Pumpkin patch take one

The boys and I met up with a new family from church, that just moved here from Denver, at the pumpkin patch on Saturday.
We enjoyed sitting on the old tractor, getting lost in the corn maze, petting the animals and riding the hay truck. I let each boy pick a pricey pumpkin which we took over to the Kelly's home and carved right away :) It was a very fun afternoon and we enjoyed getting to know the Kelly family a little more.

 Zachary's "go big or go home" pumpkins he kept picking up!

 William found his perfect pumpkin right away :)

We will be going back to the pumpkin patch on Tuesday for play group. Can't wait!

Playing in the trees

I haven't taken pictures for a bit, so I snapped some shots of the boys playing in the trees yesterday afternoon. Beautiful afternoon, happy boys.

                                  Can you find Zachary in the tree? What a monkey!

Evening Exploring

We were dog sitting for the past two weeks and the boys loved it. Each evening after dinner we would take Kai for a walk/ adventure down to the river bed and look for cool stuff. Fossils, "Indian rocks", cool sticks, there is always something cool to be found down there.
Once Billy came back from his fire assignment in Yosemite, he got to join us as well. We got two evening walks as a family, it was nice.
I would always forget the camera, Billy reminded me and grabbed it one evening :)

Bear hunt

Life has been a whirl wind the past month, it's a miracle I can keep everything in order! The realtor I property manage for closed escrow on another home at the beginning of August, in Winchester Commons. I have been busy meeting realtors, repair companies, handymen and carpet installers as well as processing applications for tenants. Not horribly hard until you throw in the 4-plex building where two units were turning over and one other got a 60 day notice. More rental applications, handy men, carpet cleaners and inspectors. My poor boys have been so patient and good through it all as I have tugged them along to appointments, home depot trips & errands errands errands.
In the middle of it all William and I started K12 homeschool, 1st grade! He is doing amazing the first 2 weeks of school. The icing on the cake is we are in the middle of fire season and Billy has been out working hard battling the wild fire blazes and MIA from home for the most of the month.

So anyway, haven't posted anything lately for this reason. Haven't taken any pictures besides before and after pictures as the rental house was being worked on and pictures of the apartments for rent.

Today was a lovely (and super hot) Friday. William breezed through school this morning and we packed lunch and took it to the pool. We spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool (12-5) which was a life saver because it was just about 100degrees today. Went home, Lucas got picked up, we warmed up some leftovers and then headed to the neighbors for an evening cruise on the ranch.
I remembered to bring my camera!!! Of course that meant that we saw no bears this time :( But, I still got a few pictures of the evening. It was a beautiful evening for a slow cruise in the back country. We saw a few dear, lots of tarantulas and one huge wild pig.

Here are the boys in the back of the truck waiting for departure, super excited.

Cruisin down the dirt roads.

 The Neighbor kids and our boys make a perfect step ladder! 2,4,6,8,10 (just about)

 Looking for and identifying animal tracks in the dirt road. Coyote, bear, quail, dear... tons

The boys had a great evening out on the ranch with friends, we sure love our home!!!

Swim lessons

William and Zachary completed week 1 of 2 swim lessons at the YMCA on Friday. I had my camera the first day since I needed to take pictures of an apartment I posted on craigslist :) Not the most interesting pictures, but hey, swim lessons have been documented!

Zachary is the only one in his group lesson :) so awesome for us, a private lesson for group rate. He is doing GREAT. He is so determined to swim in the pool without a life vest like his big brother and his friends. He is jumping into the pool and popping up on his own, swimming with his head in the water and making big arm strokes!

William is super comfortable in the water. He has been learning breathing techniques and different swim strokes. He looks great out there and has a big smile on his face during his lesson. They both just love being in the water.

We had been going to swim more after lessons at the ranch pool each day which the boys loved. This week we won't be able to do that because there is a ranch owner who has come to stay for a bit from Ireland. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted :)

Father & Sons

Just a cute picture of Billy reading to the boys yesterday morning before he went to work :)

I also decided to make an apron and found a cute ruffle apron tutorial. I cheated a little and bought an apron off seagull book clearance for 2.99 and then added ruffles to it :) I like the way it turned out and am excited to have a bib apron now. (I only had a half apron that I sewed a couple years ago)

A little curb appeal

Ever since my neighbors built a window flower box, I have thought one would be perfect in front of our big front window. I mentioned it to Billy and he said there were other pressing house projects for him to complete first. So, while he has been gone on this last assignment, I decided to build it myself.
It was a pretty easy project actually, didn't take long at all.
Here are some pictures of the new window flower box! It adds a little more curb appeal to the house I think. Now we shall see if I did a good job picking the right flowers..... it's been HOT lately. The boys helped me plant them today :)