Back to School

The kids were SO excite to be back in school! Logan is happy to have Mrs. Graham again for 5th grade (he had and loved her in 3rd grade). Dustin was excited to get Mrs. Porter for 2nd grade (Logan had her when he was in 2nd grade too). And although you can't tell from the pic, Brooklyn has been counting down the days until she started Kindergarten with Mrs. Lafferty for about a year. She was upset though that Kindergarten didn't start until the week after the boys.

Logan has really come into his own over the past year. He's learned to get along with everyone pretty well. All summer long I was impressed with him (mostly) not fighting with his siblings. He's a pretty happy kid and LOVES to read! I had to limit him on how many books he could check out at a time this summer because he had so many he started loosing them.

This picture pretty much sums up our goofy Dustin! He's a crack up and always into everything. The kids decided they wanted to design their own shirts for the first day of school. My mom commented "I get Logan and Brooklyn's choices in shirts, but what's up with Dustin's???" He told me it's because he "loves burgers and fries. They're pretty much my favorite food". When I told my mom that she responded "He did tell me about a dream he had about hamburgers and fries" What can I say? My kids are fast food deprived.

Brooklyn was over the moon excited when her first day finally came. I was a little nervous for her, because she can be extremely shy, but she did great! She came home from school and told me she made 3 new friends that love beautiful things too. Every day she tells me about the new friends she made, or worries if someone isn't in class (hoping they aren't sick).

Brooklyn's our little girly girl. She loves all things pink, sparkly, and beautiful. I have no idea where she gets if from. 

 She had a blast with all the new things at school, and on day two she was so worn out from playing so hard I found her asleep on a Luv Sac when I called everyone in for dinner. It made me smile because my parents have a picture of me napping on the couch after my first day of Kindergarten too.

We've pretty much gotten back into the swing of the school year now. Brooklyn's first week of school I had scheduled all my doctor and dentist appointments that I had missed over the past 1.5 years (corona makes it hard to get out without the kids, or even with them). But I'm hoping the second week will be more laid back.

Summer Time

This summer was BUSY! We started out with a trip to the Green River up at Flaming Gorge with my parents and most of my siblings. Dave's boss has a cabbing up there and he let us stay and borrow his 12 man raft to enjoy the river. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins.

Brooklyn and her cousin Petra were enamored with the horses that were on the land beside the cousin's hotel. They made as many trips as possible to visit and feed these guys.

This summer was crazy busy with church stuff. I'm working with our congregation's teenage girls and we had a girls camp, a youth conference, hosted a carnival for neighborhood kids, and weekly activities. It was a ton of work and I finished the summer completely exhausted and ready to ask for another job. But I hung in and am hoping that I will have more energy with everyone back in school. Hopefully after the first few weeks I'll be able to catch a few quiet moments to rejuvenate.

My friend Tenille came and visited us a few times. The kids enjoyed messing around with their bonus auntie. She always brings a million projects for them (and me) to work on.

We took Tenille to the Upper Provo Falls for an adventure. It's not a tough hike down to the water, and from there you can go up or down stream. trek through the water and enjoy several water falls.

It's a little bit of a drive, but totally worth it a few times a year. The kids loved getting wet and sharing the hike with Tenille.

The boys decided they wanted to take on sewing plushies this summer. They sewed the facial features on by hand, picked out the colors, and I sewed it all together. They each made a stuffed animal, then they made this penguin to give to our friend's baby for his first birthday.

We also hiked up to silver lake a few times. The kids love scaling every rock they can for the entire hike. They always enjoy this hike, but unfortunately the stream they usually damn up was dry due to the drought. That was very disappointing for them, but hopefully we'll get enough rain this winter that it will be back next summer.

Every summer we also go to the library to make Harry Potter crafts. This year the kids enjoyed making a time turner, golden snitch (out of chocolate), some flying keys, a notebook with a Hogwarts logo on it, and a quill. They also got to play wizard's chess with some other kids at the library. They kicked the other kid's butts! Logan's been practicing his chess and the bigger kids were a little put out that little kids were beating them.

The weekend before school started we did a 2 night campout with a family from the neighborhood. It was so nice to get away from the city and just enjoy nature. 

Right behind our camp site was a stream that the kids had a blast wading in and floating things down the river. It was the perfect temperature and we saw a few animals (squirrels, a moose, a snake...).

The kids went with me shopping to get the food for the trip and BEGGED me to get a monster tub of cheetoes puffs. They decided they tasted best roasted over the fire.

We also hiked up Doughnut falls with our friends. It was fun to hike with friends, and although Logan got stung by a wasp, it was a great adventure. It's been a bad year for wasps here! Dave also got stung, and Brooklyn had 3 stings earlier this year!

Over all it was a good summer. Busy, and over way too fast, but we had a lot of fun.