Life in Riverton

You would think we've been hard at work making my "new" home look nice, and maybe you're right, but I ran out of ideas. We got the place so liveable that it's been easy to take a break. Brandon never gets tired; he always has things to work on. Right now he and the girls are busy getting a small patch ready for our winter garden. They have to go to extra effort to keep the animals out, so he's building a fence around it.

Chloe is going to build a "secret garden" in her section of the field. She plans to add a fire pit, and have some pumpkin plants and watermelon on the outside. Sophie is growing almost all the vegetables and berry bushes, and Brandon is going to be in charge of the fruit trees. He'll have some room for vegetables as well, until the trees get too big.

Sophie has made friends with the neighbors cows. She named them and loves to feed them. They go crazy every time they hear a lawn mower, because they think that means they'll be getting food soon.

Our master bedroom is under construction. Brandon has removed all the moldings. He's waiting for me to pick a color to paint the walls. I decided I needed to pick the bedding first, and then match the color to that. I finally got the bedding purchased. I think I have a color narrowed down, but I am so terrible at this that it will take me some time till I go order it.

We got the tire swing installed. This was one of Chloe's must haves. She got her grandpa to bring her a tire, and then later he called to say he found her one that had been painted pink. She was excited about that, but still wanted to go ahead and hang the black one up until we can get the pink one from him. We have a swing set that came with the house, but a tire swing is not the same. I have to say, I love looking through the front door and seeing it hanging from our gorgeous plum tree.

Our stake has a gardening committee! I think I found the right place to live. On top of that, every Saturday in August and September they hold a "harvest share." You can bring all the extra veggies pouring out of your garden, or (in my case) just come and take the extras. I haven't had to do much grocery shopping, but it's given me a good opportunity to replenish my food storage I had whittled down before we moved.

There are other people who homeschool in my ward! Including our bishop. Our first Sunday here Sophie's primary teacher asked her to tell the class something unique about her. Well, Sophie couldn't think of anything, so the teacher went around and had all the other kids say say something about themselves while Sophie thought of something. One kid said, "I'm homeschooled and I'm a vegetarian." Sophie was so excited... and decided to steal his answer! We are definitely going to be friends with them.

We've been to the library several times, but it's still too hot to walk.

I got my visiting teaching route, and went out right away to visit. One of my dear sisters is a cranky, old lady. She managed to land herself in the hospital two days after I met her, so my partner and I drove up to University Hospital to visit her. I think she was glad we came, but she's sure an unpleasant soul. Her doctor came in to visit while we were there, and I think she agrees. It was a little humorous.

I got my living room done. Just waiting on new blinds, and then I think it will be complete. Oh, and I need to hang some things on the walls, but I'm always so slow at that. I just love my living room. It makes me happy to sit in there.

On top of all the food I get at the harvest share, my next door neighbor brought over a load and gave us some eggs. Sophie commented that with all this produce, in addition to me making my own bread and milk that we may never have to go to the store again. I still have to get my staples from somewhere, but I'm glad she recognized the whole point of our lifestyle.

I found a great deal on peaches, so I bought a bunch and made some freezer jam. Sophie was a huge help. Chloe has always been our big helper around here, but lately Sophie has decided she wants to pitch in. In fact, twice she's gotten upset with me for not coming to get her so she could help me with meals.

The chickens are a mess! I love having them around. They certainly add to the atmosphere of our home, but they are a little invasive. They poop all over our porch, dig holes in the garden, leave dirt everywhere, and peck at the windows while we shower or get dressed. Sophie loves to chase them around the yard, and throw food to them. There's no point in trying to compost -- the chickens (and horses) eat it all before it ever stands a chance. So, we can just throw the food in the back yard and watch it get gobbled up.

Home Remodel

Here is just a little sample of what we've been doing since our vacation. We got home on Sunday night, closed on our house Monday morning and have been exhausted ever since! In the beginning Chloe was doing a great job of documenting our work. She went around taking all these pictures. This only shows a fraction of what we've been doing, but it's a good record.

