This time of year I always get tired of the heat and ready for it to actually feel like fall. But I am trying really hard to enjoy the moment we are in instead of wanting things to hurry up and change.

We are embracing the still summer like weather by playing in the yard more. I grabbed a bunch of kitchen tools at Dollar Tree for the kids to play with in the yard and water table. We love to play with water beads in the water table as well.

We also ate lunch on the deck before dropping Cannon at school.

And just in case you are in need of a new car seat or need to get rid of one, Target it having a trade in event. We need to upgrade the carseat in the Tahoe for Emmy so we will be taking hers in and getting a new one. The one she is in is old and does not convert from a five point harness. She will likely be in the five point harness for at least another couple years but we want a new one that will convert.

On a random note, do you ever look at your kids and wonder how you ever got so lucky? It is a miracle that they are mine.

Today was Cannon’s first official day of school and while I will always prefer him with me and Emmy I am SO excited for him to go learn and make new friends. We joined some friends at the playground in the morning then came home for an early lunch. It’s going to take a while for me to get used to our new schedule of going to school in the afternoon.

It was so bright for Cannon’s light eyes. I won’t miss 90+ degree drop offs!

Emmy did not want Cannon to go to school without her, she tried to sneak in with him. We will adjust to our afternoons without our sunshine boy but for now we are figuring things out as we go.

While Cannon was at school Emmy helped me make crock pot Chicken Chili. We love cooking together!

Cannon has soccer practice on Wednesday evenings so we are going to be making more crock pot meals and I am on the hunt for some new recipes.

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Do you have a favorite crock pot meal?

After the nice long weekend together it was time to get back to reality and a get back into a routine of back to school for Cannon.

We took it pretty easy in the morning then went to a new (to us) playground. I am going to make the most of this bonus time with Cannon while I have it!

After lunch we got to see Cannon’s new school, his classroom and meet his teachers.

I am very happy with their Covid protocols and hoping that he learns a lot and makes some great friends this year.

In the evening we played and tried on our Halloween costumes again to make sure they were fitting (Cannon has grown a lot lately). Cannon’s costume is a little short in the legs but the next size up is huge on him so he is just going to have to deal with it being a little short this year. We need our costumes ready on September 28th for a Halloween party!

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When do you start planning your costumes?

After we got back from our day at the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park we made dinner then we went for a hike in the rocks.

There are so many more areas to explore here, we can’t wait to come back.

This area is a “warmer” area of our mountains so we should be able to camp here later in the fall and earlier in the spring.

We said good night to the last summer sunset. I felt a little sad that our summer was officially over but there is so much to look forward to, we just had such a fun summer together.

In the morning we enjoyed hot chocolate and packed up the trailer, time to head home and back to school.

We stopped for lunch at our favorite park in Salida. Our four hour drive home took eight hours because of holiday traffic, exhausting but worth it!

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Happy end of summer ( I KNOW it’s not officially over until end of September but it really feels over now). Tell me something you are looking forward to pleas!

On Sunday we drove to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. We haven’t visited this park yet and decided to take advantage that we have the annual pass this year.

It’s a pretty small park but worth the visit if you are in the area.

We went to the visitor center and asked the rangers for the best hikes with kids. We also had our god Humphry with us and we could take him with us on a lot of the trails.

The suggested the Rim Rock Trail and most of the overlooks.

The views were pretty great along the trail.

A couple more short hikes with overlooks.

The kids liked the hikes but were also pretty hot and ready to be done after a few hours.

We stayed on the South Rim but you can also visit the North Rim (that side is less popular).

Overall I am glad we got to visit and it makes me want to see the Grand Canyon soon!

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What is your favorite National Park? My top are Yellowstone, Moab and Grand Tetons. I can’t wait to see more.

On Saturday we drove North to Crested Butte.

Source and Trail Information

We started with a hike just south of town called the Caves Trail, where you can hike up to some cool caves.

The trail was a little steep but beautiful.

Our round trip was around 3 miles.

The kids had fun and especially loves checking out the caves.

After our hike we went into town, we found a fun playground and ate lunch. We walked through town, got ice crea, (because that is our favorite thing to do in mountain towns).

Crested Butte is very cute and will be amazing in a couple weeks when the leaves are changing.

We had a great time.

We picked up some hats for the kids because we lost Cannon’s hat a few weeks ago and Emmy fell in love with the rainbow beanie.

Then back to our campsite for playing and more climbing.

The kids and Cory decided to sleep in a tent overnight to feel more like “real” camping. They had a great time!

After staying the night on Guanella Pass we found a fun hike to get some energy out before driving on to Gunnison.

I loved this hike, it reminded me of hikes in Oregon.

I think Cannon has just had a growth spurt because he it looking so grown up!

We drove up to Hartman Rocks right outside of Gunnison and found an amazing camp site!

Cannon was in his element, immediately climbing all the rocks. I think climbing is his favorite activity.

The views from our campsite were amazing.

We needed a couple things from the grocery store so we drove down into Gunnison, we also found yummy coffe, ice cream and (of course) a playground.

After playing we went back to the campsite, made dinner and climbed/hiked some more.

We said goodnight to the sun.

Big love to our tiny trailer.

We are off for a long weekend in the mountains and I am so excited to get out and see more of this beautiful state we live in.

We took a break from our packing to visit one of our favorite playgrounds. We wanted to make sure we went back before they turn the water off for the year. This park is fun even without the little creek running but it’s extra fun with it.

We spent the afternoon packing up so we could hit the road as soon as Cory got off of work.

We drove to Guanella Pass where we camped for the night. It was late and almost dark when we pulled in so we went got in Kermit, got ready for bed and went straight to sleep. This is one of my favorite things about having a travel trailer, there is very little set up before we can get the kids in bed for the night.

September feels like the unofficial start to fall so it seemed appropriate to stay in our pajamas for way too long and do some baking.

I love baking with these two crazy kiddos. We decided that pumpkin bread was appropriate.

It takes twice as long and creates four times the mess but it’s much more fun.

Enough to share!

In the afternoon we met some friends for one last trip to the pool. Our pool closes on Labor Day and since we are traveling over the weekend it was our last chance and we will miss our sunny afternoons at the pool. It was clear it was time to close down though because the cooler evenings made the pool pretty cold. I am trying not to be sad that summer is ending because there is so much to love about fall.

While I took Cannon to soccer practice Cory and Emmy picked up our trailer so we can get ready for our long weekend away.

It’s always nice to have Kermit here getting ready for a new adventure.

Are you going anywhere for the holiday weekend?

Whew, we made it through August! Nothing was so terrible but it did feel like something I needed to get through and I feel so good about the direction we decided to go. Regardless we are moving forward and are looking forward to so much this month.

Cannon starts school on September 8th and while I would selfishly keep him with me at all times if I could but I know it’s best for him to go to school. He is excited to start and I am excited for him. One of the bonuses of sending him to a private school is that we can pull him out for adventures when we want (I will *try* not to abuse this).

Things I am most looking forward to this month:

• The weather changing and cooling off a little
• Mountain trips to see the leaves turn
• Fall camping in the mountains!
• Fall food
• Prepping for all things Halloween
• Our trip to Disneyland!

My goals for September are to:

• Get in a routine of getting up early to exercise (try, try again)
• Be outside as much as possible, lots of hikes
• Enjoy our trips together

August was a roller coaster but still so so good, anytime we are together is a good time.

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