Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!!

End of July brought us to the Mighty River Run. It was a blast! Both of my sisters and their families were able to be there this year, which made it even more fantastic! We hadn't had the entire family together up there for a few years. It was great to be able to all be there together. We also were able to have some good friends of ours join us with their 2 adorable boys. We just LOVE spending time with them. Such fun people! The rapids were phenomenal, the campfire warm, and all the food delicious. It was wonderful to see all the other extended family that were able to make it there this year as well. We had a fun family night with Grandma's delicious rhubarb pie to top it off. Yum! It was a fun, water and sun-filled week, but as usual, we were all happy to finally get home at the end of the week and have a long, hot shower and sleep in our own real beds. =)

***My Cute Little Rafters***

***Thor & Justin All Suited Up***

***My Cute Kids***

***Trevor & Logan On The Way To The Dock***

***Testing The Water***

***Such Beautiful Country***

***Ready To Go***

***Adults Headed Into The Mighty Rapids***

***The Floating Head In The Water Is My Husband -- He Was Awarded The "Round Bottom" Award***

***Our Little Fire - Tender***

***Supervisor Of The Fire - Tending***

***The Mighty Fire***

***Dirt = Boy's Best Friend***

***Apparently Girls Like Dirt Too***

***Cutie-Pie***

***Grandpa Setting Up Grandkids For Fishing***

***Grandpa Had His Hands Full***

***Justin Caught One***

Beginning of August Angela started ballet lessons. Her and I have both wanted to get her into dance for awhile now. We bought her some cute dance gear and she is doing AWESOME! Her first dance recital is coming up in December and they are already learning their dance number for that. She loves to twirl and leap and learn all the new steps. She's a perfect little ballerina.

***Warming Up***

August was also the beginning of school again for Angela and I. Little Angie Mae is officially a big FIRST-GRADER! I just can't believe it! Where on Earth has the time gone??? She was so excited to start eating lunch at school and to meet a bunch of new friends. I was partly sad, and partly excited, to see my "little" girl head off to school all day long. It didn't take me long to figure out what to do with all my "spare time".  ; )

***First Day Of First Grade***

She's doing excellent so far with spelling tests, math homework, and reading. She is such a good little reader! Her teacher will soon be adding on Vocabulary and I'm excited to see how she does with that. She just keeps getting smarter and prettier every day. She's loving her new teacher and new friends. Her teacher has this glass jar on her desk into which she puts "warm fuzzies" when the class is behaving well. These "warm fuzzies" are just the little soft pom-pom balls. Once the jar gets full they earn some type of a class party. They just recently filled the jar and had a Popcorn/Movie party. Needless to say, Angie was VERY excited!

Her school also just recently had their annual Fun Run. It was a lot of fun! Lots of music and mascots and hyped up kids. Angie is a super runner! I know it's not supposed to be a competitive race, but having done the running thing in my younger days I can't help but get all worked up about it. ; ) She came in around the top 100 of her ENTIRE school (which goes up to 6th grade). I was super proud of her and she was pretty pumped up over things as well. Once she gets a little older, if she's willing, I would LOVE to get her into some Cross Country and/or Track!

***Chillin' In Line***

***Stretching Before The Race***

***Me and The Bubbers***

***Me and My Princess***

***Tough Chica After The Race***

I also started back up in school. I'm currently taking my next Math class. It's going really well. I had worried a bit after taking the summer off that I wouldn't remember what I had learned in the last class. However, it hasn't proved to be any trouble at all. I just had my midterm and I did really well. All in all, I am expecting another "A" from this class as well. Yippee!

I'm trying to decide if, with the baby coming in the Spring, I want to take the Spring off, or maybe try to sign up for an easy online class. I'll need to decide soon since registration for Spring is coming up in a couple weeks. Anyone know anything about a Nutrition class? Would that be an easy class to take online? I'm thinking, compared to the other ones I need to take, Nutrition might be the easiest one to try and do with a new baby. However, my advisor suggests I take the next Math class to keep the Math rolling since we tend to forget Math really quickly. *sigh* I guess we will see!

September was a relatively slower month. Basically all of us just trying to settle into the new School and Work routine. I did receive a new calling in our Ward. I am a committee member for the additional meetings in Relief Society. Yeah... when they extended the calling to me I asked if they had just made that up. =D But, apparently it IS an actual calling, and so far I am loving it! It used to be for the Enrichment Meetings, but there were some changes regarding the meetings that the Relief Society holds, one of those changes being a name change from "Enrichment" to "Additional". Anyways... I, along with a handful of other ladies, help plan and put together dinners/meeting/etc. We've had one already and I actually really enjoyed being there and helping pull it off. It was a success, and I really like all the women that I'm working with on the committee. That's always a plus! I think it will be a rather enjoyable calling for me. =)

For Labor Day we spent the weekend camping with my parents up in Idaho at a beautiful little place called Warm River. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the fishing was superb! It was great fun for everyone, despite the couple of bad windstorms and occasional skunk sightings around the campfire at night. I figure they just wanted some s'mores too!

