What I did on my summer vacation: The rest of the week.

How's that for a long break from day one?  As I'm sure you can all relate, we've been a little busy around here.  We got home from Gunnison on a Friday night and the very next day my parents flew in to town.  Don't worry I took pictures.  But I wanted to keep things in order so I'll show you the rest of our vacation first. 

The rest of the week pretty much consisted of...

Fishing

Walking to the fishing.

Napping.  Napping while fishing.

Fishing again and looking super adorable.

Fishing some more.

Think we're done?  Probably not.  Can you tell we like fishing?

We also had a couple moments of looking insanely adorable.

See?

There were nature walks.

Giant wishes.

Campfires.

 

Smores with snuggles.

 

And even an afternoon at the pool.

 

We had an interesting little side adventure on the way home.  We took the long way... and somewhere in the middle of nowhere Fisher needed to pee. (TMI? maybe - but it's what happened)  Anyway, we stopped and he took care of business.  Then he noticed bones in the distance.  He's such a good spotter!  So we decided to check them out.

Exploring.

 (he's doing his best Vanna White impression here - even though he has no idea who that is.)

We spent about an hour at this great spot in the middle of nowhere finding pretty rocks and small crystals.  All of us together.

 

It was such a fantastic place to stop!  We were so happy the boy had to go.  It ended up taking us exactly twice as long as usual to get home (6 hours) but we were so much richer for it.  Definitely one of those "stop and smell the roses" kind of days.  Or "stop and look for bones, rocks, and rainbows" kind of days.  Yes, there was a rainbow too.

Oh!  How could I forget.  Just two more things. 

1) We did all 6 of those hours with Bob (who is a wonderful traveller) and two baby chicks (who were decidedly less excited about the adventure than the rest of us).

And

2)  I think we found the place (location) we want to grow old. 

 

THE place. 

Just image a cabin anywere in this picture and you've pretty much got it.

Don't worry.  We'll let you come visit. 

And that's what we did on our summer vacation.

Hugs,

JKFP and Bob

What I did on my summer vacation: Day One

We are in Gunnison!!!  Which means we're on vacation.  It sure does feel good to say that.  The only sorta crappy part is that Fisher, Piper, and I are sick.  Strangely enough I'm the sickest.  I have NO voice at all.  We seem to feel okay during the day but nights are pretty rough. 

We have had a tremendous first day!  Relaxed, a bit lazy, and totally filled with fun.  Sounds weird.  I know.  But it's the truth. 

First up...baby chickens.  Kik and Kendra have somewhere in the neighborhood of a billion baby chicks in their garage.  They are three weeks old and positively adorable.  And. My. Children. LOVE. Them.  Like, love them so much I'm pretty sure we're taking two of them home.  (I'm also pretty sure K & K won't miss them as they have a BUNCH.)  Anyway, Piper doesn't seem to feel complete if she's not toting around her baby chick.  Well, she toted a few other's til "the one" found her. 

Oh how could I forget they have baby ducks too!?!?  Fisher was really into the ducks.  They were wiggly and a bit goofy.  So very Fisherlike.



Not to mention super freaking cute!

Kendra and Fisher.  Chicken and Duck.

(Bummed about the sun spot on this one but it was too sweet not to include.)

The two that have been settled on snuggling happily in a nest Fisher made from his sweatshirt.  Names to follow?

We also had some fun on a friend's zipline.  That's Fisher shooting over the little creek.

Piper even got in on the action.  Brave as always.

A good thinkin' spot.



Here's a fun little experiment Fisher came up with using a log that split in an interesting way.  It's sort of hollowed out and looked like a boat.  The experiment was a success.  It did navigate the river easily.

And just to prove that some things never change here's Piper last summer...



And here's this summer.

This little girl always seems to make her way (usually half naked) into the water.

The boys finished off the day floating/fishing down the river with a group of friends while Pipey and I relaxed around the campground.  We had fun walking Bob, having an early dinner, and having some girl time.

Day ONE people!  Day one.

