BIG Falls and BIG Marshmellows

 We are loving having our weekends to ourselves with Robert's new job! As a resident he was always on backup call, and now we can plan and use our weekends how we want to. It's a whole new life.

The Friday night after the kids started school we took them up to hike to

BIG FALLS. 

The kids' LOVED the rocky trail, and they came home with their pants sagging down because of the weight of all the rocks they collected. 

 The air and sky were crystal clear and it was gorgeous!

 The hike was the perfect length for little legs.

 The part of the falls we hiked to was very beautiful and very small, it was the end of BIG falls which is BIG when looking at the accumulative feet of the drop.

 All the boys loved throwing rocks in the water. They take after their dad. Sterling was so excited to hear his rock splash!

 Below is a picture of the BIG part of the falls up higher on the mountain.

 We planned a cookout for dinner, but the mountains are so dry right now that they did not allow campfires. We cooked our hot dogs and smores at home instead.

We thought we better get the BIG campfire roasting marshmallows since we were hiking to BIG falls. These things are huge! Have you seen them? They really do make the perfect smore!

 

 It was a really fun night!

Who knows what will happen in the future now that we have our weekends to call our own....the possibilities are endless...

First School Days!!

August 18th was the first day of school for the Chapman Heights Chargers. 

Ryan is in 2nd Grade this year with a fabulous teacher named Mrs. Grisham. 

 Watch out 3rd Grade, here comes Ellie!

 She picked out this shirt for the first day of school, and she wanted a shoulder backpack this year.

Her teacher is named Mrs. Brown, and she is fabulous as well.

The kids were nervous and excited as can be expected. I bought a double jogging stroller on craigslist for the little boys so I can walk the kids to school quickly and go running on the trails after dropping Ryan and Ellie off at school.

 It was wonderful to have some one on one with Trevor J. He made his own peanut butter sandwich for lunch and we did his morning jobs, reading, writing, and math and a helpful job. The second day of school he came bouncing in the house and said, "Mom, let's do reading, writing and math together!"

 Trevor also helped me make our traditional 'First day of School Pizza Cookie"

 Sterling loved eating it, and gave himself a cute goatee.

Trevor started Preschool just a few days after the Chapman Chargers started. 

 Sterling was posing for pictures too.

 4 year old Preschool man.

 Below is Ryan on Crazy Sock Day for Spirit Week.

 The second day of Preschool Trevor and I made a "Just Like Me" doll for the wall at Preschool. He is holding a soccer ball and a lego.

 It has been fun to have time for one on one (can you tell I like that best?) with Sterling running errands and at home while TJ is in Preschool. We went to the store and he was saying, "Car, car!" and pointing and I looked over to see him pointing at a cute little backpack just his size with cars on it. Everyone else has been getting their stuff for school, so I bought him his own backpack. He has loved it!

 He goes over to the closet with the backpacks and asks for his "backpack, car, car, vroom, vroom!"

 He has been wearing at all around the house, and feeling quite grown up for an 18 month old.

He is very independent, and is LOVING nursery. He goes in and doesn't look back. When we pick him up they tell us he was "perfect!" We think so too.

 He has been putting all kinds of things in his backpack to carry around.

 He and Trevor also love wearing their hats backwards.

Hooray for a new school year, wonderful teachers, and cookies!

What do we do in the summertime?

After settling down in our new house, we found ourselves with more downtime than we have had all summer! We moved three days before the last day of school, so the kids had been on the road all of their summer break! They loved playing with cousins and they had a blast on all of our adventures and travels, but it has also been nice to slow down and remember the things we like to do in the summertime.

Like having a spontaneous backyard water fight!

Our wonderful friends the Rowley family invited us to go with them to a free outdoor musical production of "Cinderella." We bought pizza on the way and met them there. It was an incredible show, and the kids played IN a fountain at intermission. They thought staying up late was great. We are so excited for the free summer concerts at the Redlands Bowl!

We have also been establishing new routines around the house with chores and responsibilities. It was wonderful to have time to get some things going before school started.

