Why We Don't Buy Toys (Very Often)

I know some kids love their toys and play with them all the time.  But not my kids. We could spend hundreds of dollars on the nicest toys, but I would venture to say that they'd still play with non-toys instead.  Here's some of the proof:

I find "letters" all over the house.

They call this the "clapping monster" game.

Clark made the United States with cheese. The little speck of cheese is Ohio, so he says. 

Spices are ALWAYS laying around the house. And yes, they do spill sometimes.

Playing with the water-catcher-drain-pipe-thing

Wearing exercise resistance bands on heads, pretending to be bad guys.

Creepily laying under rugs.

So if you ever want to get Clark a present, just buy him some spices or a rug. :)

Fall has come (and almost gone!)

People in Alaska joke that we have about one week of fall.  I thought they were kidding, but it's almost true.  Summer ends pretty abruptly, fall lasts a few weeks, and then the cold weather sets in.  In fact, we got our first day of snow on September 23!  Luckily, it only lasted a few hours and melted pretty quickly.  I still need time to get snow tires on our car!!  But we have also been blessed with super awesome rainbows a few times.

I woke up to him yelling in my face, "It's snowing!!!"

Gorgeous setting makes doing dishes 10 x better :) 

Snow-capped mountain; leaves changing colors

So Alaskans don't wait around until October to celebrate fall and pick out pumpkins. We went to a fall festival at the base of Pioneer Peak (the mountain shown above) this past weekend.  It was a lot of fun despite the nippy weather and kids slipping in mud puddles.

He is not very agile on his feet, especially when bundled up. So he gets sentenced to the stroller on most outings. 

I couldn't bring myself to actually buy a pumpkin in September, so we just took a picture instead. :) 

Sucking on "honey sticks".

This poor kid couldn't get the tractor to start. So they just sat there for the "ride".

Now this is more like it!

This farm is owned by LDS church members and the Bishop's storehouse is on-site.  It's also a U-Pick farm, so we got to pick some delicious garden vegetables. 

Harvesting some rhubarb...for pie!!

Take a look at those carrots!

Some other fun outdoors before it gets too cold here:

Love this one :)

And apparently it's not too cold to send naked/ninja toddlers outside....yet.

Happy Fall!

Keeping Busy

While Chris was enjoying a wonderful vacation to Switzerland, Austria, and Germany, I stayed back with the kids and tried to keep busy.  Don't feel too bad for me that I didn't get to go.  Traveling for almost 24 hours by air sounded miserable to me after just barely getting to Alaska.  Maybe one day the jet lag will appeal to me. :)  He had a great time with his mom, brother, and sister - they even got to go see the town where their ancestors are from!

Hiking the Alps

11 days alone with 2 wild boys was manageable.  We had our moments...like getting locked out of our house and me bawling on the deck cursing the fact that Chris was in Europe.  But it all worked out - I got to teach the boys the lesson of praying aloud anytime, anywhere for anything. They looked at me like I was nuts and Clark just kept telling me to be happy.

All I can say is that I completely honor and respect (bow down) to military wives who deal with deployments. And single moms. It stinks to be on your own and never get a break. But despite the rough parts, we had a lot of fun doing things around here while the weather was nice. Here are some of the highlights of our "staycation":

Reindeer Farm

Little container of food + bored/hungry reindeer by the 100s...a little overwhelming for my kids. 

The moose "Denali" was more their style. 

He thought the reindeer would enjoy this tree. 

Carhartt Brothers

Transportation Museum

This was just a whole junk yard of all kinds of vehicles.  We all loved it. They loved it because they love all things with wheels. I loved it because it was an outside museum where they could run and make noise without me getting judgmental looks from strangers. 

Old Alaska State Trooper Car

State Fair

I had to laugh at this state fair because it was the size of many county fairs, but it was perfect for us. We went on a non-crowded, sunny day and had a lot of fun. Clark's highlight were winning a giant sized Pixie Stick and riding the giant horse. 

Eating "Elephant Ears"

Other Fun Times

Locking each other up (Note: kids can suffocate by doing this!! They have the warning stickers on the box for a reason! My kids were only a little short of breath upon emerging..)

Short shorts!!

I love the candid cute moments.

I found him decorating our deck one day...

Stealing chocolate cupcakes and hiding the evidence!

And missing Daddy...

And the best part of the whole thing.....is that I was rewarded with mass quantities of European chocolate for my hard work.  It was all worth it...

I still have a few left :) 

And the boys are pretty fond of their swords that Daddy brought home.