Happy Birthday, Travis!

Today, Travis turns 8! I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday. Afterall, I was actually laboring on Labor Day! At 8 years old, Travis:
*loves to be outside playing or working
*is very imaginative and is always thinking up of things to make or experiment with
*is terrible when it comes to sleep walking/talking...especially if he gets over tired...we can count on him doing something strange in the night!
*is my early riser
*helps back his dad up to the trailers (boat and 4wheeler) every time (and is better at it than me!)
*is a good money saver. He really wants to buy lots of things, but when it comes down to it, he would rather save his money
*is really good helping with his younger cousins
*doesn't love school but does well in it
*is particular about his hair and what he wears
*loves tacos and zucchini (in any form)
*is in charge of emptying the dishwasher, setting the table, cleaning his room and making his bed
*love football

Travis, we are so happy that you were sent to our family. You are full of life and energy and keep us on our toes. You are passionate about whatever you are doing and make us all smile. Happy birthday, buddy!

We went out and took some pictures to use on his baptism invitation. Here are a few of my favorites.

this picture cracks me up. He wasn't too happy to see that I took it!

freezing corn

Tonight, we got together with all the Asay's to freeze sweet corn to enjoy this winter. We shucked a bunch of corn, had some pizza for dinner and then got to work. Christian, Carson and I helped with the cutting off the cob and bagging. When it was all said and done, we had bagged 198 bags of corn! That's a lot of corn but will be so yummy this winter!

Shucking the corn.

Grandma and Grandpa Asay working away.

Grandpa and the grandkids heading down to feed the pigs the empty cobs.

Landon loving on grandma's kitty.

Raingutter Regatta

The cub scout had their Raingutter Regatta last night. It looked as though a storm was going to come through and possibly ruin our plans, but it held off the and the boys had a great time racing their boats. Carson made his boat out of a Hungarian wax pepper again this year and it did pretty well against the other veggie boats!

Carson racing his friend Jacob

We had supplies for the boys to make another type of boat (a requirement for one of the other dens) and anyone else that wanted to build one. Landon and Travis both built one to join in the races.

Back to School

To celebrate the start of school, we had a neighborhood FHE Monday night at the Steenbakkers house. We showed up for just a bit after Travis soccer game and dinner and played some whiffle ball and had some treats.

We played kids against adults.

The boys have been waiting all summer to do the coke and mentos experiement so we did that too. They were pretty impressed with the eruption

Christian was drinking up some of the foam.

We started school on August 23. Carson will be in 5th grade this year and has Mrs. Croft. Travis is in the 2nd grade and has Mrs. Hinkley. When I asked them if they were ready for school to start, Carson said he was (he likes being with his friends every day) and Travis said he wasn't (that was no surprise to me).

The boys woke up to pancakes in the shape of their grade this year for breakfast.

 

Carson with his friends Jacob, Jack, Carissa and Riley at the start of school!

We continued our tradition and had our annual back to school party after the kids got home off the bus. We enjoyed cinnamon rolls from Gretchen Walker, veggies and dip and meat and cheese on crackers. Our group continues to get smaller and smaller as our kids start to get older and more involved in activities, but we had a good time with those that were able to attend!

Parker, Travis, Owen and Carson enjoying their snacks.

Our group: Ali, Avery, Gemma and Owen Walker, Parker Steenbakkers, Travis, Carson and Landon

Soccer

Our last two weeks have been consumed with soccer games. We've had 4 games a week for the last two weeks (and I'm looking forward to it being over). Travis has had a pretty good season but with there only being 7 kids on his team and it takes 7 to play, we comes away from the games pretty gased! He does a good job and is sure aggressive and not afraid to use his body (or throw and elbow or two)!

Chokecherry pickin'!

On our last Saturday before school started, we decided to take the 4-wheelers up into Dry Head to go for a little ride and to pick chokecherries. We originally wanted to take the boat out, but it was only supposed to get up to 72 degrees for a high that day. We drove our car up to Hansen Flats and then unloaded the 4-wheelers and rode down to the corrals at Snell's. We stopped shortly before we got there and found the mother load for chokecherries. We were so excited that we had beat the birds and the bears to them! We picked for about and hour, filling up one of our coolers full of chokecherries, and then drove the rest of the way to Snell's trailer where we had a picnic lunch and picked a few more cherries. We had to hurry back because we had planned to go on a date over to Cody for dinner

Chokecherries!

Carson trying to pick the tall ones.

Travis and I.

Landon helping me pick cherries.

The boys all collecting choke cherries.

Travis having some lunch.

My boys: Landon, Travis, Carson and Christian.

Getting ready to head back home!

Last week of summer vacation

Our last week before school started we tried to soak up as much fun as we could.

We went out to the lake for a beach day with a group of our friends. The boys had a blast playing in the water and sand with their friends. It was a perfectly warm day and the sunshine felt so good!

Carson has been mowing Grandma Dorothy's lawn once a week this summer. One day while he was mowing, Travis, Landon and I gathered a bunch of crab apples and then used them to make jelly with. This was our first time making this kind of jelly and we really liked it! Carson and Travis helped me cut all the apples for the jelly.

Grandpa Asay's sweet corn finally came on strong which meant time for the boys to start selling corn.  We spent one night picking a bunch of corn to take to Greybull to sell to the store there. We calculated that we had picked 988 ears of corn. Knowing we were only 12 away from 1000 ears, we decided we better pick 12 more so that we could say that we had picked 1000 ears of corn (that's a  lot of corn!)! We also picked a bunch and took it to the farmer's market. I called the lady that was in charge and asked if anyone else was coming with corn and she said no. We had high hopes that we would sell lots (like last year) but when we showed up, there were two other people selling corn exclusively. The boys still did pretty well on their sales, but not as well as they had hoped. They have continued to sell and deliver corn locally to friends and family and we take a huge over the Greybull weekly for them to sell in their store.

Landon checking to make sure this ear was a good one. I'm pretty sure he was checking to see if it was so he could eat it!

The boys have discovered that the horses love the corn husks that come off the corn when we are removing part of the stalk that is still on them. Landon, especially, loves to feed the husks to the horses!

Ready to sell corn at the farmer's market.

 One evening, we went back out to pick more. We started later than we had hoped, so we picked enough to fill some orders we had and I took off with the kids to deliver them. Christian stayed out and picked until he couldn't see any more. We normally load them into boxes as we pick it and count it, but this time he just dumped the corn into the back of his truck. After the kids were in bed, we counted the corn and packed them into boxes until about 9:30.