Getting our Christmas Tree

Our sweet Aaron's birthday was a couple days ago and one of the things we did was get our Christmas tree!  There's a great spot near us and it was so much fun.  Aaron had a great day and it was so fun to celebrate the sweet spot he holds in our family.  He was so precious - he ended the day in tears... I'm not really sure why, but I think it was a combination of being overwhelmed from a busy day, and being tired, but also feeling loved and maybe a little bit sad he wasn't three anymore.  Like I said, I'm not sure, but he got weepy when I told him goodnight and asked if he had a great day and happy birthday.  Such a sweet angel.  We're so blessed to have his sunlight in our lives.

McKay was showing us this tree was the same size as him

"Money!!"  :)  (He calls anything little that fits in his hand, 'money'  :) )

Birthday boy!

So nice of this horse to pose directly in front of the setting sun for me!!  :)

McKay cutting our tree down

Hyrum was being cute and sneaky... this and the next two are the process of him tasting a pine leaf and me telling him 'no, gucky...'

Mischievous...

Cutie... :)

Birthday boy wanted to help cut the tree down.  :)

These kids carried our tree all the way down from the top of the hill.  Love them!

Coloma

We were able to go with some friends a couple days ago to a fantastic little town near us, to learn all about the gold rush and part of our church history and lots more.  We were able to see and do so many neat things.  There was an amazing nature center, a blacksmith shop, some old Native American ruins, tepees, an original Mormon pioneer cabin, a museum, and Sutter's Mill where gold was first discovered.  The kids got to pan for gold which they loved.  We also got to spend some time playing at the river which was awesome.  It was so fun to spend time with friends, and especially my sweet kiddos.  I absolutely LOVE home education and am incredibly grateful I found and have this opportunity to teach my children all day long on a daily basis.  (By the way, I intend to do several posts on home education - including why we've chosen it, and why I'm calling it home education instead of homeschooling, but those will come later.)  I didn't bring my camera on our last homeschool field trip and I regretted it, so armed with my new camera, new lens and awesome new camera bag which I adore!!, off we went and I was also able to have some fun taking pictures while we were at it.  AND I was able to get part of the kids' Christmas presents, (some field guides for their 'adventure bags' I'm putting together), so that was great too!  Such a great day.  Warning: picture overload.  Enjoy.  :)

Our first stop was the awesome nature center... so many cool things to see and do!  We could have spent a whole day just there!  Luckily, with home education we an do that sometime!  :)

We got to see how they heated metal and banged it to shape it, blew air on it to make the fire hot, and hear about how they would re-use metal to make new things.  So cool.

Then it was on to gold panning.  The kids were so excited for this and had so much fun!  It was so neat because they didn't just let them have at it, first they taught about gold and gold panning, and taught them techniques.  Then she came around and helped each child.  Such a neat experience.  They each got to keep a little vial of what they collected.

LOVE this sweet boys joy of life.  I love the sparkle in his eye.  He was giving me a handful of beautiful leaves he'd collected... this kid LOVES leaves... he has since he was a baby.  It's soo sweet.

I just loved Hyrum's little wave in this one.... he is such an adorable baby.

Yes, that's monkey McKay on the right there (in the tree).  :)

Aaron and more leaves.  :)

This sweet friend of ours pushed Hyrum around in the stroller and walked with him throughout the day... it was such a sweet moment when he give her this sweet hug.  I was so glad I had my camera out! 

This was very cool - It's a huge rock (notice the picnic bench below for some perspective on how high it is) that was used by Native American tribes for hundreds or thousands of years as a gathering place for processing acorns... you can see all those holes in the rock - those were used for grinding acorns into flour... they're all perfectly smooth inside from years and years of being ground in.  Isn't that cool??

Found a cool cave!

So cute... his hand was all dirty and he wrinkles up his nose and tries to wipe it off and makes that 'kkkk' sound kids make when something's yucky.  (I miss our back door going straight out to dirt.  :( )

Isn't this the cutest?

I love his expression in this one. 

And this one.

He had so much fun throwing rocks into the river.

McKay traded a friend for this awesome sharp rock she found and used it to strip the bark off a stick... love this adventurous boy of mine.

#heartbreaker  :)

I just ADORE his little pouty lips in this one.... oh I could just eat him up!

I love love love these precious huggy pictures... This baby just adores me and it is the best feeling in the world.  He gives me big huge squeezes like this all the time and it just makes me feel like the luckiest mom in the world.

I love Hyrum's smile at me in this one...

We got to see this neat old jail.  I love that the kids can experience this kind of stuff.  Can you see Haylee's sad face because she's locked in jail?  ;)

Right as we were about to leave we came out to these deer wondering around on the grounds.  Cute Haylee decided to follow them.  :)

Such a great, great day.  We're so blessed!  Life is beautiful.  Happy Thanksgiving!