Idaho and Montana

Starting on July 12th, Kyle took leave through July 29th (we still have over 60 days to use before he gets out of the Army). We decided that the main purpose of this leave was to begin our search for where we will relocate after the Army. We still have no idea when Kyle will be out, at one point it was by the end of August, and now they are saying it will probably not be until the end of the year or possibly even into January. To say the least, we have no idea when the Army will be letting him go, which makes planning a bit difficult. We will know for sure 30 days out, but nothing beyond that is guaranteed. I like plans, so this is hard for me. I find myself constantly worrying about our life after the Army.
Kyle feels that God is calling him to work with young people (teenagers) in a youth ministry setting. Not a youth minister, but his dream is to start a outdoor leadership camp that would take young people into the outdoors on adventures in which they would experience God's love, magnificent power, and His Spirit as they explore and learn about the outdoors. His cousin Jarid, is finishing up his Master's in Divinity and would love to start a church camp. We are praying and seeing if their dreams can mesh together, or exactly what God has in store for them. Initially upon getting out of the military Kyle would like to attend the National Outdoor Leadership School (which has courses all throughout the US and world) and get some formal training and certifications in things like mountaineering, and other outdoor skills.
I would either like to start working back in the public schools or begin my own preschool. Starting my own preschool would be awesome because it could allow me to be with my boys, yet do what I feel is my calling, teach. I also think it is important that I am home with the boys, so starting my own preschool really would be ideal.
So as you may have guessed, we have a lot of decisions to make and I am really working on trusting God. Some of the Bible verses that I try to remind myself of daily are: 
Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight
Jeremiah 29:11
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Joshua 1:9
...Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
Proverbs 19:21
Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.
 Romans 8:28
And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Back to the trip...We have heard great things about Montana, it isn't Alaska (where Kyle would love to go), it is within a days drive to all our family, it's beautiful, has prime land for Kyle's dream, good veteran benefits, and Kyle likes their gun laws (no, I'm not joking, this is something he looks up and considers in all potential areas), so we decided we wanted to check it out for ourselves. Luckily for us, Kyle's dad lives on the way. So we spent Wednesday-Sunday with his dad and his family. We went up to Priest Lake for a night, but really just enjoyed being in the company of family. Kyle's dad may be leaving for a year here soon, and we wanted to be able to spend some time with him before he left. The kids, especially Gunnar love being at their house he just can't get enough of his uncles.

 After spending some time in Post Falls, we left Gunnar with his Grandpa, Nana, and uncles and took Ryker with us and headed to Montana. We started by going up to Glacier National Park. Monday evening we got together with my old youth pastor and his family and enjoyed a wonderful visit. We camped at a KOA campground (my kind of camping) and spent Tuesday in the park. We went on a hike to Avalanche lake and took a long drive around the park checking out many amazing things. God's design is perfect...awe inspiring.

 Kyle wanted to spend another day in the park, but I really was missing Gunnar, so Wednesday we decided to head down to Missoula. On the way we stopped at Flathead National Forest and fell in love with the area. We had lunch in Missoula then headed to Jerry Johnson's Hot Springs, which we thought were just outside Lolo. Turned out they were about an hour and half outside Lolo. We spent a good hour at the hot springs (with a naked old man), then made the trip back to Post Falls that evening getting in at about 10pm.

We spent Thursday just hanging out. It was nice. Perfect actually. Then on Friday we made the journey back to Fort Lewis. We met up with my parents and sister in Ellensburg, did a little power shopping in North Bend, and got home around 10pm. Saturday we went to my cousin David's wedding. It was so beautiful. Heather's (the bride) parents have a house right on Puget Sound and the wedding was there, it was breathtaking. The best part was our babysitter watched our kids for us during the wedding so we really got to enjoy it. Sunday we went to church, then had a little family get together at my Aunt's house. That evening my parents left around 9pm as Kyle was rebuilding their computer over the weekend, and simply just never had time to work on it.

Kyle really wanted to head to Crater Lake (another place we are considering living near) for his last few days of leave, the 25th-29th. I told him he could go alone, because riding in the car for another 6+ hours one way with the kids was not really fun, and I was tired. He considered going to Crater Lake or back to his dad's alone, but in the end decided to stay with us (good choice, I might add). We had a relaxing Monday, but then took off Tuesday for a two night camping trip to the Washington Rainforest at Lake Quinault. We had a great time, and hopefully within a day or so I will be writing up about that. So July has been super busy, and crazy. I feel like we are rarely home anymore. August is looking like it could be a bit crazy too. Thank goodness our kids handle it all pretty well, they do way better with all this running around then I do!

June in a nutshell.

Some highlights since my graduation (since I haven't been a great blogger since then)....
*I spent a week with my parents. I went to present my action research project to a group of teachers at Mesa Elementary School and then the boys' and I spent some time my my family in Pasco.

*We meet up with Jami Clevenger in Seattle. She was here for a conference and we were able to go see her one evening. It was so nice to be able to spend a little time with her. We made the best of the short visit and really enjoyed her company.

