Four Posts in One Day

This technically makes it 5 but I have been so behind on posting that I made a goal to update today so there are 4 new posts after this one of what we have been up to this past month! This doesn't include all the fun families we have had over for dinner! And the friends that have had us over! We love meeting new people!!

Great Grandpa Hibbert

On August 22nd, 2009 Ryan and I loaded up the kids at 7am and headed to Eureka, Montana. Ryan's mom's dad lives there and he is almost 88 years old. He is so much fun! When we got there we lasted about 30 minutes in his house as the kids were into everything of course! Then we went out for pizza which was a hit because it had toys and games! There are cute little parks in Eureka as it is a small town, so we let the kids play some more trying to wear them out! We took Grandpa back to his house did some pictures and hit the road for our 3 1/2 hour drive back home! The funny part of our trip was the kids NEVER had to pee when we were in a town it was always 5 minutes out of town! So we pulled over and thankfully Chloe peed on the ground! She has a hard time with port-a-potty's so I am grateful we had no accidents!

This horse was so crazy! It almost bucked Chloe off the first time! It just shakes whoever is riding it but she loved it!

Giving Great Grandpa kisses before we left!

Reese waiting for her food!

Some of the rides at the pizza place.

Our kids are only 3 out of the 11 (almost 12) on Ryan's mom's side but he has around 24 great grandchildren.

Chloe is so lovable! She has to give everyone hugs and kisses when she leaves or someone leaves our house...Doesn't matter who you are she loves you!!

Cooper loved this airplane ride at the pizza place.

Chloe was wearing my sun glasses and I thought she looked all grown up! We brought plenty of treats and drinks for the car ride so we didn't have to stop at a store!

Another ride...What a fun, long day we had! This is our annual trip to see Grandpa and he usually comes for Thanksgiving to Ryan's mom's house so we get to celebrate his birthday with him! He has such a great personality! He reminds me of my grandpa who passed away on Ryan and I's first anniversary, an amazing man!! We are looking forward to our trip next summer!

Swimming Lessons

Chloe did swimming lessons for two weeks! I think it is really important for kids to learn how to swim and my parents always put us in swimming lessons but Ryan learned in a lake. So I got Chloe swimming lessons and tried to get Cooper in but his class was full! Ryan took her because Cooper had T-ball at the same time so we had to be in two places at once but we were able to go to one of her lessons and watch! This is at the new Kroc Center in Coeur d'Alene. It is really nice and we might get a membership for the winter this year to give the kids something to do! It is not just swimming it has everything here from rock climbing, a lap pool, basketball courts, aerobics, and daycare!

Chloe loved this mermaid and she was trying to swim to it here :)

I just missed her jumping to Ryan here! Ryan had a fun time as he knew some of the moms that had their kids in the class! The picture I didn't get is them in the hot tub that they would sit in for 20 minutes after the lesson!

Pinhehurst days - 8/8/09

We went to Pinehurst days this year and I forgot to blog about it! The weather was not very good to start. It looked like it was going to rain for the first couple hours. That morning Ryan went down to the Coeur d'Alene Triathlon and when he got home we headed to Pinehurst.

The day before this Cooper kept asking me for a Batman cape. I had some fabric I had gotten last year and sewed one for him! He still loves to wear it when we go places or just running around the house pretending to fly!

This Lamborghini pulled in around lunch time and cousin Tyler loved it so while he was getting his picture taken Cooper had to get one also! Thanks for the picture Val!

Reese not sure why people are throwing things at her!

Gotta wave to Smokey the Bear and Sparky!

We got there right when the parade started so we were at the end of town where it ended. The people in the parade either had a ton of candy or they had none! It didn't really matter to us because we got a ton! As you can see we are by ourselves so they were throwing handfuls to get rid of it if they had a some left!

After the parade we walked around and ate lunch...Then kettle corn of course! Which made for a great snack Sunday after church as Ryan was waiting in the van for me with the kids! We go to Pinehurst Days every year and hang out with Ryan's family...Also it is nice for Ryan to be able to see his old friends!

Reese's birthday at the fair!

Happy Birthday Reese!!!!!!!!!!! We decided that every year we can celebrate Reese's birthday at the fair! What kid wouldn't want that?! As long as she is young she will love it! Her brother and sister loved it!! We arrived around 6:30pm and left at 10pm...We ate, rode the rides, saw the animals and without planning saw lots of friends!

This is the first year we have really done rides since we didn't go last year and the kids LOVED it!! We know Cooper wont forget about the rides after this year!

Chloe was too short to ride the carousel by herself so I had to stand by her! It actually went kind of fast.

