two extremes

The last few weeks we have been able to enjoy some super nice weather and some seriously cold weather. A few weeks ago we spent a Saturday in Phoenix where Thatcher swam in the pool (which was way too cold for me), then we went to Cafe Rio with some friends and shopped at the outlets. Thatcher's highlight of the trip was discovering a kid-sized toilet in the family restaurant. He was so excited, he didn't want to leave his "Thatcher potty". A few days later I took the boys down to Phoenix again to hang out for the day with family and to see my cousin, Whitney's new house. Claire, Cooper, and Kristi came over too and we had a fun day talking, planning Thanksgiving, and hearing the kids laugh at each other.
I couldn't get Crew to turn around, but at least the other three toe-heads are smiling.

Then, in contrast, we spent last weekend at our cabin where it was FREEZING. The first night I thought I would die, but Ty's fire-building skills rapidly improved and we ended up sticking it our for two more nights. The days were sunny and we ended up having a lot of fun. We went fishing a few times (with no success), raked a lot of leaves, jumped in a lot of leaf piles, ate a lot of "P is for popcorn", went on a few walks while Thatcher went on 'hikes' (Thatcher wanted hike which meant him wandering the road or trail so he could be roughing it more), drank way too much hot chocolate, and did lots of snuggling (out of necessity to keep warm). Ty is insane and jumped in the water one day too. It was a fun cozy weekend and Thatcher loves the cabin. Because it was so cold the boys lived in their sweatshirts. I loved seeing James's chubby round face peering through his sweatshirt hood every day.




This is Thatcher's "cave". He loves going on bear hunts and we spent the weekend going on bear hunts in the leaves. Every time I buried him he told me he was in his "cave". I love seeing his imagination come to life.

Thatcher and Simon jumping off the coffee table. This ended badly for Thatcher, poor kid.

Ty's impressive wood pile and our little helper.


My boys.

A big tree fell on our cabin a few weeks ago and caused quite a bit of damage (thus the blue tarp on the roof). I didn't take any good pictures of it close up, but here is one that shows the entire length of the tree. The tree continued up and over the roof, but this picture was taken after that had all been cut up and removed.