What Do You Do When it Snows? Go Sledding!

It snowed here a couple of weeks ago.  Avery insisted that we go sledding with the little skiff we had.  So Amanda took the kids to the park and the slide down the slopes by the baseball diamond.  Not much of a hill, but still fun for the kids.

He could pull Lily up the hill and was so proud!

Lily enjoyed eating the snow

1st Snowman of the Season!

Happy Halloween!

Lions, & Tigers, & Bears, Oh My!

Well here is our Halloween photo.  It all started out as Avery insisting that he be a scary tiger for Halloween. Well after finally figuring out a costume for him (orange fleece and black paint), Amanda got his costume made.  Then we decided to let Lily just wear a costume someone had given us last year, and it was a lion costume.  Once we told people that is what they were going to be, they filled in the rest: "Lions, & Tigers, & Bears, Oh My!"  Brian was a good sport and was the Bear and Amanda went as "Oh My."
   We had a Halloween party for our ward as well as doing trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.  The kids got loaded!  Needless to say we didn't do have of our ward and our buckets were full and our kids were tuckered out.  They had a lot of fun though.   Lily was really enthusiastic until a gorialla answered the door one time and then we had to take her all the way up to the doorstep to get the candy.  She would say "scary, scary" (she doesn't like Halloween decorations at all."  We were also glad that the weather was really nice and actually kind of warm that night to make it a very enjoyable Halloween!

I'm 4, I'm Big.

 Our little, or "Big" boy Avery turned 4 a couple of weeks ago!  In fact, it was on 10-11-12, a fun date!  He had some really great times celebrating his birthday with family and friends.  He got to go birthday shopping with Grandma & Grandpa and go out to dinner with all of us and cousins.  It is his Grandpa Downs' birthday too (54), so we had a great time.  



What was the big item from Mom & Dad?  Well Avery is Brian's kids because he wanted (or atleast wanted with some pushing from his Dad) some of these:

his very own skis!  He is pretty excited about them (he went with us to get them, but thought we left them there...)  He is all ready to hit the slopes, all we need is snow...oh wait we got some last week!

For Avery's birthday party with his friends he wanted a "dirt bike" party.  We were planning on having it at the park and having all the kids bring their "dirt bikes" (or bicycles).  Well ofcourse it rained like cats and dogs that day and so we had to have it in the garage.  It was a little crazy with all those kids, but they had fun.  They did a bike course around the garage, made license plates for their bikes and played "Pin-the-Helmet-on-the-Biker."  Then we had some yummy dirtbike cupcakes and played around.  Its crazy that Avery is already 4 years old!  We love our "big" guy!

1st Day of Preschool

Here is Avery on his first day of preschool!

A lady in our ward volunteered to do a little preschool for her son, Avery, and two other little boysin the area.  Avery goes 2 times a week for 2 hours.  He absolutely loves it!  He was so looking forward to riding the bus to school and was disappointed that it didn't come.  However, he loves to ride his bike since it is only a couple of blocks away.  He asks every day if it is school yet.  He seems to be more interested in learning already!  We love our little (or should we say BIG) guy and are so proud of all he has already learned in preschool.

Fairmont Fun

We went to Fairmont, Montana for the annual Labor Day weekend condo time that Brian's family has.  This year, we only had Brian's brother, Bret and his family and Brian's sister Taunya come with us. On our way up we went to the Brigham City Temple open house, (we forgot to take pictures).  It was really beautiful inside and really nice to have our kids their to see the inside of the temple (since it is normally closed to people other than endowed members (who are older)).

Afterwards, we took the long drive up to Montana.  On our way, we stopped at Crystal Park which was really neat.  We all dug in the dirt and found actual crystals!  It was a little addicting to dig in the dirt.  The kids had fun to climbing all over the hillside as well as finding cool rocks and crystals.  We will have to do that again sometime.

Then we went to to Fairmont.  At Fairmont we did the tradition hunt for golf balls on the golf course (in the weeds where people lose them).  We sure did get quite  a few this year!

Then ofcourse, we played at the swimming pool.  We rode down the waterslide quite a few times as well as jumping in the pool and playing "Marco Polo" and freeze tag.  One of the times, Avery accidently dove into the pool.  He thought that was pretty cool.

