Our Garden Valley Vacation!

How could it not feel like a vacation when we wake up to this view every morning?

I took this picture from the kitchen table, it's hard to tell but we look out the window and see a gorgeous view every day!


We decided to have the attitude that this is a vacation because in a lot of ways it feels like one! At home there is always something that needs to be done, and here, once I get the usual things cleaned up, I'm finished! We get to spend a lot of time together in the evenings (Josh studies a lot, but it's still fun just to have him here.) I am getting some good reading in, and my fill of ESPN for years to come. :) Every night I say "what do you want to do tonight?" And he says "there's a great game on!" It's a joke now because there's 'a great game on' every night. All year round pretty much, but especially right now as you all know.
Crazy game last night between the Lakers and Mavericks, huh? That one was actually pretty fun to watch. 5 ejections in one game! I don't understand why Joey Crawford is still a ref...

Another reason it feels so much like a vacation is because of the dishes! Or lack thereof! I decided to use paper plates, bowls, cups and utensils while we're here. Wow, I love it! I really should have done this during our rotation in Utah, too. It it is absolutely amazing to only have a few pots, pans and cooking utensils to clean every night. It makes life so easy! I'm going to remember this lesson and keep paper stuff on hand for times when I'm stressed out. It really makes it feel like we're camping/on a vacation.

Saying "mmmmm!" Because we're excited for dinner

Licking our lips because we're excited for daddy's grilling!

Kisses!

Michael's first time Finger Painting:

Not in your hair, Michael! You can tell the look on my face by the look on his face. This is his "is this making you upset, mommy?" face.

This is us in the shower downstairs--Michael loves to play in the shower!


Michael's Pictures:

Michael took these pictures all by himself! He got a hold of my camera and would say "smile!.... cute." I guess I say that every time I take a picture, because Michael said it on every picture, even when it was of the ceiling (which most were.)


Josh's hair

This one of the ceiling was his very first one.

He actually got my whole head in this one!

Oh, and this has never happened to us before: A couple nights ago as Josh and I were laying in bed going to sleep, we heard a pack of wolves howling! It was loud and pretty close, and we could tell there were many of them. It was so crazy! Pretty cool.
On a not-so-cool note, the bugs are slowly returning. Ants on the counter again, what's the deal? We've run out of bug spray and need to go get more and apparently our little ant poison things aren't working. I'm learning that getting rid of bugs is a skill, and one that I don't have yet. So every day I keep a string of TP on the kitchen counter so it is handy to kill all the ants I see. And, our large spider count is up to four. I've killed 2 and Josh has killed 2. I'm over the ants thing already, I really don't care when I see one. It's the spiders I'm anxious to get rid of!