The day that Brett got lost

I had gone almost 6 years without ever losing a child.  Until today.

I was being brave and took both Camille and Brett with me to Hobby Lobby.  We were skipping Brett's nap, but we had errands to run and so that's just how it was.  We were almost done at the store.  I was having some fabric cut at the counter and Brett was running out of patience and he kept running around the fabric stands and then back to me.  Well it got quiet and I couldn't see him anymore so I called his name, but he didn't answer.  I thought he was just being extra sneaky.  The lady cutting my fabric was almost done and I mentioned to her how I think my son wandered off too far this time and I better hurry to find him.  Well, I couldn't find him right away.  I could soon hear him crying, but it was pretty far away.  Five seconds later a man on the intercom said that there was a lost boy wearing a light blue shirt.  I thought, "That's mine!  Well, he's still in the store so that's good.  Maybe he'll learn to not run away from me anymore."  When I got close to where he was I could really hear him good.  Some other customers saw me coming and said, "Here she comes."  Brett was so scared of the people who were trying to help him that he was running away from them, up and down the aisles, crying.  Poor thing!  He ran right to me and wouldn't let go.  I have no idea how he got to the complete other side of the store that fast, or why he would have gone all the way over there to begin with, but I'm sure glad we all made it home.

And I really do hope that he learned that it's not funny to run away from Mom at the store!

Grant's golf tournament

 Grant had his first solo golf tournament a week ago today.  Keith was his caddy.  Keith's parents, my Dad, Camille, Brett, and I were all there to cheer him on.

 They only played three holes, which was perfect since it takes them a few putts to get it in.  And it's a great time for Grant to learn all of the golf etiquette.  Here he is walking with his fellow opponent.  That's cool to do when you golf.  :)

 Grandma Jackson got to drive a golf cart so she could bring the boys back after they finished.  The rest of us got to walk in the heat.  Brett had fun riding along for a little while.

 Looking so grown up.

 Proud father.  He just loves this stuff!

 I love that Grant was just happy to chill on the grass while we waited for the group ahead of us.

 They all got some cool loot when they were done.

There was a little awards ceremony and all the boys got a small trophy/plaque thing.  It was so cute!

We're looking forward to many more of these.  Hopefully with much cooler weather!  :)

Happy First Day of Fall

Today's the first day of Fall!  Hooray!  Cooler temperatures should be coming in a few weeks!  My doorbell rang this afternoon and I wasn't going to answer it, but then I heard a loud knock at the door.  So I pulled myself away from my nap and to the door.  A man said he had a delivery for me.  I saw the Edible Arrangements delivery van.  I said, "No way!"  But, yes, it's true, my dear Keith surprised me good with this lovely and delicious arrangement and a very happy balloon.  He knew that I needed both.    

Because the coming of Fall is something to celebrate around here, we had our annual First Day of Fall Dinner last Saturday (a few days early).   

The kids played on the slip'n slide until the mosquitos came out in full force.  It was crazy!  And then we had green chili cheeseburgers for dinner.  After that we played a guessing game.  Every one brought something in a bag and we all had to ask questions and guess what it was.  It was so fun!

It's a good thing we celebrated early because that night Grant got a fever.  Camille followed after him and then I did too.  We've been feeling crummy and definitely would rather be baking pumpkin bread and other fall foods, but we are laying low.  And Keith will be coming up with dinner again.  What will go good with chocolate dipped fruit?  :)

My kids

Camille started eating Cheerios this week.  I was surprised that she could handle them so well because whenever I gave her anything that wasn't mashed up before, she would gag on it.  But, she LOVES them!

 They are a great distraction when I'm trying to cook dinner and can't get to feeding her right away.  That's when those mesh bag food things are handy too!

 She is captivated by a movie here.  These days it's been the Tinker Bell Fairies and Pirates movie or Frozen.

 She cruises around all day looking for treasures on the floor.

 I don't know why this picture is so grainy, but I love her expression.

Brett was chumming around with his cousin Nixon this morning.  They have loads of fun together.

 But then he wouldn't eat a bite of his lunch and just wanted to take a nap.  When he woke up he had a fever and spent the rest of the day on the couch.  He wouldn't eat and I've had to almost force water down him.  Whatever germ got him, it got him good.  Hopefully he'll get over this fast because we have our annual First Day of Fall party on Saturday night (a few days early), and he won't want to miss the fun.

