Australia!

About 6 months ago a great deal popped up on tickets to Australia, round trip for under $600.  LeGrand called me from work to tell me about it and we decided this was our opportunity to go :)  Dad served his mission in Sydney nearly 40 years ago and has never been back...he's talked about going his whole life just never went, so we called up and invited my parents to go--I couldn't go to Australia and not invite Dad.

Our trip finally arrived the end of September - LeGrands parents flew in to stay with the kids the two weeks we were gone, we are so grateful they were willing to come.  The trip was a fantastic time in a country that's so easy to love.  In two weeks we were barely able to skim the surface and we look forward to returning someday (hopefully taking the kids).

I'm making a separate photo book for our vacation so I'll just post a couple of pictures here and give all the details in my other book!

Oma, Opa & Potatoes!

The kids always look forward to potato harvest, they love getting two weeks off!  LeGrands parents flew in on Sept 21 to come watch the kids while we went on our trip to Australia and it happened to land over harvest so we took them to the potato shack and for some free fries.  JG and Heather had brought them up so they came with us too :)

We love Stoddard farms and look forward to our yummy fries every year!  Funny side note, we found out when we got home that LeGrands parents took the kids for free fries almost EVERY.DAY while we were gone, ha ha!

Grace Homecoming!

Things like Homecoming are kinda a big deal here in Grace :)  The kids were super excited to go to the 'tailgate' party and watch the homecoming game.  There were lots of fun things to do, they had a blast!

(Face painting!) 

 (slides!)

(Rides!) 

 (Bumper Balls!)

They enjoyed the football game for like a minute, ha ha.  We were lucky to make it to half time!

GO GRACE GRIZZLIES!!!

Girlies

Love these two crazy girls - they are a lot of different and a little alike and each with their own fun personalities!

This Lytzi is a ham.  She loves the spotlight and has the best facial expressions.  She loves to raise her eyebrows and make people laugh.  She's sassy and bossy and always wants to help cook!

Lately she's become quite the escape artist.  She was outside playing one day when LeGrand stopped by the house, we chatted for a bit then decided to leave and went out to find her - after yelling and yelling we couldn't locate her anywhere.  There were some men who had been doing a construction project on the surge tank by the house and I started to walk towards them when I heard the two guys up in the bucket say, 'Her mom and dad are looking for her' - I ran towards them and the guy on the ground told me she had walked by and around to the back of the tank.  I ran around to find her and the dog standing on the edge of the retention pond, ahhhhh!  I grabbed her and asked her what the heck she was doing (knowing that she could've fell in and drowned easily) she told me she just wanted to go exploring and was looking at the 'Big water'! WOW!

A few days later she was outside driving around this little red battery powered car, I can usually hear her going around the house and it had gotten quite so I asked Laexin to go out and check on her, by the time he got out there he couldn't find her anywhere.  He walked back in after yelling and yelling for her to tell me he couldn't find her and we looked out the window to see her half way up our 1/2 mile driveway just a cruising along in the car.  Laex jumped on his bike to go tell her to come home and by the time he got to her she was all the way to the neighbors house 1/2 mile away.  He came home with her and when she got back I asked her what the heck she was doing and she told me she just wanted to go to Laura's house (our neighbor) and she gave me 'the look'.  Notice, she doesn't even have any shoes on.  She couldn't understand what the big deal was, ha ha!

Loa is an animal lover, we got a couple kittens that were supposed to stay half wild so they'd be good mousers, well instead she hauls them around like a crazy cat lady and they are as tame as can be.  She loves art and anything creative.  She thinks school is the best!

 Lately she's really into 'selfies' ha ha!

We painted some rocks to hide around town

Hoopes Reunion

The next weekend Sept.2-5 we headed BACK to Vernal, whew!  We had the Hoopes reunion in White Rocks.  We just stayed and Mom and Dad's and drove over every day.  The kids had a blast and except for a little rain almost everyday we had a really good time.

On the way past sheep creek and over flaming gorge the kids always beg to stop at the look out which I usually say no to because I just want to get where we are going :)  Since we had extra time, we stopped on the way to Vernal this trip, the kids were so excited!

The Hoopes reunion was lots of fun as usual!  We had a great few days catching up with family, eating, playing, & crafting!

Soccer

Laex and Loa both played soccer this year and loved it!  We missed a lot of games because we were gone so much during August but the did awesome at the ones we were at :)  I love that they both have such good kids in their classes that they get to go to school & play sports with.

Kenz's Baby Shower

The kids and I went to Vernal August 26 & 27 (LeGrand stayed home to work) for Kenz's Baby shower.  It was a quick trip but the kids were awesome on the drive and we didn't have to make any stops coming or going :)  It was fun to see everyone who came to the shower.