BYU Game & Elk Bugling

 This week was FULL. 

List view: Painting boys' room, moving furniture, jury duty for Michael on Wednesday (which took a surprising amount of hours), Boulder for BYU fireside with Westin Friday night, Boulder for all of us for the BYU GAME Saturday night, Estes Park for elk bugling Sunday night, two rooms carpet replaced on Wednesday, next two replaced tomorrow. 

Lots of painting, and audio books, and moving things around, and going through things. 

I loved this weekend so much. Our big things were my date with Westin Friday to go to the football fireside where we loved hearing Jimmer speak. Then we went out for Mexican food after and I just love being Westin's mom. Saturday was a lot of squeezing in paint layers and walks and workouts so that we were ready to leave for the big game that night! We're so happy when we see BYU is coming close to us. Westin lives for going to football games and really we all love it so much. Then Sunday we packed dinner and went to Estes Park to hear the elk bugling. It's honestly magical to see herds of elk and hear them calling to each other in the fall. I always think back to our first visit to Estes Park for Michael's reunion in 2017 and how I was blown away by how beautiful it was but never even expected we'd permanently live close by.

I'm feeling antsy to just have everyone sleeping in their own beds again and put everything away -- right now we have four boys sharing the one room in our basement and furniture and stuff everywhere while we reorganize and redo rooms. It makes me so tired but I also love getting permanent things done -- walls stay painted. Dishes never stay clean :)

The last view of our basement room before I convert that corner of it to be my gym. 
I didn't want to do this when we first finished our basement because it's our main room down there,
but the more I consistently workout at home the more I'm ready to dedicate a space to it, even if I don't have a room for that. 

Goodbye old carpet...

Hello new!
Finally the step that initiated all these projects :)

Picking a blue for part of the big boys' room.

I LOVE walking with Asher so much.

Sticky notes are my professional planning tool for placing battens :)

Bathroom is done! Closet doorway is gone.

Cabinet in across from vanity.

Shower and tub view is my favorite view.

The light above the tub makes me really happy. I just love that view!

Storage around the corner.

Hidden toilet :)

My project book this week that I did not expect to love as much as I did.
This was beautifully, beautifully written.

We're so tiiiiiiired.
But I am going to paint this room this weekend before carpet happens (we did two rooms at once with a few days between so that we would have places to put furniture).

I woke up early to get a layer down so that I'd have time to do the second layer before we leave for the BYU game.

Blue and white layers up, switching the colored/white part.

Feeling so free leaving project world behind and heading the BYU GAME!

Everyone was so nice on the shuttle, 
lots of nice CU fans.

Oh it's just so fun to go to a game in person.

Scenes from cute preschool. He loves his teacher.

On Sunday we were tired but we really wanted to get to Estes Park and hear the elk bugling in Rocky Mountain National Park. We loved it last year so much and late September is just the time to do it. I'm so glad we went! We packed roasted turkey pesto sandwiches and cookies and milk and we ate with the Baileys. This is one of my favorite traditions.

Fulllll room, ready for carpet in the other rooms tomorrow.

Estes Park Getaway

We had a low key week and a fun weekend getaway!

This week we finished the pantry (hooray!) and got some work done with our water heater/furnace. The boys loved going to the school book fair and picking out a book. Westin is in a Pokemon phase and Camden found an egg who has "glasses like me!" Bennett is sticking with dinosaurs some more.

Michael found a hotel mystery shop in Estes Park so we left right after school and work on Friday to get away for a couple nights. We ate at a diner when we got there that was really low key and fun -- we had a room to ourselves for most of dinner since we beat the crowd and they were just starting to need their overflow. Burgers and pie are always a win.

At the hotel the older boys slept in a room all 3 together for the first time and Camden loved having his Pack n Play between his two brothers' beds. Such cuties. Asher hung out in the king bed with mom and dad still, which works much better than in our queen bed at home :)

The next day we went ice fishing (so quick -- those trout were ready to be caught!) and sledding, and on a little hike. Estes Park is gorgeous in the winter and it's so fun to live by Rocky Mountain National Park.

We got home mid-day Sunday and felt rejuvenated for the week! So rejuvenated, actually, that I've finally decided (after going back and forth a million times on the decision) to drive my boys out to Utah tomorrow. We need to meet our little Dallin cousin, and it'll be the first solo road trip with four but it's going to be great!

Always watching these boys play with cars while I nurse.

Library day at preschool, cute Bennett.
They just let us know they don't have to wear masks anymore!
That's going to be so good for Bennett. He's significantly more quiet when wearing a mask.

Book Fair Finds!

This squish has my heart.

Time to move to the pack n play.... three's a crowd.
Camden has taken on the job of always making sure that elephant is right by Asher :)

Supports up!
Michael did this part. I hate drilling into walls.
I was fine using my miter saw, jig saw, sander, paints, stud finder, wall papering, all the things for this project... except the drill, ha. I don't know why that is the part I always feel the need to wait for Michael for!

Let's see if this new rug cleaner works...
bummer to have workers the day it snowed and I forgot to put towels down.

Pantry done!
My air fryer finally has a home in my kitchen. It has had to live in my basement,
but I love it so much we built a home for it :)

There's a whole row of cereal behind that row of cereal,
and those buckets have 25 pounds of oats, rice, whole wheat berries, white flour, sugar, and a TBD.
Feels so good to have a space for that stuff!

Somebody is finally facing forward in the car!
He's a big fan.

My heroes.

I was surprised they wanted to watch it get cleaned!
Note how far away I am taking this picture :)

My friend Emily gave me this bundle when Westin was born and all my babies have worn it. 
I just love seeing them in it so much, sweet bundled boys.

Trout for dinner!
It was delicious, but, the bones were an ordeal.

Camden ate more fish than the rest of us combined!