One Year Older And Wiser Too

Happy birthday Jen! Thanks for everything you do for me and our awesome family - you are the best part of it.

Fabulous

It is way too soon, but school actually started last Wednesday. Both kids looked fabulous.

Braxton on his first day of his Junior year. I can't believe it either. I wanted to take many more pictures of him but he pretty much refuses. He has some harder classes this year and is still enjoying football. Time is going too fast - in the past few weeks he has actually gotten some postcards from colleges in the mail. I am so not ready for that. "Pointless, " was his answer when I asked him how the first day of school was. (They did only go for a half day)

Miss McKell on her first day of 5th grade. She had a fabulous outfit.

Fabulous headband

Fabulous accessories

Fabulous (and cute) friends

And fabulous teacher - After school she said there was one thing she figured out about her teacher, when I asked what it was she replied, "Mom, she really loves us, she loves me and my whole class." Seriously, fabulous!

Squeezing It All In

The end of summer has come way too fast. At the beginning of August, I realized there were still multiple things that I wanted our family to do so I started planning and luckily we squeezed all of the activities in, and just in time.

Jackson Hole

This is such a fun kids pool that we discovered last year. We packed up for a day trip and lots of family joined us.

The fabulous four - these four were all born in the same year just a few months apart and have been best buddies. I have loved watching these 4 grow up.

The teenage crew

The slide was a huge hit.

The big kids spent a few hours in a pool by themselves playing volleyball.

My parents have recently acquired a cabin near Jackson so we went to take a look around. The kids had a great time running around on the deck - I can't wait to stay there.


Drive-In Movie


We had to hit the drive-in while we were in Idaho Falls so McKell could mark it off her list.

Bear Lake
McKell went to Bear Lake with Sydnee one morning and Derek and I drove down later that afternoon and picked her up. She had so much fun playing in the water. It is so beautiful there. We shopped a little and went to dinner. This will be on my list next summer. I am wanting to go stay for a few days. Again , so beautiful and relaxing.




Rock Haus
The last item to be completed on the summer "to do" list. We just finished tonight and school starts Wednesday. It really has taken us all summer to finish all the tasks but it has been so much fun. We will be making a list next summer for sure - it has kept us on the go but allowed us to spend time together as a family and make so many wonderful memories so it was completely worth it.

These 3 rocked the Rock Haus. It is a lot more complicated than we thought - but fun.

Derek

McKell



Braxton

TeA pArTy

My mom and I hosted a fabulous tea party for all the girls in our family. I belong to a family of 6 sisters, 1 sister-in-law, and 12 granddaughters, so it is about time we got dressed up and had a party. It was lots of fun and hopefully a lasting memory for our girls.

Grandma gave a short lesson on manners and etiquette before we began.

Each mom served her daughter. We served sandwiches, jello, fruit kabobs, and lots of yummy chocolate treats. A few of my nieces were nervous about coming because they didn't want to drink tea. They were relieved when I told them our tea was either strawberry lemonade or chocolate milk.

Even our youngest guests sat politely and ate.

My two oldest nieces were great sports and hopefully had fun - they got to sit at the adult table. Notice their cute hairpieces - my sister-in-law, Tasha, is a photographer and brought all the cute table cloths, table decorations, colorful little chairs and fancy hair things for all of us.

McKell had lots of fun. She loves to get dressed up. She borrowed this tutu from Tasha and fell in love with this hot pink feathered tiara. She looked adorable.

Everyone had a grand time and my mom sent every family home with a little tea set to remember this day. We missed Stacey and Allison, we may just have to do another one when they are both in town.