(Maybe if he'd stop sucking that thumb he wouldn't be getting germs! Ha!)

Grant has a golf tournament today.  This is his first solo tournament.  His last tournament was a father/son team.  Keith will be his caddie this time.  I can't wait to watch!

Today

Camille planted herself right under me while I did some Yoga this morning.

 Grant had Western Day at school today.

 Brett is my little shadow all. day. long.

 It rained today.  And yesterday.  Two days in a row of this beautiful weather is so rare.  I'm loving it!

Last week stuff

Grant got a suit for church.  Doesn't he look so handsome?  He LOVES it!

 Of course, now Brett wants a suit too.  We'll see about that.  He's a warm kid already so I don't think the suit would suit him!  Get it?  Ha ha ha!

 Baby Camille at the back door.

 One more of the rain.

 Camille loves to play in the light that comes in from the windows.

 Handsome little Brett.  He was waiting patiently for Grant's Kindergarten Teddy Bear Parade to start.

 There's that smile!

 Camille hanging out on Keith's shoulders.

 Here they come!  Grant and his little buddy both had a firetruck float for their bears.

 I love this picture!  You can see both of their grandma's (who are really good friends) oohing and ahhing over how cute their grandsons are.

The girl behind Grant must have been in a hurry.  She kept right up next to the back of his float the whole time.  It was hilarious!

Colorado Trip Post #4

Sunday morning in Colorado, we took the kids on a walk by the river.

Grant drew pictures of things he saw along the way, like this dog.

 Rivers + boys = rocks and sticks.

They could've played here all day!

 Then we visited my sister at her in-laws home and had lunch with her.  Keith was convinced that we needed to go home by way of the Grand Canyon because the next day was National Park Day and we could get in for free.  I wasn't to keen on the idea, but I finally gave in when he told me that he looked it up on his GPS and it was only 8 hours and 7 minutes away.

So we started our journey and enjoyed the beautiful drive through south-western Colorado.  Gorgeous!  I was kind of worried though when the GPS had us go on dirt roads through farm land.  It was beautiful, but was it really the fastest route?  And the time left on our route on the GPS wasn't making sense.  I new we would lose signal on Keith's phone and we wouldn't have the GPS anymore and we didn't even have a map.  Keith assured me that we'd be fine.  Well....we lost signal.  It got dark.  And we just kept driving.  FOR-EV-ER!  We went by an elk, 2 coyotes, 2 raccoons, and a bunch of field mice.  We even ran some of those little rodents over!  Eeeww!

We were in the middle of nowhere!  We were so tired.  I vowed that I will always take a map on our trips (like I usually do).  We stopped at a gas station and Keith went to check a map.  We were on the right road, so why was it taking so long?  We'd passed 8 hours long ago.  It was really late now.  We finally made it to the entrance of the Grand Canyon (what a miracle!) and felt a sense of relief.  We'd be in our beds soon, right?  Well we just kept driving and it was SO dark.  I was convinced that an elk was going to step out at any second, or a mountain lion was going to jump on our van!  Finally we had cell phone reception so we called the hotel.  Bad news, we were still an hour away.  That was at 2:00 AM.  I started crying.  Oh, how tired I was!  Well we made it and of course our kids woke up and were super excited when we got there and Camille was making all kinds of loud happy baby sounds at 3:00 in the morning through the hotel hallway.  We all got settled after a while and slept hard.

So the next morning Keith looked at our route on his phone to figure out what went wrong.  He soon realized that the GPS had been showing us the route for WALKING not driving and that it was really 8 days and 7 hours.  HA!  No wonder!  We laughed really hard about that one.  We would not have gone that way if we'd known it would take as long as it did.  But after all that we still had a great time at the Grand Canyon and were glad that we were able to go there.  And the drive home after that would be much shorter, so that was good too.

 I'm pretty sure this was my first time to the Grand Canyon.  (Mom, is that right?)

Keith had been here as a kid.

It was so big and so neat to see.

 Boy, did I ever keep a close eye and hand on my kids here!

 Human totem-pole!

 The boys did a junior ranger workbook and little class.

 Pledging to take care of their National Forests.

 They both earned a Junior Ranger badge for all their hard work.

On the way home, we stopped by a Whole Foods market in Phoenix and got more of that delicious chicken noodle soup and sour dough bread.  Brett was so tired he wouldn't wake up to eat, but the rest of us enjoyed a not-home-made dinner at home and then went to bed!