Lucky boys!

I know I've posted things like this before, but my boys are really lucky.

First Day of Kindergarten and A New Preschool

Back at the end of August, my oldest started Kindergarten. He was so excited! He wore his new shirt, his new pants, new shoes, and his new backpack. I was pretty excited too. I still remember my first day of kindergarten picture with a bookbag my mom had made with my name on the side.

He loves school (at least for now)--kind of takes after me in that way rather than his dad. In 4th grade Max's mom found out he hadn't been doing his homework. When she asked him why he said, "When I'm at school, I'll do work, but when I'm home it's 'me' time." Fourth grade!! Hopefully I won't have to deal with that because I was the complete opposite. An extreme over-achiever, I didn't know how to not have an assignment done, and when, in middle school, I told my mom that a friend got $100 for every A she got on her report card, my mom offered me $100 if I could force myself to get a C.
Little bro needed a photo that morning too. And I should just pretend that this was his first day too because on his actual first day of preschool, I forgot the camera when I dropped him off and...
then when I picked him up I realized I hadn't combed his hair. I think it was a busy day. Poor middle child! He loves his preschool too--can't wait to go every time.

Nelson Family End of Summer Party

At the end of the summer we had a fabulous Nelson party/family reunion. All of my brothers and sisters are back in Utah, one having just returned from Germany. So what did we do? We rented a huge slide, of course.

My sister and her family had just moved into their new home (after waiting 9 months for it on short sale!!) and it has a great backyard for parties.

This next picture makes me LOVE my camera. I upgraded cameras just before we left Iowa because I found a great deal on a used one. It takes fabulous pictures with amazing color in my opinion!



Such a fun day, and it even went into the night with a sleepover for anyone who wanted. The kids all loved it. I don't have a picture, but my sister told the girls they could toilet-paper the boys. They did, as well as most of the house, and they even toilet-papered my sister and her husband while they were sleeping. She woke up thinking, "Great, that's comforting to know we can sleep through several people walking around our bed and toilet papering right over our heads."

Hope we can do it again next year!

Moab with the Youngs and Cabin with the McQueens

As soon as we got back to Utah, we made sure to plan weekends with two of our closest friends' families. Max and I worked with both of the Youngs and both of the McQueens on the river. This makes it extra fun to play with them because we're both friends with both of the husbands and both of the wives. None of that awkward, let's go hang out with your friends of my friends kind of thing. I love it and hope we are always very close friends. In fact, I would love it if the Youngs lived on one side of us and the McQueens lived on the other. Maybe we can make that work someday. It is also fun because all of our kids are very close in age.

First we went to Moab with the Youngs. We did a little overnighter on the daily section of the Colorado. Thank goodness the Youngs have a raft. A raft will be our first major splurge as soon as we can afford it.

Compare this photo to photos from our river days and man we've aged. But at least we've done it together. Still wearing the same river shirts though. Max's was a gift from the Youngs and mine was a gift from a passenger. I had told him how much his pearly-snappy was coveted on the river and on the last day, he took it off and handed to me. It smelled pretty bad, but I still use it to this day.

I think here they were digging to China.
And then they decided to meditate.
We also went to this great tunnel, Tusher tunnel, outside of Moab. It was nice and cool inside it and of course the kids loved it.


We also found some real dino tracks.

Then another weekend or so later, we went up Weber Canyon with the McQueens. We came down for some boating.

We did some four-wheeling. I think Wyatt and I look kind of crazy in this photo with our wind-blown hair.

Snakes. While I will not touch them, it is fun to see little boys get so excited by them.
We did some fishing at Smith and Moorhouse and a lot of throwing rocks, chasing the dog, and just plain hanging out.

I love this photo. Fisher loves to cuddle up to Jonah. We miss River, born just a month after Jonah. She would have fun with all these little boys.
Love you Youngs and McQueens!

Jonah's First Bike Race

Jonah has always been a great bike rider. I attribute to the Boot Scoot, but then I'm biased. He has been riding a two-wheeler since he was 3, learned in about 30 minutes, and never used training wheels. I'd say that's pretty good, so, yes, I will attribute it to the Boot Scoot.

