Chicken's killed, Malachi's birthday, 14th wedding anniversary, and a retreat to Estes Park

Betsy on her first day of school

Sam on his first day of school

Malachi is playing with the xbox remote, and thinks it's pretty funny

chewing on a toy he got for his birthday

The boys all fascinated by one of Malachi's birthday toys

Malachi and Daddy with his birthday cake

Malachi likes cake

still stuffing it in

After searching the entire house and outside for Caleb, finally found him asleep in this red bin in the living room

Travis trying on a fake hair hat in a shop in Estes Park on our Anniversary date.

This is part of the high ropes course that Travis and I did at the Glen Eyrie Retreat on Friday

This is what the wall looked like that we climbed at the Glen Eyrie Retreat

My view of Glen Eyrie on my hike in the afternoon

my first "selfie", of my view of Garden of the Gods on my hike

A rainbow above our house

Beautiful sunset

Our glowing roses in the sunset

Daddy and Caleb

On our seven bridges hike 

Got everyone in the picture, was not easy

Caleb loving the hike

Betsy enjoying the hike too

Austin, Betsy, and Travis headed off for their Daddy/Daughter Dance at the stake center

The past two weeks have been full of fun and celebrations.  Betsy and Samuel have been going to school since Aug. 4th, they are enjoying the classes, and like riding their bikes to school.  We haven't used our bikes every day, but try to most days.  I pull Caleb and Malachi in the trailer behind my bike, and it is quite the workout pulling them up the hills.  It is downhill all the way to school, but uphill all the way back, and 1 mile each way.  So I end up with a 4 mile bike ride each day pulling a heavy load, it's a good thing they are both pretty light, or I probably would be walking my bike a lot more.  Tuesday the 5th, no one remembered to close the chicken coop that night, although at first Joseph told me he did.  We think racoons must have gotten in our fenced yard, and killed 4 of our chickens during the night.  After we had dropped Betsy and Samuel off at school, we were going to check on the chickens and found them dead in our backyard, it was an upsetting sight, and we went inside and cried for a little while.  After a while, Joseph and I went back in the backyard, and were able to put the dead chickens in garbage bags, and get rid of the bodies.  Joseph will no longer eat chicken, and everyone was upset for a while.  After we told Betsy and Samuel when we picked them up from school, they were crying and upset too, We figured out the Travis', Austin, Betsy, and Samuel's chickens were all killed.  I guess we certainly learned a good lesson about taking better care of our chickens.  We have four left, and hope to keep them alive and well.
Malachi turned one on August 6th.  He is such a cute little boy, he is taking some steps here and there, but mostly still crawling.  The kids all got him some toys from a clothing swap we went to, and piled them in the middle of the room, and when he woke up in the morning, had him come down and play with them.  He loved playing with them and had a fun morning.  That evening Travis had bible study, so we all went with him, and brought a big sheet cake, and had everyone sing happy birthday to him.  We love our sweet little baby, I can't believe he is 1 already.
Travis had planned a marriage retreat for the weekend at Estes Park, CO at YMCA of the Rockies.  We left Friday morning for the retreat, and drove the 3 1/2 hours it took to get up there.  Travis did a great job at this retreat, instead of spending the whole time in the classroom, he was able to make it so everything was hands on, and we got to spend a lot of time outdoors enjoying the venue.  We went on a hike up to "Bible point" and once we were at the top interviewed each other from a sheet of 99 questions.  We really enjoyed talking and finding out more about each other.  Also I enjoyed the hike, I carried a big backpack with several lunches and things to make it heavy, and got a nice workout.  We also got to play miniature golf together, and for a date night we got to go explore the downtown area, it was our 14th wedding anniversary, and we had a great time.  The kids all did well in childcare, Joseph and Austin hung out with an older group of kids and just went off on their own and enjoyed the different activities, and just checked in with us via cellphone.  Apparently though Caleb doesn't digest Cheetos well, because he ate them, and then he started pooping a lot and it was "hot poop" (his term), it burned his bum, and made him really sore.  In fact when we picked him up, he was so sore, that he wouldn't walk, and the only way I could carry him was by holding his head/neck with one arm and his knees in the other arm, and made sure I didn't touch him bum at all, it made it awkward trying to carry him, and I'm sure it looked really weird, we got him back to our room, and bathed him in backing soda and Travis and I bought some diaper cream and more diapers (the daycare used them, all 15 of them).  Caleb felt much better after that, and we convinced him to no longer eat Cheetos (the same thing happened about a week before after eating Cheetos).  Anyway overall it turned out to be a great weekend.
This week I've been really trying to get into better shape and get ready for my trip to California to climb Mt. Whitney with my Dad and siblings.  I've been exercising a lot more, doing a workout video, and riding bikes to the kids school, and I went on two hikes, one on Friday, one on Saturday.  On Friday Travis had a retreat at Glen Eyrie, (Just during school hours).  During the morning we did the ropes course, it was fun as usual.  During the afternoon, while Travis was  teaching the classroom portion, and the kids were in childcare, I did a hike up overlooking the Garden of the Gods.  I didn't have a pack this time, but the increase in elevation made it a good workout.  I was a little nervous being out there by myself, but I just kept praying that no mountain lions or rattlesnakes would get me, and I gradually felt more at peace, but I kept a brisk pace anyway.  It was hot outside, and the way back was not very clearly marked, so I did a lot of backtracking, but I eventually made it back to the classroom dripping in sweat.  It was a gorgeous view, and well worth the effort.  Saturday morning we all went and did the seven bridges hike.  I carried my pack and wore my new hiking shoes this time.  Travis carried the baby in the hiking backpack this time, so that I could get used to wearing my pack.  After the first quarter mile Caleb said he couldn't go anymore.  I was carrying him in my arms but that got tiring quickly, so I told Travis to put Caleb inside my hiking pack.  I already had about 10-15 pounds in there, so once Travis put Caleb in my pack it weighed about 40 pounds.  Let me tell you, carrying that much weight was not easy.  We finally made it to the top (elevation gain of 1100ft) past the seven bridges, we did have to stop several times for me to catch my breath, and I admit I was not moving very fast, but we made it.  We had some snacks at the top, and let the kids play a bit, then we went back down, Caleb started out hiking down, but I guess his hiking boots were hurting his feet (he ended up with a couple blisters) and I carried him in my pack the rest of the way down.
I've been teaching a lot of piano lessons starting this month, I have ten students right now.  Teaching piano was crazy the first week, but the basement was finished while we were in Estes Park, so things have gone better this last week, since I can send the kids to the basement while I teach piano.