And here's a little thing our realtor put together to share with ya'll: http://brandoncandinicholls.epropertymove.com/indexGo2.htm

I had a couple cute videos the girls did that I was trying to share here, but they're not playing properly.  I have wasted way too much time trying to figure out why they won't upload correctly to no avail, so I'm just going to post another link to this album that contains the two videos.  You can search for them. https://plus.google.com/photos/104575878071086913858/albums/5909470489357150001?authkey=CMLJ8Zy5lq_vUQ

Oregon and Washington

I thought I could cheat and just post our vacation photos on Google+, but I've received some feedback that that's not good enough. So, those who are not savvy enough to find me over there can now read about our family vacation to Oregon and Washington. We left July 13th and drove as far as Winnemucca. Our hotel was connected to a casino, as you may expect in Nevada. That was a new experience for our girls, who quickly developed a disdain for gambling. The next day we drove the other half of the way to Klamath Falls, Oregon. The first two days were dedicated to driving and giving the girls plenty of pool time. I thought I better get that in early, before I expected them to get out and see the world. Day 3 we finally made it up to Crater Lake. The girls got a book last year about National Parks and are now interested in seeing everyone. The lake was beautiful, and we enjoyed walking around it and watching a film at the visitor center.

Then we headed over to Eugene to spend the night. I loved our time in Oregon with lots of options for eating local, vegan food. I had originally planned to just drive up to Portland via the mountains, but then last minute I decided we needed to go see the coast. We drove over to Florence to see the beach, but we didn't stay long. It was so cold! 54° when we got there, plus wind. It didn't slow Sophie down from hunting for seashells, though.

Then we made it to Portland. Portland was beautiful and such an active community, seemed like a great place to live. I got some more vegan food. My cousin who used to live in Portland recommended this place to me called Hot Lips Pizza. Oh my -- HOT Lips is right! My lips were on fire, but it was very good.

Lark was visiting shortly before we left for our trip and had mentioned Multnomah Falls was one of her top destinations to visit. Then I got a thing in the mail from my insurance company listing the 7 best drives, which included the historic Columbia River Hwy to Multnomah, and then my sister-in-law who had just been in Oregon posted a picture of her family there, so I took that as a sign we needed to go. It was so packed when we got there we could not find a parking spot. Brandon finally decided to just drop us off, let us get a picture while he circled around again, and then we could go. Well, I think we made him go around twice, but just as we were headed back to meet him a spot opened up. He pulled in, and then he got to come see that Falls with us, and we were able to go hike up to the upper bridge.

After Portland we headed into Washington, right for Mount St Helens. We learned a little about the volcano, hiked around some, and then continued on our way.

We reserved a big chunk of our time in Seattle for Sophie to visit the American Girl store. Yes, I deserve the Mother of the Year Award. She is such a good shopper, though. She saves her money, and then puts a lot of thought into making the best purchase. At one point in the store she started having doubts about blowing all of her money, but then she calmly said, "No, I saved my money for this. It's OK to spend it." I have to admit, I think she gets that from her mom. And she was really great trying on the outfits. I had told her I wanted to buy her one of the matching outfits for girls, but the ones she tried on were not very modest. Both my girls are always so conscious of how their clothing fits. So, she decided against that and we just got her an "American Girl Seattle" T-shirt.

Since we planned something special for Sophie, I wanted to give Chloe equal time. She absolutely loves paddle boats, but they are so hard to find! I finally found a park in Seattle. Again, we had such a difficult time finding a parking spot, but once we did we had a great time. The weather was so nice, and it was relaxing to just sit out on the lake. She picked a great activity for the afternoon.

Our last day in Seattle we decided we didn't want to go back into the city, so we chose some activities much closer to our hotel. We found this little Bonsai garden that the girls soaked up. They were so inspired, and started making plans to grow their own. That reminds me: I need to get them some books! They went around and took pictures of each display, and made notes about them. It was very educational.

Our last stop was to a beach on Puget Sound. The locals seemed to enjoy it just fine, but the tourists were not such fans. The beach was covered in seaweed. The girls were not impressed. We decided to go hike some trails on the other side, and they were much happier there.

And that about sums it up. If you missed it, and want to see the whole story in pictures you can find them here: Oregon/Washington Photos

Cousins & Birthday

Brandon told them at work just to not plan on seeing him in July. This is a crazy, fun month for us. Tuesday we got some visitors! The Kangs stopped by on their way home from visiting Washington. It was fun to see them, and we got not one, but two trips to their hotel pool! I told Chloe I need credit for those. We are leaving on our own vacation soon, and I know she's not going to get to swim as much as she'd like. After swimming on Tuesday we went out for pizza. They came over the next morning to have breakfast with us, and then we went back to the pool one more time before they left.

