And It Begins Again....

 

This kid got to have his picture in the morning darkness since he is now a high schooler and gets to go to early morning seminary!! So crazy, right!! I still can't believe he is that old, but the evidence is sure coming. The deeper voice, getting taller, angular face, and moodiness (shh...don't tell him!!).

But man we sure love that kid. He started a week before everyone else because he does a half day at our charter school and then a half day at Twin Falls High School so he can take orchestra and several other electives that the charter school doesn't offer.

He is enjoying it so much and I don't know what happened to him, besides getting a little bit more mature, but so far he does his homework everyday (I know shocking...especially if you knew that last year we were considering holding him back for 8th grade again because he just wouldn't turn anything in... "I know it so why do I need to give it to the teacher"...arghhhh). Plus he has found a love for the violin. Not that he didn't love it before but now he really LOVES it. He practices without any word from Sam or I and for hours. I am stunned!! He really wants to make All State and it has given him to motivation to turn it on. I am just so impressed!!

 This cute girl is going to 6th grade!! Wow!! She was super excited to start and be older. Her teachers are Mrs Thompson and Mrs Green. She is one smart cookie and is such a self starter. I love it.

 This other cute girl got to start the 5th grade. Aunt Natalie did corn rows in her hair for the first day of school and she loved it. Her teachers are Mrs Baird and Mrs Green. She was so worried about starting school, worrying that she wasn't going to do everything right or forget to turn in homework, but once we got past the first week, she has been fabulous and loved every minute of it!!

 That smile!! This cute boy started the 2nd grade with Mrs Phelan. Boy does he love to go and learn even though he says it is still "kinda boring" (all that review from 1st grade) and "lots of kids get their names on the thinking cloud, but not me". His teacher is amazing and he loves her which I am so thankful for.

Obligatory picture with Captain before they took off for the ride to school. So thankful for these kiddos and such a great school for them to go to.

Summer SLC Trip--part 2

Oh how the kids have waited for this day!!

 We took off Saturday morning to be there by opening time. The kids have never been to Lagoon before and have been begging for years. We decided that this was the year to do it.

 I am not a good rider. It makes me terribly nauseous. I can do one ride usually the whole day and I won't get sick but more than that, I'm toast!!

 Natalie was great to have along because she game for everything.

 Same with Kathryn. She loved every ride and it didn't make her sick at all.

 Seth and Sarah struggled on several of them--you can see it in Seth's face on Wicked!! Poor guy.

 Kathryn loved riding with the big kids and made me quite envious sometimes that she has such a strong stomach :(

 Taking the sky ride.

 A must.

 Luke wanted to ride this and the ferris wheel. We finally got him to loosen up and try a few more rides and then he loved them.

 Getting ready--Seth was not thrilled but we talked him into it.

 And their off!!

 Fun but quite boring. Check that off Luke's list.

 All of us afterwards that exciting ride.

 This one was the one that made Sam want to vomit. He had to take a break for awhile because he was so nauseous and all white. Haha...

 Waiting for Jet Star 2. This was Sam's favorite ride as a kid so he wanted to introduce everyone to it. 

 The cute girls!!

 Reading the map.

 My token ride. A kiddie roller coaster. Short and sweet and no throwing up. Perfect!

 By this time we were starving so we headed to the picnic area to eat our lunches. Nothing like a picnic lunch at Lagoon. So fun and so many memories. My mom made these cute bags for the girls and they were so excited to have them to haul around their stuff all day.

I love Seth's face in this picture. So perfect!! 

The creepster again--so weird!! Good thing we love him!

 We made a pit stop to introduce the kids to Dippin Dots.

 They have never had that goodness before and they loved it. I forgot how delicious it is and how fun it is to have those little balls melt in your mouth.

 The next stop was Rattlesnake Rapids. Sam "offered" to let me go with everyone and he would take pictures. How kind of him!! He we are all on the way through.

 And this is us afterwards. I haven't laughed that hard in ages. Seth was so ticked because he was all wet and it just made the rest of us laugh and laugh and laugh. Still makes me chuckle....

 Carousel ride. And Seth still mad at being wet.

 Luke loved the little kids rides. The plane ones were his favorite.

 We headed over to Lagoon-A-Beach while it was still sort of warm. The kids were brave and went down the big slides first. Even Luke.

 Kathryn coming out.

Seth.

 Natalie.

 Sam.

 We spent an hour trying everything out and then the kids really wanted to ride more roller coasters. Sam was great and took them all back out while Nat and I sat and relaxed for an hour. 

 Love my sisters!! They are a blast and I love being able to spend time with them.

We finally left the park at 7:30 and headed to Red Robin again to get some dinner and use up the rest of our gift card. What an absolute wonderful day!! We had such a blast and loved being all together.

Sunday we spent the day with Sam's family. His brother's goats each had twins that day so we got to see them and hold them. So cute!! Plus see the rest of the family that was in town. Sam was also able to give the kids blessings to start school with the help of his dad. Monday morning we packed up and headed to the Ogden Temple Open House. Man was it crazy busy but so neat to see the amazingness of a temple. Then it was off home so we could be ready for school the next day.

What a great time it is to be together!!

Summer SLC Trip--Part 1

 We decided the weekend before school was the time to take our one last final summer vacay and play in Salt Lake. Natalie tagged along with us. It was fun to have her in with us for almost a week. She gave us our Christmas present from last year. A game called "Snake Oil". So fun!! We play it at least once a week and the kids love it.

 We left our house Friday morning and made our first stop at Red Robin. We got a gift card from my brother and his wife and everyone was so excited to finally use it so Red Robin it was. Our next stop was the Church History Museum. 

 We realized that it has been 9 years since we lived anywhere near there and our kids don't remember hardly anything from living there, including Temple Square things. So we wanted to change that.

 We had a blast wandering around and looking at everything.

 The kids favorite part was helping the guy carving out the granite. Luke thought it was one of the best things ever.

 Seth did his token turn and dare I might say that it was sort of cool to try it out!!

 I love the kids area and we kept ourselves busy for quite some time. 

 Don't we all look amazing??!! Our dancing on the other hand was sadly lacking, haha....

 Then we wandered around temple square and the visitors centers. Sarah really wanted to try braiding Natalie's hair and did a pretty good job of it.

 Of course we had to stop and play in the water. It was a warm day so it felt awesome to cool off.

 Sam and I took a funny picture

 and a cute one. 14 years ago we got married in that beautiful building!!

 The last stop was the top of the Church Office Building. Such an amazing view. You can see so far plus the elevator ride up was fast and almost sickening, well to me at least. Everyone else thought it was pretty splendid.

 The creepster and everyone else. He is so 14!!

We ended the night by stopping at Chevron for Orange Bang (Sam use to deliver this particular product all over Utah before we got married and he loves it so much!!) and pop. Then it was off to the Beuses for the BYU game. Such a fun day!!!