A few events

Sunday we had beautiful fall weather, so we took the opportunity to walk down by the falls. It was really nice there and I love how the leaves are all changing color. We took two pieces of bread for Parker to feed the ducks, which he loved of course. Whenever some of the ducks would suddenly take off, Parker would think it was so funny and would start laughing. It was cute because the ducks/geese were fighting over the bread and Parker kept telling them, "Don't fight, duckies. Be nice!" Madisyn was old enough this time to be really interested in the ducks and she kept pointing at them and making her own "duck" noise.

Classic family picture by the falls

Another family pictures (although Maddie is in the middle of making her duck noise, so she kind of looks funny)

Intrigued by the ducks

Feeding the ducks

Maddie and Daddy watching the ducks

Me and the kids

My beautiful girl

My crazy little boy

The Idaho Falls Temple (like how Ben caught the bird in the picture too?)

So the other day we got a pretty good scare. Ben has been working for an organic fertilizer company here in I.F. He drives a huge machine called a Scarub. On Saturday it caught on fire while he was driving it. He would not have noticed the fire since it was behind & below him (he sits up 15 feet off the ground) and the machine is really loud, but he had just turned the Scarub so that the wind blew the smoke in his direction. He got out to see what it was, and the Scarub's batteries were on fire. He searched for a fire extinguisher and got in the cab to look for one when there was a loud BOOM. Afraid that the thing was going to blow (since it has two gas tanks that hold 100 gallons of diesel fuel), he jumped the 15 feet off the Scarub. Just after he had jumped off and was running towards our car to see if we had a fire extinguisher, there was another explosion. In a matter of just 45 seconds, the Scarub was engulfed in flames. I keep trying not to think about what could have or almost happened, and how blessed we are that he had just turned a corner (instead of the wind blowing the smoke away from Ben), but it sure does make me think of how lucky we were! We went out later that night and took some pictures of Ben's "near death" experience (I know, I'm a little dramatic!).

Ben standing by the Scarub. The cab is at the top in the middle.

Closeup (from the ground) of the cab

The inside of the cab

This is a picture of what used to be a tool box with a whole bunch of tools inside. The tools completely melted down to nothing (except the end of the shovel) because of how hot the fire got.

On another note, Madisyn had her 12mo checkup on Monday. She unfortunately has an ear infection, but is otherwise healthy. She had to have blood drawn from her arm, which was so HORRIBLE! They couldn't get into her vein so they were digging around for a whole minute and I felt so bad and so helpless!! She already has quite a bruise there. :-( Then on top of that (and on top of the ear infection) she had to have four shots! So the poor girl got beat up and I felt so bad for her, but at least she won't remember it. She is 17 lbs 7 oz (4th percentile) and 27.75 inches long (13th percentile). She is the same weight that Parker was at that age, but he was almost 2 inches taller. We are still waiting for any teeth, but I think she's finally getting close. She isn't walking or standing on her own, but again, that will come at her own time. We are just glad our girl is healthy and (usually) very happy!!