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.

A park and a fountain.

A picture heavy documentation of Wednesday's adventures. 

First up:  A park.

Fisher and his Ruby.  Those sweet kids sure do love each other.

And generally play very well together.

Johnny Bug. (My nephew)

He won the "most photogenic" award for the day.  Which is pretty amazing considering his age.  He sure is cute.

Miss Ruby!

One of my favorites of little J.

Then we moved over to the fountain.  It's this great splash fountain right by the playground.  It's really this giant rotating sculpture that just happens to spray water.  Which is fantastic for all the little ones (and big ones) in the summer time.  Some of you will have seen pictures from this fountain before as it's a summer favorite.

It was Johnny's first time here.

And he loved it!  What's not to love?

Well there IS the face planting in the water.

Miss Pipey in the breeze.

We should totally try and get a picture of all the kids together...

Well at least they are all in it together.

Miss Rachael (a.k.a. Ruby's mom) was even celebrating a birthday!

All in all it was crazy big fun.

And so pretty!

We capped the evening off with Miss Pipey  (finally - after many attempts) learning how to catch chickens.  Boy is she proud in this picture!

Piper and Leedy

We had so much fun and hope to make it a weekly event!  AND I'm linking this up over at Happily Home Sewn and their Peek of the Week!  Go check it out!





Love,
JKFP