Labor day Weekend

On the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, the City of Boise held their annual Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic.  It actually starts on Wednesday and went through Sunday.  They start inflating the balloon right at Sunrise (around 7:00).  On Saturday I bravely woke the boys up before 6:00 in the morning, got them dressed and grabbed some breakfast on our way downtown.  It was a fairly nice morning (last year was really cold) and the boys had a lot of fun.  I was so glad that I had my camera ready and was able to capture these pictures of the boys being very entranced and in awe of the balloons as they started inflating. 

Bauer pointing to one of the balloons.  I just love the face  he is making. 

Deker.  I love how bright blue his eyes are. 

Keagan looking quite entranced.  When I told the boys on Friday night we were doing this, Keagan told me that his technology teacher would be there.  I didn't think we would see her because there are so many people.  But she was actually a crew member for one of the first balloons we saw as we got into the park.  Keagan said hi to her and she showed them the inside of the basket and how the balloons inflate and what her job is.

The balloons as they started inflated and lifting off. 

I love this picture of all the boys as well. 

The Mickey Mouse balloon.

The Balloon Festival is at a park that has a stream running through it.  So of course on our way back to the car the boys had to play in it with sticks and talk to the ducks that are there.  

As we walked back to our car, Deker walked along the water with a long stick dragging in the water. 

I was really looking forward to Labor Day this year.  With Keagan now in school and Andrew's work schedule, there are very few days that we have an entire day to spend together doing fun stuff as a family so we took this opportunity and went to the zoo.  We packed a lunch as well so that we could take as much time as we wanted. 

Here are the boys in their favorite "hut".

This was the last weekend of the Butterfly exhibit.  It costs and extra dollar to get in, but it was really worth it.  The boys and I went last year, but this was Andrew's first time.  It is always fun to see the different colors of butterflies.

This is one of my favorites.  When the butterfly is open like this, it is this pretty blue color, but the other side of its wings are brown. 

Usually when we are there this huge turtle is just sitting there.  This time, it was quite entertaining to watch.  It was trying to climb up on the wall. 

The birds nest.  I love looking back at other pictures and seeing how the boys have grown. 

Next to the zoo is a rose garden that is free to wander around in.  We decided to go look at the flowers (the boys, of course only cared about the water fountain and going through the different paths.   Here are a few pictures we took of the flowers.

We had such a wonderful day and really enjoyed having a day to spend together as a family.

Our Recent Happenings

With all that has been going on lately, I decided that I needed/wanted to work on some projects.  I am so grateful that Andrew was so willing to help me out with them.  I absolutely LOVE how they all turned out. 

Deker and Bauer (Keagan was at school) were so excited and couldn't wait to help paint. 

Here are the finished projects.  These first two pictures are of things we put up in the living room.  We had gotten an old window from our friends who were remodeling a house.  I finally got around to cleaning it up, painting it and adding vinyl.  I also found this quote "Family, like branches on a tree we all grow in different directions yet our roots remain as one."  I also remembered that I saw a metal tree at a new store and thought it would go well with the quote and I had a 20% off coupon.

Next, I wanted to make this sign.  We had some boards in the garage that were cut too small when the bunk bed was being made and they worked perfectly and we used paint that we already had. 

This one is at the end of the hallway which I always thought needed something.  So, after looking at things I pinned on Pinterest, I decided on doing this with the 6 "B"s from President Hinckley. 

This one was all pretty much Andrew, but we finally got around to building this teeter totter that my sister Vera showed us several month ago.

Now, for some other random happenings in our house. 

Last Sunday when we got home from church, I didn't put my shoes away right away.  This is what I found Bauer doing after lunch.

Last Wednesday evening, we were all out in the back yard.  I was reading a book, Andrew was working on a project and the boys were playing.  Bauer was at the swing when he started crying.  I had figured he just fell of the swing and that he would be just fine, but when I went to check on him he was bleeding really bad from his mouth.  After getting him inside and looked at where the blood was coming from, we realized that he had knocked out one of his front teeth.  We took him to the dentist the next morning to make sure that it hadn't been pushed up or broken off or anything.  They took X-Rays and much to our relief it was just knocked completely out.  He will now just have 1 front tooth for quite a few years.