A fall full of travels

For reasons that will be disclosed later, we've had a lot of travels over the last few months. We've put a lot of miles on our new car, but every mile has been worth it! We've also enjoyed spending extra time with family in the process. Below are pictures from some of the highlights of our trips.

On one trip back to Kansas, Miles' tiger got a bloody nose and Miles had to help get it stopped. Miles has had a lot of bloody noses this summer/fall. I thought it was cute that he was pretending his tiger was struggling with one as well. He did such a good job of helping his tiger by plugging his nose off with a napkin!

Time with the Utah cousins - I thought it was cute how all three of them were playing with their lips

Flight simulation with Grandma at Exploration Place in Wichita, KS

He was in heaven playing in this helicopter!

And also in the cab of this "Frank" aka combine

Dale finds some of the coolest things at garage sales!

Uncle Andy & the girls even came over to play with the fun toy at Grandma's

*I'm almost all caught up on blog posts...just in time to make a BIG announcement. Stayed tuned!*

Miles' 4th Birthday

Miles got to celebrate his birthday twice this year! Before Miles and I left for Colorado we decided to have a little get-together with some of our Kansas family and friends. On Friday, September 6th we had a party at the park with cake and presents. It turned out to be a very hot and windy day so most of my plans for decorations and the cake didn't quite turn out like I wanted. Every year I say I'm never going to throw another party because it stresses me out so much because I want things to be perfect, but every year I go ahead and do it for Miles' sake. I think he has fun and appreciates the effort so that is all that matters, right? Miles got some new toys and a couple of new shirts. He was very excited, but kept asking me why people had brought him those things. I guess getting presents for your birthday isn't something he understands quite yet!

Miles and two of his favorite girls in the world (and the infamous Lightening McQueen balloon that ended up in the tree thanks to the girl on the left! Ha!)

His cake

He loves Cars and especially this scene in the movie

The gang

Opening presents

Aunt Johanna, Keaghan, & Miles' new toys!

On Miles' actual birthday (September 14th) we were together again as a family and just spent the entire day doing things Miles likes to do. The night before we set up his presents and threw some balloons around on the floor. When he came downstairs the morning of his birthday it was almost like Christmas morning for him!

A new bike!

Hiking on the Monument

Such a fun place to hike around

Family picture

He liked looking at the cacti

Lightening and Mater cupcakes!

*Ignore our lovely singing!*

Grand Junction High football game

Miles took this family picture!

I think Miles enjoyed his 4th birthday...I know I did! It's hard to believe that he's been apart of our lives for four years already! We love him so much and are so thankful he's ours! He's taught us so much about life and we'll forever be grateful for him. We love you little man!

Our Summer ~ Part 9

August was a LONG month for the three of us! Having Dave in Grand Junction and Miles and I in Halstead getting ready for the move was rough. Miles and I missed Dave so much that we had to break the month up and make a trip out to Grand Junction middle of the month. It felt sort of weird to visit Dave in our new house (that we had never seen before), but then return again to Halstead. Miles even mentioned to me several times that he wanted to go back to "Daddy's house." Dave also had no furniture with him; just a couple of air mattresses and a couple of camp chairs. We had talked about selling some of our furniture before the move so while we were in Grand Junction we decided to go ahead and buy a new couch so that at least Dave had that to sit on! So far we're very pleased with our couch purchase. It's our first time having leather so we'll see.

New couch - empty living room

Skyping with Grandma - telling her all about our new house

Labor Day weekend was the BIG weekend for us! We flew Dave in for the weekend, rented and loaded the moving truck, and then sent Dave on his way back to Colorado. I had an appointment that Miles and I needed to stay in Kansas for so we didn't get to leave for Colorado right away, but we joined Dad about a week later. Thankfully some of Dave's family made the trip from Utah to Grand Junction to help him unload the moving truck. He really appreciated the help!

Every inch was full

 

Accepted Offer!

I can't remember if I ever mentioned it on the blog, but my mom got her house sold during all of this as well. She was scheduled to close on it two days after we moved out in early September. Perfect timing! Because Miles and I stayed in town we were able to help clean the house and get it ready for the new owners. It's been such a relief to my mom to get that ol' house sold and I'm glad it all happened when we were moving out that way she didn't have to worry about it being empty and for sale, etc. What a blessing.

And that's it for our summer series! Coming up next: Miles' 4th birthday!

Our Summer ~ Part 8

On Saturday, August 3rd the Sedgwick County Zoo held a back to school event and offered $1 admission to the zoo for the day. Since Miles loves going to zoo, this was an event I could not pass up! We invited Grandma to go along with us and she gladly accepted the offer. With our total admission only being $3, we felt as though we could just visit the exhibits that we wanted to see most and not worry about trying to see everything at the zoo. Miles only lasts a couple of hours anyway at things like that before he starts to get tired and cranky. We let him decide what he wanted to see and went from there. It was a great morning at the zoo!

First up - giraffes

Up close & personal with the giraffes

Stopped the see the zebras on the way to the tigers

Miles thinks this is so cool!

A bear perched on the rocks

Our Summer ~ Part 7

The end of July/beginning of August brought lots of rain to our part of Kansas. Dave was getting ready to move to Grand Junction to start New Teacher Orientation on August 1st and I was worried about the rising river in Halstead. In fact, the day Dave left for Grand Junction the City of Halstead started talking about how deep the river needed to be in order to close the flood gates.

On July 31st, Miles and I decided to go check out the river and both were amazed by how far it had come out of its banks. You could still get out of Halstead (they hadn't closed any gates yet), but one of the main roads out of town to the north had water over it and would soon close a few days later. They also even closed one of the flood gates on the NW side of town before all was said and done.

I've been through a flood in Halstead before (back in 1993) and did NOT want to see that happen again. Thankfully the dike and flood gate project was complete this go around where it wasn't back in 1993.

The swinging bridge over the river almost completely under water

Main Street bridge

Always happy to get his picture taken!

Riverside Park was closed and completely submerged

The measuring stick - normally it's not even anywhere near the water

I'm not 100% positive on the details, but I think the river had to reach 21' before they would close the gate on Main Street and 19' before they closed the gate on the NW side of town. It never got to a level where they closed Main Street's gate, but it got real close!

These next pictures were taken on August 8th so as you can see it just kept raining and raining. It was a nerve racking time for me without Dave around to reassure me we would be okay, but I tired to have faith in the dike and the flood gates that all would stay dry in our house.

The end of our driveway - I literally could not get out for several hours

Stalled cars in front of our house

Our little pond in the backyard

Our Summer ~ Part 6

We traded this...

for this...

and I LOVE it because of this!

While in the Kansas City area for the NKOTB concert, we decided it was time to take the leap and purchase a new car. Our Tuscon had high mileage and it started to struggle here and there. I feared being stranded along side the road somewhere with child in tow but no hubby around to help. The thought of that made me really nervous so we decided the peace of mind a new car would bring was finally worth the car payment that we hadn't had in a few years. It was REALLY hard to think about having a car payment again because we REALLY enjoyed not having one for so long!

We had been test driving different vehicles off and on all summer (Dave wanted a minivan & I wanted a car that got great gas mileage) and found a really great deal on a brand new Hyundai Elantra at a Hyundai dealer in the KC area. We drove it home that weekend and have loved it ever since! I do miss my SUV and the space it provided, but I love only spending $30-35 at the gas station each time I stop for gas. So nice!

Holly won!