BACK TO SCHOOL

It's back to school time. The kids were so excited for the first day. Here's Mia and her friend Lauren getting ready to go to class. Cole didn't start school until after lunch. He was thrilled to be in the same school as his big sister.

Daddy walked him to the bus.

And of course Mom had to trail behind to get some photos.

Mia and Cole rode back home together. They were both exhausted after their long first day.

As a tradition I try to make a special after school snack after the first day of school. Here are my cheese "pencils". Not so cute, but the kids loved them. I got the idea from Family Fun magazine.

Broken Teeth

On Saturday I finally got Luke a hair cut. He was looking a little shaggy. Well, the lady that cut his hair didn't do the best job, mostly because Luke was a stinker and wouldn't hold still, but also because for some reason she thought it would be a good idea to cut his bangs straight across. Well, I just decided it was good enough and left it alone.

But later that night Luke and Cole were wrestling and Luke hit his face on the tile, breaking not one, but TWO teeth. Here's the photo. So in one day, in my failed attempt to make my Lukie even cutier, I managed to turn my shaggy little boy into a Jim Carrey "Dumb and Dumber" look-a-like. He's still cute though. And luckily we're getting his teeth fixed this week.

Last Week of Summer Vacation

Our last week of Summer Vacation was a blast. Instead of going to California like we planned, we headed north to see our family and enjoy a few more sights. Here's Historic Cove Fort. The kids loved the cool button/string trick.

We saw a bunch of family but didn't get any good photos. Too much fun, and no time for picture taking, I guess. The kids got to go to Lagoon and Cherry Hill with their cousins. We love our cousins.

We also got a visit from cousin Austin. They had a lot of fun for the two days he was here.

Can't wait for next summer!

Pajama Party Anyone?

For Mia's 7th birthday we decided to have a friend party (because she didn't get one last year due to the fact that we just moved and didn't know anyone). We tossed around several different ideas, but considering we had to have the party in the evening - to fit various schedules, we decided to have a Pajama Party! It was so much fun.

Here's the awesome cake. Mia helped me make the fruit roll up pajamas. It was a fun activity to do together. It's a three layer (two cake mixes) chocolate cake with vanilla icing.
After the girls ate their pizza, they each made one of these cute necklaces out of a metal washer and scrapbook paper. They turned out adorable.

Here's the take home party favor. I just asked a lady at Pei Wei if I could buy some of their mini take out boxes, and they just gave me a dozen. Nice! I filled them with candy.

The girls loved just chatting and eating. A true girl party.

While their necklaces were drying and before the sun went down, they used fabric markers to decorate a pillow case.

Mia drew a picture of a horse, then had all the girls sign the back of it, to remember who came to her party. She loves it.

Unfortunately I was a one man show. That being said it's almost impossible to play hostess and photographer, so I didn't get all the pictures I wished for. But we had a blast playing games and doing crafts. I love having a little girl. Time for presents!

Of course we had to play the traditional "Heavy heavy hang over thy poor head" game. Mia's head was sore from all the bonks.

Happy birthday my princess. We love you so much!

What I don't have pictures of....

1. Playing "don't let the balloon hit the floor" in complete darkness except for glow bracelets.

2. 11 little girls jumping on my trampoline at the same time (all but one got on. The hold out is very obedient to her Mom's wishes)

3. The girls playing "down by the banks" hand slap game on the grass

4. The girls pealing extra glue from their hands like it's skin. (Everyone loves that, right?)

5. Mia's head getting covered with bows and confetti from all the presents.

Thanks to all of Mia's friends for making her 7th birthday so memorable.

Lucky Number 7

Happy 7th Birthday, Mia!

Fun in the Basin

We spent the 24th of July in Drew's hometown. Every year they have a big celebration. Here are some photos of the morning parade.

CANDY, CANDY, CANDY!!!!

Aunt Karen was in the parade celebrating her 50 year high school reunion. Awesome!

Backpacking the Uintahs

Here are some photos of a backpacking trip, Drew and I made with our friends Dave and Jaime in the Uintah Mountains on July 8th. It was my first time backpacking and I wasn't sure what to expect. But luckily Drew had taken this route many times and guided us to an awesome location.

This is a photo just before we took off up the trail. Here's the top of one of the mountains we had to climb - elevation 11,070 feet. It was about 4 hours into the hike and I was already exhausted. But at least we could see the finish line from here.

Believe it or not, this was the first thing we did when we arrived at our camp site. The place was loaded with fish. So many, that you could catch them with your bare hands. NO JOKE! Dave making dinner.

Drew enjoying some fishing.

Here's our little two man tent we rented from REI.

OK, so look closely at this picture, to get an idea of how many fish were in the stream.

Drew made quite a nice camp site for us. Too bad there were about a billion mosquitos driving us crazy. That's the reason for the hoods.

How awesome is this?

This is our hike back two days later.

This is one of the hills we had to climb.

And this is basically what the trail looked like. Not the easiest hike in the world, especially when you're carrying a 30 pound pack.

Our last picture before jumping into the truck and heading for a shower. That night we took the kids to pizza and a movie. It was a really exhausting but fun trip and I hope to do it again...maybe next year.