I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home

Ryan finally finished up his work in CA and joined us on July 13th!! We were so excited to finally get him here and feel like a complete family again. I felt like I had done all I could by myself to that point... but I needed my husband and pro-organizer to do so much more. He was really looking forward to getting started too, so it was perfect. First order of business was to make our COMPLETE MESS of a garage be clean enough to park both cars.

 I forgot a before photo, but he DID IT!! It was such a disaster and it only took him a couple of hours.

 A snapshot of real life. It's not pretty but each paper plate represents a happy, full child. My new ministering sister, Stacie Evans, brought us this meal totally out of the blue and I couldn't have been more thankful! We ate dinner together on the back patio, using paper plates, while watching the kids run around in the sprinklers in between bites. It was a wonderful memory!

Sun's out, buns out!!

 Weeding the fire pit... but where is it?!?

 Oh, there it is!! Much better.

 Making strawberry jam and crossing it off our summer bucket list.

 Doing a family puzzle - also a bucket list item.

Boston was learning what it sounded like to hear people with your ears plugged. He was fascinated.

 Seeing Shoshone Falls with Bob and Stacy Turner. The rainbow was a nice touch!

 Grace's enjoyed a really fun summer class decorating cakes! Each time they had class they would each bring home large pieces of cake or a bunch of cupcakes. She loved it!

Grandma and Grandpa came to stay a night and see our home and area. It was so nice to have them up for a visit!

Just some sibling shenanigans...

They were just so cute together like that.

 Playing in the Jenkins' backyard.

 We took daddy on a nice long bike ride together, along the Snake River and to the Perrine bridge overlook. We passed the Temple on the way and a gorgeous view of Pillar Falls. The ride was awesome and the kids had such a great time! Boston would put his hands out straight like he was flying and didn't complain once on the long ride.

 Along the way I kept feeling like my right foot was really unsteady and wobbly. I finally stopped to tell Ryan and as I bent down to touch the pedal it completely fell off! It wouldn't go back in at all at that point. We were still a couple miles from home so I sent Ryan on with Grace and Logan while I pushed my bike (with Boston still on it) to the grounds of the Temple which was only about a quarter mile away at that point. We waited on the grass and played around on my phone while we waited for Ryan to pick us up in the truck.

 There are several projects around the house I've been waiting for Ryan to come work on. He loved the fact that one of them was some involving wood and his new table saw. I had him build me some shelves for the kids' books! I knew exactly what I wanted them to look like and where to put them. They turned out awesome, and I'm so thankful to have such a handy, hard-working husbands!

Another bucket list item... Painting rocks. We were not great at completing our list this year. But we did finally go get some rocks so we could paint them and then "hide" them in places around town. Apparently there are a whole bunch of people in Twin Falls who do this! Kinda fun.