Home Again

Immediately after we returned from Idaho, we got right back into our home improvement projects beginning with the fence.  We were lucky enough to get most all our wood given to us from Brandan's friend in Spearfish, but the boards came in 16 ft X 1 ft lengths so this required a ton of cutting.  But before we could even get to that we had to dig the post holes. Our ground is insanely hard so we rented an augur and Brandan and I wrestled that thing for a day and a half before we finished, covered in bruises...literally.  In the meantime, we let the boys have pretty free reign and they found a hose and some dirt and well....

Sport was trying to keep the weeds in check.

Sport found the mud first and when Colt saw Sport wasn't getting into trouble, he joined him.

Colt, aka "Patch"

About 10 minutes into the mud bath.

Typical Colt.



Messy Dash


Now don't get me wrong, we make sure to take time to play in addition to all our work.

Dash and Abby playing dress up in the only play clothes Abby has.



On Friday, we hosted an ice cream party in our newly fenced front yard.



Sport enjoyed the oreo he was given at the party.

On Saturday I went to Billings with some of the Relief Society ladies for the Stake Relief Society temple day.  We left at 5 am and got back around 10 pm. Brandan stayed home with the boys.  They did pretty well, even though Colt had a tummy ache in the morning and Sport was a little fussy with teething.  They actually did better than I did.  I missed them all horribly, got heat sick in Billings and started to pass out, and then came home with mastitis.  The temple is always worth it though...right?

Family

Brandan and I were in charge of the Clayson Family reunion.  We tried to incorporate a Western theme and well, this is how it turned out....

The family got into our Western duds and went to the Little Buckaroo Parade.

"Bad Guy" Dash with Dan, Jill, Boe and Kamber.

Colt gathering candy.

The loot bags.

Nate stands waiting for treats.

Cowboy Grandpa chats with the crowd.

Gathering treats.

Grandpa Clayson

Kamber chasing her "steer" on the "cattle drive".

The cattle drive.

Hog tying competition.

Hog tying.

Scott, Andrew, Cam, Nate and Cierra shoot the breeze in the shade.

Dan, Kamber, Jill and Brandan chat and Tiff yucks it up.

Kimberly watches while Colt shows off his best jumps.

Jessica and Jared.

Jessica and Charity.

Kimberly relaxing in the shade.

Gracie

Mom and I looking our very best.

Grandma

Cam

Kyle

Kimberly and Cam

The boot pinata.

Colt poking at the boot.

Hannah swinging at the pinata.

Dash gave it all he had.

On Monday, we went boating with the Madsen family.

The boys loved riding on the tube and I liked going with them because Brady didn't try to kill us while children were aboard.

Sport relaxing in the bottom of the boat.

Yellowstone Park

We left for Idaho on August 2 and decided to take the scenic route home stopping in Yellowstone Park.  The boys loved the scenery and the bighorn sheep we saw along the road, but they were pretty antsy to get to their family in Idaho.  We were about 10 miles from home when Dash announced "Okay, I'm boring."  We had to do a little talking to convince him that it would be worth putting off our arrival for just a few hours in order to see some sights.

We stopped at Yellowstone Lake to throw rocks and stretch our legs.

Sport loved getting out of his car seat and eating the rocks.

The boys "skipping" rocks.

It didn't take long before the boys decided to swim in the cold water...in their underwear.

The water wasn't warm, but the boys loved it and swimming in their skivvies drew quite a crowd.

Playing/shivering on the shore.

Me and the boys outside the hotpots.

This little geysers erupts unpredictably and we just happened to be right next to it when it went off.

Old Faithful.

Birthday Boy

Dash has been counting down the days to his birthday for quite some time now (I think we started at 51 days to go).  He was particularly excited to wake up to streamers on the wall and balloons in the hallway.  I think we probably could have gotten away with just that, but we continued to celebrate throughout the day.

Brandan gave Dash a gag gift of groceries.  He was a little concerned, so Colt kept digging through the bag for something better.

We gave Dash a Spiderman water bottle and....

a bike.  Dash told everyone he got a water bottle and a bike to go with it.

Dash wanted to hike for his birthday so we trekked through the hills just down from the house.



Dash and his basketball birthday cake.



The cake.

Earlier this week, we took Sport into his nine month check up.  Lets just say we hope this kid is fast 'cause he ain't gonna be big.  The doctor was a little concerned to see that he had dropped into the 1st percentile in his weight (16 lbs 4 oz) and the 3rd percentile in his height.  Brandan had come to this appointment and I think she was looking at him and wondering why Sport was so small, so we explained his gene pool and she immediately dismissed his size as a problem.  However, he is slightly anemic so we have to step up the red meat and vitamins.  We decided to take immediate action and left the doctor's office to go straight to McDonald's for burgers and fries.

Sport doesn't let his small size stop him though. Today during Sunday School he took two steps on his own.  I think we may have been a little distracting when we started cheering and clapping during the lesson, but we were just so proud of our little Tiny.

The boys at the Fish Hatchery in Spearfish.

The boys and their trucks. This is one of the few games Sport is allowed to participate in.

The boys in the matching outfits Grandma Clayson sent. They were extremely proud of themselves that day.

Dash and Colt playing robots.