The awesome water slide:

Lily's ride down the waterslide:

 

 Some other fun things we did at the condo were: visit the smoke stack in Anaconda and the Lost Creek waterfall.

It was a long trip up there, but we had a lot of fun and were glad we went.  It was fun to do some new things while staying at the condo.  It was also just fun to be able to relax with our family!

We Love 2 Camp!

We have been promising Avery we would go camping all summer.  Well it has taken us all summer to actually do it.  We went just the four of us to Bountiful Peak Campground.  It was so pretty up there.  We had to drive on a fairly scary and narrow road up and over the mountain (we went up to 9100 feet and back down to 7000 feet).  We were only able to spend one night, but we sure did make it lots of fun.  Unfortunately Avery ended up getting a little sick, but he still had fun.

After seeing us roast marshmallows for s'mores, Lily insisted on "doing" it herself.  She had become quite independent lately.  Yes, the marshmallow did light on fire a couple of times, but she didn't care too much.

Making some yummy breakfast

A cute little camper.  She fell down so many times we lost camp, but she didn't mind.  She loved to pick up rocks and sticks as well as sit in the camping chairs.  She did NOT sleep well since we didn't have an air mattress for her and she hates having any covers (besides her blanky) on her.  Once we uncovered her, she slept fairly well.  Luckily it wasn't extremely cold.

saying "cheese"

there were a couple of little ponds that we thought had fish in them (from the website) but later to find out they were probably the wrong ponds

an adorable and messy camper

the boys fishing

riding their "dirt bike" made out of a rock

Ave.  The poor guy was probably running a fever the whole trip.  He was so excited to go camping.  He kept looking at the mountains, asking if they were the one we were going camping on.  He loved to ask what our favorite thing about the camping trip was.

Daddy/Daughter time

Turpin Times!

a bunch of the cousins on the tube.  My Avery what big feet you have! (aka Brian's feet)

We went to the Turpin Family Reunion a couple of weeks ago in Idaho.  It sure was a blast!  We all stayed in a big lodge and had some fun time on the water and at the lodge.  We floated down a river on tubes and rafts a couple of times.  Avery even got brave enough to ride a tube down it (or mom got brave enough to let him).  We went out on the motorboat as well.  Candace put together a fun capture the flag game with marshmallow ammo that sure took us for a hike!

Aunt Candace, Lily, Eve, & Boyce

Brian's brother, Mark and his wife Sarah and their kids Eve & Boyce were able to join us from Florida for the whole week and the reunion!  It was so much fun to hang out with them.  Lily & Eve got along quite well, and Avery & Boyce went on enough dirt bike rides to last them a year!

Lily & Eve

The kids getting ready to swim at Grandma Turpins

 At the reunion we had a fun game of "Minute to Win it"  Everyone got involved!  Some of the challenges were pretty tough, but still tons of fun.

Avery doing the skittle sorting

Jane (left) & Sarah (right) doing the cup stack

Brian doing the oreo stack

Lily enjoying the boat

Aly & Eve on the tube

Lily & Daddy on tube (mom didn't try that again, last time we fell off)

Amanda skiing (this was her second "real" time skiing

We have a Fish in the Family!

While Amanda went with the Turpin girls for a fun getaway to St. George, Avery & Lily visited Grandma and Grandpa Downs in Idaho (Brian had work and had to leave for scout camping before Amanda got back).  While there, Avery became quite the swimmer!  A couple of weeks ago we visited Idaho and went swimming.  It was the first time that Avery would put his face in the water and "swim" (or really be pushed from one person to another).  Well going to Idaho he was so excited to swim without his arm floaties.  When Amanda came down to stay with them while Brian was at camp, she was surprised to see how much he has learned!  He could swim a few feet and turn around and swim back, all underwater.  He could swim to the rope (after someone helped him up) after going down the slide.  He also didn't want to stop!  Since he was always opening his eyes underwater, he was getting red, burning eyes.  I (Amanda)  told him to take a break, and he replied, "I will take a break underwater."  Silly boy!

Going down the green slide

swimming from the steps and back