The Not-So-Great Day

From here on out, the days are all kind of a blur to me, I can't remember which order we did everything in. But this one day stands out in my mind as being everyone's least favorite. I planned a trip up north to a hot springs and an old mining town. It involved quite a bit of driving, and both places were not as interesting to the kids as I had hoped they would be.

Owen was able to get a nap in (this is how he ended up napping almost every day we were there).

Our first stop was Burgdorf Hot Springs. Owen doesn't do so great in swimming pools, so I let Scott and the kids swim while I walked the mountain road with Owen in the stroller. It would have been great....except there were giant biting horse flies everywhere!

The kids managed to fight off the flies for about 45 minutes, and then Scott pulled them all out of the water because he couldn't stand the complaining.

Then we drove on to the mining town. It was only 17 more miles, but it was on a dirt road and took us about an hour to get there. The kids were complaining the whole drive about how far it was.

When we finally got to the mining town, there wasn't much to see.   I had read about the old cemetary there, but we couldn't find it.  And we didn't dare explore too many of the old cabins, because half of them still had people living in them.  We had a picnic (thankfully, there were no flies). Then let the kids explore a bit.

I took the kids on a little hike straight up the mountain.

Aaron found a stick (just like he did on our hike in Banks), and used it to fight off anything that might attack him (in this case, bees).

And then we had a very long drive back to the cabin. Owen got two naps that day (that's vanilla wafer he's wearing on his cheeks)

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Nathan's Birthday (Day 3 of Vacation)

Nathan turned 4 on our vacation. It seems like just yesterday I gave birth to this sweet little guy....

And now look what he's turned into...

He's still a sweet little guy, but he's also a crazy and silly little boy (who thinks it's hilarious to make farting noises with his mouth and to fit the word "poop" into every sentence). Nate helped me make his cake the night before (and cleaned the beaters for me).

Nate woke up on his birthday, ready to open presents as soon as we'd let him.

He got a pack of little yellow tractors and trucks, a Star Wars ship and guy, and a little laptop.

And then Nate's moment in the spotlight got taken over by his siblings. When we bought the laptop, we had Owen with us. We let him play with it in the cart the whole time we shopped. So, when Owen saw the laptop appear, he instantly crawled up next to Nate and stole it.

And while Nate was distracted with Owen, Aaron moved in on the Star Wars toy.

And then somehow Owen got a hold of all the the toys, and used to laptop as a weapon to swing if anyone came near.

Poor Nate wasn't sure what had just happened.

In the end, Nate settled for watching the other kids play with his toys.

We let Nate choose our activity for the day. He chose to go back to McCall to swim.

Josh found a large piece of cement in the water, and the boys used it to create a dam.

After the kids were exhausted from swimming (aka Aaron tried to knock down Josh's dam, so Josh shoved Aaron down into the sand), we headed back to the cabin for dinner and cake and ice cream.

I am so thankful Nate is part of our family. He is such a calming influence in our home, and I appreciate his sweet spirit. I remember when he was a baby, looking at him and knowing he meant to do great things in his life. I'm excited to see what wonderful things lie in store for this amazing little boy.