Reid and Stefani Adopt

So what does our family do on a Saturday in November?  Buy Christmas lights and then go to the pool.  Those two things totally go together, right? Esther's running jump. Isaac's running jomp.

This week was busy with Halloween stuff, red ribbon week, a field trip, and Hurricane Clean up.  Isaac got to wear silly Christmas socks one day to school, his pajamas, a hat, and his team jersey.  I was a little disappointed that he chose to wear his baseball jersey instead of his Utah State shirt, but there's still time to convert him.  😉  On hat day, I got to go with Isaac on his school field trip.  We saw the 3 billy goat's gruff. It was a puppet show that was pretty fun to watch.   Isaac's field trip to the King Center for the Arts.  This weekend, I took it solo with the kids again while Dad went off to help clean up some of the damage in the PanHandle of Florida from Hurricane Michael.  That hurricane was a beast for sure.  Reid actually got his chainsaw stuck in that tree.  It's a good thing he likes cutting up trees with a chainsaw, because that was what he has done all weekend long.  Dad keepin' it real i...

The Archibald's hit the Halloween celebrations hard this past week.  We went to Truck or Treat at the library, and then to Esther's preschool to have some more "Fall Family Fun." And then there was the random picture of Esther giving Isaac a ride on the scooter.  Couldn't pass up that little gem. Esther was enthralled with the decorations at the library.  She asked to have me take that picture. Esther, TT, and Isaac sitting on one of the trucks at "Truck-or-Treat."  Can you tell which direction the sun was shining? Esther flying down the Captain Hook slide at the Family Fall Festival at her school. She seems so fearless. Isaac, on the other hand, is too cool to act like sliding was fun. We happened to meet up with some friends at the library.  We had Pikachu, Tinker Bell, Moana, Darth Vadar, and a Black Kitty Cat all at the same location at the same time.  Who knew that was even a possibility?  She's giving him a ride...To...

You never know how motivating it is to a kid to take a video until you see them willingly folding laundry so you will take a video of them doing it.  My storage space may be doomed...

  This week we had a sick kid, a parent night at Isaac's school, and our weekly outing to church.   OnTuesday night after I'd taken 2 bites out of dinner, Isaac reminded me he made something at school for me to see on parent night.  Parent night had started 5 minutes before I took those two bites.  So I left my dinner and family at the table and headed to the school.  I learned that Isaac is on a high reading level for a 1st grader.  I learned I was not supposed to send cough drops with him to school because it was considered "medicine."  Who knew cough drops were medicine?  My kids seriously believe they are Jolly Ranchers. I also learned that Isaac apparently likes hamburgers, although he's always chosen chicken nuggets and fries at every fast food place we've ever eaten at.  Then I learned that he's good at being nice.  I was pretty surprised to learn that.  I'm positive his sisters will appreciate him being good at being nice...

This weekend I got to go on my mother's day present from Reid, which was a Mommy outing with 4 other moms to St. Augustine, FL.  We had a blast going to the beach, eating out, and going on a dolphin tour.  We also stayed up late and talked a LOT.  While I was gone, Reid made slime with the kids, took them to Chik-fil-a and had a party at a friend's house with the kids.  He also cleaned the house Saturday before I got back.  Hats off to my man! 

 It's that time of year again...when the littles go off to school.  This year, both kids are in school--Esther in Preschool, and Isaac in 1st grade.  Isaac was pretty nervous at back to school night, but he warmed up to the new teacher pretty quickly.  Esther on the other hand, marched right in and didn't look back. She loves her teacher, who just happens to be the same preschool teacher Isaac had when he was in preschool. This makes Isaac a little jealous.  "She was my teacher first!" he says.  😆 Esther with her first day sign, even though technically, she started a few days later.  The day we took the picture she got to go to the open house at the school and meet her teacher. Esther and her friend at the entrance of the preschool on their actual first day of school. Isaac got to take pictures at back to school night in his classroom. Let's hope his teacher still feels that way by Christmas time. Isaac's first day of first grad...

"The ancient armadillo is as simple as the rain.   He's an armor plaited pillow with a microscopic brain.   He's disinterested thoroughly in what he has to wrought,  but spends his time in contemplative, armadillic thought."   --by Jack Prelutsky  Apparently, 10:30 is the happenin' hour at the zoo.  They feed all the animals around that time.  So we made sure we were there to see the armadillos this time.  And after all the trouble we went to be there to see them up close, I happened to see one up close on my run this morning--for free!  But I suppose I wouldn't have gotten up close shots of the kids feeding them mealworms if we didn't go to the zoo to see them, so it was worth it.

We are trying to do our best to get a few more fun things in before school starts in August.  We went to the zoo again, and to a free give school/backpack give away.  The kids got their faces painted, and hung out with the kangaroos again.  At the school give away, the kids got free backpacks and school supplies, jumped on a bouncy house, got free snow cones, cotton candy, and hot dogs.  While we waited in the horrendously long line for the give away, we were visited by various superheroes and princesses.  It was a long line, but a good way to spend one of our last Saturday's before school gets out.

This summer we took our usual trip to the western states to visit family.  We got to see Stef's family and Reid's family.  Here are some pictures and highlights from the trip. Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Standing by the Salt Lake Temple. Esther in Grandma's hat. Isaac in Grandpa's hat. Trip home from Yellowstone National Park. Esther is pretending to drive an airplane with us as passengers. Esther at Minnetonka Cave.  She requested I capture this moment. Isaac took this picture by himself. In Yellowstone National Park.  We couldn't get enough of the mountain scenes. Mountain scene in Yellowstone, and yes, we did get to see Old Faithful. 4th of July parade in Pocatello, ID.  That little Red brick church in the background was built by some of Reid's ancestors. The following videos are of the kids ice-blocking on Old Main Hill on the campus where Reid and Stefani went to school.

Just got a new skate park close by and apparently the kids like it.

This summer, the kids have been doing fun things. They took swimming lessons, and now Isaac can swim across our neighborhood pool by himself.     They got to see nature preserves and get a little more up close and personal than I was comfortable with to the gators.   There was a man by us at the Nature preserve who was touching the gator's tails.  He was telling our kids, to our horror, that they could touch them too.  We had to have a serious discussion about leaving wildlife alone, particularly gators.  On chill days we also have been known to do yoga together.

We decided to get zoo passes this summer.  I needed something constructive to do with the kids.  It's only been a few days of summer and I'm already struggling with the kids home together.  So we go the zoo whenever we need a place to get out of the house.  Some things have changed there, such as the fact that you can walk through the Kangaroo exhibit and get up close and personal with these large marsupials.  We really had to convince Esther that she still couldn't pet them.   This is the face Esther makes when the butterfly she finally coaxed onto her hand flies away.  Priceless.