Fort Time

One of Allie and daddy's favorite activities lately has been making forts. The fort making only seems to happen on Sundays. We have church at 11:45 am, so this leaves a lot of spare time in the mornings. Today, Allie decided to bring in some books, so they spent a good half hour reading books in the fort.

Reading "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie," Allie's favorite book lately

Go Broncos!

Go Broncos!!! Our Bronco spirit came out as the Broncos had their first game against Idaho on Saturday. Thankfully they made us proud and won their first game. We went over to Papa and Grandma Deb's for a little BBQ Tailgate Party. GG also made her way from Michigan and we were able to see her. Allie has enjoyed her company a lot more this year compared to last summer when she was here. Allie was a little leery of GG's white hair last summer, but she seems to be just fine this year, which GG has been excited about.

Allie sporting her Bronco spirit with her new "horse shirt" and her favorite the pom pom

Allie with her favorite Bronco fan "papa"

Allie helping Grandma with the dishes. It was too cute, she climbed up on a barstool and then reached over the counter to help out

Allie is saying the funniest things these days. I have to document a few of them that were said this night because they were hilarious!

Allie had gotten a piece of chocolate from Papa for her potty treat. After finishing her chocolate, Allie replies, "Chocolate.... (pause for a moment) my favorite!"

Another cute thing was when Allie got a couple of drops of water on her shirt. Allie hates to be wet with her clothes on, even when there is only a drop. So knowing this Blake went to help her out because she was crying. She responded to his help by saying, "No, It's my bedtime."

Birthday Girl

Happy 2nd Allie! We celebrated that day eating Allie's favorite meals. We enjoyed french toast for breakfast, mac n'cheese for lunch, and pasta again for dinner. Pasta would definitely be Allie's top favorite.

Daddy was in Jerome for week the week so we went to visit him for the evening. We took Allie out to a local Italian restaurant Tomatos, which was so good. We went back to the hotel for some swimming, or "hot tubing." The pool was to cold for all of us so we all enjoyed the relaxing hot tub. After swimming we went to Dairy Queen for icecream. Blake and I each got a blizzard and we usually just share with Allie and she is fine. We pulled out of the parking lot and Allie started crying after I had offered her some of my blizzard. Allie said, "my own pink." After figuring out that she wanted her own pink icecrem, we quickly pulled into Wendy's to alleviate the crying and bought a strawberry frosty shake. Allie was pleased with her "pink." I didn't know that Blake had pulled the cartridge out of the camera, so we were picture less on the birthday girl's big day.

Allie 2 days before her birthday. Allie is holding one of the cookies we made for her nursery class at church for her birthday. We made sugar cookies and put them on popsicle sticks. Allie helped put on sprinkles and decorate a number 2 on all the cookies. Yummy!

Dry Bum

Well, I guess I will say that we are officially potty trained! Horray!!! Allie has been interested on and off for the last few months. We tried the whole potty thing a couple of months ago, but it was just too many accidents to even push the point. Two weeks ago I came home from work early and played with Allie for a good hour and a half. I went to get her ready for bed, only to find she had panties on. I asked Blake what she was doing in panties. He in turn told me she wanted them on and had been telling him all night when she needed to go.

So, I ran with her fully interested in this whole potty thing and she took, hook, line, and sinker. All I have to say is that when they are ready it just clicks! It has been so easy. She has done awesome. For the first week, if it had been awhile since Allie had gone to the bathroom, I would remind her and and she would go. This week, a new leaf has been turned. Allie is telling me a majority of the time when she needs to go. We have gone two days in a row with NO accidents. Can I hear a hip hip hooray for Allie!!!

Airplanes

We just love Papsy! Allie is into making up silly words lately, and "Papsy" has become Papa's new name. Papa was over to visit this evening and as I sat outside and watched these two play it made me realize how lucky we are. How great to have a grandpa to play with, have fun with, give Allie undivided attention, and to have in town all the time. He is just such a great Papa. These two just love each other and have a special little relationship. Maybe they are so close because the are so much alike. Both are such daredevils and have no fear-kind of scary. Allie was thrown way up in the air, and came back down to say "more Papsy."

Tonight, the two pretended to be airplanes in just about any way that you could imagine. I popped in and out of the action, and just loved being inside hearing Allie giggle, knowing she was having so much fun.

Carrying the "airplane" around the yard

Running around together pretending to be airplanes

Riding on Papa's head as an airplane

Flying on Papa's feet for an airplane ride

I also had to post about my gardening buddy. Tonight as Blake was mowing the lawn, Allie was outside playing, or so I thought. After a little while, Allie came to the back door with a bucket full of peas. She was hard at work in the garden picking peas, she is so cute and was so proud of her accomplishment!

Rafting the Main Payette

I have lived in Idaho a majority of my whole life and have never experienced rafting (excluding the Boise River). If anyone else out there is in my same boat, it is a must. It was a BLAST! We are definitely doing this again. We headed up to Banks, Id, only 1 hour away, and rafted the stretch on the Main Payette which ended at Beehive Bend. We definitely had fun in the sun!

The gorgeous scenery that accompanies you down the river

Blake with a mouth full and our lovely "puff" vests that we got to wear

More H2O Fun!

We had plans to go fishing up the Middle Fork of the Boise River today. When we found out Blake's family was going to the lake, we thought we'd stop by to say hi on our way to the river. We ended up having way too much fun at the lake and stayed here all afternoon and skipped out on fishing.

Blake enjoyed wake boarding and surfing. I have to say I was quite impressed with my husband. I had only seen him wake board a few times before and he was very cautious because of a previous injury on his shoulder. Today, he let loose and let me tell you, he can get AIR. There was no fear in my husband today.

Allie and I enjoyed swimming off the side of the boat as we stopped for breaks. It was a great way for us to cool off in the hot sun. Allie enjoyed a nice nap in the evening, while I enjoyed some tubing with Lillia and Natalia. We had a blast and ended up getting thrown off the tube at the end of the day.

The girls enjoying the boat ride

Getting ready to jump in

The water was cold...but refreshing. Allie didn't last long because you guessed it...it was to cold

I don't think this picture does my husband justice...but he got some great air

The rocking of the boat kept Allie asleep for quite some time

Blake trying out his "surfer" moves. This is so much fun, but trickier than it looks

Unloading at the dock