First day of school

Today the kids went back to school.  This year Kyle will leave first because he will go to seminary.  He wont start for a couple of weeks.

He didnt get home until after football, he said he liked all of his classes, and that he had friends in most of them.

Hailey, Katie and Nicole will all leave at 7 and ride the bus to school.

The twins were the first ones home, it was fun to sit and talk and hear all about their day, they said it was a great day.  They like all their classes.  The only bad thing was they don't have lunch together and Nicole didn't feel like she had any friends at her lunch.  That will be kind of hard for her, but I am sure she will find some friends to sit with. 
Hailey stayed after school for volleyball practice, she liked it, but said they worked them really hard.  she will find out if she made the team on Friday.  She liked her classes, except for pre-engineering.

Lydia wont leave in the morning until 8:15, when she will catch the bus.

She had a hard time waiting this morning, she was pretty excited.  Her teacher seems nice and her class looks like lots of fun.  She had a fun day, she loved seeing all of her friends from last year, and they played math games and did an art project. 

I think it will be a good year for everyone. I forgot how crazy the mornings are trying to get everyone out the door with everything they need, but we can do it.  The house felt pretty quiet with everyone gone, I was excited for them to get home to hear all their fun stories.

Summer vacation week 11

This week ended our summer vacation.  It was a good week, but very busy, it really made me ready for school and some routine.  Kyle had 2 football practices a day all week.  He is liking it, they had a jamboree on Saturday so his team got to play a little, they did well, it was fun to watch.  Wednesday Katie and Nicole spent the morning at their new school, I think they are a little nervous about it, I will be excited to see what they think after the first day.  This will be the first year that they wont spend the whole day together.  They only have 2 hours together, so it will be a big change for them.  Kyle also spent Wednesday morning at his new school.  And Marc and I went Wednesday night and met all of his teachers and learned a little about the classes he will be taking. Marc was pretty jealous of his honors weight lifting class, all of his teachers and classes seem great.  Thursday Hailey went to her new school and got her locker and schedule, she also has a really good schedule.  Friday we found out which teacher Lydia has, I dont know her teacher but have heard great things about her. 
Wednesday night while I was at Kyles school a friend took the girls and her son to the park to feed the ducks and play, she sent me these pictures.

Friday afternoon I helped host a party for all of the girls from church going into 5th grade, so all the girls Katie and Nicoles age.  It was fun for them to meet some new friends.



Friday night we needed something fun to end the summer, so we roasted marshmallows and then the girls slept on the trampoline.  The neighbors joined us for smores, it was fun sitting around talking about all of our favorite summer memories.

Summer Vacation week 10

Our week started off with a visit from my sister Rachel and her kids.  My kids were so excited to have their cousins come.  They had a great time together, one of their favorite things to do together is have fire ball champoinships on the trampoline, they also played on the slip and slide, played legos, and stayed up late talking and laughing together. It was a fun little visit.

We loved watching the olympics.

Kyle started football this week.

The girls played dolls all week, they kind of took over my front room.

We had fun swimming one morning.

Saturday afternoon we went to Marcs work picnic, Katie, Nicole and Lydia came with us they loved the bouncy houses and elephant ears.
Saturday night Hank Smith did a fireside here, it was so fun, he does a great job speaking to the youth.

Summer Vacation week 9

We spent the first couple of days this week catching up on stuff around the house after our vacation. Marc had Monday and Tuesday off so he did some projects around the house, he worked hard on the railing around the deck. 

 The kids worked hard on earning money for school clothes.  Hailey put new screens in all the windows and cleaned the outside of the windows. Kyle did yard work and helped paint the wood for the deck.

We also had a really quick visit from my parents, they came to get fruit, it was fun to see them.

Every time I saw the kids they were eating grapes form the garden.

The girls had fun playing house with all the garden food.

Kyle and Marc spent the end of the week working on Kyles eagle project.  They did some work at a property in Shelton.  They worked on some bridges and cleared out blackberry bushes.  They filled our van up with boys and drove over Thursday night.  They worked all Friday morning and then went kayaking int he afternoon. They worked again Saturday morning and then came home. The boys were tired and said they worked hard and had a lot of fun.

Sunday Marcs good friend from High school who was also his roommate at college was in town so he came over for a visit, the kids had fun hearing all their funny stories from when they were kids.

Utah vacation day 9

we got up at about 3:00 in the morning and began our drive.  It was a long drive.  about half way home our tire presure light came on, so we stopped at checked the tire, it was pretty flat.  There were no tire stores open because it was Sunday so we put some stuff in it that is supposed to help and more air, and kept driving, we stopped in just about every town to check it.  We made it home without any problems, but it sure felt like a long drive. 

eating breakfast at a rest stop in Idaho

We had a great week.  I am glad Kyle loved EFY, it was a great experience for him, his favorite talks were by Hank Smith and Brad Wilcox.  It was fun hanging out with the girls all week, they loved the cave and Temple Square.  We also loved that we were able to see so many family members while we were there. We made lots of great memories and are so thankful for the opportunity.

Utah vacation day 8

We picked Kyle up this morning at 7:00 and we all went out to breakfast.  It was fun hearing all about Kyles week and telling him about ours.  He had a great time, I think he may even want to go again next year.  He was sad that he didn't get to go to the water park with us so we went there again.  The kids were all very brave this time and even went on the scary rides with Kyle, we all had a great time.

We ended our last day with ice cream from the BYU creamery.

We went back to our house we were renting and packed and cleaned so we were ready to leave early the next morning.

Utah vacation day 7

We decided to head up in the mountains again this morning, we love that it only takes 10 minutes to get to American Fork canyon.  We hiked to Stewart Falls.  It was a pretty good hike, and a beautiful waterfall at the end.

 the girls took their shoes off and played in the river

We drove out through Provo canyon and saw Bridal veil falls

We stopped and got some yummy lunch and then came home and showered.  This evening we met up with Marcs Brother Richard and his family and his brothers Sean and David.  We met up and had frozen custard, which was fun to try.

We went and saw Richard and Brees new house, it is going to be really nice.  They have a great park right across the street from their new house, so we all went and played for awhile.  The cousins had a great time playing together.  It was really fun to see everyone, we wish we lived closer.