Fall colors and dirty kids

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather, and the fact that the boys had all of the their homework done early, and drive up the canyon to look at the beautiful changing colors.  The boys were excited to point out all of the reds and golden , and they were especially excited to get out of the truck and do some hiking.

 Our first stop was by a little river with pretty red trees and rocks to throw.

 I could not help but take a picture of these cuties surrounded by the golden trees.

 And when we spotted this large evergreen surrounded by a beautiful red we had to stop.  Plus it provided for good climbing and testing of the boys' skills.  It had also rained recently and so the hill side was fresh with wet dirt.  Hence, our newly cleaned truck was no more clean and the boys were loving it all.  Caleb made it up with no problems.  Peter made it up with only a few struggles.

 It is Willy who has not yet mastered the mountain climbing yet.  He needed a little help from Caleb and I laughed as I watched Caleb get behind William and push him up the mountain.  What a good big brother!

 William was pretty muddy and proud of it.

We found one more hiking spot before going home.  Caleb again climbed up effortlessly and delighted in getting to the top of everything.  It was a beautiful and fun afternoon.  And the boys want more of it.

The circus came to town

The boys loved it!  Haley was not crazy about the loud music at first.  But thankfully she became entranced by all the lights and animals that we could all enjoy the circus together.

 The lions and tigers were pretty cool.  Some of them kept swiping at the tamer and Caleb was worried there for awhile.

 The elephants were so fun to watch and it was amazing how smart they are.  They were so well trained to know just what to do and where to go.

The motorcycles were AWESOME!  They ended up with 8 motorcycles in that small metal ball and it was so cool to watch them all going around and going so fast.  Very entertaining.  Caleb said that the circus was the best thing of his life.  Plus the theme of the circus was dragons.  My boys love dragons and they really thought the golden dragon that came out at the end of the circus was pretty magical.

So, today we made our own circus.

Peter, of course, had to have his own separate circus but that is another story.  They colored all their own circus animals and performers.  Had the tight rope and even came up with the "circle of fire" for the dogs to jump through.  A very fun time was had by all.

Welcome to the family

Back in March William received a gold fish from his primary teachers.  It was given the name of Twilight and we have taken very good care of it.  Twilight survived the many trips back and forth from the cabin this summer.  He has even grown.

Well, now we have two more.

 Last night our neighbor, Larry, came over with a bucket; a gift for the boys.  Upon inspection we saw the above two little fish inside the bucket.  Larry has a pond in his backyard and his fish had babies.  Larry thoughtfully fished two of them out for Caleb and Peter and now, they are part of the family.  Oh boy, can you feel the stress I am now under to keep three gold fish alive?  It is pretty intense.

 Anyway, Caleb named his Brownie and Peter named his Harry Potter.  Very cool.  This morning William, Haley and I went out in search for new homes for them.  We found a good deal on the tanks, had to get a bunch more gallons of water for changing the water when it comes time, and now they are in their places of honor in the kitchen.  Do you like the tank decorations?  Twilight also got a bigger tank because he needed it.

After school we had a snack of chocolate frogs (to welcome Harry Potter) and brownies (to welcome Brownie).  It was messy and fun and good.  And boy do I hope these fish live long, healthy lives.  These boys are counting on it.

An exhaustingly good day

Yesterday was great!  We had a lot planned and knew it would be fun but tiring.  There was soccer to be played, soccer pictures were scheduled for after the games and then we had planned to go to the state fair with Steve and Jorge that evening.

 Peter's team had their very best game of the season yesterday.  Peter played goalie for the second half of the game and did a wonderful job!  With some coaching from Caleb, Peter got in there and made a lot of great saves.

 Caleb's team did terrific also.  Caleb played goalie for the entire game and did great!  You cannot see Caleb too much in this picture but I posted it anyway to show you how he made most of the saves for the game.  He took charge and went into the crowd of greens to pick up the ball, time and again.  He really did a great job and his team won.  Good thing too.  It is always nice to have a good game on picture day, to be able to look back on the day and know you gave it your all.

Finally and after all that time in the sun we went to the state fair.  The kid enjoyed a lot of different things from the fair.  Haley loved seeing all the animals and had fun petting the bunnies.  William and Peter had fun watching a small portion of the rodeo with me.  William had his dream come true and was able to go on the high jump.

 

Caleb's favorite part of the fair was playing the games to win a little prize.  Oh, and I think he also really liked his fried scone with honey butter. :)  Each of the boys were able to win a cute little stuffed animal and they were so happy to crawl into bed that night and not have to walk any more.  They were tuckered!  What a fun way to spend a Saturday.
One other thing that I do not want to forget about last night was Peter losing another tooth.  Peter seems to always be ready to lose them right when he is so tired that he cannot deal with the pain or drama of it all.  We were at the fair, getting ready to leave and Peter wanted some cotton candy.  He loves the stuff so I obliged and the boys were happily eating it when he started to cry about his tooth hurting him.  He did not want us to pull it but it just hurt him so bad.  There he was in tears and he said, "Mom, I can't even eat my cotton candy."  Broke my heart.  Here it was all he wanted all night and now he could not even enjoy it.  So, we get home and everyone is sooo tired.  But my awesome Peter went upstairs to brush his teeth because he knows that is just what you do before bed.  All of a sudden I hear him exclaim, "Mom, my tooth fell out!"  I ran upstairs to see the evidence and he said that while he was brushing the tooth just popped out.  Yeah!