Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Back to School, 2015

 

It happened.  Summer break ended and school started.

Emily is a big Sophomore!  She is looking forward to getting her learner’s permit, starting Winterguard again, and lots of fun with friends.

2015-08-Em-school

 

Josh is in 8th grade at a new school.  Next year will be another new school for him, as the new high school will be finished up.  That means 4 different schools in 5 years for him!  He’s looking forward to guitar and NOT having two hours of English/language arts!

2015-08-Josh-school

 

Rachel is an adorable and slightly hesitant 3rd grader.  Looking forward to cursive and times tables!

2015-08-Rachel-school

 

Caleb is a cool and confident 2nd grader.  So cool, in fact, that he walked himself to his own class while I was hugging Rachel at the doorway to hers.  He thought he was going to get away without a hug and kiss!!  He’s looking forward to math and minions (his classroom theme)!

2015-08-Caleb-school

 

Daniel is going to rock his last year of PreK!  We can’t wait to see the growth that will happen for him this year.

2015-08-Daniel-school

 

And this is what happens when we try to get one of everyone together.  PURE CHAOS!!

2015-08-Back-to-School

 

Happy Back to School!!  It’s gonna be a great year!

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Summer 2015

 

It’s hard to believe this summer is coming to an end!  Even though the month of July sort of evaporated, we still had lots and lots of fun.  Here are some of the exciting things that happened.  (In the interest of getting this posted, I am going to skip the pics for now.  Getting the memories recorded is more important!)

We went to St. George to kick off the summer.  We saw Indian petroglyphs, went on a RAZR tour through the sand dunes (where we saw lizards and packrat nests and Moki marbles), drove through Zion (in the rain) and especially loved the tunnels, played at a great park, swam in the hotel pool, ate too many yummy treats, and stopped at Kolob Canyon on our way home.  Funny things: an Asian lady kept calling our room and telling us to stop running (we were literally tiptoe-ing), and we also ran into one of Jared’s bosses at a restaurant.

Caleb turned 7 the day we came home from St. George!  We stopped at Thanksgiving Point’s dinosaur museum to start off the fun and then came home for presents and treats.

We went to Lagoon, our annual tradition thanks to Cook Martin Poulson.  Everyone was sad that Cannibal wasn’t open yet.  But we managed to have a great time anyway.

Jared made raised garden beds for our vegetable garden.  Then we spread 200 wheelbarrow loads of woodchips around the non-grassy areas of the backyard.  We planted a garden for the first time since 2012!!  We have been enjoying an abundance of zucchini and yellow squash, and are just now starting to get green beans and cucumbers.  We are anxiously waiting for the tomatoes to turn red!

We got family pictures, and we’re very happy with how they turned out!

Emily went to Girls Camp and Josh went to Scout Camp.

We went to Seven Peaks and had fun playing in the water!

I had surgery to fix some problems in my small bowel caused by Crohn’s Disease.  Four days in the hospital and then several weeks of recovering at home…the reason for July’s evaporation.  We are crossing our fingers that this will keep me healthy for a long long time.

Daniel learned how to open doorknobs and climb out of his crib all in the same week!  Enter the toddler bed!  He’s been great about sleeping in it.  We just have to have a doorknob cover on the inside of his door so he stays in his room!

We had a fun family reunion at Tony Grove.  Even though we didn’t camp, everyone had a blast.  Paddleboards, kayaks, cousins, good food and a fire…all the essentials for a great day.

We visited Minnetonka Cave.  The 90-minute tour probably seemed like a 3-hour tour to Jared, who had to carry Daniel in his arms and on his shoulders the whole way. 

Josh turned 13, which means we officially have two teenagers now!  Yikes!!

Jared and I had our 16th anniversary.  We recreated our first date with the kids and had a great evening.

Emily had a piano recital and performed her own composition, called Autumn Winds.

We went camping…finally!!  We really need to go more often and/or stay longer.  Getting it all ready is so much work!  We found a nice spot in Blacksmith Fork Canyon and had a blast…even with the rain and our close encounter with a skunk!!  Thankfully no one got sprayed.