Labor Day: Hat

When we went to the store for a few things, Steve, my father-in-law, and Stefanie, my sister-in-law both bought souvenir Huskers hats. Trying to be a nice hat, and with all her hair on her head forming a lovely natural hat, Stef let Armour wear her hat out to the car. Here she is trying to get it back. She didn't until much, much later...

Happy (belated) Birthday "Steffa"!!

If you were wondering what has happened to me, or why I was absent from blogging to the extent that I missed my sister-in-law's birthday, I will just say, the flu exists and it is a nasty son of a gun!

That being said, I apologize for getting this up 2 days late, and I just want to, unlike Stef on her blog, take the time to reflect and tell y'all some thing about one of our favorite people, "Aunt Steffa" (as named by Solace).

Solace wants me to say (and this is no joke) "Aunt Stef is a great person, and that's all the people need to know."

When asked what he wants me to write about Aunt Stef on my blog, Armour says, "Aunt Stef is at work!"

And Ender says what he loves about his aunt Stef is that she "plays with me, she's nice, and she ALWAYS sends me toys on my birthday."

So, there you have it folks! What do we now know about our wonderful Stefanie, we know she's a nice, great person, that works hard, plays with her nieces and nephews, and spoils them like crazy! I will also add that she is (almost) as hilarious as she think she is, she always keeps us entertained, she is truly an amazing, independent, loving person, and we love her!

Happy Birthday Stefanie!!

Green Bluff's here we come!

So, on Labor Day, we decided to go try to see if the orchards at Green Bluffs were open. Some were, some weren't, but we went orchard to orchard finding things we wanted to pick and buy. In the end we bought raspberries, peaches, nectarines, and apple cider. It was a blast, and we would have continued to go to more orchards, but somehow the kids wanted lunch or some crap...go figure a one-year-old getting hungry for lunch at 1 pm?! :) Here are a few fun pictures...

Pulling the cart to the place to pick peaches.

Ender helps Stef.

All the monkeys in the barrel...SolaceArmourToo Cool Ender

Playgroup fun with Mommy, Stefanie and the Sprites...

Solace had an "electrifying" experience! Ender peeked out from his hiding spot.
Armour caught a slide with his aunt.
Stefanie taught Armour how to ride alone.
Ender learned to swing himself (a little)

Adventures in the Valley with Stefanie

On Tuesday, Stefanie, the kids and I went to a playgroup for our ward. I thought maybe they could give us some new ideas of things to do while Stef was here. I am still pretty new and had taken her to all the places I could think of to take her. We went to Riverfront park, Nine Mile Falls, Bowl and Pitcher, Manito Park, Pig out in the Park (at Riverfront), Lake Coeur D'Alene, and went on an orchard adventure in green bluffs. We drove past Solace and Ender's school, Wes's work, and stopped at the Thai place I have been craving horribly. When I asked the ladies (and one dad) what else to do, they had nothin. They said we had pretty much covered the gamut.

I did want to take her to an AWESOME game store in the mall (Uncle's) still. So that is where we headed. Uncles was awesome and possibly the highlight of Stef's trip!

As we were already out in the Valley, I thought, "hey maybe we should go try to see the temple." I didn't even know where it was, so I used my mobile internet (aka called my mom and had her look it up) and found out where it was and how to get there from where we were. And off we went on our adventure.

Now, I have to say, I was warned that this was a small temple, but so is the Winter Quarters temple in Omaha. Well, I felt really bad about this, and it might sound horrible to admit to now, but when I saw the temple I think I laughed out loud. This temple really is TINY. I think the church next door is a lot bigger in fact. It kind-of struck me funny cause it looked like a doll-sized temple when we first saw it. I am not demeaning the temple-it is beautiful! But is it stunningly small. The pictures do not do it justice, but I still wanted to include some pictures of the beautiful (and small) temple. It is really cute!

When "Stefa" was here, we went to Lake Coeur D' Alene

In case you are wondering, Solace has now decided to call Stefanie, "Stefa". It is hilarious how she says it...Anyway...On Sunday, the only day Wes had off and could play with his sister here, we all skipped church and went to lake Coeur D'Alene. It was fun. See pics...

We walked over the long boardwalk...Saw a race boat (And MADE our brother pose)...
Played in the water...
Collected drift wood...
Laughed and played (notice the small Ender arm coming into the picture...it just makes me laugh cause it looks like he's about to attack!)...
Used our collected driftwood to write in the sand...

Played in the "sand"...

Frolicked in the fountain...
And in the stream...
Even by the bridge...
We even stopped for pictures now and then...
Some of our smaller Johnson's REALLY loved the water...more than the mommy thought a 1-yr-old would. But as it turned out, The smallest of our Johnson's was happier the wetter he got!

These crazy girls even made the fountain squirt other people...
Some people LOVED getting squirted...
Some people didn't love it so much...But mostly it was just fun...
And then we were cold and our day came to an end...(we shared the towel)

Marble?!

Well, as we were driving today, Stef and I noticed a billboard for a marble company that I just have to share. It said "Diamonds will last forever too, but you can't consummate your marriage on them."