A Fieldtrip, Kitchen Drawers and Tyler Still Hates Laundry

I got to go on a field trip with Tyler. It was to a place called Lucky Ladd which is a fun pumpkin patch kind of place. I've been there with every kid so this may have been the last time! 

 

This is Isabel. Tyler has had a huge crush on her all year. She told me, "Tyler loves me." Of course Tyler said, "Not anymore. We are just friends!" 

A tornado came through our area a few weeks ago. It hit a few miles away from us which had all of us a little nervous. Several homes were completely destroyed and one home was completely flipped upside down. Luckily we didn't have any damage. The next morning we found this piece of plywood sticking out of the ground in our backyard. It's not ours and we still have no idea where it came from. It's quite stuck in there. It just shows the damage the wind can do! Of course, while it seems to the rest of the U.S. that we have a lot of tornadoes, we really don't. This was the only one we've seen in the 7 years we've lived here.

Will wants me to send this photo into the lego magazine. I guess I'd better get on that!

I get to work with some cute girls at church twice a month. They made thankful turkeys and I *may* have suggested they add me to theirs. haha.

Tyler created whatever this is. I think he finally decided it was ghost. He had fun creating whatever it is!

I've been making and installing drawers for our kitchen cabinets. I LOVE THEM. They have made life soooo much easier!!

I helped in Tylers class one day and then went to lunch with him. He had refused to pack his own home lunch so he had to eat school lunch, but was mad about having to eat pizza. (Our kids are crazy weird. Who doesn't want pizza?? Plus, the schools pizza is actually pretty good.) 

While there I remembered it was Aunt Lynn and Uncle Steve's 50th wedding anniversary so I thought we'd send a quick picture. He was grumpy as he tried to make a 5-0 with his hands.

 When he realized who we were sending it to, he said, "I want to take it again!" and this time he smiled. :)  Happy 50th Aunt Lynn and Uncle Steve!!

Will got a face-ful of smoothie one morning.

Remember how I told you Tyler hates to fold laundry? Well, this time he crawled under the chair and whined about it for about 2 hours. This kid will do anything you ask of him, any chore you can imagine... except laundry. It's crazy!

Tyler is a Cute Weirdo

Maybe it's that he's the last born? Or maybe it's his inner showman- he always wants to put on a act. But regardless, Tyler gives a lot of laughs around here!

We often call him the Hulk because he can change from being sweet Tyler to angry Tyler in a moment. One day he covered himself in green soap, thus actually being the Hulk.

He was refusing to get his jammies on one evening so he proceeded to cry and wail while sitting naked on his bedroom floor. (No idea why he wouldn't just get dressed.) It had gotten cold that evening and he was just making himself miserable. Eventually he crawled into the red basket (which is the boys laundry hamper. It's from Ikea and I cannot say enough about how well this thing is made. We've had it for years and all the kids have been in it, been swung from it, crawled it in, you name it, this basket has experienced it. And it doesn't even a ripped seam. This thing is amazingly made.)  Anyway, Lee got tired of his wailing so he carried him to the living room. I can't remember what happened next. I guess he got dressed at some point.

And then there's the moments when I make the kids fold their laundry. Tyler HATES folding laundry. He'd rather do any chore other than this one. Instead of folding his clothes, he decided to wear them all.

(Amy's laugh cracks me up!) 

Actually, reexamining these photos I realize it was the same night. He was sprawled out on the floor wailing because he didn't want to come fold the laundry. That's what happened.

Oh this Tyler! He's such a cute boy though and has such a big heart. He listens to rules and usually follows them. He loves his teacher and hugs her about 100 times a day. He's a fighter though. He will not let anyone interrupt him or walk all over him, that's for sure.

Last Sunday Will was having a hard time with a kid in his church class. The teacher had called and said Will was sitting under a table and crying about it. Well, at the same time Tyler got in a fight with someone in his class. We said Tyler, you can't kick people! He shrugged and said, "Well, he called me a poopy head, so I kicked him."

And then there's my favorite story of the boys playing in the garage. Will started crying and I asked him what's wrong. He said, "Tyler hit me!" Not seeing any weapons around I said, "Tyler, what did you hit him with?" Tyler held up his fist and said, "My FIST!"  hahahaha.

Oh man, it's amazing how different boys can be! They make you laugh and give you gray hairs all at the same time.

Hiking the Fiery Gizzard

Last year my hiking group and I attempted to hike the Fiery Gizzard trail. We only got about 1/3 of the way through before we turned around due to losing the daylight.

This year we wanted to try it again and we were determined to succeed. This trail is 13 miles (we added an additional mile looking at an overlook... making the total 14 miles.) It's over boulders, up ravines, down ravines, under huge rock overhangs, and even behind a waterfall. It is a crazy trail. So while 14 miles is a lot- the trail itself is about triple that in difficulty. The trail is an end to end trail. There is no turning back. Once you start, just just keep plugging away until you reach the other side.

We started at 7am and didn't get off the trail until 6:30pm. That is just over 11 hours of straight walking. We. Did. Not. Stop. Not even for lunch. We were rushing against daylight and we were booking it. (Truth be told, most of us could have finished earlier but one lady had a hard time and was slower than the others. We would walk for a ways then wait on her, over and over. We didn't want to leave her alone on the trail.)

The trail is gorgeous though. I mean, really, really pretty. We started at Foster Falls (pictured above) and worked our way to the Grundy Trailhead (most people do it the opposite way. We actually found this way to be a tad easier. There was more going "down" where the other way would be a lot more going "up.")

You always have to wonder about things that give you a warning.......

The fall colors were out in all their glory! Pictures never do nature any justice.

This is another thing that's hard to tell in a picture. But we were walking around this nice, normal trail when I saw a sign that pointed down and the word "Trail" on it. Well, the direction of the "trail" was straight down. Straight. down. The middle of the photo is only a landing area. You cannot even tell the bottom from this photo. We looked at each other, took a potty break then took a deep breath and started down.

 The rock formations are simply amazing.

This is the very bottom of the picture I talked about above. This was the easy part because I was actually able to take a picture. A hiking stick is a must for this trail!

All smiles though.

Throughout this entire trail we'd look at a pile of rocks and notice "that" was the trail. Oh man. I still can't believe we survived.

Yep, another "trail."

There were many waterfalls throughout which was a pleasant surprise. I didn't take pictures of them all.

We came upon a random staircase. What in the world?? It's actually going over barbed wire. We have no idea why the barbed wire is there. It is not private property.

Someone created this rock seat. We called it the Stone Throne. It was random and appreciated!

This is when I realized we were going to have to walk behind this waterfall. It actually wasn't bad and we hardly got wet.

Time to go back up!

I have no idea, but I thought my face was funny.

We became the bandana crew.

I only took pictures during the first 8 miles. After that it it became a race against the sun. Because of all the boulders you can't go very fast so I concentrated on not hurting myself. Luckily enough- we all came away unharmed!! Which was such a blessing because this is a trail where one could get hurt easily.

We finished! It was pitch dark. We broke out our headlamps about 40 minutes before this picture was taken. It is NOT fun to walk around a treacherous trail in the pitch dark. Thank goodness for headlamps! We were soooo glad to be done. We accomplished it, but man oh man, was it hard! 14 miles done! ELEVEN hours of straight walking. Phew!

It was a gorgeous trail. Really, the prettiest I've ever seen. But wow, it was also thus far the hardest. :)