Yesterday we celebrated Sophie's 11th birthday. She just keeps growing up on us. I normally don't allow my kids to have birthday parties two years in a row, but last year after I got her owl party all planned we remembered that she had requested a Lion House party. They used to only host parties for 8-11 year olds, so I knew we'd have to do it this year if she was going to get one. When I went to their website to book it, the age had changed to 8-10. I felt so bad, but I told her I'd call and see how strict they were with that rule. Turns out they didn't care, so she was in luck! They were even very accommodating with the menu. They had given us the choice of turkey or tuna for lunch, so I called and asked if there was any other option, and they were happy to change it. Funny thing was the lady I worked with didn't think veggie sandwiches would be hearty enough, she thought we needed to PB&J to give them something substantial. The PB&J wasn't that good, but that's ok; they were so kind to help us out.

First things first, though! A couple months ago Sophie and her friend were "bored," and as they sat around thinking of ideas they decided to make blankets to donate to Primary Children's Hospital. They went door to door around the neighborhood asking for donations. Then they split up the money they earned and each went and purchased fabric. Then they got together again and made these blankets -- ALL ON THEIR OWN! The only thing I did was drive them to the store to buy fabric. And then they waited until Sophie's birthday when we'd be taking them to Salt Lake to deliver them. See what amazing things kids will do if you let them get a little bored.

Just to side track for a minute (since I'm thinking about it)... I know parents who stress about trying hard to make their house the "fun" house so that their kids friends will want to hang out there. I know my house will never be the fun house, because that's just not who I am. But I have been amazed at how much my children and their friends play at our home. I really believe they don't need junk food, video games, TV, endless toys. Just give them a peaceful environment and they will want to be here. So now I'll get off my soapbox and show you these amazing girls at the hospital.

Then it was on to The Lion House. We waited out front for a while for the guests to all arrive. A couple were a little late, so we had to start without them, but we were so happy when they showed up!

Once the party started they kept moving us back and forth between rooms (I think to keep the children from getting antsy, but these kids didn't need that). Our host told lots of stories about Brigham Young's life and pioneer time period.

We played "Button Button" and "Hide the Thimble," they got to write on a slate, and have a taffy pull.

They served us a little lunch (our PB&J).

And then we went outside to open gifts. Sophie had to close her eyes while the person giving her a gift disguised their voice. Sophie had to guess who it was before she could open then gift. Some of the kids were pretty good at fooling her!

Chloe got to spend some time with her very best friend. You don't think she's happy about that, do you?

Then it was back inside for cake! They gave Sophie the option of chocolate or white cake. She was having a hard time choosing, so I told her if she picked chocolate I'd have some. If she picked white I would pass. She made sure I got some cake. The baker hid a gum ball somewhere in the cake and everyone had to search their piece for it. No one at the party got it :( but we got to take the rest home, and Sophie ended up with the piece with the gum ball.

My daughter has some amazing friends. She is very lucky to get to know each one of these guys. Two of them came up to me at the party and told me it was the funnest party they had been to. And the host commented on how well behaved they were. They are just a good batch.

Getting Through the 4th of July

I tried to do an update like a month ago, but other things have taken priority and it obviously never happened. Chloe made it to girl's camp and had the time of her life. The whole ward saw a different side of her, and it's been a very positive change for her. I was hoping she'd do a blog post of her own about it, but she hasn't even gotten the pictures off her camera yet! She's as bad as her mother :)

While Chloe was at camp I signed Sophie up for an art class. It was a good distraction during those mornings, and then we fit in lots of fun activities during the afternoons.

We drove ourselves crazy looking for a house. I thought we were doing good taking our time, looking at all our options, making sure we found just the right place. And then we got sick of looking. It felt like there were no good options. Everything sucked, or was under contract the day it was listed. That's when we put pressure on ourselves. After two failed attempts (one was an error on my part, the other on the sellers) we found something that fit our criteria: tiny house on a big lot, no stucco, no HOA. And it's only 2 miles from Brandon's office, and really close to the library! It needs a lot of work, but we're excited about all it's possibilities, and Brandon LOVES projects! Maybe his blog will get some action.

Once we got the house under contract we've been so busy with all the paperwork, screaming at loan processors, getting inspections done, and then the appraisal. Now that that's final, I think we can breathe for a bit. Chloe is packing her heart out. She is such a great help around here.

We even made time to go to Bloomington for the 4th. Not that our kids would let us miss it, but we went and stayed a couple extra days at my parents. Here is some of the fun we had: