Deep in the 100 acre woods

Sometimes when Caleb gets home from work he says something along the lines of "Dinner in the woods!" and we all freak out and run around gathering supplies and pile into the SheBeast and head out. 

 It's a whole lot easier than camping, because there are no tents/sleeping stuff/pajamas/food/cooking stuff/etc. We usually have a fire, hike around, enjoy being away, and get home just in time for bed.

 Millie likes it.
Why are my children such raggamuffins? They bathe! They own clean clothing! But alas.

Is she still a baby? Can we pretend?

 No baby I know can fake smile like she can, so I guess she isn't.

Time for a new baby.

"CALEB!!"

*ahem*

Emmy had the camera, and took approximately 49 photos of the fire.

 And approximately 490 photos of Millie. Which is fine with me, but I decided to give the camera her a break.

 We just head up a dirt road, pick a spot, and plant ourselves there for a few hours. It's incredibly refreshing, I highly recommend it.

The fire got too hot for Millie.

So she scooted back. Right next to the food. Convenient!

 When we're out here, Caleb always looks like this. It's his happy place.

Why? Why must we eat these? It's impossible not to.

Although, I don't think they actually eat them.

They just toasty roasty burn them.

Words cannot express how much I adore this child. She "cracks" me up (haha!)

Then Caleb CALEB Caleb challenged me to a "white rabbit" contest, of which I had never heard, of which I accepted.
The winner is the person who can fit the most marshmallows into their mouth and still pronounce the words "White Rabbit."

It was a classy, dignified sort of amusement. I recommend it for your next aristocratic event. 

 Then, because we couldn't find a trail (that's weird, right?) we walked down the road for a while. And Caleb followed us in the car. (Also weird, right?) (But true.)

 And we spotted these beauties from far off and away! Which is exactly the distance you like to be from beauties of this sort.

And now summer is fading, although it is still mostly here. We don't usually start our official schooling until after Labor Day, but the kids came home from Primary this week telling me that "The teachers said! School starts on Tuesday! PLEASE can school start on Tuesday?!"
I already had everything for this year, so I said sure. Why not.

We even took a "back to school" photo, because we're weird! 

Did I mention that I adore Claire? I do. 

I like my other kids, too. 

I want to ride my bicycle

We have this thing going on around these parts. 

This is my "parlor" which resides right inside my front door. Guess what it is? A bike shop. And I love it that way. 

 When I am riding on my favorite bike in the whole world (well, one of my favorite bikes in the whole world), this is my view (which accounts for most of why I love this bicycle).

Caleb bought this for us last year, and since our baby is no longer a baby (waah!) and we have a in-house-babysitter, we have ridden it this year. And we have loved it. 

Loved it enough to hang it on the wall in our library.

Tandem bicycling is not for everyone. Turns out there is a huge personality thing that goes along with it. You either love it, or you don't. Check out this quote that I found on a bike website one day:

 "Tandem riding leaves no compromise... you either cycle straight into a new honeymoon or you cycle straight into the divorce court! There is nothing in between."

For us, it has been the new honeymoon. 

 Plus we live in a gorgeous mountain valley which boasts miles and miles of gorgeous country roads to explore. Bonus.

But that is not all, no that is not all! (Name that book)

Possibly even more than road biking... we love mountain biking. And some time a few months ago when I was not in my right senses I signed up for a race. 

 Which turned out to be SO FUN.
These photos are slightly confusing because the start and finish were in the same spot, so this sign says START on the other side of it where we watched the ladies finish... but it says FINISH in the photos of the start. You get it.

 There I go! The leader of the pack! Just kidding, there's a bunch of ladies ahead of me.

 Nearly every time I bike and I'm really cruising nicely, I have the batman song in my head. Is that weird? I'm always like "nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuh BAT MAN!!!" And then I go faster. Because I am batman.

FINISH! At the Start sign. You get it.
I finished it! It was 8 miles of up and 1 mile of down. It was rocky and steep and difficult and gorgeous. The categories were 'beginner' 'sport' and 'expert', with age categories within each of those. I opted for 'sport'.
I was 9th out of 20 in my category, which I was stoked about. My first goal was to not be very last. Goal achieved!
My second far-off-dreaming-goal was to be in the top half. Goal achieved! Barely. But achieved.

Best cheering section a girl could have! I lurve these kids. They be raggamuffins, but they're my raggamuffins.

 This is my buddy Katie (and her little bundle of cuteness) who signed up for the race the night before, which worked out awesome because she was the only one in her category! She got first place! That's the way to race, man.

And when I arrived home that night, this was waiting for me:

 Because my sister Katie is awesome and she loves me.

Caleb started mountain biking this year using his old beater mission bike. After two rides, guess what he did? He sold his Carbon Fiber road bike. He bought an aluminum one instead and had money left over to also get a rockin' new mountain bike. Because he loves it that much. Because it's that awesome.

We have had SO much fun biking this summer. We go multiple times a week, some times the kids come along, sometimes we go with our awesome biking friends, sometimes one of us is busy so we go alone. But the very bestest times of all are when we go with each other. Just us two. Because we are the best of friends. 

 And sometimes we ride under rainbows because we are magical.

Going to the Fair

Once a year, in our quaint little town, we have a County Fair! 

And every year we watch the rides go up and plan our trip to the Ferris Wheel.

And every year we end up missing it. 

 Well NOT THIS YEAR, buddy! We went!

 Perhaps it was that the weather was much nicer than in years past. It's usually pretty blazing at the end of July, but these past few weeks have been cloudy and rainy and gorgeous. And not hot. So we went!

 And we brought a few neighbors along because we are in complete denial that they do not belong to our family.

After our first ride on the Pirate Ships we headed to the ferris wheel, but they were still working on it. We were there right when the carnival opened for the day and they weren't quite ready for us, which was fine, because we decided we needed a snack.

It was 10am. Who doesn't need cotton candy and funnel cake at 10am?

 It was delicious. I am now determined to make funnel cake right here in my own home, because this must not be a once a year thing.

The Ferris Wheel was still struggling, so we went in search of a ride for the little girls.

 And we found one. I was quite interested to see if Millie would go for it. Oh did she ever.

 She was not alarmed in the slightest, and rang that bell with all her might and fury.
She also stood up on the bench and the attendant had to politely ask her to stay seated.

Twice.

At last, the Ferris Wheel was ready for us! We clambered on and snapped some pics while they were loading up another chair.

 When we left the house that morning, Jonas's Dad said "If you can get that kid on the Ferris Wheel, I'd really appreciate it."
Jonas was a little nervous. As was Claire. She had decided to ride on the boats with her tickets instead of the Ferris Wheel, because she was afraid to ride it. Then as Jonah and Jonas and I were buckling in the super nice attendant said "That little girl in the pink can ride for free, if you want." And just like that, up she ran!

 Oh, and Jonas Totally got over it. Real Quick. He was back to his hilarious self in no time.

 And Claire was super glad that she braved the ride. By the time we were making our last round she raised both her arms and "Woo Hoo'ed!" with the boys.

 The older girls had stayed down with Millie, so after we got off it was their turn. This is the only photo I got of their faces as they were cruising around because it was moving so fast! The attendant told them that it would be faster because they were the only ones on this time, and he was right! It was nutty.

After that ride we had a few tickets left, so Emmy took a turn on the Fun Slide,

 which she said was awesome and terrifying.

And Jonah braved the Indiana Jones obstacle course,

 which ended with a giant slide and he said it was "awesome, man!"

All in all, an expensive but worth it trip to the fair. I sure love these kids, and I sure love playing with them.

And hang the expense - look at those faces!