September

I don't remember what we were doing, but this is how we leave the house this year.  Who would have ever thought this would be our lives in 2020. 

Our little bear friend peeking in the windows.  I'm sure that was a nice surprise for our renters that morning.

Love when these giant hibiscus flowers start blooming.  Each flower only survives one day, but they make me happy every time I look outside and see the bright pink flower. 

 

 It was my big boys birthday - 14!!  He is a pretty great kid.  He got a book (Double Dangerous Book for Boys) and a note to decipher his other present.

It took him about 30 minutes, but he finally figured it out. 

 

He got a river rafting trip with his buddies.  I much prefer 'experience' gifts over tangible junk.  He was really excited.  We were supposed to leave on his birthday to go camping with a bunch of friends, but ALL the campground and forests got closed due to all the fires.  We were all super bummed.  

 

Ava gave Noah a 'lucky' button that happened to belong to one of his shirts. :)

 

My kids are ridiculous about music; they are so opinionated.  Grant LOVES pop music, Noah hates it, so it's usually a fight when either one plays their favorite music.  Grant gave Noah a 'no pop music' card for his birthday.  

 

I didn't make him a cake since we were supposed to be camping, so we ran to Baskin Robbins and got an ice cream cake.  This boy is pretty great - he's stubborn as all get out, but he's super sweet, kind, adventurous, fun, loving.......you get the idea, he's a great kid. 

The rafting trip was on the verge of getting cancelled as well, and I was so sad for Noah, but the river rafting company said they could still do a trip, but it would be a different portion of the river.  The middle fork is a little more exciting, but Noah didn't care, he had tons of fun and LOVED it all. 

My neglected summer garden.  We spent most of 2020 at the cabin, so the garden had to survive with very little upkeep from me this year.  It could have been better, but considering the neglect, I'd say we did alright.

Ava and I were shopping at Nordstrom rack for something and we found some fancy dresses.  I had Ava try them on for fun.  This one was seriously soooo heavy. 

After shopping (this must have been the weekend Adam and Noah were on their river rafting trip), we went out to dinner.  Grant said he was starving and ordered a huge meal and Ava ordered a tiny little plate.  They both wanted me to take pictures of their plates to show dad.  Grant surprisingly ate almost all of it (not pictured the huge loaf of cornbread).

Grant decided to make an apple pie one day.  He did a great job.

There was a great sale on peaches, so I foolishly bought 5 boxes (125lbs).  We ate a lot of them and then canned 4 of the boxes.

Another fun weekend with friends at the cabin.  The lake is really low, so we discovered that part of the lake was now a river. Noah thought we should try paddle boarding down it.  We dropped off Noah, Grant, Grant's friend and his dad at the top and told them we would pick them up at the campground in 1 1/2 hours.  Three hours later, no cell service, and 2 vehicles out looking, we couldn't find them.  Finally Adam drove back to the cabin and hooked up the boat.  We drove up the lake and found them on the shore, a ways down from the pick-up spot.  They passed the campground early, so they thought maybe we meant a different campground, but there were no other campgrounds for quite a ways, so they just kept paddle boarding.  Luckily, they were all smiles when we found them and had the best day every. :)  We went down it a few more times that weekend.  The boys named all the rapids and felt like river guides whenever anyone new tried it.  We lost both paddle board fins, a shoe and some water on that first trip.  One of the rapids they named Shirtbag. They kept tipping over, so they used Noah's shirt to put all their stuff in and then tied it up.  Noah tipped and the 'shirtbag' went swimming.  Noah rescued the 'shirtbag', so that's how that rapid got its name.  Funny boys.  

I love how creative my kids are.  Grant decided to make a wallball for PE one day.  The next day they decided to graffiti it.  They had so much fun.

The wall ball has since been disassembled and cut into skateboards. These kids are awesome and weird.  :)