Lainey's Fire Station Field Trip

Lainey has been to this field trip... a few times.  Between Brielle and Ashton's turns doing this with their preschools and doing it on her own last year, she's a veteran.  But she likes it, so we went again!

This is her preschool teacher giving directions.

Close up looks at a fireman and inside the EMT truck.

 

 Heart rate taken.

Going for a ride in the fire truck.

Watching the big water hose turned on.

With her cousin, Camden who is also in her class.

Elder Foster!!!!!!

So, my brother, Marty was called to serve his mission in Brazil.  But after completing his two months of training in the Missionary Training Center, he (like most Brazil bound missionaries) had not yet received his visa.  So, as expected, he was sent to a state-side mission to serve until his visa arrived.  Of all the missions in the United States, he was sent to MINE!  Crazy!  He was assigned to work in Caldwell, about 20 minutes away from where we live.

So the very week he arrived, I and my other ward council leaders of my ward were asked to attend a regional conference in Caldwell, ID of all places.  The topic: Missionary Work.  I was minding my own business in my seat near the very back of the gymnasium- the chapel and most of the gym were already filled, when a song ended and I heard someone whisper, "Sarah!".  I looked back and there was Elder Foster, sitting 2 rows behind me! 

I think it's pretty cool that he was sent here.  I didn't get to see him off in Alaska as I had hoped to, we ended up not being able to fly up there until a week and a half after he left.  And he was a little guy when I moved out to go to college so I haven't gotten to be around him for most of his life.  Not that I intended to bug him.  But he did get permission to have us take him and his companion to lunch the next week, as long as it was in his area.

This was the family with Elder Foster and his trainer, Elder Olney at Olive Garden.

Princess Party

Lainey was invited to a Birthday party- princess dress-up themed.  Which, to a little girl, means it's going to be a VERY good day! :)

First Day of School

First day of school!  It was warm and sunny for Brielle and Ashton on their first day.  Lainey started a week later and it was a rainy day out.

Council and Hot Springs

After leaving Spokane over Labor Day Weekend, we drove in the direction of home, but stopped about an hour or so away in Council where we had reserved a night in our friends' cabin there.  They had offered a weekend stay there at an auction our scouts put on for a fundraiser.  It was dark upon arriving, but I still recognized directions there from having been there one other time when the friend that owns it and a handful of other friends and I stayed there last year.  We put the kids to bed and fell asleep watching a movie. 

 Then, in the morning, the kids watched "Little Rascals" and played around outside.

After we cleaned up and packed up, we drove to a nearby hiking trail head and hiked 2 miles in to a hot spring.

This is Lainey doing' Pistols for fun :)

And always dancin'.

I don't think there is an activity I enjoy doing more in life than hiking in God's country.  It really breaths life into my being!  It was a lot easier to just go hiking whenever I felt like it where I grew up in Alaska.  Where we live now and the schedules we live by, it take more effort- more prep, more time driving to places, and patience having little children where I didn't in Alaska :).  It was a DRY DUSTY Fall day and the kids were starting to enjoy the journey a little less as time went on.  "Are we there yet?" was heard many times.  2 miles sounds simple enough, but there was a lot of wind fall (fallen trees) for little bodies to climb up and over and by the time we got to the hot springs, they were wore out!  But they soon realized it was so worth it.  And the fun they had at the hot springs carried their happy little spirits all the way home in a pleasant spell.  I was in heaven to enjoy it with them and of course take too many pictures of it all.  :)

As short as she was, little Lainey ate a lot of dirt if she was ever behind anyone and their dust cloud on that hike!  But she was a trooper!