my fall Thursdays and so on.....

My friend Celeste and I are both down to having our last kid at home. We both have blond wild 3-year olds. We have been trying to use our precious time wisely and started hiking every Thursday as soon as we drop the older kids off at school.


Here are Orion and Thomas running toward the color in South Fork.

These boys gravitate towards water

One morning up Hobble Creek they insisted on playing in this puddle, they made little boats out of leaves and then would load it up with rocks and watch them sink.

My hiking buddy Celeste and Tommy

Oey following a deer trail.

Ride 'em cowboys

Beautiful Rock Canyon

Celeste always knows when nature is offering us sweet treats.

No water this time but a playground of rocks. I have found I am MUCH happier since we have started our Thursday hikes. I can't even begin to describe how amazing and alive and BLESSED it makes you feel to be outside all day, just enjoying and marveling at everything. And to share it with such a kindred spirit - it's just too much goodness, I could cry :). It was meant to be just an hour or two but we found we would stay until it was time to get the kids from school. So after that first time we made sure to pack snacks and traded off bringing lunch. Being outdoors has centered me and being with Celeste has also been therapy for the heart, mind and soul.

Speaking of outdoors... we have recruited some new hikers

On our way to Stewart Falls

Cousins at play, they didn't even know they were hiking

The girls - Steph and I

The boys - James and Matt

My family

The new recruits. My brother James (and his amazing family) have moved HERE to Provo. We have already done a couple hikes with them and love just hanging out.

Speaking of fall..... We moved to a new school this year. It was hard to leave our neighborhood school but as a parent I felt it wasn't the right fit for us.

Our new school Walden. It is more of an art, science, hands-on, hippie school. It is only 4 miles away, just far enough that I need to drive. Walden is set up like a Montessori school, so you get to work at your own pace and spend a lot of time on things you really love.

And me. I have been enjoying all the field trips and a million other things about it. Our first field trip was to the pool.

Here is Jarom (in the yellow behind the guy in the green) and his class at the Bingham Canyon copper mine. It might look a little different than the normal 2nd grade class. Jarom's class is 2 - 4 grade.

My buddy boy

I think we have had at least a field trip every other week. Here are the kids at Timp Lodge. The highschoolers put on a carnival for the elementary. It was full of games and they even made lunch for everyone.

Here on another field trip. They had a day to gather fall leaves and make a million and one things with them and again they provided lunch.

Jarom making leaf rubbings.

Orion - what to do with this wild child who tried to always stay on the opposite side of the river from me.

Enjoying school outdoors

And getting wet

Lots of time to be a kid and explore