats the best. And Caleb will use any reason to make a funny face. Or maybe he's commenting on the stink.

The boys got to pet a few bunnies. I felt guilty about all the bunny shooting at our house. But Patrick reminded me that what we really have around our house are rodents, not the cute, fluffy, floppy-eared pets that were at the fair.

This is Hanna. She and Eli have a love connection. We would like to adopt Hanna but her parents told us no. Her bunny, Buckwheat, won Grand Champion and she gets to take him to State.

Daniel's little, best friend is Emma (Hanna's sister). These two are inseparable when they get together!

And finally, after a very, very, very hot day, we got to drink slurpees under the shade of the grandstand and watch the horse show.