***Fishing With Grandpa***

***Dipping Toes In The Water***

***Enormous Marshmallows***

***The Remains Of The Enormous Marshmallows***

***Ahhh, Fire***

While stopping in "town", we ate at the local Frost Top. That place was where my parents met for the very first time and eventually fell in love. It was neat to stop there with my own kids and watch the reactions on Angela's face as she heard the fun story of their first meeting. We're all glad that Grandpa thought the "girl behind the counter" was "cute". ; )

***Kids Riding The Piggy At The Frost-Top***

***My Cute Parents In Front Of The Place They First Met***

About mid-September was when we said "Sayonara" to Justin's beloved binky. We figured he was getting old enough that he should be able to cope without one. Also, with the baby coming in March, we wanted to be sure to have enough time lapse between *bye-bye binky* and *hello new baby*. I worried waiting any longer would cause issues or relapses when baby does arrive. And he has done fantastic with it! The first couple nights were pretty sad. But I would daresay now he's pretty much over it. There is an occasional, random request for the binky, which I just try to ignore and direct his attention elsewhere. That usually does the trick. Also, he got a fun, new toy as well as a new snuggly animal for bed time out of the deal so I think that kind of helped soften the blow. I'm so proud of him and the big strides he has made this year with potty-training and now ditching the bink. At the same time it's a little sad to see him grow up so quick. Why do kids have to do that????  =(

I truly can't believe October has come and gone already! This year has really FLOWN by! I hear it only continues to zoom by faster and faster the older you get too! Yikes! Speaking of getting *older*, Kaleb had his birthday on October 3rd. I swear that man is the HARDEST person to try and surprise! It gets pretty frustrating sometimes! He's either too smart for his own good, or one of the kids blabs about something, etc...  ugh! Oh well... I was, however, able to *partially* surprise him with a printed page showing confirmation of an online purchase from The Apple Store. He's officially addicted to everything Apple. He'd been talking about the new Apple TV for some time and I kept putting it off saying we didn't have the money, etc. And since I was unable to surprise him with the little getaway we took over the weekend for a few reasons, at the last minute I pounced on the Apple TV idea. So this was totally after the fact, and I was finally able to surprise him with something! Hooray!

The kids also had picked out some gifts all by themselves to give to Daddy. And since he's not much of a cake person we got him a King Size Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and stuck a candle in the middle. The kids loved singing to him, and Justin kept preemptively blowing out Kaleb's candle mid-song and giggling his head off over it. Little stinker!!

***Happy Birthday To Daddy***

***Love You Baby!***

The weekend getaway we had was super nice though, even if it WASN'T a surprise! =) We stayed downtown at The Little America Hotel. We are truly in love with that little place. It certainly isn't the *biggest* or *fanciest* hotel down there, but we've really grown quite fond of it. The service is impeccable, as well as the food. And their top-notch suites are beautiful WITHOUT costing an arm and a leg! Can't beat that!

***On The Bed When We Arrived***

***We Love Their Suites!***

We splurged for dinner and ate at The Roof. Those of you who have never been there should really try it! It's a fancy-schmancy buffet by candelight situated high above Temple Square facing west. You can watch the sunset and be serenaded by their very own pianist (who also takes requests). And when the Temple lights come on the view is simply breath-taking! We had the perfect window seats. Although, really, I don't think there IS a bad seat in the house... It's a really neat experience.

***The Roof Restaurant***

***Our Table - I Made Him Pose =)***

***Us By The Windows***

After dinner we headed back to the Hotel and did some swimming and hot-tubbing, and then headed back up to our room and promptly hung the *Do Not Disturb* sign on the door. ; )

We had ordered the Bed & Breakfast package, so we woke the next morning to a private breakfast fit for Kings. A whole plate of fresh fruit, a whole plate of pastries, fresh fruit & nut parfaits in wine glasses, Hot chocolate, and then our two personal plates with ham, eggs, english muffins, and scalloped/hashbrown-type potatoes that were absolutely to DIE for!

***Our Yummy Giant Breakfast***

We stuffed ourselves full and then, went back to bed simply because we COULD! =D After check-out we browsed the shops a little before heading back to our little monkeys who had spent the night at Grandma & Grandpa Knobel's. It was such a wonderful weekend! Wish we could *getaway* more often. But I guess since we don't, it always makes it that much more special when we do. =)

I seriously am just head-over-heels, madly in love with my husband. I can't even begin to put into words the love that we share together. It's truly a case of "I married my best friend". I am so happy, so content, so comfortable sharing and creating a life with him. I really can't imagine myself anywhere else with anyone else. Even our rough patches...  In a heartbeat, I would take our "bad days" together over a "good day" without him or with someone else. Him and I have talked occasionally about what we would do if something happened to the other. Not in a weird, morbid way. But just honestly what we would do. And I truly find myself feeling that if something were to happen to Kaleb, I would not re-marry. I wouldn't. I have tons of family support here for one thing. And, more importantly, I wouldn't want to. He is my everything. He fits me and complements me so completely, so perfectly, in a way I never thought possible. I thank my lucky stars and cherish each and every day with him. Eternity truly won't be long enough! What I have found and cultivated together with Kaleb is not something that comes along twice. I love him with every beat of my heart, with every breath I take, with every inch of my very soul. He is my "42"....