*We went down to Eugene, OR for the 4th of July weekend. We spent a long weekend there. We enjoyed floating down the river while the boys stayed with their Grandma Kathy, and we took them on their first camping trip. The first night was a bit rough, probably mostly due to poor planning, but we had fun despite being tired. (Our dogs also tried to kill each other on the trip which added to the excitement.

 *I am now Open Water Scuba Diving certified. I took a week long scuba class in the evenings and then on the weekend I went out to Puget Sound and did a couple of dives. I had some real problems with my ears adjusting to the pressure out in the open water, but despite it, I got to go down about 50 feet, see an octopus, lots of jelly fish, fish, crabs, sea cucumbers and many other fun things. Scuba is fun, I hope to do it more and become more comfortable with it all. I had a really hard time relaxing and felt a bit catastrophic but I think with a little more experience will really learn to love the sport.
*My mom, sister, and I threw a bridal shower for my cousin's bride David. We also took my dad, mom, and sister to a Mariner's game for my dad's birthday present.

On July 12th Kyle began to take some leave that end on the 29th. We spent the first part in Idaho and Montana, came back for a wedding, and tomorrow leave for a 2 day camping trip up in the Olympic National forest. I will do a separate update for fun trips.

Binki Free (kinda)

See these cute, binki free smiles???

Finally, we did it. One morning about 2 weeks ago we just decided to throw all the pacifiers in the house in the garbage (we also cut them up so we weren't tempted to dig them out). I was so worried we would have horrible and torturous days ahead of us, but in all honesty they both handled it like champs. The first nap was a little rough, but after that Gunnar usually would ask for it, we reminded him that he is "2" and they are now in the garbage and for babies. He was always pretty okay with this idea and would go to sleep without protest. Bed and nap time was pretty much the only time he never noticed even though he was using the pacfi almost all day long!
We went to visit Kyle's dad and family and I think it helped keep him busy and his mind off the the pacifier. We also took Ryker's away as well, but I cheat sometimes at night. He has never really used the pacifier much, but when we were camping this last week he started to use breastfeeding as a pacifier at night, and that didn't really work for me. We only have about a month left of breastfeeding, I am so ready to be done, so I am trying to make it as pleasant as possible...becoming a replacement pacifier is NOT pleasant.
So, I have a couple spares hidden, but Gunnar has no idea about them. I am hoping they will lose their appeal completely soon. Gunnar is getting a tooth in, so he really wants things in his mouth, so I think they would still be pretty appealing at this point.
This was long overdue, it was embarrassing when we would go out in public. In my defense we took it away at a year, then he went back to it at like 18 months a few months after Ryker was born and we began the process of moving back to the US. He was stealing it from Ryker and it wasn't worth the fight to me at the time...we had way to many other things to worry about during that time.
I have decided cold turkey is the way to go. We tried gradually taking it away and putting holes in the nipples of them and he could have cared less...cold turkey all the way.
So, my little boy is REALLY growing up. He is potty trained during the day (still working on not wetting at night, but that will come with time) and now he doesn't have a pacifier.

 I know that the picture above is super hard to see, but the first night we were in Post Falls, Gunnar apparently climbed in the crib with Ryker. He was holding Ryker's hand when I first got the camera, but Ryker moved his away before I could snap a picture. And, notice..they don't have pacifiers in their mouths for sleeping either!!!

Go Cougs

 Wow, it has been a month since a post. You would think after I graduated I would post more often. I kinda used blogging as a distraction from homework, but I will try and do better. I have a lot of catching up to do.
In the meantime, I will share a funny story about an adventure of a kid no longer in diapers.
Kyle has been awesome and has been watching the kids while I go grocery shopping lately. However, I am in a scuba class this week and gone from 6-10:30pm each night. Not putting my kids to bed for a week is almost killing me. I miss them terribly. So yesterday I decided to take Gunnar with me grocery shopping so I could spend some extra time with him. Napping Ryker stayed home with Kyle.
We got to the store and about 3 minutes into the trip Gunnar announced he had to go potty. So we went. He peed. Then we went back to shopping. About 5 minutes later he announced again he had to potty. So we went, he peed, a lot of pee. We ventured back into the store. All was going well, until I had my two last items to grab. Gunnar once again announced he had to go potty. Really kid? We were at the opposite end of the commissary, so I told him to wait and I attempted to quickly grab  my last items. Just as I set the last item in my cart to my horror, I felt something dripping on my feet, the floor, the groceries. Gunnar peed, A LOT! Where does this all come from? I decided there really wasn't much I could do, so I choose to pretend I didn't notice the pee dripping from our cart.(I know, GROSS, but as a Mom, your gross level has a major increase in tolerance.) I quickly made my way to the checkout line. I noticed an elderly man behind me walking quickly after me shouting "excuse me ma'am." I tried to pretend I didn't hear him, but I knew he was trying to get my attention. I assumed to confront me about the trail of pee I was leaving. But to my delight when I turned around all he said in a loud voice was "GO COUGS, I just love your WSU t-shirt." Whew...embarrassment only minimal.
Moral of the story: Don't let your kid drink two glasses of water before heading to the grocery store. It will surely end in a disaster.
Because I haven't posted in a while here are a few pictures of my boys from Summerfest a week or so ago.