We went over to the Park City section of the Tour of Utah. They have a free race for kids that goes on a very small section of the actual course. Jonah loved it. And loved getting a medal.

Three Boys

Leaving Iowa

Before leaving Iowa we went out one evening to take pictures of the corn fields.

Flowers for me--one of the joys of having 3 sons.

We walked over to the University of Iowa cross-country field while the sun was setting and just ran around.
You don't have to worry about hitting sprinkler heads in Iowa because the grass just grows on its own, acres and acres of grass just growing. We will miss that!

We filled our moving truck to the brim, and even had to leave a bookshelf, bench, and our dining table behind. We even filled the Jeep that was on the trailer behind the moving truck and packed bikes and trampoline poles around the car on the trailer. We obviously should've gotten a bigger truck.
Wyatt fell asleep while eating a sugar daddy during the unloading of the moving van. Sugar coma?

This is what we moved to. This is not a view from our home, but from a nearby hill. Whenever Max and I went running or we all went out for a bike ride in the late summer and fall, we couldn't get over the beauty of this place. We are happy to be here, but definitely miss some things about and people in Iowa.

Baby Monster

This little guy's nickname is Baby Monster--and for some reason this picture embodies that nickname for me.

He doesn't do it so much any more, but he used to always hand you things with two hands--usually one hand held underneath the one that was holding something. He loved to help unload the utensils from the dishwasher and every item was given with two hands. So sweet, I just don't want to forget it.

4 Years Old

I love this little guy and back in July he turned 4!

Since his birthday is in the summer, many of our Iowa friends had either already moved away or were visiting family. The first 3 or 4 friends he said he wanted to invite to his party were already gone. Luckily, he had a long list of friends to invite so we had plenty of kids at the party.

We had the party at City Park. If you are in Iowa City, this is the best way to throw a birthday party EVER! Buy three punch passes for $18 and you've got 30 rides to share among the kiddos.

Of course, every party needs a pinata.
Wyatt told me he wanted a Pickles cake--Pickles the Fire Cat that is. I figured most little kids wouldn't have read this book because it isn't an extremely popular book (it was a classic at my house growing up) so part of the party was reading about Pickles the Fire Cat.

Funny side note--just recently Max introduced the boys to Star Wars. One morning Wyatt came into our bedroom, pretending to be a cat. He said, "I'm Darth Vader's cat. Meow!!" Max asked, "Are you Darth Pickles?" and now Darth Pickles is a regular at our house.

One of Wyatt's best presents was waiting at home after the party--thanks Grandparents!

Solon Beef Days and Johnson County Fair

In an attempt to soak up all of Iowa while we still could, we made sure to get back to Solon Beef Days. Solon is a small town near Iowa City. We love that fair because they have lots of fun free stuff for kids. First, big wheel racing.

Jonah made sure to wear his hat backwards for extra speed. He made it through two heats, but Wyatt was a big winner in his age group coming in second place. He got a big fancy ribbon.
After the wheel barrow races the fire fighters set up the barrel-spray game. I'm sure it has a better name than that, but I can't remember it right now. Two kids get a minute to try and spray the barrel toward the opponents' side. When the buzzer rings, whoever has made it to the other side of the center marker wins.
Wyatt did not enjoy it. He didn't like getting sprayed in the face, even with the goggles. Jonah wanted to go shirtless and seemed to like it a bit more.

Then a week or so later, we went on down to the Johnson county fair. This is where the certified tractor pulls take place. If you win this pull, you get to go on to the state pull at the Iowa State Fair (biggest state fair in the world!!!). The boys did good, but their parents aren't true tractor pull enthusiasts so they didn't have the training other kids had--and I'm saying that in complete seriousness.

They did still win a ribbon and a soda, which was prize enough. Here's Jonah with one of his best little friends, Bennett.
After the kids' tractor pull you can go watch the big boys' tractor pull--extremely loud and exhaust-y. We didn't know you needed to bring ear plugs (and maybe a gas mask, too) so we weren't there for long.