Unwinding

By, "unwinding" I mean, "using up the extra energy that was stored during 3 hours of church."

And then

Ward Campout
- was at William Heise County Park near Julian
- had good food (all prepped & served by a generous ward family)
- Brent & Errin came along last minute when there were still sites available
- actually slept decent
- realized my family is made up mostly of pyromaniacs who think the best way to put out a fire is to urinate on it (sorry anyone downwind)

- apples were picked on the way home

- and pie was eaten
(lots of it...tried both Mom's and Julian Pie company, both were good but we didn't order the same thing from either, so couldn't truly compare)

(also a grasshopper was inspected)

AND THEN

Jay & Tam(i) + 10 were waiting for us on the beach.
They had gotten in late the night before.
Spent a fun afternoon getting buried, riding in their new van, eating Cessy's, meeting/holding babies, and making s'mores.

AND THEN

My Aunt Sherri and Uncle Clel spent Sunday afternoon with us.
(church, puzzles, dinner, and singing an early happy birthday to Sherri)

My kids have never been so quiet after church...it was lovely.

Fun...busy weekend!

An Ear Piercing Story

The end.

Blackout Day

We got crazy during the unexpected school holiday and had a utensil-less spaghetti eating contest.

I'm pretty sure there was less mess than when they do use silverware.

The Blackout

7 hours later...just when I was about to take a bite out of Justin's calf...power came back!
Phew.

I joke now, but it was unsettling not knowing how long we'd be without.

Only had 1/3 tank of gas.
Cell was almost dead.
The little wake-up call was probably good.

Glad we were at the beach for the first part.
And had already planned on grilling for dinner.

Now we will go enjoy our day off of school....seeing as they were all canceled!

Labor Day Weekend

Family came to visit for Ellis's blessing.
Little sleep from excitement = falling asleep during pre-beach story time.

It was both Candace and Ellis's first beach bonfire.
One was a little more excited than the other.

Blessing day!

Labor Day at the beach

And lots in-between.
Family weekends are the best.

But does your younger sister have 10 kids?

Cause mine now does!
And you wouldn't know it by this picture.
Meet John and Joseph, Tami's 9th and 10th children (and second set of twins...she started out with girls).
Congratulations to all!
I need to hold them.

School is Good

Kindergarten, Joy School, 2nd Grade

When saying good-bye...

Drew was totally fine, didn't even look back.

Sally was fine, but quiet.

Owen cried.

All were way happy when I picked them up.

School is a good thing.

On a side note, awhile ago I planted white flowers on both sides of that front step.
Why are the ones on the left flourishing and the ones on the right dead?

Last Day of Summer

We had an exciting day of errands and more errands planned for our last day of summer.

Anna saved the day w/a last-minute back to school party.

She had stuff to make those cute cupcakes and did some fun games with the kids.

And then Drew hollered from the park bathroom that he couldn't get the toilet paper to unwind.

After the unpleasantness of shopping w/3 kids all afternoon,

I was pretty sure I was done w/summer.

But I'm not.

I have loved (most of the time) it.

We're not moving or about to move,

don't have any napping children (i.e., no schedules to work around),

and we're in an ideal location.

Met Drew's teacher today and love her. He's excited.

Don't know a thing about Owen's teacher. I'm nervous about his class.

And Sally's starting joy school (9 kid group!)

I'm just ready for them to have awesome first days so this pit in my stomach will go away.

Soccer Firsts

His first soccer practice (there were others, but we were out of town)...

followed by his first game the next day.

They are very non-competitive games where score is not kept.

Owen & I decided to keep score anyway.

Until it was obvious our booties were being kicked.

He still had fun, though...and is constantly motivated by the end of season trophy.

We played Drew's friend Caleb's team.
(they are obviously on opposite ends of the height spectrum)

And we'll pretend that these guys made it in time.

We're just glad to have family around that wants to come at all.

I was bummed in Monterey during Owen's season when we didn't.

(Owen chose not to play this year)

We've had a long enough break in-between kids doing sports that this is exciting for us.

We'll see how we feel at the end of the season.

Poolside

The day after we got home from AZ,

we got a hotel by Disney and spent a few days there.

First thing the kids wanted to do was go to the pool.

Justin obviously didn't object.

Disney was awesome and we're getting good at working it there.

What made it good:

- Justin (his first time going with us).

- Hotel within walking distance.

- Getting there first thing, taking long afternoon nap breaks, then staying out late.

- Fireworks. Love watching them by Small World, then timing it just right to get on the boat for the finale (there's never a line then so you can walk right on. and by the time the ride is over, there's a huge line. it's satisfying).

And always the food and fast passes. We're ready to go back.

Name Books

I have a slight obsession with books that have my kids names in them.
So when I discovered this one at our library that has Owen AND a frog on the cover,
I was pretty much ecstatic.
It ended up being the perfect little boy adventure story.
Read it loud most of the way to AZ.
Owen didn't want me to stop (which is saying a lot).
It made me happy.

So did this one:

There are a ton of Sally books out there.
But a book featuring her name and favorite color was a bonus.

Back to the trip for a second...
Justin said it looks like we're visiting the Star Wars movie set here.

Were parts of it really filmed @ the dunes?

And this gets me every time we drive by it on the way to the rim.

Are they advertising topless heifers?

And did I really just go from children's books to a cabaret picture?