Getting ready for school

Caleb playing at the playground at the school

Joseph is excited about painting the basement

Travis left early Monday morning to go out to the field, so he wasn't home until the weekend, we missed him, and were very glad to get him back.  We fed the sister missionaries that night.  It was nice to have other adults who like my food, (my kids are stinkers about eating dinners) they said they love my healthy cooking, and even took the leftovers home.  Both Monday and Tuesday we had the air conditioning people here installing the air conditioning unit, it took them forever, and the kept having to call in more guys to help them figure it out.  They ended up completely redoing our furnace, and ended up messing up our doorbell, and were unable to turn the furnace back on, so they had to keep on trying to fix things.  Finally on Thursday, an electrician was able to come out and fix everything, and now the a/c people are coming back tomorrow to start the system up again.
On Tuesday I took the Betsy and Samuel to do some school testing at their new school, I thought it might be 20-30 minutes at the most, but after waiting for an hour and a half, I asked how much longer it was going to be.  They told me it would still be a while, so I told them I was taking the rest of the kids to the library real quick and would be back, they said that was fine.  When we got back to the school, they still weren't done, but they told me that Samuel had gone MIA right after I left.  Apparently he didn't want to take any more tests, because he took off and left the school, the teacher was able to find and catch him, and get him to finish his tests, but I guess they were worried for a little while.  It figures the minute I leave is when Samuel takes off, oh well, at least they know what they're getting into with Samuel.  We were still there for another hour before they both finished.  
On Thursday we went to Betsy and Samuel's new school to buy their uniforms.  I couldn't believe how much money it cost.  Last year I spent $150 on clothes for all the kids combined, and this year I spent $400 on uniforms for just Betsy and Samuel.  That evening we went back to the school for orientation, and ended up waiting in the required registration line for almost 2 hours, just to have them verify I had turned in all paperwork, and gave me the parent/student handbook and carpool number.  I had to break up a big fight between Samuel and Caleb, and had to send them outside with Austin to play on the playground, while I waiting in line.  I barely even heard the orientation presentation, because Caleb and Malachi were so whinny. I even had to leave and take Joseph to scouts and then come back and get in line.
Friday, after having everyone do their chores, I ended up needing to spend the rest of the day, organizing all my papers, and bills.  I ended up losing our insurance check for the basement, and had to spend hours looking for it, and I still haven't found it.Yesterday we went to golden corral for Malachi's birthday breakfast (they only have breakfast on the weekends) even though his birthday isn't until Wednesday.  Malachi loved eating the food there, he especially loves the broth from soups.
After breakfast we went to a chapel on post to get some free backpacks and school supplies for the kids.  We waiting in line for about an hour, and were then able to get the supplies, the kids loved getting them, and Caleb was able to get one, and really wants to got to pre-school this year.  I told Caleb that he had to be potty trained if he wanted to go to school, and he has been doing much better, with potty training. Malachi has been walking a lot more, and is starting to get the hand of it. Austin started having a terrible headache in the afternoon and evening, and ended up throwing up in the evening too.  Caleb started having diarrhea, and Betsy complained about her stomach hurting, but never threw up.  I ended up staying home from church with the sick ones, until primary, then Travis and I switched, and he came home, so I could go and play piano for primary.