The past couple weeks have been really busy for us, in a good way. We've been doing some upgrades in our kitchen, one of them being a new backsplash. We love it, but boy has it been a lot of work. Especially with two adorable, neglected children in the house! It's a miracle we got anything done, and that our kids don't resent us for ignoring them for a couple of days.

In the middle of the chaos my two beautiful, wonderful sisters came out for a visit. We spent a lot of time chatting while trying to keep peace between my children and Sasha's Eli. We did get out one evening for a night on the town which was so much fun. We went to an Asian grill that is delicious, and enjoyed every minute chatting and showing off our chopstick skills. I was very impressed with them actually.

My sister Demri is an amazing storyteller, and entertained Aspen with stories for hours. Aspen would throw out something like, "Tell me a story about a pink fish," and Demri would immediately start telling her a wonderful story about a pink fish. That would somehow tie into another story she told a couple hours ago. And they always had some wonderful moral to them. I don't know if I can live up to that! Poor Aspen will be so disappointed with my stories from now on.
I think I made four loaves of bread while the girls were here and we ate every single one. One of my friends sent me the recipe and I tweaked it just a bit and it's delicious! I decided a couple weeks ago that we're only eating homemade bread from now on (because it's so much better than the store bought stuff) but it's turning out to be quite a challenge. Mostly because it is so much better and I just can't stop eating it. I can't keep up with myself.
I can't believe the only photo I got with the girls was at the airport! I swore I wasn't going to do that but most of the week we were lounging in our p.j's. One morning we woke up to find a hawk in our driveway. It was obviously injured in some way, so we called a million numbers and finally got connected with a local wildlife rescuer. While we waited for her the girls coralled the hawk into our backyard where it remained until Kathy showed up. She told us it had been poisoned and took it away. I've never seen a hawk so close up and was so amazed at how beautiful it was!
Anyway we finally finished the backsplash last night. It's such a relief, although I'm sure Eric will miss all the pizza nights we've been having! But Aspen and Oakley get their parents back so I'm sure they're relieved too.

Every weekend for the past three weeks we've spent up in McCall, on campouts, staying at the cabin, and last weekend backpacking for a late anniversary getaway weekend. It's been a lot of fun, and to show for it our garage is a disaster. Good thing we're staying home this weekend!! Although we're doing some work on the kitchen so still no time for the neglected garage.
Eric and I haven't been backpacking together since our first anniversary, so it's been 5 years. Too long! Though I have to admit that my shoulders weren't in that great a shape. When the trip was over I felt kind of woozy, like when you've been rollerskating for a while and then you walk around with the skates off.
It was a beautiful hike, and when we got to the lake (around 5:00), we had so much time to relax! It was awesome. We made dinner and then read for hours. And hung out with the young buck who kept snacking on the grass around our campsite. It actually slept all night just several feet away from our tent. Which made bathroom time that much more awkward.
It's always fun doing stuff like this with Eric, since that's how we fell in love; we were on a seven week archaeological dig when we met. Hiking and camping brings it all back.
Hopefully we can get out again before another 5 years has passed!!

Eric can be quite the MacGyver in a pinch. As an example once he patched a bicycle tube with a Chips Ahoy wrapper. Another time he tied down a canopy with ties from a cinch bag. Whenever he does this I get pretty impressed and proud of my man. Well, now I have a little story of my own. The other day we took the kids on a train ride to the mountains. When it was too late, we realized we had forgotten Aspen's shoes. I was a little worried but it turned out not to be a problem. As part of our ride we were served sandwiches and some snacks, the snacks wrapped cleverly in some red bandanas. In the middle of the ride there was a stop so everyone could get out and stretch a little. There was a hay bale maze among other things, which Aspen ran to right away. While she was running around she happened to wet herself pretty well. We've had issues of regression when it comes to Aspen's potty training, but she had been so good for so long (and we were in a hurry when we left) that I didn't grab any extra underpants or shorts for her (which I always always remember to do). I started panicking because I wanted her dry but how was I going to cover my little girl? We threw one of Oakley's diapers on her (yes, they wear the same size), and then (and here comes the good part) I grabbed four of the red bandanas that we had gotten during the lunch and wrapped them around Aspen. It looked pretty cute, although with that "skirt" and no shoes she looked like quite the little hillbilly.