Sunday, September 27, 2015

Fall is Here!

Fall is here, and Steve is counting down the days until Duck Season opens.  It opens this coming Saturday, October 3rd, in case any of you are wondering.  Zach Hannay and him have been planning what they're going to do for the past few months, and now they have Rob Daniels talked into joining them.  They've gone out several times to practice shooting, and have scouted out their "spot."  Thankfully Steve is slowly starting to feel better this week from being in the hospital.  He definitely does NOT want to miss the opening day of Duck Season.

Rob, Steve and Nyles cleaning their guns.  Steve is trying to teach Nyles proper and safe handling of guns.  Nyles is only allowed to touch Steve's gun when Steve is with him.

Steve at the shooting range.  Steve took Nyles as well.  The employees were excited to see Nyles w/ him to learn hunting safety.  They even gave him free safety goggles to wear.

Steve and Zach drove up to Strawberry to check out their spot.  
Nyles wanted to take a quick break for a chocolate pudding.

 Nyles scooping up leaves w/ his loader and putting them into his dump truck.  Nyles and I played this while Steve was in the hospital this past week.

Nyles wanted to try on the "bones" PJs from Conor.  It was his Halloween Costume last year.  
Nyles LOVES Nutella.  Trying to get the last scoop out.

Playing w/ a box.  Making it a track for his trains.

Nyles waiting for Grandpa McGrath to come back from work, using binoculars to find him ;)
 

This past Saturday, Steve took Nyles up to the cabin.  He went to go fishing, look at their duck spot again, and to let me study.  I have signed up to take the CFP Test in November, so I'm going to need to study every second I can.  Thankfully I got a good study session in yesterday while they were gone.  Thanks Steve!  :)

Stacie and Phil went up the night before, and Dave and Joann just left that morning also.  It was a beautiful day!  They decided to take the boat out fishing first thing.  Though they didn't reel a fish into the boat, they still caught a few on the lines, and of course had a great time being on the lake.

Before they went out on the boat Stacie took Nyles and Conor for an ATV ride.  
The boys LOVED it!  Thanks Stacie ;)

Conor and Nyles looking over the boat at the water.

Nyles helping Stacie drive the boat.

Joann, Conor, Nyles, Phil, London, Stacie and Dave on the boat. 


Nyles checking the boat out.


After fishing they came back to the cabin for a minute, then Steve headed home.  As soon as he left Nyles fell right asleep.  Steve stopped at his duck spot to take a look one more time before the BIG day.  Nyles didn't even move an inch!  He slept the whole way home.  I think it's safe to say he was a little tired. :)

Well October starts this week.  Aside from Duck Season starting, we're looking forward to listening to General Conference this weekend.  It's always a joy to listen to the prophet's voice.  We are so blessed and thankful to have a living Prophet today, even President Thomas S. Monson!  We hope you all get a chance to listen as well.  Love ya!

Rest of August Fun

It'll be October this week, but I haven't finished a few things from August.  I need to get caught up there before finishing here in September.  So here are a few things that went on back at the end of August.

After we got back from our Bear Lake trip, Steve picked up his new allergy drops.  It's called Sublingual Immunotherapy.  It's an alternative way to treat allergies without injections.  Steve will take a few drops under his tongue, which slowly boosts his tolerance to his particular allergies and helps to reduce his symptoms.  All of the testing we've done this year on him says his allergies are what's making it hard for him to breath, especially at night time when he's trying to sleep.  So by taking the drops (over a few years most likely), we're hoping that he'll eventually not have allergies anymore and he won't have to be on medication for it.  It's a slow process, but it's worked for others, so we're hoping it'll work for him too.  Steve's brother-in-law Brandon Lake (Melanie's husband), did it several years ago and hasn't had any allergy issues since.  The unfortunate part is it's not covered by insurance since it's not FDA approved yet.  We both prayed about it and felt good about the decision though, so we moved forward with it.  Luckily we can use our HSA if we want.  Every 3 months he'll get new dosages to work on.   So far so good.

