Sunday afternoon

Ah, Sunday afternoon. Isn't this what it's all about? I came back from a meeting to find the house very peaceful and quiet. The boys were playing a board game or something and everyone else was asleep. Good time to grab a book, sneak some chocolate and relax!

Just waitin' around

This is what we do while we wait for Josh's football game to start.

Ethan brought a book and was dismayed when he finished it before it was time to leave. He had no interest in watching the actual game.

We mess around with the camera. Pull a few funny faces...

Kaden wanted to take some pictures as well. He got a great shot of the grass and the end zone.

Kaden loved his red water bottle and would periodically water the grass. He also tried to climb the nearby tree, gathered rocks, ate snacks, and dumped grass on the man sitting next to us. (Just so you know, his granddaughters were doing it too, but I was slightly embarrassed anyway. Needless to say Kaden sat on my lap after that and stayed away from the man sitting next to us.)

Oh and hey, the game finally started. We had to have Josh there 45 minutes early to warm up, then the game before ours went long so we were waiting awhile...

Josh is number 9 this year. He's the smallest kid on the team. Doesn't it look like his helmet is covering his eyes? I wonder how he can even see! But he played some good minutes and their team won. Kind of nice considering Josh's soccer team this last year didn't win one single game. Hope the rest of the season goes well. Wish us luck finding ways to stay busy while we're waitin' around next week!

Can it really be the first day of school?

It's hard to believe that today really was the first day of school. Yeah, we had to wake up insanely early (yeah, 6:40 in my book is insanely early) and the house was quiet for most of the day but I just haven't wrapped it around my head that this will be an every day occurrence for the next 9 months. It's still summer. We should still be staying up late, eating ice cream and SLEEPING IN!

Usually on the first day of school (or even a day of a field trip) Ethan is up before I am so excited he can hardly even stand it. Well this morning I walk in and Ethan's still asleep. I turn on the light and try to wake him. His response was, "I guess I'm not as excited as I thought I would be." Then proceeded to roll over and pull the covers back over his head. It made me laugh. I guess once you hit 4th grade it's all old news! I guess he was a tad bit excited because he walked out to the bus stop early so it's not all bad!

Josh started 5th grade and at his school they switch teachers and subjects like you would in middle school. He seemed to like it, although he said he got lost at one point trying to find his next room. I'm sure after a few days it'll become easy.

Josh started 5th grade and Ethan, 4th grade.

Miss Abby started the big Kindergarten this year. She was super excited and kept asking if it was time to go yet. Well, with afternoon kindergarten she had a little time to wait. She was so proud that she didn't even cry when I did her hair. Didn't complain when I told her she needed to brush her teeth and wasn't even scared when I dropped her off at the playground.

Can I just say that my afternoon was pure bliss. 3 kids in school and the other one was napping. What am I going to do with myself? Maybe I should take up a hobby. Or hey, maybe I'll blog more? Who knows.

Happy 4th of July

Yeah, I know I'm like a month late. But I was getting some complaints from the grandparents about my lack of posting. I know. I'm a slacker. So, I reluctantly pulled out the trusty ol' camera and found that I had a few pictures on there that I hadn't shared.


I'm ashamed to admit this, but this is the first year that my kids have ever done sparklers. I know, they are deprived children....At first they were a tad bit nervous to hold some skinny little stick with fire sparking on the end (I mean, shouldn't I be proud of this? Fire safety and all) but they got the hang of things and enjoyed the 38.6 seconds of spark before the flame died and they had to get another one. We enjoyed fireworks at home this year. (Yes, another first...) Kaden shook on my lap with the loud, obnoxious ones. I'm not terribly sure he enjoyed himself. The other kids did though. Thought it was great fun.

Kaden and I chillin' while waiting for the Daddy and Uncle Sid to get the show started.

Abby's cousin Madi was visiting for the 4th so we did the girls hair all cute. I had to take some pictures. Aren't they cute? Ryan's sister Amber even made the bows special just for that day! Loved it...but unfortunately I don't think I could recreate the hair madness! Anyway, enjoy and I hope you had a great 4th of July!

Family pictures

Merry Christmas to me...in July. Ryan hates all things when it comes to taking pictures. So as a Christmas present this last year, he consented to actually posing for a family picture. Our last family picture was taken when Abby was 18 months at my sisters wedding so it had been awhile. I'm so pleased how these turned out. We had so many good ones that it was hard to narrow it down to just our favorites. I was so excited. Giddy even. It's a good thing that I like them because these pictures will have to do until we get our pictures taken again in oh, 5 years from now! A BIG thank you to Ryan's sister, Amber for taking these! It was a blast!

