Our little getaway

In September my parents took the kids for the day and Reed and I had some time to spend with just the two of us.  We went to the temple and when we got out it was the middle of the afternoon.  We decided to go visit Waterton.  We got there right before the ranger station place closed so we hurried and asked what was the best hike to go on.  The guys said to try Bertha lake.  I had been to Bertha falls before but I hadn't gone any further.  We weren't sure if we would have enough time to make it up and back before it started to get dark and cold but we decided to at least start the hike.  I'm glad we did - it was beautiful!

Climbing up the trail - you can see Waterton lake in the background

We made it to Bertha falls in record time so we decided to keep going:

The trail up to the falls is pretty easy.  After that though it becomes much steeper.  There were so many switch backs.  Luckily the scenery was amazing and the day was cool - perfect hiking conditions:

We booked it to the top - we were so impressed with ourselves.  Seriously - record time.  Here we caught our first glimpse of the lake:



Bertha Lake

We only spent a short time at the lake.  It was kind of chilly after you stopped moving.  Here is Reed on a bridge at the lake:

The scenery was breathtaking.  I have never been up in the mountains like that in the fall.  It was so neat to see the splashes of gold leaves mixed in with the darker evergreens.  We tried to take some pictures that captured the beautiful colors but they didn't do it justice:

My eyes are closed but you can see the colors in the background:

 

Then we headed home to meet up with everyone and hear about their day.  It was a great time!

Back to school

The kids started back to school really late this year - not until September 4th.  There were mixed reactions to going back to school.  Conner was not excited.  However, he has the same teacher that Alan had in first grade and Alan told all about how great this teacher is and so I think Conner was at least a little curious to go and see how he liked this teacher.

 Brooklyn always likes to get into the picture:

 

 Conner ready for first grade:

 

Alan had mixed feelings.  He was sad to see summer end but was happy to go back and see all of his friends.  Here is Alan ready for third grade:

 

My two big boys:

Pitcher Family Reunion

I am making a sincere effort to get caught up on my blog by the end of February.  So with that in mind this post won't be in any particular order. 
Last August the Pitchers all met at Flathead Lake for a little vacation.  We stayed in a house right by the water, which was great, and we rented a boat for most of the days.  We spent a lot of time skiing and wakeboarding. 

Reed and Steph.  Steph getting ready to wakeboard:

 

Steph wakeboarding:

Brittany wakeboarding:

 

Drew slaloming:

 

Reed (my brother) skiing:

 

I skied, wake boarded, and slalomed.  Here is me wakeboarding:

 

My cousin Janae let us borrow her ez ski so that the boys could try it out.  Conner loved it.  He kept asking us to go faster.  That went well until he crashed and then he wasn't very happy.  After a day he tried again though:



Alan was the first one to try it.  He enjoyed it until he leaned too far to one side and fell over.  After that he was very nervous on it:

 

Dad skiing:

On the last day we went for a hike.  It was rainy and cool:

 

Alan and Conner went ahead with the advance party.  The kindly wrote the word "lunch" out of sticks and pointed the way so that we could join them:

We stopped at the lake and ate lunch but we were all getting cold so we didn't stop for long.  We turned around and trooped back:

Reed has a banana suit made and appearance.  He actually went skiing in it:

The beach by the house was rocky but we still enjoyed it:

 

Drew and Alan on the tube

Micah, Carissa and Conner on the tube.  Micah held on with a death grip, despite the fact that we went pretty slow.  Conner maintained a bored pose:

 

Conner and Drew:

 

Brooklyn trying on shoes:

 

Brittany brought some water bottles for the kids to decorate:

Reed joined us half way through the week:

 

Brooklyn worked on her climbing skills on the play house in the backyard:

They had a couple of paddle boards that came with the house.  The boys really enjoyed paddling around the dock:

Looks like Brooklyn caught herself:

We love spending time together!:

A family shot:

10 on Tuesday

I got this idea from my cousin Janae.  This post is a random collection of things that have happened, mostly in the couple of months that I wanted to post about.  I lost my camera so I don't have any pictures:

1.  This was from back in July.  On Brooklyn's birthday weekend Reed and I went to the Great Canadian Barn Dance.  We went with my parents, Reed and Steph and Brittney.  They had canoes that you could take out on the big pond.  We had fun on those, especially when we raced Reed and Steph.  We almost tipped over so they beat us.  Then we played volleyball for a while and then we danced the night away.  It was a fun evening. 

