1D baby!

For Christmas, Santa gave Haley 2 tickets to the upcoming One Direction concert.  She was just a tiny bit excited.  If you know Haley, you know that she is a complete fangirl for 1D.  Ask her trivia about any of the band members ... What is Zayn's favorite color?  Red.  How old is Niall?  19.  Duh.

For the months leading up to the concert, Mike & I would joke about which parent would end up taking her to the concert.  There was a bit of rock-paper-scissors involved at one point, but we never could agree on who would go with .... until about one week before the concert.

Haley had periodically thrown the idea out that she and fellow fangirl/cousin, 12 year old Sydney, should go to the concert together.  I said, "No problem -- you tell Syd to have her parents buy 2 tickets and then we can all go together."  Didn't really turn out that way.  Obviously, the power of persuasion (and 2 moms remembering how cool it was to go to our first concerts) won out.  Erin & I gave the girls a cell phone, and then we hung around nearby just in case they desperately needed us.  Which, of course, they never did. :)

Sharpie marker tatoos on every arm.

It was funny to stand outside of the indoor venue and be able to actually hear girls screaming.  Must have been crazy loud in there.  But the girls had an absolute blast and had a giddy glow about them for days afterward.

A couple of months later, the behind-the-scenes movie came out.  This time, Haley & Syd allowed their moms to come along, too.

Horrible picture, but you can see how completely enthralled they are with the 1D boys.  1D in 3D - haha.

Ahhh ... young love.  :) I remember being almost as "in love" with Sting and U2 at their age.  So I do understand somewhat.  Although, I'm thinking I've done my One Direction duty for now.

Back-to-school 2013

My jr. high'ers.  Some happier to have their pictures taken than others.  Christian is in 9th grade -- king of the jr high -- and Haley is a "sevvie."  She's adjusted well, so far.  Kinda helps to know a bunch of Christian's 9th grade friends.

Paige is in 4th grade this year.  She's happy to stay with her same class as they move up together in their program.

And this little one is in 1st grade this year.  Boo..... Only boo for mommy, though, cause she's enjoying it a lot.  She comes home every day with adventure stories and breathless from running home with friends.  I told her to plan on seeing me lots in her classroom, because what else am I gonna do with myself?

There she goes ....

It's tradition in our neighborhood for the kids to go straight to the church after school for a snow cone.  It's quite the hang-out.

What's a full-time mom to do when she gets demoted to part-time mom?  It's been plenty busy, still, with volunteering at all 3 schools.  But I did manage to sneak in a daytime movie and have had a couple of lunch dates this week with friends.  I'll survive, I'm sure.

One last bbq ...

It's a.l.m.o.s.t  fall  I can feel it in the air.  Almost.  Still plenty hot but I can tell that the trees want to turn brilliant colors.  They want it.  Ok, I want it.  We decided to have a group bbq with families from our last ward up the canyon -- to celebrate school starting the next week or bemoan it (not sure which).  I love how easy it is to feed 40 people when everyone brings stuff to contribute.

What's a campfire without someone strumming a guitar?

The actual barbecuing is such a dad thing.  Cracks me up.

Ok fine ... school can now begin.

What do you do in the summertime?

We escaped to Park City to get out of the heat. I so love that town!  How cool would it be to have one of those cute, bright-colored houses as a weekend home? :)  But I digress ... We spent the evening cruising down the mountain on the Alpine Slide and Coaster.  It was just the thing to cool us down...

Because of fires in the area, the sun was deep red. Eerie and cool at the same time. 

Yeah, It's Sugar

The 1st time we went to the candy story, It's Sugar, was at Universal Studios ... and our kids still talk about it. So how cool for us that It's Sugar just opened a store near us. Can you see why it's such a novelty??

Talk about a couple of nerds ...

Oversized candy is a total novelty!  I was so tempted to buy the big stuff, and then thought, "Ummm, why?"  I don't want my kids to actually eat that much sugar so we'll just visit the store from time to time instead. :)