Sterling is such a fun "buggy." He is happy, easy going (and LOVES to GO), and is always copying the big kids and following them around.

 

I enjoyed making time to have one on one time with Ellie and Ryan before they started school.

Ryan and I were able to build two model's together, a pirate ship and a jet plane.

I love the instant network of friends our church provides and the warm welcome we recieved in our new ward! Ellie especially had a wonderful experience as she was joined the ward activity day group for 8 and 9 year old girls. During the summer they met with the 10-11 year old girls as well. Sister Hallen (the wonderful leader below) has all the girls meet at her house once a week for the summer to swim and do a summer reading program. They had swimming lessons and other lessons taught by different sisters in the ward. They had snacks, worked on their Articles of Faith with "Mr. Articles of Faith" (Brother Hallen) and sewed beads and things on their summer fun hats. Sister Hallen had a hat with Ellie's name sewed on it ready for her on her first day! It made her feel such a part of the group. She also befriended several of the girls, and they are wonderful friends and influences. Ellie has really thrived here! She is loving everything! 

Ellie has been very motivated and excited about the Faith in God program (thanks to Sister Hallen!) and she worked hard to plan, shop and prepare for dinner one night all on her own. She picked recipes from her "High School Musical Cook Book." We had 'Lava Springs Club Sandwiches,' 'Perfect Potato Fries,' 'Star Fruit Salad,' 'Full of Fruit Sipper'

with ''Pop and Lock Parfaits' for dessert.

It took pretty much the whole day (planning, shopping, preparing...) but it was really fun to do together while we had extra time for it.

Ellie also enjoyed a very fun birthday party with all her new friends! They got all dressed up (hence the curled hair and blue eyeshadow) and went on Four wheeler and horse back rides at her Grandpa's cattle ranch.

 

(Ellie, Emily Rowley (a.k.a. Nan)- their family has funny nicknames), and Kennedy Salisbury.

(same girls with Cali too).

Ellie liked riding Vegas, the horse, best.

She was a little worried about driving a fourwheeler by herself so I got to ride with her on her first ride.

Ryan and Trevor have loved having more downtime to dress up and play pretend together. Thanks for the fun army outfits Aunt Cherelle!


We had Ellie's friends, Hannah and Mia, over one day. Their amazing mom Liana also came so she could jam on her guitar with Lolly Mom and they could teach each other some of their tricks. She definitely had more to teach me, and it was fun to learn. I love her style.

Rob and I have been able to go on three dates since we moved to California! We found two great babysitters, and we were able to attend the Temple twice (it is only 5 minutes from our house! It's so much easier to go when it takes 3 hours total instead of 5 like in Michigan) and go on on afternoon hike. 

We drove 20 minutes from our house up the canyon to Forest Falls. We were looking for a waterfall called "Big Falls" but w missed a sign for the trail and ended up going strait up the wash and creating our own hike. 

I also went to all the gyms in Yucaipa to check out rates and Zumba classes. It was fun to go to 4 classes in five days and see all the different teachers, styles and programs. They all had openings and opertunities, but none that worked well with my very limited schedule. So, I'm going to just teach for free at the church once a week for a while. Rob got his bike tuned and had had fun exploring the trails by our house. After several weeks of different ideas we finally came up with an exercise plan for both of us we think will work. It's so wonderful to have a fresh start and to be able to set up our lives and lifestyle here.

I spent a long time looking into opportunities for the kids.
 Ellie started ballet at a Dance Academy in Redlands in August. It is fantastic! She goes twice a week and is learning a lot! She really enjoys it and is a natural ballerina.

Ryan tried out Tae Kwon Do, but we ended up signing both of them up for soccer for the fall. Trevor had good luck on his side, he got the very last spot for 4 year old soccer and the very last spot in his Preschool class! A sister in our ward who graduated in Elementary Education is running a Preschool from her home that is one street over from us and the Elementary School. It's the perfect situation for him, the last year before kindergarten.