8/29/13

transition to fall

A family meeting was called to order tonight by my hero, Dax. Basically we went from crazy, fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants summer to a rigid back-to-school schedule but we kept our summer I-can-do-whatever-I-want-and-go-wherever-I-want-whenever attitude and we were spiraling so we all decided our spirals need to line up. With 3 kids in soccer, 1 in dance, cub scouts, activity days, and 8 piano students, we've kept a mad pace these past 2 weeks. It was time to get on the same page.

Summer was awesome and I could not picture my summer without UBIC (Uintah Basin in Celebration) which is comparable to other town's Peach Days, County Fair, or the like. Except way better. Preslie sang in the UBIC talent show and won a trophy and performed her song at the park.
Matt, Abbey + kids came to see us and join the weekend festivities. Abbey entered the Tri-Athalon and did AWESOME. We were all so thrilled to call her our own.



It was a fun weekend!
I decided to give our dog a better home and found a great family not far from here with a lot of land for him to run on. It is very telling that it took my kids 3 days to notice he was gone. I feel so much better now that he's not tied up in our backyard each day for hours. We love Echo; we went and visited him at his new place and it was great to see him and how happy he is.

I am still working on Preslie's room here and there. This is her desk chair that I made over. It used to be cream with a maroon cushion cover.

I also took my kids on a quick trip to Salt Lake to see my niece and go to the temple with her as she received her endowment in preparation for her mission. We went to the ward campout and then BOOM; school began.


Preslie learned how to open her locker just before school started after several attempts and trips to the junior high on her own. It only took one lesson from her old, out-of-touch Mom who she thought surely could not know how to do such a cool thing as open a locker. Ha.

Hunter is surviving his first 2 weeks despite his certainty that the world was going to end once he entered school again!

Mack started Kindy this week and has the whole school thing wired. The first day- when all Moms on the face of the planet drive their little ones to school, hold their hands and walk them to the right class and sit with them until the bell rings- Mack insisted on riding the bus and assures me he can find his class on his own. And he did. He was so excited to board the bus; it was darling. How could I be melancholy?!
The evening of his third day of school, we were all chatting before bedtime and he tells us how good school breakfast is.. Say wuh ?
"You went to breakfast at school? How did you do that?"
"I heard a teacher say, 'if any of you are going to breakfast, go ahead and go' and I just followed the other kids that were going."
(shock and amusement)
"Well, you don't even have a lunch card and there is no money on your account. What did you tell the lady sitting at the beginning of the line?"
"I didn't go to her, I just went and got a tray and put a chocolate milk on the little square that said 'MILK' on it. (In a singy-song voice) The ham was deLIcious! But I didn't drink the chocolate milk because it was too hard to open."
By this point we are all laughing and shaking our heads. Preslie said, "It's your THIRD day of school. I didn't figure out about eating breakfast at school until I was in 3rd grade!"

Thank you, Mack for always rescuing us from the daily-ness of life with your crazy mind that is always thinking and doing things that make us laugh!

8/1/13

go Fourth

We united with Dax's family for fun, fourth festivities, and memory making of all kinds the beginning of July! Dax's brother and his wife hosted 12 of us and joy was experienced by all!
 
 
 Our visit to the zoo delighted the kids and adults alike. Preslie's reaction to the giraffes was my fave memory of the trip; she was in disbelief that a REAL giraffe was right there. We got to watch up close as a zoo worker trained it.

 We cooled off in the backyard with sprinklers, kiddie pools, and a home made slip-n-slide.
 That trampoline called my name and I answered...
 I've never seen myself at this angle before!
 
 We hit the town for some shops and food. Hunter loves himself some fries.
Swimming at the Bountiful Rec Center was a blast!
 We went up beautiful Mueller Canyon for a cookout and got as far as snapping a family photo and grilling one side of our burgers before it started to rain.
We tried to wait it out, but it poured harder and harder. We packed up and continued our meal at the house!


Other highlights:
fireworks, ward breakfast, a morning hike/run with Abbey, yummy food, chats and laughs, Everett the 1-year-old daredevil, Dax riding the crazy bike, garage sales, cousin sleepovers. We are so thankful for good family and the time we were able to spend with them!