2. In July our stake redrew the ward boundaries so we had a big meeting when they announced that.  It was the strangest meeting I have ever been to: they had each ward stand up one at a time and they released everyone in every position.  Crazy.  So Reed wasn't in the bishopric anymore and I wasn't the nursery leader anymore.  A couple of weeks later they asked me to be the Primary President - that was a shock.  Reed was a called as a gospel principles teacher and ward missionary.

3.  Our primary program was on November 9th.  I didn't realize how much work goes into one of those - I'm so glad its over.  Our kids did good on their parts.  Micah made everyone laugh.  His whole sunbeam class was supposed to stand up and say something that they like to do with their families.  When it was Micah's turn he barely peeked over the pulpit and announced loudly "I like to eat treats" and then turned and sat down.  At least he spoke from his heart!  Conner did great with his big words like "responsible to provide the necessities of life".  Alan did great on his talk.

4.  Brooklyn can be very stubborn but she loves to help.  If I ask her to do something she usually replies "Sure Mama, I will!".  I love it!  It is one of my favorite phrases.

5.  Something that I have not enjoyed about this age Brooklyn is in is her constant desire to draw on the walls.  Every time she finds a pen, pencil, crayon, or marker she makes a beeline for a wall and covers it in her "art".  It is driving me crazy!

6.  Alan earned his wolf rank in cub scouts in October.  His cub scout program is very organized and he has loved going. 

7.  A couple of months ago I noticed that the ceiling in our dining room was leaking water.  It only happened for a minute and then it stopped and nothing happened for a couple of weeks.  Then one day I heard the water on in the upstairs bathroom and went to check it out.  Brooklyn had turned the faucet on and watched as it filled the  sink and overflowed onto the floor.  I quickly turned it off and started to mop up the water.  I asked Alan to go to the basement and get some towels out of the dirty clothes to help soak up the water.  He came back quickly and said that he could hear a weird noise in the basement, kind of like footsteps, so he didn't want to go down there.  I had a sneaking suspicion that it was dripping water and sure enough I was right.  The water from upstairs leaked down the wall and caused the paint in our dining room wall to fill with a couple of large water bubbles and then the water continued on down and leaked through the floor into the basement.  Grrrr.   We called a plumber and found out that one of the pipes had a hole in it so we tore out part of the wall and the new vanity (breaking it in the process) so that he could reach the pipe and replace it.  I feel like the upstairs bathroom is sucking away all of our home improvement money and time. 

8.  Speaking of the upstairs bathroom sucking us dry: we replaced the lock on our upstairs bathroom lock a couple of months ago.  The door and lock are really old and kind of unique.  Anyway Brooklyn went into the bathroom and accidently locked the door.  I tried everything but I couldn't unlock it.  At first Brooklyn didn't care at all that she was stuck in there but after a bit she started to cry and then she started to cry really hard when she realized I couldn't open it.  I called Reed and explained the situation and he came home to rescue his baby girl.  He ended up just kicking the door until the latch finally broke.  He also did some damage to the door and the door frame.  Oh well, we got her out safe and sound.  Now we have to order a new bathroom door.

9.  Brooklyn has a thing about taking off her clothes.  I regularly find her naked at home, she is very good at taking her clothes off.  I took her to the church while I waited for Alan to finish cub scouts.  I was talking to another mom and realized that I hadn't seen Brooklyn for a couple of minutes so I started to walk around the church.  I couldn't find her anywhere until I suddenly saw a little arm opening the boys bathroom door.  Brooklyn walked out completely naked.  Sheesh!
There was no one in the bathroom, thank goodness, so Alan went in and got her clothes and diaper and I quickly dressed her.  I hope that is the last public nudity episode. 

10.  The boys decided they really wanted to get some fish.  At one of the fairs that we went to Alan saw a booth giving out fish as a prize and he has wanted a fish ever since then.  So Alan and Conner earned half of the money needed to buy a tank and some sand and decorations and we provided the rest.  Then Reed, Alan, Conner and Micah each chose a goldfish.  Reed's fish was Bronc, Alan's fish was Gilroy, Conner's fish was Finnix, and Micah's fish was named Micah.  Well after a week Micah's fish died so we bought him another one but I told him he had to pick a different name.  I could just imagine the kids going to church and announcing that Micah died last night, without clarifying that they were talking about a fish, not their brother.  So Micah named his new fish Knight.  Those 4 fish lasted about a month and then they all died.  Alan was pretty sad when his died but the other kids weren't too upset.  We will see if we try again.

Well there is random look at the last couple of months.