Summer and soccer moms

Summer is almost over.  Seriously, where did it go?  I'm not ready for school to start yet, but at least we have one more week of R & R before my kids are officially old.  We had to  hit one last Raptors game which are so much fun to go to.

 

We also had one last trip to the cabin with some cousins.

 When we first got there Rach was a little nervous about feeding the squirrels but was very excited to do it.

 Josh would try to "get" the squirrels another way......don't let grandma know.

 This is what Rach and I would do most of the time.  This girl LOVES skip-bo and we play it all the time.

 She got up to use the potty and someone jumped in and took her place.  I think he peeked at her cards.

 Before long Daisy (the squirrel) and Rach were best friends, to the point where we'd all be holding peanuts and she would run around us all to go find Rachel. 

 Rach also lost another tooth while we were there.....

 Kate tried to feed Daisy too but wasn't too sure about it....

 There's nothing better than jumping on a tramp in the middle of the forest.

 And now here's the best part.  Soccer has started again!!!  Can I just say that I LOVE being a soccer mom.  I love watching the kids and seeing how excited they get.  It is the best feeling in the world.  I hope they love it as much as I did growing up.  And this year I have 2 kids in soccer!  I know, complete bliss.  Here's Rach's uniform.  Her team name is the Tiger Leopards (don't ask) and she is loving it and doing so well.  I was voting for the name Highlighters but Tiger Leopards won out with the girls.  Still so cute....and on a side note.....why haven't the uniform companies figured out that some kids are just really skinny and YXS is still way too big?  Seriously folks.

 And then there's this boy. His first game ever this past Saturday.  He is so cute.  His team is named Lightning Flash.

 Even though he's the one on the outside of the bunch, we were just thinking he was the only one playing a position.  He may not be the most aggressive one out there but he watched the ball the whole time and had a blast.  He thinks he's pretty tough too.  I love that boy!

 We did have a fan club but Kate and Grandpa didn't even know what was going on around them.  This moment was too precious to pass up.

For the next 5 weeks our Saturdays will be full of soccer games and running from one to the other.  I can't think of a better way to spend those days.  

Yellowstone

So the Maughan reunion this year was at Yellowstone.  But we did it a little bit different and drove across the whole park staying in different places rather than just staying in one place.  So the first night we were in Jackson Hole.  Awwww, that's where Trav and I met.  Now look what we've done! 

 You gotta get the antler arch shot when you're there.

 We went looking for animals but the only one we saw was a fox that walked about a foot in front of Kate.  She could have pet it if she would have stuck her hand out but she didn't really care.  Of course I didn't have my camera.

 The next day was geyser day. 

 This is how Josh spent 90% of the trip. 

 His favorite buddy and cousin Tyrel was so awesome to carry that boy around.  These 2 are like brothers and I'm so grateful that Tyrel loves it just as much as Josh does. 

 Rachel tried to pull if off too, but that didn't last too long.

 This was too cute to pass up.  After 55 years of marriage they're still in love.  I have awesome in-laws.

 The crew waiting for Old Faithful.....

 There she blows!

 Josh blowing dragon breath......

 Then we stayed in this tiny little cabin in West Yellowstone.  Awww, cute little cabin.

 This day was dedicated to animal spotting.  It's so funny because when you see the first animals you get so excited.  I can tell there aren't as many animals there anymore.  We had to hunt for them.  But we finally made it to the right place and found some buffalo.  Here's Uncle Gary getting a good shot.

 Then they start walking right up to the car....

 Kate how big is the buffalo?

 Okay, this is starting to get ridiculous....

 Then Trav says to me, "I just saw that buffalo sit down.  I don't think they do that."  So I grabbed the binoculars and yep, that buffalo was a bear!  He started walking down the hill.....

 And kept getting closer....

 And closer.....Now, the kids and I were all huddled in the back of my brother in laws truck (because bears definitely can't reach you in there....I'm sure he's thinking "sack lunch")  Trav was across the street to take these pictures.  I couldn't see where he was and was starting to flip out a little. Josh was crying because he thought daddy was going to get eaten by a bear.  Finally the bear got close enough that we all crammed back into the cars.  He was just on the other side of the road.  I have never seen a bear like that before in the wild.  It was insane!  And totally scary.  Afterward Josh said he liked seeing the geese a lot better than the bear.

 Here's Annie Oakley Kate...

 At our last "cabin" a bunny lived right by it and the kids kept trying to sneak up to it.  Luckily it was a friendly bunny.

 And with all that driving (and no we don't have a DVD player in the car) you'd think the kids would have been awful and naughty.  Oh no.  Not these kids.  They had more fun on the road.  I took this picture on the trip HOME.  Yes, after 4 days and several hours in the car that day they were still having a blast.  What little cuties.

The sunflower

When Josh was in pre-school his teacher had them plant a sunflower seed.  He brought it home, we planted it in the garden and waited to see if it would grow.  After Josh dug it up once and it nearly died we took care of that little seed and watched it grow.  I tried to take a picture of it with Josh every once in a while. Here is the transformation of the sunflower seed....

 Oh, and just F.Y.I. I took these pictures over a couple weeks, some of them only days apart.  Crazy huh?

 

 

 Once it finally did get the flower on top the poor thing couldn't take it anymore.  Now it's trying to jump the fence to the neighbors yard.  Not to mention our zucchini was pushing it out of the way.  Zucchini are always bossy.  Maybe that should be Kate's new nickname....Zucchini.  Okay, this is getting kind of random.

 And look at this!  Done and done!  The playhouse is finally finished.  Trav named it "Maughan's fort."  That's what Wellsville used to be called.  Bet you didn't know that!  See you are getting smarter by reading this blog.

 The only problem is, the kids are terrified of the slide.  Okay, this is a really big slide.  And you go really fast on it.  We thought the kids would love it and be out there every day.  Oh no, we have to beg them to go on it and we have to be at the bottom to catch them.  If I blink I'm afraid Kate will shoot off the end like a rocket.  Lots of time and money well spent, on something the kids are afraid of.  The good news is, we've had older neices and nephews come over and they love it.  So maybe they need to just get a little bigger.  Trav's working on a landing pad right now.  Yes, it needs a landing pad.

 And here's one last one to gross you out.  Josh loves pickle juice.  We dared him to drink some and he liked it so much he went and got a straw.  I like the look on my face in the background.  Yum!