Friday, August 28th my parents actually came down to SLC for a funeral.  So that night we got together out at Rose's place and went to her ward Luau.  They had good food (smoked pork and rice), and even had islanders dance to all the different island dances.  It was pretty cool.  It was fun to see Rose, Pauline and kids and my parents at the same time as well.

Nyles trying to play Summer's Ukelele at the Luau.

Nyles was at Joann's while Steve was at class.  Carrie and Lynsie stopped by also.  It started to rain and the kids thought it would be fun to go out and run in it.  Well they got wet of course, so Joann and Carrie tried drying them off, but they went back out again.  Nyles thought it was a really fun to run in his undies in the rain.  Silly kid ;)
 

One night after putting Nyles to bed, we thought he was sleeping, but looked over at his room and the light was one.  We opened the door to find he had grabbed the baby powder and was making "snow" with it.  He thought it was pretty fun to drive his trucks and cars in.  I went and put him in "Time Out", trying to keep a straight face, but as soon as I turned around I cracked up laughing.  After he was let out, we told him why he shouldn't do that, but it was still hilarious!  What will he think of next?  I had to take a few pics to remember it too :)

Nyles w/ his sad face after going to time out, then trying to escape time out.  
Notice the baby powder all over his face and clothes?

This is his room.  Baby powder everywhere, especially on his "track" where he was playing w/ his cars and trucks.

Nyles enjoying "riding" things w/ wheels.  Here he is on his bike, on a scooter he borrowed from a neighbor, and Rose's kids' 3 wheeler.  He thinks they're all so fun!
    

Nyles and I went to his school playground to play.  We've been going there since he was just a baby.  It's incredible how much more he can do now on his own.  Go down the slide, up the ladder, or even climb up the slide (though we tell him not to).  I can't believe how big he's getting.

Nyles wanted to put on "stickers" ie fake tatoos, so we let him.  He put on a badger and Steve put on a fish.  Nyles going on a wagon ride w/ Conor and London around Grandma and Grandpa McGrath's house.

Saturday, August 29th, Steve met up w/ Dave Thomas and went fly fishing.  While they were doing that, Melissa and I met at a Splash Pad near our place and let the boys play in the water.  Nyles wasn't quite sure what to think, but thought it was a lot of fun to stop the holes w/ sticks.

Calvin and Nyles playing in the water.


Nyles planning his move to stop the water w/ the stick in his mouth.


Nyles eating a cookie and not wanting to show me his eyes.  Silly kid ;)

Nyles taking a break while playing w/ his truck.

That night we had planned to go to the temple, but our babysitter Rob got sick.  We tried asking 4 other people, but due to the fact that it was last minute, we couldn't find anyone to come.  We needed to go, so we decided to split up.  Steve went first, then we switched.  While Steve was gone Nyles and I made a fort out of blankets and pillows, made popcorn, then put on "Airplanes: Fire and Rescue" movie.  Nyles thought it was pretty fun.

Nyles in our fort, ready for the movie.

Jordan River Temple.  So beautiful.  So peaceful.  My Spirit yearns to be there.

We explained to Nyles what we were doing as we left to the temple.  He said he wanted to go.  So we told him we'd all go visit the temple the next day.  So Sunday, after his nap, we loaded up and went down to Temple Square.

Steve pulling Nyles in the wagon, down to Temple Square.

Taking a look at the beautiful SLC Temple.  Nyles thought the water was awesome!

 Looking at the stone from the quarries.

Enjoying the beautiful flowers.

Family picture.  Nyles wasn't too excited about it.

Family pictures in front of the Christus Statue.  Nyles liked looking at the stars.

 Nyles wanted to touch Jesus.  
He also wanted to touch all the video screens to see what they had to say.

 In front of the Conference Center.

Nyles saw a little stream next to us and said, "Give said the little stream."  
He loves that song. ;)

Beautiful sunset as we were leaving.

Back at home, all bathed and ready for bed, reading stories from the book I used to read w/ my mom before bed.  It makes me happy he likes the same stories I did.  He especially likes the Fox and the Crow story, about the fox who made the crow drop her cheese.

Well that wraps up August.  It was an eventful month.  Summer sure went by fast, that's for sure!