September Happenings

We are learning that birds are attracted to our front window.  (I have a little girl attracted to the camera, too!)  We have had a few birds that have flown right into it.  Some are lucky....

...and some are not.

 I accompanied Makenzie to a field trip she had at the Leavenworth Salmon Festival at the fish hatchery.  They have been learning all about salmon in science.  You can find them in abundance in this part of the country.

 
Makenzie with some of her classmates.

 We also enjoyed a day discovering the area with some ward members.  They are outdoor enthusiasts, so they know a lot of the great places to hike around here.  We went to some water falls, only to find that they were running a lot lower than usual.  It was still a very beautiful area.

We then found the salmon spawning in the river... It was perfect with all that Makenzie had already learned in school.   I've learned a lot, too!  It's interesting stuff that you should look up if you don't know about the life cycle of a salmon.

House pictures

Here's a few pics of our new home!  I haven't done much with decorating yet, because there is so much more space!  I have plans, but gotta have money to do it.  Slowly it will happen! :)

Grand entry!

Guest Bedroom on the main floor- on the right of the main entry. 

The living room on the left of the main entry.  We will eventually add more furniture. 

This is the dining room that is connected to the living room.  

It it going to be more of our office for now. Gotta get some bookshelves.

Main bath

Kitchen

Family room next to the kitchen

Laundry room 

Boys room

With their large walk in closets

Kids bath (with the tub behind the door)

I don't have pics of the girl's room, because Ellionna was taking a nap at the time, and it was horribly messy!  The girls are the worst at keeping a clean room.

Our one big purchase so far is a new bedroom set with a king bed!  We have never slept any better!

The master bedroom is HUGE!

So is the Bathroom!

This is a few of the backyard from our deck, off of the Master Bath.

The left side of our backyard.  We have plans to take out the area with bushes and plants (Top right of the picture) and make it into a stone fire pit and seating area.

We love our house, the neighborhood, and community.

Some adventures

We've continued to explore the area.  We decided to try geocaching for the first time as a family activity.  It was a lot harder than we thought, but we had fun searching for "treasure." We ended up finding a small snake in all our searching.  Makenzie is holding it.

 We took a hike to a popular lookout spot, called Saddle Rock.

We ventured to a hidden lake and waterfall, BUT I forgot to even bring a phone or camera!  I am so disappointed I didn't, because it was a beautiful site.  That just gives us reason to go again, so I can capture it for the blog.

First Day of School

Here we go...  Back to public school for the kids!  Makenzie is starting fourth grade and Jordan is starting second.  Gavin gets to stay home one more year, although he could technically start kindergarten.  We are doing his teachers a favor.  

Home Sweet Home!!

Well, we finally made it to Wenatchee, WA!!

I will get pictures of the house up soon.  

Tyler started work yesterday, so I feel we are back to reality.  The kids have the whole month of August to play until school starts after Labor Day!

Gavin turned 5!  

He is so easy to please. 

He's been talking about his birthday for the past nine months.  

It was a small and simple celebration, but to him, it did not disappoint! Thank goodness!

He picked out an ice cream cake this year.

So expressive! Making a wish!

 Blowing out the candles!

Tyler got his brand new 2014 Toyota Tacoma!!!! Well deserved after driving the clunker cars our whole marriage, and finishing medical school/residency!

Enjoying a picnic in the backyard!

 Enjoying the new hot tub!

Enjoying the 12 mile paved trail by the river!

Lots to do and see all along the way!

 We got to cross a bridge to go to Wenatchee side... we technically live in East Wenatchee ( a whole other community).

 More backyard fun!  It's been 100+ degree weather here most of the time we've been here.

Salt Lake City

Before we made it to our new home, we made one last stop.  We thought it was a good idea to show the kids Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  The last time we were there was when Tyler and I went wedding ring shopping before we were married!  It was fun to be back with our four kids.

Waiting to go on our tour of the the conference center!

They finally got to see where conference is held.  Jordan thought this was "double cool."  I'm sure it will get even better reviews when we can actually go to a conference session live!

A little farther up in the stands!

Tyler's mom got us a small Christus statue for Christmas.  I have a hard time finding a place to put it still, because I'm afraid with all the grabby hands and rough housing it will get broken.

We made our way over to Hogle Zoo in the afternoon.  Since we have experienced so many zoos across the country, we actually found it a little disappointing.  We made the best of it, and we did get to meet up with Tyler's sister and family.

This gorilla seriously looked like a statue!  He didn't move a muscle the whole time we were there.