Pioneer Trek: The drive to Wyoming

Ryan and I were called to be a Ma and Pa for our stakes pioneer trek to Martin's Cove. I was a little nervous about bonding with kids that I'd never even met but we had a great time. We didn't even find out who our "kids" were until the night of. We checked in at the church at 10:00 pm, met our 8 kids briefly and loaded the buses at midnight for our all night drive to Wyoming.

Right out of the gate, we hit a snag in the plans. We were assigned on bus number one and were sitting right behind the trek coordinators so I got to hear all the fun details and phone calls that went on. 5 minutes on the freeway they (the trek coordinators) got a call from a leader on bus 5. They said that bus #4 was smoking and what should they do? We asked our bus driver. His response was that the driver of bus 4 had gauges and if he had a problem he would pull over. A minute they get another call. Bus #4 now has sparks flying from the bottom of the bus. We immediatly slow down and let bus 4 pass us and we pull up behind. But it wasn't just sparks flying, we had full on flames coming out from under that bus. So we all pull over. Kids are scrambling out of the bus, 911 is called and we're frantically searching for a fire extinguisher. Can you imagine, 6 buses lining I-15 at 12:30 in the morning with 55 people on the side of the road. The fire was put out and while the kids were getting their buckets from off the bottom of the bus, the tire blows. It was loud. I was on the bus right behind it and it shook our bus. The poor kids dropped their stuff and scrambled. What happened was that the bus driver on bus 4 didn't release the parking brakes which caused the fire. Then the brakes were so hot, it popped the tire.

You are thinking that our trials were over. Oh no. This is just the beginning my friends. We had enough room on the other 5 buses for the kids from bus 4 so we load up and begin our drive again. By now, it's something like 1:30 am. Our bus driver puts the bus in gear and steps on the gas. Nothing. He's so confused. Why isn't the bus going? After a minute the bus starts rolling. Phew! Off we go. A few minutes down the freeway, we start smelling smoke. We just figure that we're smelling our bus driver because he was the one under bus 4 putting out the fire. Then the smell gets worse. People from the back of the bus start yelling. "Hey, there is smoking coming out of our bus." Just great. So we all pull over again. This time we were in Idaho Falls and we pull into a gas station. We all pile out of the bus and watch our bus smoke. Our driver did the exact same thing the other bus driver did. Forgot to release the parking brakes. Now what are we supposed to do? The company that we had hired to drive us only had one other bus and it was too small to fit us. It's late and cold and our trek coordinator looked like she was going to cry. After an hour, the bus company deemed our bus safe so we all piled back on. Let me tell you that I was very hesitant to get back on that bus! Our poor bus driver got canned and we got a new one, a very experienced driver, so I felt a little better knowing that he would release the parking brakes.

Off we go. 2 1/2 hours late. By now, I'm pretty wired and couldn't sleep. Praying that nothing else would go wrong. And that our brakes are okay. The rest of the drive went somewhat smoothly. We only had to stop once on a hill because our bus started to overheat and we found out the the person with some of the food for breakfast drove an hour in the wrong direction. . . . . It's okay to laugh. I'm laughing just thinking about it all. What a night. But hey, we made it! We didn't turn around and bag the whole thing. After the second bus incident, some of the youth thought we were going to give up and head home. What a great teaching moment. The pioneers had so may trials but they didn't give up either. They keep on trudging along until they made it to the valley!

I figured that I had so much information that I should break it up into days so I wouldn't bombard you! So more to come in the next few days. Oh, and as soon as I get pictures I will post them as well. We weren't allowed to bring cameras but we had a photography committee that took tons so hopefully we'll get our CD of pictures soon!

Swimming Pool Fans

Did you know that there are fans at the bottom of a swimming pool that will push you back up to the top after you jump off the diving board into the deep end? Ethan was convinced of this because his fellow class mates told him so. So, not knowing how to swim, Ethan jumped in ready to be pushed up to the surface. Um, let's just say that the life guard who had to pull him out told him the real truth. To this day, Ethan still looks for the fans. At least he stayed in the shallow water this time around. That's my Ethan boy! Gotta love him!