MAUI

We've been planning and scheming for months with a huge surprise for the kids, a trip to Maui!  They had no clue!  We were able to score an awesome deal on plane tickets and it just so happened to land over Potato harvest so we decided it was the perfect opportunity.  We invited Mom and Dad to come along.  It was quite the challenge to get everything prepared, bags packed and all ready to go without anyone knowing what was going on.  But it was sure fun to wake them up early and have them quickly get dressed and tell them we had a surprise and that they weren't going to school that day!  We had an awesome time!  I'll be making a separate book for the trip so I won't go into details about it here.

Labor Day Camping

Labor Day weekend we had plans to meet up with the Dillons for camping at Deer Creek reservoir and Swiss Days in Midway.  Our weekend got a little interrupted as we learned the week before that Dee Belcher passed away.  He had gotten liver cancer and it took him quickly.  So we got to Deer Creek Friday evening after stopping to check out Swiss Days.  And Saturday we left the older kids with the Dillons and took the younger ones with us to Dee's Funeral and a luncheon with the Family.

The funeral was really nice and it was good to be there to support and visit with Brad and Candace.  It all came so quickly it's hard to believe he is gone.  Dee was a ray of sunshine.  He and Michelle were so great to take in LeGrand and let him live with them after his mission.  We are so grateful for the memories we have of Dee.

Sunday we hung out at camp while the boys went fishing.  We walked down to the reservoir and let the kids throw rocks in the water, ate yummy food and enjoyed relaxing and visiting.  Monday we got up and cleaned up camp and headed for home.  It was a fun weekend of memories and the kids loved their first 'official' camping trip!

Cross Country

Laexin decided to run Jr. High Cross Country this year.  It wasn't his favorite sport but he worked hard and had a personal record at every meet.  It was awesome to see him run his heart out.  At his final meet his personal record was under a 7 min. mile.

Mornings with Linq

The first few days the kids went back to school, this little guy wasn't quite sure what to do with himself.  More than once I found him dead asleep on the living room floor.  I also caught him being naughty -Peeing on the front porch 😆 you know when you live in the country when your kid would rather pee outside than in, but ON the front porch is crossing the line, ha ha.

He looks forward to Lytzi getting home so he can have someone to play with. One day they went out to play in the puddles and before I knew it he was stripped naked cause he had to go pee and didn't like his wet pants -all of this happening as a bunch of the power guys (including Legrand's boss) were driving by😲

He was really excited when LeGrand stopped by one morning with the backhoe to give him a ride.  As you can tell by most of the pictures, he would rather stay in his PJ's than get dressed most days and I figure if we aren't going anywhere, what the heck! 

He came knocking at the back door and wanted me to take a picture of this cool rock he had found :)

First day of School 2018

For the first time, in maybe ever, I really wasn't ready for summer to be over.  We had such a fun summer making memories that I just wanted it to keep going --except for the fact that I was happy to get back to some type of routine.

Crazy that I now how 3 out of the 4 kids in school --I remember the days when I couldn't imagine that this time in my life would ever come as I was buried in diapers and bottles and sleepless nights.  Now I'm sad that it's already here, time really does move too fast.

Lytzi only has half day kindergarten so Linq and I have been walking to pick her up when she gets home at Noon.

 She has to have a picture of her Backpack and shoes :)

 They don't love walking to the bus, but it's good for them :)  Plus, soon enough the weather will be so crappy that I'll have to drive them, so I told them as long as it's warm they can walk.  I love looking out and seeing the three of them headed to the bus.

When we go to get Lytzi, Linq has been riding his strider bike.  It cracks me up cause he doesn't even really put his bum on the seat so basically he's walking his bike.  I ask him repeatedly if he doesn't want to just leave his bike on the side of the road and we'll come back and get it and he never does.  He as really come to love this bike.  The first week the kids were back at school he has been outside playing a while and I went to check on him, couldn't find him anywhere.  Luckily LeGrand was home so we went hunting for him.  We found him clear down on the little hill by the surge tank, on his bike.  I asked him what he was doing (while lecturing him about how he can't leave the house and go that far away by himself) and he said, 'Mom, I just wanted to go on a trip'.  Funny kid!

Couver getting Lytzi off the bus!

Real SL Date night

LeGrand won a charity auction through his work and we got to go to a Real SL Soccer game and sit in the owners box.  It made for a long evening to drive down and back just for the game but it was a fun getaway and we had a great time!

Berry Picking + Last summer Hoorah

A friend invited us to come pick her raspberries, she was done with them and just looking for other people to pick --the kids loved shoving them in their mouth as fast as they could pick them :)

 The 9th of August (last Thursday before school started) we met some friends for a day at Bear lake, I have been trying to get there all summer but we've been so busy that we never made it. I was happy we at least got to go once, and the day was perfect.  The kids had a blast!

 I made Laexin start blowing up the toys on the way so it wouldn't take forever when we got there...they completely covered everyone up, ha ha.