Sayonara Summer

 And its official, folks.  Summer has come to a conclusion.  I know a few months ago the season began with some trepidation and anxiety.  What were we going to do with all the time off??  Well, as it does every year, summer flew by.  We finished it with some pretty fun activities: the zoo with friends...

classic, Cowabunga Bay, a road trip to the Blue Angels air show:

 

 

Cousin Evan has been here for the summer and we have loved hanging out with him.  Dave and the older two kids have gone on two road trips with Evan and Aunt Amy.  The Blue Angels is a must see for them-they are hometown heroes of course!!  I really wish I could have gone, but after the disastrous quick trip with Harrison to St George earlier in the summer, we opted out for him and Brenna.  A week after the Blue Angels, the same crew hit up Las Vegas and Evan fulfilled his stratosphere dreams!

 

We are very fortunate to have family  who understands that our kids do not get the outdoor camping adventures they deserve...so they take them camping for us!  My sisters reserved a camp site and I wasn't about to take baby Harry, so they kept the other three.  The camp ground was close, so I went up each day.  Dave was just devastated he had to work and couldn't get dirty with them (I may or may not be laying on the sarcasm there!). 

We were sitting around the fire and a pair of Sasquatch wandered through, some of our group may have been frightened for their lives, some laughed and some just wondered who the weirdos were!  Ha!  My favorite was Angelique thinking the last of those options, til we pointed out the shoes underneath looked similar to Devin's!

We were so happy Brad and Angeliques family was in town for that week and we got to spend time with them too!!  We miss them! 

 

 

Brenna wasn't so sure about Bigfoot, good thing Grandma could protect her!

 

It has been fun having some visitors.  Last week, my dear Laci was in town, so we got all of us gals and our kiddos together (and Dave and Gavin) for pizza and frolicing.  Good times were had by all.  This is what happens after 28 years of friendship:

 

 

 

While we have been relaxing for months, one thing that has not taken a back seat is piano!  Wahoo!  These kids had an awesome recital last week. 

They all worked those fingers like you wouldn't believe...memorized songs, bravo!

 

This year has been so mild outside, of course compared to last year when I was 9 months pregnant and endured a record breaking heat wave.  We have spent lots of time tramp jumping and bike riding.  Harrison gets the hook up a lot.  He totally folded in half and was asleep in the green wagon the other day on his ride. 



But, now the all day fun at home is now put on hold.  School here we come! 

 First day of second grade for Katelee and fourth grade for Grant went so well that when asked what her least favorite part of the day was, Katelee responded with, "I hate to say this to you mom, but it was when we had to go home!"  Say what??  That was her  worst part of the day. 

This was the first year there weren't major tears on my part.  I attribute this to a few things.  1)While second and fourth grade are nothing to scoff at, they aren't milestone years.  Last year it was Katelee's first time gone all day, kindergarten before that, the previous two were Grant's first experiences.  So, I feel like we kinda have a groove going on 2)The kids were SO ready.  We had fun for sure, but we had lots of fights this summer as well 3) We were getting to school as the classes were already filing into their rooms.  I had only a brief moment to watch these two and it was more me telling them to get going than me telling them how I would miss them.  I already have missed them the last couple days, so much.  Be kind to them world!  They have my heart! 

 

Now that they are back at school, we here at home focus on important tasks,

like unrolling every toliet paper roll and eating as much of it as possible!!  Harrison is a total walker/runner now.  Amazing what a month of practice will do!!