Summer Miscellaneous

 Here a few random photos of things I want to remember:

The girls like to play with shoes now and try and put them on. This is Kaylee.

Damon and I went fishing for Cub Scouts.  He had a great time, he didn't catch anything while I was there but caught two Sun Fish with the Hubers after I left when he changed his hook and bait.

 Playing in the pool in the back: Kaylee didn't like it as much!

Jenna

Kaylee

 We have had fun with water balloons.

 Sometimes I make the girls only have one nap after lunch, Kaylee didn't quite make it. She started subconsciously sucking on her sandwich when I got her out to put her down.

 The boys like Harry Potter again -new Wii game sparked their interest.  Anyway, they like to make potions.  This one has sugar, salt, chopped up green beans, and cookie crumbs.  And yes they tried it - it was supposed to make them "strong".

First Day of School

 The boys had their first day of school on August 16th. They had a back-to-school night the previous day where we dropped off all of their school supplies and met their teacher.  Damon is in third grade and has Mrs. Hamblin.  Tyler is very excited for first grade and has Mrs. Zamudio.  The teachers both seem really nice and on the ball. (as a side note, Doug was in Texas this week, so I was on my own - Monday and Tuesday were pretty rough, but we got through the rest of the week okay).

It seemed cool in the morning, so the boys wanted their jackets, but it warmed up quickly.

Of course Chris wanted his picture taken too. 

It is good to be on a schedule again and get out the door by 8:45.  I like that they start late, not so busy in the morning, but they get out late too, 3:40.  Which makes it harder to do things in the afternoon.

Good luck with the school year boys, you will do great!  I am loving just having 3 at home with no Kindergarten break in the middle, a little bit of freedom with less fighting.

LEGO display at the Longmont Museum

We hadn't been to the local museum yet and we found out that they were having a LEGO display there during the summer.  We also found out that the second Saturday of every month is free, so you can guess where we went on August 10th.  They had a lot of cool things built with LEGOS, houses, pictures, a comic book cover, and a bicycle.  The boys thought they were all neat but really enjoyed the hands-on section.  They had different areas for building: free play, one with instructions, bridge building, decorating a house, and a ramp where you could race a car you had built.  Of course they could have stayed longer than we let them, but lunch and naps were calling.

We had a picnic outside on a picnic table.  The girls have moved on from baby food so now I have to get more creative with what to pack them.  Sometimes they do ok with a sandwich, but othertimes not.  They like cheese sticks, and ham/lunchmeat, so that's what they got this day.

The bike is rolling over cars - more eco-friendly statement

Tyler's sunflower

So back to the last month of school - Tyler planted a sunflower in a cup from when he visited a farm for a field trip.  We monitored it's growth then moved it out to the garden.  It rained really hard right after that and the stem looked broken to me - I had given it up.  But it was a determined flower because it grew up - with a bent stem.  It was a great project for Tyler, he is very proud of his sunflower.

California reunion 2013 #4 (Friday - Sunday)

 We left for St. George friday morning around 9:00.  We drove for 2 1/2 hours then had our lunch at the Griffith Observatory near L.A.  That's the Hollywood sign behind us.

 It would have been fun to spend a whole day here, there was a lot to look at and learn.

 We got on the road again at 1:30.  The rest of the way to Las Vegas was very busy with traffic - lots of people going to have fun for the weekend I guess.  It was very stressful driving for me, especially for me being a passenger.  You just don't know when the driver is going to slow down or stop.  Doug is a great driver, but he was just being more aggressive than I would like.  I would see the cars slowing down ahead of us, and I would grab onto the handle on the ceiling of the van and tell him to slow down -which he would have, but it was just too abruptly for me.

We stopped in Barstow around 3:30 for gas and a bathroom break but it was so frustrating, we had to go to three different places to find a working bathroom.  We tried a park to let the kids play, but they didn't have one, then we went to a grocery store- they were broken, ran into a Payless - they didn't have one, then found one at a gas station but had to literally wait 15 minutes for a guy to finish his business.  That quick stop was not as quick as we had hoped - sigh- love traveling.

We stopped in Primm for dinner (just before Vegas) and got through the construction near there and traffic was better after that.  We got to my Aunt Shelly's around 10:00 pm ( another 11 hour day traveling).

We took a day for ourselves in St. George so we could break up the driving.  So in the morning we went miniature golfing and played at the arcade.  It was hot, but we still had a fun time - hey I got a hold in one!

 After lunch and naps we met up with a family that we knew from Vernal.  They moved to St. George a year ago.  It was fun to visit and let the boys play together.  -Tyler didn't want his picture taken,

 But he did if it was just of him - love that boy :)

 Charity Smith - expecting her 6th, soon to have 5 boys and 1 girl.  I don't know how you'll do it Charity.

We left Sunday morning by 8:00.  Damon woke up sick with a fever and he slept most of the way home.  He threw up once, but handled it well with a ziploc bag.  By this time we were all so tired of being in the van.  The girls would be grumpy and there isn't much we can do for them.  We watched a lot of movies and let the boys play a lot.  Some would sleep, but usually not everyone at the same time.  Once everyone was asleep except for Kaylee - she was fussy and no one was there to help her, so she got to watch Baby Signing time by herself.  We were making pretty good time, but we had to slow down for construction and a blow-out diaper from Jenna.  It was a great sight to see Denver as we pulled through the canyon and saw the plains.  It was amazing how flat it was looking out.  This was my first trip going on I-70 - the canyon is very pretty and the tunnels are very cool.  It was another 11 hour day traveling - so good to get home and sleep in our own beds.  We put everyone down later since they all slept in the car and amazingly they all slept in the next morning - it was great.

Thanks for the great reunion everyone.  So many fun memories with such a great family.

California reunion 2013 #3 Thursday

 Thursday morning we went to Ostrich-land and fed the emus and ostriches.  It was really neat.  Their necks are so long and flexible and they were very aggressive while they ate, you could tell they were very strong.

 The girls spend a lot of time in their stroller :)

 We took lunch to the beach (East Beach in Santa Barbara) and tried not to get sand in our sandwiches - ha ha.

 The girls were pushing the diggers we brought - sad that we buried them later and lost one - along with our red shovel.

 Lots of digging.

 Damon genuinely didn't want to get hit by the water coming in.

 Tyler tried boogie boarding, he had a lot of fun until a bigger waved rolled him.

 Salt water doesn't taste very good.

 Doug and I went out too, it was a lot of fun.  Chris was needing his nap right about now and came crying to me that he didn't want me to go in the water.   So I went out, then he started crying that we wanted me to go in the water, then he wanted to go in the water with me.  Then he didn't like that either.  Love 3 year-olds when they are tired.

 The wind was great for flying kites.

We had leftovers for dinner and just stayed up talking after we put the kids to bed.  I think I fell asleep on the floor while everyone else was visiting - playing hard and staying up late everyday for a week was getting to me.