Cousin Time

Back in September we took a little trip to Park City. We met up with a lot of family from both sides while we were there and saw cousins we don't get to see very often, so it was a lot of fun for everyone. Here are a couple pictures of all of the Strong cousins. I really wish I had taken a picture of all the adults behind the cameras acting foolish to try to get 9 kids all looking and smiling at the same time. As you can see, they were not very successful! Cute pictures anyway, though.

Happy Halloween!

Buzz, Woody, and Bo Peep wish you a very happy Halloween!

I Know it's October, but....

I just finally took the pictures from the end of summer off of my camera, so a beach post it is. While Jon and Hayley were in town we met them down at the beach one day, and the kids had a great time playing with their cousins in the sand. Sadly, it was the only time we made it to the beach this summer, which is really sad considering we live so close. We will have to do better next summer!

Summer Catch Up: Waterfall, Castle Crags, and Shasta Dam

Shasta Dam

Castle Crags:

Waterfall:

While in Redding, Sunday afternoon we drove out to where we could do a quick walk to a waterfall, and on the way back we stopped where you could have a nice view of Castle Crags and also at Shasta Dam. It was a nice little Sunday Outing and the kids loved it!

Summer Catch Up - A Jetboat Ride on the Sacramento River

While we visited my family in Redding this summer, we decided to do a jet boat tour of the Sacramento River. The kids loved it, and the adults had a great time as well. Even though I grew up right next to the Sacramento River and drove past it all the time, I had never actually been on the river. It was kind of fun to see it from a different perspective.

Summer Fun Catch Up

I'm the kind of person who likes lists. I like being able to scratch something off and feel like progress has been made. So, when I saw an idea somewhere for a summer bucket list, I decided we'd better put one together. I let the kids help come up with ideas of what they wanted to do, and then we decorated a can and wrote the ideas on clothespins and pinned them onto the can. When we did something from our list we unclipped it from the side and tossed it in the can to keep track. I like the idea of this, but the bummer now that summer is over is that I feel a little bit of guilt about all the things still pinned on the edge of the can that we never got to. You can look at the picture above to see what was left that we never got to. We might have to do some of them in the Fall. We did do a lot of fun things though, and many I have yet to blog about so you can expect some summer catch up posts coming soon.

A picture of what we did do that got a put into the can.A close up of the things we did:

First Day of Preschool

Today was Steven's first day back to preschool. Elise started school last week, so he has been waiting and waiting for his first day to come. I think he is a little bored without her :-). He had a great day, and I had three hours sans two kiddos. Cameron even napped for one of those hours. It is amazing what you can get done in one hour of kiddo freedom. My laundry pile might even disappear soon.... maybe. It is definitely nice to get back into a routine for all of us, and I'm not sure what I am going to be doing with three hours a day minus two kids, but whatever it is, it will be beautiful.