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.

Trekkies

I'm not talking Star Trek, just pioneer trek. Since I didn't get this posted right after it happened at the end of June, I decided Pioneer Day would be an appropriate time to post about our pioneer trek. Our youth did a one-day trek in Salt Lake for youth conference this year and McKell and I were able to go and participate along with Derek and Braxton.

This was our little pioneer family - we had to wear full pioneer clothing.

The boys - they were amazing not only did they pull our handcart the entire time, they helped many other families who were struggling. These are some strong boys:)

Here are the women/girls doing the women's pull. It was hard, but Janae and Nicole pulled in the front while me, Lexie, and Donna pushed. It was a steep hill.

We were worried about this little one. It was a really hard, uphill walk and so hot. She made it the entire way but was bored and tired. Of course, I kept reminding her that "pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked . . . " I think she caught a little glimpse of how hard it was for the children to cross the plains.

They had some pioneer games and Derek got in and won the stick pull. Are you surprised??

Here we are in action. I really thought that a one-day trek would be no big deal but it was hard. It was completely straight up and steep to the top and it was about 95 degrees outside. I am so glad I was done after one day and not going clear across the plains. It was a great experience for our youth. I'm so glad our family was able to participate.

We worked hard on the trek and the next day we played hard at Cowabunga Bay Water Park in Draper. I think everyone went home completely worn out.

One last picture for today, we had our annual neighborhood parade and watched our favorite girl and had a yummy breakfast.

Made A List - Checking Things Off

In order to accomplish some of our "summer list," McKell and I decided to take a girls' trip to Salt Lake. Luckily, some other girls we like to spend time with just happened to be there. We started off at the Discovery Gateway.

These five girlies had tons of fun playing, building, discovering:)


Of course while we were at the Gateway, we had to get some shopping time in. Thanks to Allison for letting us stay at her house. McKell had a great time playing, especially with the two dogs.



The next day we went to the zoo.




We saw the new baby elephant. If you look closely you can see her right under her mom.

McKell loved watching the giraffes. This one was supposed to be eating, but instead it was wrapping its tongue around this pole. Crazy and gross.

She went into this little burrow and the prairie dogs were running all around her.

We ended our trip with some more shopping and a stop at Dough Girl cookies. The cookies are absolutely to die for. We get to check off a few more things on our list with this trip and we also saw Karate Kid this weekend. Sadly, I don't know if we will be able to get the entire list completed since there are only about 30 days left until I go back to work and 32 until school starts. We always knew there would be at least 1 thing that wouldn't happen until fall (American Girl store), but we will see what we can do with the rest. Wish me luck or think of me a good lesson to teach McKell about making lists and not completing them if we don't get through everything:)

Celebrating July Fourth

I love the 4th of July. We had a great time celebrating. We started our weekend by heading to West Yellowstone to see "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers." It was fabulous.

Friday night the adults went to the temple and then back to Natalie's for pizza and root beer floats.
Saturday was the parade. It was freezing - I guess that is how Idaho weather is. The parade was pretty uneventful this year. The only highlight was watching Haylie with the drill team.

After lunch we headed out for some fun - go carts, rock climbing and bounce houses. Everyone had a great time.

McKell

Braxton

Derek

McKell

Braxton

Then off to the fireworks. We found a great place to sit - we could see, smell, hear and feel the fireworks as they went off.
Our weekend ended with an extended family reunion. It was great catching up with cousins I haven't seen in a while. McKell got to run the pop toss and help with the raffle.


I love being a part of this wonderful family.