Love,

JKFP

Blast from the past.

I was looking at old pictures this morning and I just couldn't resist.  (Fair warning, this may become a regular feature too now that I'm getting all "regular feature" on you.)  It amazes me how much kids grow.  I know, everybody says that.  But it's different when it's your own children.  Here's your blast from the past.

And just for good measure...

So cute.  So grown.

Love,

JKFP

 

A Day in the Life...and a Guess What!

**Editor's Note: Dang it!! I meant to tell you all that I'm linking this up over at Happily Home Sewn and her Peek of the Week!  Go over and check it out.  And hopefully next week I'll remember before I post.  Oops.





I guess this is pretty much a regular feature now so I'll just keep it going.  Officially.  A Day in the life is a pretty good way to showcase some cute pictures that didn't make it into an actual story.  So, here's your "Day in the Life".  Oh and stay tuned at the end for my Guess What?!?!?!

Our days are filled with...

 Johnny

Lots o' Johnny

Playdates and Popsicles.

(the Prayne boys - you remember Arthur and Simon?  Well, now they have a little brother Garrett.)

Breadmaking.

 (Fisher decided what kind to make and put all the ingredients in)

Toy making.

(This AMAZES me!  What happens when it's really too hot to play outside and the TV is off?  They came up with the designs and made the panels all by themselves.  I helped hot glue stuff together.  Look closely at the campfire - they are roasting a pig!)

Growning up.

The coolest playground ever?

Serious faces.

Scrunchy faces.

Heaps of love.

And more love.

As hard as some days are I think we're doing alright.  Oh, and it should be noted that some of these pictures were taken by Carly.  Thanks for capturing the cuteness!

*****
Now then.  Are you ready for your guess what?????  Okay guess what?  James is coming home!!!!!!!!  Yep, coming home.  Like this Wednesday.  The 20th.  In THREE DAYS!  Can you tell we're a little excited?  We're quite beside ourselves actually.  We're not sure how long he'll be home for at this point.  We're hoping for at least 3 weeks but not much more than 4.  (I mean, we'd love for him to be home longer, but we need for him to keep working.  Hopefully after this next contract he can be on a longer break.)  So I may be a little absent for a few weeks.  But I'll be back!  With tons of pictures, I'm sure.

Lots of LOVE!!

JKFP and Bob

The Tooth

Oh. My. Goodness.  Would you look at that face!  Can you see what's different?  He has graduated to the official "big kid" ranks.  That tooth was so wiggly for SO long.  But today... it came out.

 

I realized YESTERDAY that we had to be getting close.  I mean, that thing was barely hanging on.  So, in somewhat of a panic, I started looking around for what kind of tooth fairy pillow to make him.  He's a gigantic fan of the game Angry Birds (who isn't really?) so I decided to see what I could find online.  I found this link yesterday afternoon and saved it to my favorites.  About 10:00 last night I started gathering up all the ingredients.  I didn't have some colors in the fleece but substituted wool felt.  I was finished by 11:45.  Just in time.

The only change I made was to add a little pocket on the back for money.  It's pretty cool and a very simple tutorial.  I see lots of Angry Bird making in my future.

 

After I finished it up last night I wrapped it up in one of our play silks.  I was thinking a present waiting in the wings would help motivate him to pull it.  But no, he kept telling me he wasn't going to do it.  I think he was just afraid it would hurt.  Enter Clif Bar's Z bar.  I gave him one of these delicious little treats on the way home from the store and with the LAST BITE...the tooth came out.  You know what that means??  Present time.

He figured out it was an Angry Bird right about here. 

And was SUPER excited.

Of all the things I have EVER made him, this one was the most successfully received.  He was beyond thrilled.  (It was very satisfying for me as I had just stayed up super late to make it.)  They played with it for quite a while and he has declared he's sleeping with it forever.  (which may look weird in college??)

(this is my favorite picture of the boy and his bird - taken with my ipod.)

Our boy is growing up!

Love,

JKFP and Fisher's tooth.