Summer Adventures With the Niblets

This summer has flown by! Luckily, I got to spend quite a bit of it with my favorite little people.

Kenna, Kylie, Bubba, and Kristie visited the last week of my school year. They were in town for their Aunt Bev's wedding but, when they weren't taking care of wedding business, they helped me celebrate the start of my vacation. We popped popcorn...

... and then munched it while watching quality programs like Aqubats.

How cool are my niblets? Seriously. They are awesome.

When July rolled around I got to see this little cutie. Mojo only gets to visit Idaho twice a year, so it was so, SO much fun to see her (and her parents).

All eleven of the niblets came to Grandma's house for the 4th of July weekend. 

We engaged in the traditional family events like swimming at Heise...

... and watching the parade in the grandparent's front yard. 

Later that month my mom and I went to Utah to babysit Jenny's kids while she and John took an anniversary trip. We taught the kids to make jam...

... and bread animals.

We also got to watch Bubba and Kristie while their parents went on an anniversary escape (Kenna and Kylie were at a super fun reunion at Bear Lake with their other grands).

 We took a break from Camp Grandma to watch Grandpa take the school board oath of office for a second term.

 Bubba enjoyed watching Netflix in his "nest" before falling asleep.

 Earlier this month, the Utah Niblets made their annual trek to Cow Town. Their first stop was, of course, Taco Bandido.

 It was Alton's first time to visit my cute little town - and his first time to eat at the restaurant his mama has loved since she was little. He seemed to enjoy it.

 Half of the kids stayed with me and their mom in my cute little hobbit hole, while the rest roughed it with their grandparents at the Marriot.

Jenny's kids usually come up during fair week, but had to come up early this year because they start school the same week we start fair. I was worried about coming up with enough fun activities to replace the fair and rodeo, but thanks to some good friends (who own horses, buggies, and boats) there was never a dull moment.

 The only downsides - Jenny and Grandpa had to watch the fun from the docks...

... and Milo, while enjoying the rural life, did NOT enjoy the rural smel

Other highlights from the trip included Alton's first movie theater experience (We saw Minions, but Alton did manage to take in a little bit of Mission Impossible as well)...

... eating a lot of junk food...

...and shopping Kings, a real blast-from-the-past for Jenny and I.

I got to visit with the IF niblets a little more last weekend. We got snow cones and spent some time on the rides by the zoo.

 I will see those little darlings again this week when they come over for the fair and rodeo. Then, after watching the rodeo with my folks (and maybe Greggie and Kristina) we will make a quick Utah trip to see Maxwell get ordained a deacon.

That trip will bring the summer niblet adventures to an end for another year, but the new kidlet adventures will just be starting...

Irony

The time is swiftly approaching when the bobkittens will be returning to the junior high.

But this week we had full grown bobcats living in our school... Madison High School Bobcats who, for the last three years, have traveled to Cow Town for their high school band camp.

Between the huge marching band and the army of parents who came to cook and chaperon, a good chunk of the school looked like a refugee camp. There were cots, air mattresses, and sleeping bags everywhere - including the stage right outside my classroom - but I was very impressed with how neat and orderly they were.

The band marched up and down the streets in our neighborhood, practiced their show on the high school field, and the different sections rehearsed their pieces in hallways and classrooms.
Except for the percussion section, who set up shop in the media center.

That's right, the PERCUSSION section spent the week practicing in the LIBRARY. Our former librarian would be turning in her grave. If she was dead, which she isn't. Just retired. But still...

Drums in the library. The kidlets will be so sorry they missed it!

New

Remember when I went to IF for the 4th of July (more on that adventure next week!) and left my home looking like this?

Everything I owned had to be scrunched into my kitchen because my sweet landlady, Lucy, decided that I needed new carpet. And I was sooooo happy that she decided that because, while I have always loved everything else about my cute little hobbit hole, the 37 year old gold and blue carpet was a bit dated. And a bit, well, grimy. This is Cow Town after all, and doormats can only help so much.

I was extra excited by the prospect of new carpet because I had recently made a few other changes to my living room decor.

Take my couch, for example. I love this couch. It lived in my parent's living room for years before moving to Cow Town with me. It is a good TV couch, a great reading couch, and a wonderful sleeping couch.

When it started looking a little tired, I got it a cover and some pretty pillow to try to snazz it up a bit. That worked for a while...

...but over spring break, after a couple years of fighting with a canvas couch onesie, I decided to use some of my tax refund money to get it a nicer, kinder, less ornery cover.

Kristie totally approved.Which really, is the most important thing.

And while I was couch-cover-shopping, I decided that it was also time to update the living room curtains. I am sure that those curtains had some serious swagger when Lucy put them up 37 years ago, and they were really handy when I moved in about five years ago and curtain money was not in my budget, I was really, REALLY ready for a change.

So my mom helped me pick out these great panels: grey blue with brown tree-branch details on the lower half. I knew they were meant to grace my living room windows. After all, the design is called "Alton"...

... and in my experience, anything called Alton HAS to be super cute.

 

Like, seriously cute.

The curtains didn't disappoint.They fit in nicely with the new blue and brown theme I had going on.

And just when I though I couldn't get any happier with my hobbit hole's redesign, the heavens parted, angels started singing, and Sister Woodhouse appeared in a pillar of light. She had redecorated her home and brought me some of the things she didn't need any more.

The yellow and gold items that she donated to the "Save the Mindy" fund added the pops of color that I didn't even know I needed. Sister Woodhouse is just oh, so very wise!

I was pleased with the results of the redesign, as were Bubba and Kristie, but there was still one obstacle in my pathway to complete home happiness: the 37 year old gold and blue carpet.

Fast  forward a few months and one giant cramming-everything-I-own-in-my-kitchen-weekend later and Voilà! The whole place looks brand new!

Sister Woodhouses' lamp? It looks brand new! My grandmother's antique desk? Looks totally new!

This adorable sparkly end table? It looks perfectly new! 

Wait...it is new. 

I just bought it. 

But still, you get the point, right?

My cute little hobbit hole is beautiful. lovely, of good report, praiseworthy, etc.

So the next time you are in the neighborhood, you should totally stop by and take a tour!

I am loving showing off my new carpet to everyone. The cable repair guy was very complementary, as was Val, my visiting teachers, the mail man...

... and the other members of our NEW ward Relief Society presidency. We had our first meeting in my NEWLY redecorated living room atop my NEW carpet. I guess my NEW carpet was just a harbinger of another, bigger, NEWER adventure.

Tracy (2nd Counselor), Rosana (President), Mindy (1st Counselor)