Going Off Grid

 Weekdays: morning workouts, soccer practice, football practice, piano lesson, class volunteering, assembly to see Bennett receive an award for respect, family pictures done (the biggest accomplishment, why is it so hard), dinner to a Wyoming couple with a NICU baby, swimming lessons, Young Womens orchestra concert, activity days, soccer game, food rut (cooking is so constant), and packing for...

Weekend: going off grid! Months ago Michael booked a random forest service cabin for a little fall weekend of hiking and seeing colors. He ran it by me and I remember thinking, "Perfect, the weekend before conference!" And it wasn't until the literal Sunday before this weekend when they announced in Sacrament meeting that I learned conference was this weekend. I thought conference never touched September?? So suddenly our off grid weekend was the exact same time as my favorite weekend of the year and I was kind of sad. Fall conference is just holy to me. But we were grateful to have a few days unplugged with our boys, and in the end we listened to all of Sunday morning's conference on our satellite radio on the drive home and made it back in time to catch the afternoon at home, so we just have Saturday's to catch up on.

The cabin was such a random cute spot. The gate to the area is locked off and it's an old forest service cabin that is now available to rent. We cooked easy food and slept in sleeping bags on twin beds, made s'mores and went on hikes, played werewolf tag (during which Michael and I were baffled at how hard running is for us, I really want to change that...), played games with the boys, and read books. You have a lot of hours in your day when you take technology away and that's a lesson in itself for me. We didn't see much wildlife but we did see a red fox at the beginning of our last trail. And we took a different route home and ended up seeing tons of antelope, and a herd of elk. Seeing animals with my boys is my life's mission now. There's just nothing better. Get me to Costa Rica and Africa with this crew! Except somebody needs to potty train Asher first.

Oh wait, that's me :)

The morning Wordle and Worldle crew

Bennett lined up receiving his recognition for being respectful.
I feel so grateful when I go to their assembly or other things during the day.
It really is such a beautiful blessing to be home with my kids at this stage of life.

Camden lining up with Bennett's class to go back to his classroom.
He was loving it. And was very overwhelmed.
Just like me and life.

Bennett's teacher had sweet things to say about him back at his classroom presentation.
Such a sweet boy and I love him so much.
He is totally loving first grade.

This picture means nothing to you but I'm letting it live here as documenting the time I made dumb mistake after dumb mistake, after dumb mistake, trying to do what I thought was a quick project.
So many dumb mistakes.
So many. Ha.

Hydrating for family pictures.
They are the biggest to do.

This one kept up good spirits this year.
We've had some grumpy photo shoots in the past.
See: My Kickstarter video. :)

The crew, happy to be done! Off for milkshakes.
And second dinner.

That stack of books, haha. I love these two.

So tired on Tuesdays and Thursdays when he's home from school.
His 3-day afternoon preschool routine is perfect for him. 

Asher walks Luna from the stroller.
It's awesome.

We took off for the mountains! The colors look like fire, I love them so much.

Found a couple elk skulls...
The boys wanted to take them home and I said, "Absolutely not."
Then Michael told me a little later, "One time my mom let me take a coyote skull home."
And I told him to never repeat that story again in his life.
I used to catch cockroaches and feed them to our pet turtle. I step up to boy mom life in many ways.
I also draw many lines.

Our cabin spot. So random and fun.

We were unplugged for the weekend and it felt like we had hours and hours.
We learned how to play a game that we got for CHRISTMAS last year that we've never played yet.
That shows you how life is moving too fast. This weekend was good.

The one who takes roasting seriously, and the one who eats only the chocolate.

Camden is doing a little s'mores happy dance :)

One last hike before hitting the road home while listening to conference.
We saw a red fox at the beginning of this trail!

My buddy. Will I force him into the Ergo at 5 years old still?
Probably.