First Day of School!

Another summer has come and gone and back to school the boys must go.  Although it's always exciting to go back it awfully sad at the same time.  Changing routines, getting back into the swing of things, making lunches and early rising can be hard!  But they have exciting things to look forward to this year!

Austin is in 6th grade!  His last year of Intermediate School.  Next year he'll move to a new Middle School.  The thing he is most excited about is being in band!  He chose to play the clarinet.  We thought he'd just use my old one that I played in school but when we had it checked out we found that bugs had eaten and damaged a lot of the pads.  It would cost as much to repair as to rent one.  So we looked into other options.  We found one on Craigslist for a steal!  Cheaper than renting PLUS is was wooden (which they highly recommended but usually cost WAY more), PLUS it had the specific mouthpiece they wanted us to get (which would have cost and extra $100!), AND they threw in a ton of new reeds!  It was perfect!

Dallin is in 4th grade!  His last year of Elementary School.  He's the big man on campus this year and has some fun things ahead like a big trip to Austin, TX to visit the state capital at the end of the year!

Coen is in 1st grade!  And he's just happy to be there!  He likes to put his clothes out each night before school and always includes a paper smiley face.  It's hard to get the whole picture without a face I guess.

All ready to go on August 27, 2013!

I love this picture.  Coen looks so tiny!

Good luck boys!  We'll miss you!

August Events

Just a few random pictures from the month of August:

 The kids playing Headbandz.

Beckham decided to play his own game.  He loves this shape matching game.

 One of the swimming parties for cub scouts.  

Dallin is in the middle with gray shirt and blue shorts.

Friend Time 

L-R: Dallin, Coen, Andy, Neal, Carson, Austin, and Ryan

Three sets of brothers!  These guys have such a fun time together!

Austin, Dallin, and Coen

Carson and Neal

Andy and Ryan

 Our fence blew down in one of the big storms.  It hung on for almost 8 years!

Dallin and Claire with their "The Clarins" show.  They played drums, sang about the weather, and had a great time.  Dallin is a zombie in case you're wondering about the TP hanging off him.

And yes, that's a shovel on the TV cabinet behind Claire.

And no, I have no idea why it is there.

Goodbye to Friends

There was a great family that moved into our ward in April.  They had 7 kids with a boy, Andy, who was Austin's age and another boy, Ryan, who was Dallin's age.  Not only did they go to church with us but to the same schools as well.  Andy was a grade older than Austin in school but Ryan was actually in the same grade, at the same school as Dallin.  Finally!  A boy from church in Dallin's school!  He has about 3 girls from church at his school but at his age...well...you know.  It was just nice to have a boy finally.  They were in scouts together, too.  Austin spent a great summer with Andy and two other boys from church, Carson and Aaron.  They could spend every moment of every day together and be happy.  They spent the summer trading off houses and had a blast.  They were all so good for each other and encouraged each other to bear their testimonies at church and just were great examples for each other.  It was perfect!  And then they had to move.  These pictures were from their last day.  Their parents were packing up and trying to get everything finished up so we had the boys over one last time.

L-R:  Ryan, Dallin, Austin, Andy, and Carson

What a great group of boys!

 Austin, Andy, and Carson.  Just missing Aaron.

 Crazy boys!

 Ryan and Dallin

I think they look so similar.  Brown hair, blue eyes, freckles, same height...

 Yep, they're crazy, too!

 Well, it turns out it wasn't their last day after all.  Their dad ended up having to have his appendix out or something before they even hit the road.  So they got to see each other one more time!  

This time Aaron was in the pictures, too.

L-R:  Aaron, Carson, Andy, and Austin

Good friends.

Luckily Carson and Aaron are still here and Austin is still great friends with them.

Cabelas

Of course summer isn't complete without a few visits to Cabelas.

It's the best air conditioned indoor zoo around. :)  And it's only 5 miles away from us.

Can't beat that!

Six Flags

The boys all earned free tickets to Six Flags for reading during the school year.  And I was the lucky one who got to take them!  Seriously!  I LOVE Six Flags.  Tory...not so much.  He doesn't like the long lines and crowds.  So it was an easy decision on who would take the boys.  We had a great day!  It was fun because we could all go on almost every ride.  There were only a couple that Coen waited for us in the wait zone.  Dallin might have waited on a couple, too.  His thrill tolerance isn't quite as high as some of us and there are a few rides he absolutely refused to ride on.  Someday!  :)  We stayed until close and had such a great time!

My big boys and I ready for a fun day!

 Swings!

Nobody wanted to ride the new swings that are higher than anything in the park.  

 Teacups

I think I spun them a little too much this time.  I had a hard time walking afterward and was feeling a bit sick.

Those teacups get me every time.  More than anything else!

 The sombrero ride.  Always a favorite and never a line.

 When we got off the carousel Dallin said, "Well, that was less exciting than I expected."

I don't know what he expected...a Mary Poppins' carousel ride perhaps?

So funny!

I guess half the boys thought I said "sleep" instead of "cheese". Haha!

Yikes!

So we decided to go to the skating park Saturday morning before it got too hot.  We arrived and there wasn't anyone around...except for a couple standing by the port-a-potties right outside the skate park.  We didn't think anything of it.  Tory got out and the rest of us were still in the van rounding up skates and pads.  The girl from the couple came over to Tory and told him they had just stumbled upon a dead body right there by the port-a-potties.  One of them was currently on the phone with the police.  We were parked just three spaces down from the body.  If it were up to me...I'd be so out of there.  But Tory thought it would be fine.  We'd just tell the kids to look straight ahead and once we were in the skating area we'd stay over on the far side and tell them not to cross the middle line.  Well, that was all fine and dandy and it worked.  They didn't have a clue even when the five police cars came and stayed the entire time we were there.  I, on the other hand, was a bit traumatized by it all.  It was at the skate park right by the Y on a street I drive on many times a week and it took me months to be able to even look in that direction!  (I'm writing this post way after it happened.)  I'm just glad we stopped for donuts that morning.  That's not something we normally do.  We could have been the first ones on the scene and the kids could have jumped out and found him first.  So I am very thankful for that.  The kids and Tory had a blast skating and Claire is getting so good on her new rollerblades!

 The rollerbladers!

 Claire zipped around like she's been doing it forever.

What are we playing here?  Hockey or baseball?  Little worried! 

See the police cars behind Tory?

Beckham got to "skate" on Dada's feet.

There are the port-a-potties on the far side of the skating rink.  The body was by the one closest to us.

Claire is 5!

I can't believe our little girl is 5 years old!  She is such a fun and girly little girl but still loves to do anything her brothers are doing.  She is going to wait a year to start Kindergarten since she has a late summer birthday so she won't be starting this Fall. I can't believe I only have one year left with her at home!  But I'm very glad that I do!  Claire decided she wanted a pink ladybug cake for her birthday.  It's fun to make a girl cake once a year.

 We started out the day at the park by Dada's office.

The kids each got some bubbles and had fun playing until Dada joined us.

 Dallin made a very pink throne for the princess.

She was in heaven and thought she was pretty darn special!

 The cute little 5 year old.

 Claire picked cocktail wieners with toothpicks (straight off of Curious George), pickles and olives, and a veggie tray for her dinner.

 Claire with her pink lady bug cake.

 Blowing out the candles!

 She was so excited to get REAL rollerblades like the boys.

She is really good on them, too!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Claire Elise!  

We are so glad you are in our family.  You bring happiness and lots of pink and sparkles wherever you go!

We love you!