Sunset Hiking and Soccer

 Last Sunday Henry spent a long time out in the backyard. For a while he was looking up in the pine trees and when I went out to see what was going on he kept saying "bird." There were several quails up high in the branches that he was watching.

He loved being outside

Lyza is almost done her hat

She has also been working hard with her piano lessons

On Sunday afternoon we got out of the house and went to the park together. Nixon was obsessed with this thing

Henry loved looking at the ducks

I love getting pictures with this little man

And he is so kissable

It was a pretty afternoon

Henry really enjoyed walking around

Lyza also liked this but was fairly cautious

And then they all got on there

The reflections off the water were really pretty as the colors are getting closer to autumn colors

Mason has really been enjoying making necklaces with beads

Henry loved hitting things with this stick at the beach

Kim taught him how to make karate noises

Sometimes I wish they were behind bars

We were supposed to have a chance of seeing the northern lights earlier this week so I went out late at night to try and find a dark spot to watch them. It is really hard to find true darkness with all of the homes and highways around. I found a fairly dark spot but I don't think they were actually visible. When I turned around I could still see lights from the city. You can see the light pollution in this picture looking South toward Post Falls.

Kim has come up with a fun way to help Mason clean. She records a time lapse of him cleaning and then they watch it together.

I told Kim that for a date some time I wanted to take her hiking and watch a sunset from a nearby ridge overlooking the lake. Well, we decided to take the kids with us on our date 😆

You can always count on Nixon to walk on a log when there is a perfectly good trail to walk on

And you can always count on Henry smiling while hiking

It wasn't as easy to scale these trees as it is to scale the walls in our hallway

Mason found this fun spot to stand on

We left a little later than we wanted to so we were literally racing the sun

We had to stop at the cave and explore

The kids loved exploring the cave with their flashlights

And I loved sitting next to my sweetheart on a bench for just long enough to take a selfie

What a cute bunch

The sun was falling faster than we were climbing the ridge

We made it to the cabin and had some dinner

This is the view from the cabin

The kids needed some motivation along the way in the form of candy

We did make it to the lookout (a little later than planned) and it was really pretty

I did run ahead and get some sunset pictures

Now that the ladybug infestation is over it is time for our seasonal infestation of smoky-winged ash aphids. Lyza spent at least half an hour (that I saw) jumping up and smashing them with her hands

It was quite the workout

These boys got to accompany their mom to the local pie shop

Yummy pie. We got an apple pie (which was no where as good as Grandma Bullock's) and a huckleberry rhubarb pie (which was delicious)

The northern lights was a bust but we did get to see Mars this week (see it at the top of the frame above the moon)

When the moon is exposed to see its detail Mars becomes much more dim

I cheated on this one and left Mars bright while the moon was dark

Nixon and Lyza thought it was really cool that they could see Mars

On Saturday morning Henry put on my backpack and shoes and was ready to go to soccer

Mason did really well with soccer on Saturday

I think one of the cutest parts of soccer for his age is seeing all the kids huddled around the coach

Mason got lots of good opportunities to kick the ball

Can you see the joy on his face?

Tickles from his coach before he kicked the ball in

Mason also almost scored a goal! Watch as he cringes as the ball comes toward him in the first clip and then watch as he kicks the ball in the last clip. I wasn't quick enough with the camera (because I was completely taken by surprise) but the ball hit the edge of the goal and bounced out and past the goal

By the time for Nixon's game it was 26 degrees (Celsius) with direct sun and we weren't used to the heat since it has been a little cooler recently.

I love the background behind him.

Nixon had a really good breakaway at this point

Nixon was really tired with the hot sun but managed to be a defensive presence all game. Watch how hard he works

Later in the afternoon Kim took the kids to the beach to enjoy the warm weather

Reading in the sun. She also got in the water and played too.

This is a cool shot

Henry looks like he was made for the beach

Last blog post I mentioned the possibility of the kids returning to school 5 days a week. That meeting didn't go how we wanted and the Board voted to keep things the same. We were really disappointed and voiced our frustration with the Board. Well, I guess enough others did the same and tonight (Monday) there was another special meeting and they voted to return back to school 5 days a week. It will be effective next Monday. We are very happy with the decision and will be keeping our fingers crossed that there is no increased transmission in the community and the kids can stay full-time for as long as possible.

Have a great week!