Homeless

The other night we checked on Jake on our way to bed and this is what we found!  Sleeping in a cardboard box!  At least it's in his room and not on the street somewhere!

Jake's Humor

Grandma Skinny spent the night with us in September.  In the morning while I was getting the kids breakfast  and their lunches packed for school,  she asked if she could help me with anything.  Jake pipes in with "My mom needs help making pumpkin chocolate chip cookies?" I smiled and thought to myself, that sounds a lot like your father's sense of humor."  As you can see Grandma Skinny made him cookies before she left.  Thanks Grandma.

Day Trip

Since we never actually made it to Six Mile Pond we decided to make a day trip in August, the weekend after school started.  We just took the truck and fishing gear.  It wasn't like fishing last year.  We had to have a little more patience but we ended up catching about 8 fish.  Jake was much better about catching and releasing.  He also caught the biggest fish.  It was so big he couldn't get his hands around it and he kept dropping it.

                                              Emily caught the first fish right away!

     
  So on the way home we decided to go home a different way and end up in Ephraim.  Everyone says it is shorter with lots of signs to tell the way.  Well if it wasn't the first day of elk hunting we would have been wondering on the top of the mountain all night.  It was more like an atv trail in many spots and we did a little 4 wheeling through mud to avoid a snow blocked road.   We very seldom take the unbeaten path and I'd say we're going to stick with our well known paths from now on.  It took us two hours to get to Ephraim.  We could have been home and showered by that time.

This is every kids dream of a candy store.  The kids were in awe.  They had a hard time choosing.  Way too many choices.

Summer Rain

Just add water and my kids are happy for hours.  We were eating dinner one night and the thunder cracked and the rain started pouring down.  The kids love playing in the gutters.  After all the scouts getting hit by lightning in Utah I'm a little cautious with them playing outside during a thunder storm.  

           
                                                                  That was so cool!

They ended up putting their flip flops in the "river" and chasing it down the street.

They could have played for hours but mom made them come in when the lightning started.

4 wheeling

In July we went to our favorite 4wheeling trail, log cabin.  It is so close it's not an all day trip.  Emily and I collected flowers to dry. 

 The top of the mountain is beautiful the pictures don't do it justice.

 Jake is not to fond of riding on the 4 wheeler.  He would rather be out exploring catching bugs.

He was down in this ravine catching bugs and said," There is something crawling on me."  When I got to him there were ants all over him.  You can see one on his forehead. Luckily I brushed them all off before any bit him.  There were lots of bugs and bees that day whenever we stopped, after the ants it was time to go.

 Everyone loves riding with dad more than mom.  He goes faster.

                                                                      Just too cute!

 On the way up and down we had to drive through thousands of sheep out for a day of grazing.  If I had video you could hear Emily and Jake talking to the sheep. "BAAAA"

 The day isn't complete with out Jake catching a grasshopper or two.  He caught about 5 or 6 and put them in the 4-wheeler bags in the trailer.  But the last one he wanted to hold in his hand for the ride home.  When I asked him to put his seat belt on he said, "I can't my grasshopper is too fussy!"  We all had a big laugh as I buckled him in.

 He loves catching little grasshoppers now to feed to his pet praying mantis.

Too Much Fun!

What did we do this summer?  We spent the summer at Cowabunga Bay!  Thanks for the season passes, for Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa Skinny.  Once it warmed up we spent one day a week playing in the sun.  We got to share some of the fun with family and friends too. We even got Britney and Jeremy and Aunt Terri to come!  Sorry no pictures those days.  Thanks for coming with us.  It's always more fun with the ones you love.

The kids enjoyed experimenting with the underwater camera.  It's a whole new world with goggles!

We finally got Jake to go down the closed fast pink slide. (which is Emily's favorite) Once he went down we couldn't get him to stop.  We went down 5 more times in a row.  Way to go Jake! He usually hangs out in the warm pool and lazy river the majority of the time.  It's always windy, so he gets cold really fast.  Emily loved all the slides except the two big ones where she bumped her head.  Even the little kiddie slides are fun to race and play on.  We had a blast!  Fun Fun Summer

First day of school

School started on the 18th of August.  Emily is a 3rd grader and Jake is a 1st grader.  I think we need to have less fun in the summer so they will want to go back to school.  I think Jake was excited about 1st grade though. When I picked up Jake outside his classroom and asked him how it was, he said, "awesome."  That was music to my ears.  After 2 days of school Jake ended up with strep throat and missed 3 days of school.  It's going to be a rough year for him!  As for me, I feel like a new woman with both kids in school all day.  I get so much time to myself I don't know what to do?  I finished my book club book Little Women, loved it, and  Devon and I get to go on dates during the day, when he's off, and we don't have to pay the babysitter gobs of money.  I have tons more patience with the kids now and enjoy spending time with them when they come home.