My goal is to get a family picture everywhere we go and at 9:30 we got one!

These are our friends not some strangers in our picture! This is Tyler and Ann, their boys were on the ride with Cooper and Chloe!!

Chloe is my little dancing queen! We were walking by a live band and we stayed so she could dance with Reese! Reese was bouncing up and down like she always does at home! We have little dancing parties at home so the kids love music!

We had to do presents Friday morning since we were so busy Thursday so here are Cooper and Chloe loving Reese's presents!

Reese is such an amazing baby...Soon we wont be able to say baby! She started to crawl about 9 months and can walk along furniture and transfer from one to the other if she can hold on the whole time! She loves to have people walk her around and use her walker toy, just not on her own yet! That is fine with me...She is an amazingly fast crawler when she really wants to get somewhere! She only has two bottom teeth and her upper left lateral incisor has been trying to come in for 2 weeks now! She has her doctors appt. on Monday so we will see what her stats are! She is on whole milk and eats almost anything! She is such a blessing to our family and her siblings are so good with her! They just love her :) We are so grateful for her in our family and look forward to watching her grow not only physically but also watching her develop her personality! We love you Reese Evelyn!

Family Pictures Summer 2009

Saturday night after it had rained all day, we were able to go to Corbin Park in Post Falls with our amazing photographer Teri Cunningham and take some family pictures! We hit the weather at the perfect time as we had some sunlight for about 10 minutes during the session but mostly cloudy and not raining! The kids did great as they were told they had to stay dry until mom and dad said they could play in the water! They stayed dry for the most part as it rained a little but it was so much fun! Teri was GREAT with our kids and had some cute posing ideas! Sorry there are so many on the blog but honestly these are only a fraction of the ones she took! Thank you so much Teri!

Chloe * Reese * Cooper

Cooper * Ryan

Ryan * Carrie

I was really glad that we got a couple shot I think it has been almost 6 years!

Ryan * Cooper

Reese and her beautiful blue eyes!

I think she looks like her cousin Allie here!

A father / son moment...Ahhhhh.

Watching the water skippers except for Reese!

Carrie * Reese

Family picture with 4 out of 5 smiles!

A touched up picture...I love this setting...

My blue eyed son...

Don't I look innocent?????

Chloe and her smile...No matter what she smiles like this...So beautifully!

Didn't notice until now but Reese has a rock in her mouth! New teething toy!

Ah my baby...So sad but she will be one in 11 days...I think she looks a lot like Cooper from the hair to the eyes!

We haven't had a family photo session since Christmas last year with my sister-in-law Val which was fun in our pajamas by Ryan's mom's fireplace. It was really nice to go to a beautiful park and I am feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family! I prayed a lot the day we took these as we ran errands all day long then came home long enough to shower and get dressed....The outfits were planned the night before...Thanks Val! I hope you enjoyed our pictures and I will post more as they are touched up by our photographer Teri :)

My HUSBAND the STUD!!

The sun was extremely bright - it was already 75 degrees at 7am!

Today Ryan completed his first triathlon! It was the 2nd Annual Hayden View Sprint Triathlon and it was a memorable exeperience! Ryan did GREAT! They say he did the 1/2 mile swim in 9 minutes but we think it was 19 minutes! Then he biked on this crazy, hilly, road that had a lot of cars on it for ~10 miles. Thankfully he made it down the hills without going off the cliff like other participants showed signs of (not a steep cliff but enough to cut them up)! Then he ran 3.5 miles!

(Ryan is the one furthest to the right - this is before the swim)

The kids and I were able to hang out at one intersection with two of the young women from church who were watching family and friends and my sister-in-law Sarah and her two kids! We watched the swim! Ryan decided to go with the beginners but he would have been right up there with the more advanced swimmers! We watched the swim and before we knew it Ryan was out and running to his bike!

This is Ryan after he ran up the boat ramp while taking his wetsuit off and heading to his bike! (He's the one on the left, not the blue shirt.)

He hopped on his bike and away he went and we didn't see him for awhile until he came down the hill to head back to the beach to drop off his bike and start running! We were able to watch him run by then we headed back to the finish to watch his sprint as fast as his arms and legs would take him!

(This photo is courtesy of Sarah Frank - thank you! It is the best picture of all!!)

Side Note: Ryan did beat this guy :)

All in all I think Ryan is AMAZING and did an AWESOME job for his first triathlon! He is excited to keep training as he has come so far, especially in swimming! He loves the workout it gives his whole body and the challenge it brings! Hopefully next year he will do the Coeur d'Alene Triathlon.