First day of school

We filled our extra summer days and then we were ok with heading back to school.  Matt went first; I don't know why they still can't do things on the same day. Who knows.

As we were driving to school, Matt said, "You forgot to take my first day of school picture."  I felt so bad.  I've done it every year.  So, to be funny, I took one of him as he got out of the car.  Ha Ha.  He only has one more first day of school at home.  Sad for me.

Kate and Sara started school the next day, each sporting new clothes that they had earned the money for.  Kate was wishing that 9th grade was in the high school, and Sara was wishing that 6th grade was in the middle school.   Ahh, soon enough!

Abby was the last to start.  First grade will be an adjustment for her.  All day is always hard at first.  It will be an adjustment for me to.  I've missed each of my kids as they've made that transition to first grade.  I love having my kids with me.

It was hard for me taking Sara and Abby to their new school.  I felt really anxious for them.  And I had some tears in my eyes as I watched Abby walk away.  Those first few days were harder for me, I think, then them.  As I watched Abby walk into her class, I tried to take a moment and feel that experience since it was my last time.  And then I wiped my eyes and went for a mountain bike ride and didn't worry about being home so soon to pick her up!  Not gonna lie, it was pretty awesome!

I loved that one of the 6th grade classes made this tunnel for the first graders!  So fun.  And Abby had a class that sat with them at lunch and showed them how to do things.  And her teacher seems really organized and a good solid teacher so she'll be ok!  I probably will be too!

Adopted family

We love our friends the Salmons and we love playing with their kids.  We also love that they don't have family that lives close by so we treat their kids like our niece and nephew and they treat ours the same.  It's really nice.  Our kids love them!  Dean cracks us up all the time.  Lately, he's been on a dinosaur kick and one Sunday he was making us all laugh with his antics:

Timpanogos Caves

Sara has wanted to go see the Timpanogos Caves since she was in 3rd grade and I was glad we had time to fit it in this summer.  It was fun taking my girls through it.  I hadn't been since I was Sara's age.  Unfortunately, Matt had to work so he got left behind.

They were really amazing inside.  It was a fun thing to explore.

More time for summer

We'd had a weird and busy summer with Abby and Sara in school until July 2, and all the youth camps and stuff that gets thrown in so I was very glad to still have some time after we got back from California.  One night, Kate was at EFY, Matt was at a midweek bike race and so rather than waiting around for him, I took Abby, Sara and Jerry up to Lake Mary.  The lakes were so pretty this summer after all the snow we got over the winter.  It was an awesome night except for the mosquitos.  They were so bad.  Luckily, someone on the trail gave us some bug spray and then after that it was much more bearable.

I also took Sara and Abby to the county fair.  We love walking around and looking at the animals and all the booths and seeing what all they have there.  Abby wanted to ride the ponies but was too scared to until Sara said she would ride with her.  In the end, Abby loved it!

It wasn't quite as much fun for Sara, but she was a good sport.  She liked the donut on a string eating contest much better.

Abby had lots of fun the next few days dressing up as a real cowgirl with her horse.  Made her Grandpa proud.

Another day Matt, Kate and I were all able to go for a bike ride.  Matt left us so Kate and I had a great time riding together.  It was beautiful weather and so nice to be out.

I also got up early one morning to run to Red Pine Lake with a running group.  It was a perfect morning and the lake was the prettiest I've ever seen it.  It was a great run until one of the girls tripped and fell on a rock and gashed her leg pretty badly.  I had some first aid things with me so we bandaged her up temporarily.  She went to the doctor after she got back and ended up getting 6 stitches in her shin.  Crazy!

I was just so grateful we weren't in school and grateful to be able to enjoy being outside and in the mountains around here!

Back from vacay

I love how when we come home after a long break and Tulo has been at a kennel and we get him back home and he's so excited to see us.  I picked Tulo up while Matt and Sara were out and when they walked in the house he was jumping and licking all over them and they were just as excited to see him and scratch him.  It's the best.  Dogs are the best!

I was very glad that since we'd found a house to buy and everything was working out with it under contract, it meant that Abby and Sara would be switching schools which would mean no more year round school!  If they hadn't switched schools, they would have started up the Monday after we got back and they would have missed a couple of days already.  It was so nice to still have some days of summer left and Abby clearly wasn't rested enough to be back in school!  I could't believe she just fell fast asleep on the rug like this.  It was pretty cute.

Last day? Guess we'll go to the beach

Our last day there, after spending all day at the beach, we met up with Jeff and Jenny's family again for smore's on the beach.  The weather was perfect and we had fun hanging out again.  It was really fun for the cousins to get to spend time together.

We had a little fun doing some jumps.  Jerry and Matt were lucky to not hurt each other, but on a side note, Matt has some serious hops!

We love this video so much because it totally sounds like Abby is yelling, "Hell yeah!"  She's really saying Hallelujah which is super random, but it definitely made us laugh.

We weren't ready to go home, but we had some super exciting things going on at home, so that did make it easier.  We love our beach trips and can't wait to go back next year!

Seriously, still more beach

Every morning I dragged Jerry on a run on the beach with me.  I didn't run too fast so he could keep up.  It was a nice way to wake up!

We rented a Chrysler Pacifica while we were there and we totally loved it.  For a van, of course!  Actually though it was awesome because it fit all of us, but then when we got the surfboards and wanted to check out some other beaches that we drove too, it could even fit all the gear and all of us!  We were pretty impressed with our surf mobile!  The kids all want to buy one, but I'm not going back to a van!!

Matt surfed even more the next day.  I really can't believe how hard he worked at it.

Beach, beach and more beach

Literally all we cared about doing was spending time at the beach.  The house we were staying at had all the gear we needed except for surfboards, so we rented those and then just camped at the beach all day long.  It was perfect.  The older kids were completely entertained with boogie boarding, surfing and swimming in the water.  And Abby was completely happy digging up sand crabs and building sand castles and running away from the waves.  Jerry and I loved being able to sit in the beach chairs, under the umbrella until we got hot enough to boogie board or surf.  Each day was really perfect.  

Kate tried out surfing, but decided boogie boarding was just as fun with a lot less work!  I kind of agreed.

The waves were pretty big and the under current was pretty strong so Sara struggled managing the surf board.  She had more fun swimming and boogie boarding too.

Matt loved surfing.  He spent so much time each day practicing and trying to figure it all out.  I was amazed at how hard we worked and how he didn't give up.  I'd got out with him for a bit, but once I got tired I was done, but he'd keep trying.  He definitely improved which was cool to watch.

Another night, another beach, another sunset!