243/365

Ellie's wearing this pair of size 3 shoes now. They were part of a Christmas gift from Darin's mom & dad back in 2005! It was shortly after we'd found out we were having a baby--didn't know yet if it was a girl or a boy, so Jerold & Wally sent a whole box of baby stuff for both! Glad we're getting to use these, almost 5 years later!

242/365

Today was Gavin's last day of Amazing Athletes. They did football & lacrosse today.
He really had a great time--he learned a lot and was really good at following directions!

241/365

We'd made some homemade pizzas when Ben & Becky were here, and just had to do it again--they were so good! We made individual size ones today. The crust is a simple artisan bread dough recipe I got from a recent RS meeting here--it makes really delicious bread too!

240/365

Ellie turned 10 months old yesterday--she's definitely a girl on the go! I'm cherishing the quiet moments I get to feed her a bottle before bed when she's ready to relax & just be held.

239/365

We went to the Western Idaho Fair here in Boise, and Gavin tried milking a cow! This poor cow was definitely a patient soul to let a bunch of inexperienced kids squeeze on her.

238/365

Ellie stood up in her high chair tonight while I was making dinner. That girl... luckily Gavin noticed right away--we'll be going back to using the seat belt! Here she is standing at my feet while I finished up.

237/365

Today was a Primary (water games) activity. Gavin's on the losing side of this game of Red Rover (with sprinkler in the middle). He's in the white shirt, holding the teacher's hand. They also played Duck Duck Goose where they squeezed a sponge full of water of the head of the "goose," and they had a water relay with four teams lined up, competing to fill their buckets the fullest by carrying a cup (with holes in it) full of water over their heads and running to the other side to empty the remaining water in their bucket. They all had fun & got an Otter Pop for a treat!

236/365

We went to the Main Library in downtown Boise for the first time today, mainly to get the book, Walk On by Marla Frazee. Tessa had discovered it at their library in Orem, and thought Ellie might like it, so Becky called to tell us about it. Clark should check it out too--it's very good. The front inside jacket reads,
"Are you tired of sitting around all day? Do you ever wish you could stand on your own two feet? It's time to start walking!" Gavin's most exciting find was this Star Wars book. We love the library!

235/365

Is it at four-years-old when kids seem all grown up? Gavin said to me today, "Mom, I want to use your toothpaste from now on, because I want my breath to be minty!" No more "Rocket Berry?" Gavin learned baseball and basketball at Amazing Athletes today, but all my pictures were a blur--too much action!

234/365

We said goodbye to the Williams before going to church, and they left for home about a half hour later. It was a fun visit--we hope they'll come again! The rest of our day was relaxing--there's nothing like a good game of "Go Fish" on a Sunday afternoon! (or three or four or five...)

233/365

After packing up camp, we headed another half hour north to check out McCall, ID which looked like a cool town and is a winter skiing destination. We had lunch at Blue Moose Pizza, then on our way back to Boise, we took a 6 mile detour off the freeway to go to Gold Fork Hot Springs. They had 6 pools, tiered with the hottest (107°) at the top, down to the coolest (90 something). After getting home tonight, Becky & I went to the 10:10 showing of Twilight: Eclipse, and returned home to find everyone fast asleep.

232/365

We drove an hour and a half up to Cascade, where we set up camp for one night at Arrowhead campground. It had super clean bathrooms close to our tents, which was important when camping with a 7-month pregnant lady! After some fishing, where Gavin & Tessa were catching fish after fish, we cooked our tin foil dinners, corn on the cob and hot dogs for the kids, followed by smores, of course.

231/365

On our first full day with the Williams, Darin went to work while the rest of us went to the MK Nature Center in downtown Boise. They had lots of stuffed animal mounts inside which were very scary to Gavin for some reason, but we all enjoyed the Nature Walk on the grounds. We saw a deer, many birds, a butterfly garden and a fish pond with a bridge. We then walked along the Boise river on our way to the park where we ended our downtown outing. We'll have to revisit the Nature Center with Darin and let Gavin give those animals another chance.

230/365

Ben & Becky's family were our first visitors here in Boise. They arrived today and after a quick dinner,
we took them to the park!

229/365

A little gameplay on the iPhone before dinner... still a favorite.

228/365

Today was the first time we put a rubber band in Ellie's hair. So cute, but it didn't stay in for long.

227/365

I'd run the bath water and just got Ellie undressed when she tried to climb in!

226/365

Darin & Gavin went on the Ward Fathers & Sons Camp Out last night. Good times!

225/365

Gavin gets so excited about watermelon... and he will eat it at every meal until it's gone!

224/365

Been doing a little sewing... I finally made these pajama pants for Gavin using an old flannel Disney nightshirt of mine that I hadn't worn in years. I got the idea last year sometime from a post on Dana Willard's blog, MADE, then the other day, saw this really simplified tutorial for making pants from an old t-shirt & decided to just do it. So easy! I made Ellie a pair too, using the sleeves of the nightshirt.

223/365

We've perfected blowing raspberries.

222/365

We knew this day would come... Gavin has hit the big 3-0!

221/365

Amazing Athletes was inside today, and the sports of the day were soccer & tennis. Very entertaining to watch! I was so entertained, I almost forgot to snap a picture! I pulled out the camera right at the end, so this was a little rushed. Didn't mean to cut off Coach's head, and as an unintentional bonus,
Ellie and I made the picture too!

220/365

Couldn't be sweeter--our little girl is growing up!

219/365

Today we went to Settlers Park for the Scentsy 6th Anniversary employee party! The day began with Scentsy contributing $50,000 to the local economy by giving employees $50 to spend in one of 20 small businesses in the area--very cool. At the park we had a great BBQ picnic, sno-cones, cake, good company, bad karaoke, then finally Gavin got to check out the splash pad & playground--his favorite. Darin is really loving being part of Scentsy--it's fun working for a thriving & organized company!

218/365

We found out The Melting Pot in Boise is closing after August 15. We had a restaurant.com gift certificate to use, so we went there for our first & last time... always fun and delicious! We realized we've eaten at Melting Pot restaurants in seven states (in order of first visit): South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, California, Pennsylvania, Colorado and now Idaho (in the nick of time). Somehow we're missing Arizona, Nevada & Utah from our list--we'll have to remedy that & make it 10!

217/365

We gave Ellie a sippy cup with water today for the first time... She sure thinks it's fun!

216/365

Been "swimming" every day this week!

215/365

Ellie is a climber! Gavin never really was, so this is new territory for us. She started doing this over the weekend, and today she started climbing up and standing on the fireplace hearth too. While I was on the phone today, I subconsciously put her down off the chair three times in a row, because she kept climbing right back up each time. I'm going to have to watch her like a hawk!

214/365

I signed Gavin up for a class through Boise Parks & Rec. Here's the description: "Amazing Athletes provides a unique, tried and tested, fun filled sport program that incorporates physical fitness, muscle tone and gross motor skills while learning and playing the following sports: baseball, basketball, hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, soccer, football, golf, and tennis... [Children] will set their own goals and achieve those goals in a non-competitive environment while having loads of fun." NINE sports seemed a little over-zealous to me for four 30-minute classes, but after today, I believe it'll live up to its claims!

"Coach Kelly" is fun & exciting & taught aspects of volleyball & hockey today, among other fun things.

213/365

We took about 20 pictures of these two on the couch after church with little or no cooperation. None of them turned out as cute as this one, which I snapped about 10 minutes later, catching them off-guard

just doing their own thing. Can't really blame them... the torture!