Photo Shoot

A couple weeks ago, I looked up at my family room wall and realized that the pictures of my kids were very outdated. Connor and Mylie's photos are nearly two years old, and Mariah's is over a year old (and she's changed SO MUCH since then!) Since we've had a lot of big expenses (some planned, some NOT) over the summer, I decided that I'd go the frugal route and just try to get some photos of the kids myself. So I got out the bargain digital camera and went to work. Now, I realize that these are far from professional, but I was happy about how they turned out over all and feel like I have at least one photo of each of them that I can hang on the wall. But, like always, I have decision-making issues and need some input from friends and family. Just let me know under each kid's photos which is your favorite so I can try to come to some conclusions.

BONUS--I just wanted to include these cute photos of Connor and Mylie together.

By the time we were done with all three kids, my nerves were a little shot. This picture shows pretty well how we all felt--DONE.

Connor

This first pictures shows how Connor really felt about the whole picture-taking situation. But, although he wasn't so happy about doing it, he cooperated really well and we got some great smiles!

Mylie

My little poser:

Mariah

Mariah was the most difficult. She knew exactly what I wanted her to do (just look at me and smile--is it so hard?!) and did just the opposite. She wouldn't look at me or smile. But I still got a few pictures that are cute. I probably won't use the first one--too many shadows on her face--but I like it because she LOVES tractors so much!

Water Baby!

Yesterday we went to the splash park again. Connor and Mylie spent most of their time either playing on the regular playground or wrapped up in their towels. Mariah was a lot braver (and had a lot more fun, I think!) This is how she spent her time:

River Raft Trip

Monday, Tony and I went and rafted the Snake River with my parents, Tami and Casey, Casey's sister, Tyson, Olivia, and Tessa. We had such a great time! If you haven't done a river raft trip, I think this is a must. It was the first time for Tony, Olivia, and Tessa. They all had a blast!

The Group--minus my parents and Tyson who were sitting in the front of the raft.

(L to R: Tami, Olivia, Tony, Casey, Kathy, Taffy, Tessa)

One of the highlights of the trip was stopping at this nice little cliff for a little cliff jumping. As Olivia and I were climbing up, we decided that we HAD to jump since climbing back down on that ledge would be WAY scarier!! (Olivia is on top, and I'm still climbing up.)

Taking the plunge! (with my nose plugged like a dork, of course)

Tyson kept us entertained the entire trip, riding his part of the raft like he was in a rodeo, hooting and hollering the entire way down, tackling Tessa off the raft and into the water, and showing off his mad cliff diving skills. Here he is mid-backflip. (Sorry the picture is so blurry. I stole all these from facebook, and this one came out super small. I lost a lot of quality enlarging it.)

Here's the crazy guy way up in the tree. Can you see him? Apparently the cliff wasn't nearly high or dangerous enough.

Cowabunga!!! (Okay, so he didn't say this, but he should have.)

Fire Alarm Season

Every summer, around the end of July, I am very rudely awakened by my fire alarm. It will beep about three or four times, then stop. I will start to doze off again, just in time for it to sound AGAIN. And again. And again. This will continue for several nights over a couple weeks' time. For the first summer in our house, we just endured this--having many sleepless nights over our schizophrenic fire alarm system. The next summer, we took the batteries out of the alarms, only to find out that they work WITHOUT the batteries in, too.

Last summer, after the first couple nights of this torture, I think I discovered the cause. About that same time of summer, we have these tiny little bugs that come in through our window screens. (And our windows HAVE to stay open all night to cool things off enough to make the days bearable this time of year). They usually congregate around my bedside lamp on the wall, and in the bathroom all around the vanity lights. By the next morning, they're always dead all over the countertops. Strangely, this lasts about the same amount of time as the fire alarm mayhem. Hmmmm. All I can figure is that after the lights go out, the little bugs fly up toward the little green fire alarm light in my room and cover the smoke sensor, causing the alarm to go off. Genius, I know!

Anyway, last night, around 1:30, the alarm sounded for the first time this summer. I laid there, hoping that this would be one of those nights where it only goes off once or twice, and then quits. We weren't so lucky. After about twenty of thirty minutes of not more than a three minute break between outbursts, and a very scare little girl in my bed (Mylie is TERRIFIED of the fire alarm), we did what we had to do. I grabbed a ladder, which Tony climbed up to remove the battery, then I was off to the utility room to flip the breaker that controls the alarm. So hopefully we can sleep in peace over the next couple of weeks until those pesky, fire-alarm-loving bugs leave. In the meantime, I'll be praying we don't have a fire, and welcoming any suggestions for a better way to deal with this problem.