Trying new things

Shopko has these wall stickers that you can use to decorate...well, walls and I had considered getting one of them for quite some time. I had spent at least five minutes each of the last several trips to Shopko staring at them and wondering if I had the courage to try something so bold. Well, bold for me anyway.

One day they were on sale(they had been on sale in the past but I still chickened out) and I decided to just do it. Even then, they sat in my living room unopened for a few more weeks. I recruited Heather and her keen sense of style to help me make the plunge. With her help we put them all up in my living room.

Here are some examples:

This one is my favorite. I've always wanted to have something in this space.


Likewise, these also filled empty space nicely.


This one,


and this one, however, I'm not as sure about. The space didn't really need to be filled but, well, I had them so I figured I'd use them. They were too short to use behind the couch.

We'll see how they go. A couple of them aren't sticking super great and the tall one behind the couch seems determined to tilt to the right so maybe this will be short lived anyway. Either way, it's fun to try something new. Thanks Heather!

This exercise in Home Decorating helped me try something else new. Jaaromy and I went to an astrophotography class a few weeks ago and I now have a renewed interest in experimenting with my camera. I wanted to make a panorama and stitch the pictures together. My camera has a stitch-assist function but I've never used it.

Until now...


There you have it. A panorama of all my wall stickers so you can get the feel of just how awesome they are.

It was a lot of fun to make even though I had no idea what I was doing with the photo stitching software. I definitely want to try it again.

Hill Aerospace Museum

I didn't know we had such an awesome museum so close to us. Jaaromy and I went to the Museum of Flight in Seattle and it's collection is comparable to this one. So much to see. The same friend who inspired us to go to the Copper Mine earlier in the summer also inspired us to go to this museum. I'm so glad we did.


We used this trip as an incentive for the boys to clean their rooms. Unfortunately, they still took a long time and so we didn't have as much time as I would have liked to go see everything.


There are several huge planes outside to look at. It was hot, but super cool. Don't worry, we didn't loose Brigham, he's just standing next to me.


There are several hangars filled with all kinds of aircraft. There's also some sort of hands-on type kids area but since it was close to closing time, it was already closed.


We kept leaving Jaaromy behind because he wanted to read about all the planes. The boys were anxious because they were already starting to close off the furthest hangars.

I know I'm totally geeking out on this but it really was fun and interesting and we will definitely have to go back. Plus, it's FREE! Although they recommend a donation. I put in a dollar because that was all I had. If/when we go back I will donate more. So worth it.

First Day of School

I think I was ready for school to start this year. Thankfully, Nathaniel was ready for school to start too. Long summer vacations make it easier to want to go back to the regular school schedule. I know I was counting down the days when I could go grocery shopping all by myself again.


Nathaniel is in 6th grade this year! He had a good summer and I think this will be a good year to prepare him for Junior High.


Jonathan is in 2nd grade this year. He seemed excited to go back to school too.


I'm so exited for them to start school. Since neither I or Jaaromy would be able to walk with them to school to make sure everyone knew where to go, I took them down to the school the night before to show Nathaniel where to drop Jonathan off and pick him up. I'm glad I did.


This will be the last year they are at the same school together, ever. That has always been my biggest disappointment with their age difference. But, I'm painfully aware that these matters are out of my hands. We will all enjoy it while we can.

I had always looked forward to this year as the one year that all my boys would be at the same school, but that didn't happen either.


Brigham started Kindergarten a week later at another school in the district. I really really really wanted him in the afternoon class but it just wasn't possible. Luckily, we've been really diligent in getting him in bed on time and so it hasn't been as hard as I feared. It's still not my favorite, but he seems to be taking to it just fine and that helps a lot.


As in the previous two years he takes the bus. He's getting so big I don't even have to help him up the stairs anymore. I'm really excited to see how he does in school. I was really worried about him over the summer because he just didn't seem to be improving at all. So I'm looking forward to seeing some progress.

I'm so excited to see the boys learning and growing, I'm sure they'll have a great year.

The Copper Mind

I've wanted to take the boys to see the Copper Mine for a long time and, thanks to a blog post of a friend of mine, I finally decided to just do it.

Nathaniel had already been to the mine with the scouts so we decided to go while he was at Discovery Gateway with a friend. Jonathan was super excited to go and kept talking about going to the "Copper Mind".


Yep, I'm an awesome photographer. It's hard to imagine just how big those trucks are, but the tire helps a little.


We told Jonathan to bring some quarters from his piggy bank so he'd be able to look through the telescopes. He brought five quarters and so he looked...


and looked...


and looked. He also let the rest of us look a little bit too.


We went inside the visitor's center too and looked at all the displays.



We even watched a movie telling us all about how awesome copper is. It was fun and interesting, or "funducation" as I like to call it.

I remember hearing about how the mine was so big you could see it from space. That sounds pretty big, right? Well, now that we have Google Earth, that's not so impressive.


This is our house "from space" and you can even see the big pile of yard waste in our back yard "from space". So yeah, the mine is big, but saying you can see it from space just doesn't mean what it used to.

Either way, I'm glad we finally went and I think we just might have to go back sometime, if for no other reason than it only cost us $5 to get in. Good times!