Thanksgiving

This year year for Thanksgiving, we went to Boise.  We usually stay with Ernie's parents, but this year Amanda's family was there too, so we went and stayed with his sister Emily.  The boys had a BLAST! Thanksgiving morning we went and played a Thanksgiving bowl.  The boys had an amazing time. 

Here are our boys and Emily's boys on Thanksgiving day before dinner.  

After dinner we went to the traditional Thanksgiving movie.  

We had a great time bowling. (Missing a bunch of pictures here.....hopefully I can get them added!)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we have SO much to be grateful for. 

There is so much to post! I will start with some from the summer, yes summer.  

Caleb's basketball team did awesome this summer! Ernie coached him again, and they got first place! They were great, and we are so lucky to have family here that come and supports the boys at their games. 

A big event at our house......we now are pet owners. It's a big deal around here because I do not do animals. You have to look extremely close, but there are fish in that tank :).  And I bet you can't guess who picked out the Eiffel tower prop for the tank. 

We LOVE that we have all these darling little nephews on my side of the family now.  

Caleb is quite the little soccer player and he joined a new club team this past fall.  

(I swear we take pictures of Ernie too.  Really. Sometime I will get around to posting them too. :)

Layne made this darling little pacifier for Emerson.  Isn't it the cutest? 

Since Caleb had a few pictures, I will add a few priceless ones of E as well.  Just so he doesn't feel un-loved. 

Grandpa's Fair

For many years after he retired, my Grandpa would work at the fair gates of the Easter Idaho State Fair in Blackfoot, Idaho.  Everyone knew him and loved him. (In fact, he would come home with pies, donuts, and all sorts of goodies that people would bring him. I wasn't kidding.  Everyone LOVED him!) 

During the year when we would talk to him and ask him if he was going to work at the fair again that year, he would always reply, "If they will have me!" He really thought of it as a treat. It became one of the highlights of his year. 

And it is a highlight of my memories of him. 

I  loved to go to the fair. We would call it "Grandpa's Fair". We went a number of times growing up.  In college I went with my roommates.  After I was married, we would go and eventually I took my boys.  

And we would always bring him a tigers ear to his gate entrance before we would leave for the day. It was kind of surreal to go for the first time since he has passed away and have him not be there. 

"Truck Grandpa" (which is what my boys have always called him) has a very special place in my boys heart.  Especially Ernie.  He adored him. 

 It was so neat to be able to go to "Grandpa's Fair". 

Robert won Claire this water bottle:

And all he had to do was a whole LOT of these:

We were so proud of him :).  Actually everyone else we saw while we were waiting gave up, so he really is awesome. 

We had an absolute blast at the fair.  

My boys loved it.  

We loved it. 

Don't worry, we stopped and got some delicious tigers ears in honor of my Grandpa.  And I thought of him the whole time we ate them. 

One Last Hurrah

One of our favorite things to do as a family is to go to the beach.  We love taking advantage of being only 4 hours away from it! This year, we seemed to have a hard time getting away.  Between basketball and my unexpected surgery (more on that later), we finally did a VERY quick 24 trip in August and hung out at our favorite spot in Laguna Beach all day before school started. 

I love how tan and blond they are at the end of the summer!

Don't you just love Ernie's "cool" look? 

Caleb definitely fits in with his new long hair look he has decided to go for!

We all love to go out on the boogie boards.  It really is a blast!

I love our little Laguna trips.  next summer, maybe we will stay for more than one night at a time! Although, it has become a tradition the last few years to make a whirlwind trip out of it..... and I will take it no matter how long we are able to go! 

Pre and Post Birthday Hooplas

The weekend before Ernie's birthday we had a movie party at my mom's house. My dad has a projector and a huge screen that he puts up in the back yard for movie nights about once  month in the summer. We all love it.  It is like a drive in in your own back yard!  Ernie really wanted to have one at their house for his b-day and watch National Treasure.  

They were so sweet to make him his requested birthday dinner before the movie.  Steak, bake potatoes, and asparagus. 

I tried to get some pictures, but not one turned out! Oh, well, I at least have a few to remember......

Caleb was the worst!

He also wanted me to make him a banana cake, and at least I got a couple of cute pics then. 

Before our movie, we had an impromptu dance party.  I wish I had been able to get some good pictures of that.  They boys were hilarious.  And so were my parents! And Micah I think had some of the best moves of us all! 

Here is a picture of Caleb and Micah.  If you look closely, you can completely tell it's them :). 

It was a blast! 

Ernie loves movie nights so much, that for his birthday with friends, he wanted to borrow Grandpa's movie gear and have a movie party in our back yard.  We have a friend party on all of their even b-day's.  The kids were at that silly, crazy boy phase for the last few years and have been avoiding having the friend parties at my own house as to maintain my sanity somewhat.   (It's so much nicer to leave a mess somewhere else!) This year I could not talk Ernie out of wanting to do this movie night.  He was SO excited.  

And an amazing thing happened that night.  I realized how grown up he is now! I LIKE having his friends hang out! They are fun, and past the silly, let's make the biggest mess we possibly can phase! More on that in a bit.......

A couple of weekends after his birthday (Labor Day was the weekend after, and I will post about that later!) we had his ever exciting every-other year friend celebration.

Here is the b-day boy and some of his decorations. 

Some of the kiddos eating pizza. 

His Aunt Layne made him a fabulous movie "take one" cake. 

He wanted to keep it small because he felt like it would be more fun and they would actually be able to enjoy each other.  He has a couple of friends that are girls that he enjoys hanging out with and so I suggested that he invite them.  His response....well, I couldn't even make it up if I tried. "Mom, we are only ten.  I think inviting girls to a party is for when we are older and a little more mature." (More mature than that? Really?)

We found a really fun little candy store called "Rocket Fizz" that had a bunch of old fashioned pop and candy.  The boys definitely were able to get their fill of sugar!

I realized a few things that night.  I am so grateful that Ernie has so many fun friends his age.  They really were a FUN group of boys.  Their conversations were so hilarious to listen to. They were SO kind to the little brother.  And they were kind to each other and just plain had a great time.  I think I had as much fun as they did!