Back to School

So another year of school has begun. I'm happy and not. I like summer for the flexibility. We can stay up late if we want or sleep in. I do like being back on a schedule though. It's really hard when your husband works very different hours. Last school year he was the most difficult one to get on schedule. I would tell him the kids have to be in bed by 8:30. Eight thirty rolls around they've had their showers, had reading time, said our prayers and then what does daddy do? He turns on cartoons! "Oh just let them stay up a little longer he tells me." I say fine! Then you can fight to get them up in the morning when it's time to go to school. So far this week we've been able to be in bed at 8:30. Yeah! Lauren has even been asking to go to bed earlier. Which I don't have a problem with. This has been good because we have to get up just a little bit earlier than last year. School starts at 8:05 instead of 8:20. We use to leave the house by about 8:00 or 8:10. Now we have to leave by 7:50 or sooner. Last year we would try to beat the bus. The school bus goes down our street two times each morning. So the bus would go by the first time and Lauren & James would look at me like oh no was that the first or second time? Sometimes we would just be getting in the car and it would drive by. So the bus goes one way and we would go the other way and see if we could beat it to school. They have fun. We haven't quite figured out what time it goes by the second time now, but I think it's 7:45. We will have to be on the ball if we want to beat it now.

So Lauren has been growing her hair out again to donate to Locks of Love. This time she decided on her own to grow it out. She hasn't cut it since the first grade. By the end of last school year it was getting pretty long. I told her hopefully by the end of summer it will be long enough to cut ten inches off. She has also been asking to get her ears pierced for awhile. I told her when we get your hair cut we will get your ears pierced. You will have a whole new look for third grade. Last week we got her hair cut and it looks so cute. The next day we took her to get her ears pierced. She did very good, not one peep or tear. I was very impressed.

With the kids back to school I'm trying to get everything ready for preschool to start in September. I am very excited and have about seven little students this year. I have a lot of fun things planned and can't wait to get started. I really enjoy teaching this age and it will help to bring in a few extra dollars for our family.

Moon River Bike Ride

Well the long summer days are coming to a quick close. Daddy and I decided to take the kids on a moonlight bike ride on Tuesday night. He got home at about 8:30pm and we filled up our water bottles and loaded up the bikes in the back of the truck. (side note) On Monday daddy spent most of the day fixing up an old bike that my brother Shaun gave us so Lauren could have a "new" bike. We got James a used mountain bike in Wyoming were daddy use to get bike parts when he was on his mission. So we drove over to the River Walk Park and rode around the path that is lite. We had a really fun time. The weather was nice of course after the sun goes down . Lauren said to me, "we need to do this more often." There is a big hill at the park, so Daddy and James decided to ride to the top and then ride down. Lauren didn't want to try so her and I stayed at the bottom to watch the dare devils. James went first! It was so funny well not at first. He came hauling down hitting every bump and dip. His face looked like, am I going to die? His helmet was shaking on top of his head and his bike was wobbling back and forth he made it to the bottom without crashing and narrowly missing a tree and then almost plowing into a pile of rocks! I just kept yelling, "you can do it just keep riding!" Then daddy and I started busting up laughing. Then he said," I want to do it again. I said ,"you're crazy I think once is enough." But he and daddy did it again. This time I got off my bike in case I had to stop him. We rode around the park a couple of times. The second time around we saw a huge bull frog. I tried to get it to jump with my foot, but it wouldn't move. I had to push it with my hand to get it to jump. It ran into a pillar. I don't think it could see real well. The kids chased it down to the water and watched it jump in. I forgot how big those guys are. We rode over to the playground and swung on the swings for a little bit. Daddy kept walking in between the kids swinging. Then they wanted to try doing it with him and I swinging. Daddy said they use to do that when he was at school. ( No wonder they don't have swings anymore.) We had a very fun time. It probably won't happen for a while because daddy works on the weekends and the kids will be back in school on his days off. I'm glad we went.

Family Vaction 2009

Our fam just got home from our two week excursion. Marcus has always wanted to take us back to Colorado where he served his mission, so we finally did it. We went through Tahoe and stayed a couple of days and then on through Nevada were Daddy and James had to stop at the new Cabela's. Which was awesome I love it too. Then we drove to Idaho to see family that we rarely get to see. We stayed with his Aunt Connie & Uncle Don. They have a wonderful home that is very accomadating for guests. We were there for about four days. They took us all around were Marcus' parents grew up and where he and his grandparents use to live. We even ran into a friend that Marcus and his brothers and sister use to play with. That was fun. We visited with his Aunt Carolee and His Uncle Stan & Aunt Marilyn, their son Allan and his new wife Whitney. From there we drove to Wyoming. Part of his mission covered some of Wyoming. There we visited one of the families he has stayed in touch with since his mission. He showed us where he lived and showed us around some to the town. We went on a tour of a mansion that he did service for. We also went through an old prison that housed "Butch Cassidy." We stayed there a couple of days and then went on to Colorado. It was so pretty there. We drove through the Rocky Mountain Nationl Park which cost us $20.00 just to drive through, but it was worth it. We saw herds of elk. We got pretty close to some of them. We saw a mother moose and her baby. That was so cool. Oh and in Wyoming we saw Antalope. Then from Colorado we drove to Utah to see my Brother and his family. They live in a little mountain town called Midway just 20 minutes or so from Park City Utah. My sister-in-law hooked us up with a great room a litte place called "Inn on the Creek", where she works setting up weddings and rececptions. The kids spent the nights with their cousins on their cots. Which was better than any fancy room. We went on a hike up to the Mt. Timpinogis cave. It is a mile and a half all the way up. There is really steep parts and then just regular steep parts. With the kids it took us about an hour to hike up. But I don't think they had as much trouble as Daddy and I did. Plus the altitude was getting to us. That's a good excuse right! The cave was awesome and cold. We were sweating all the way up and then wearing coats in the cave. The next day we all went to Park City which is a fun yupie town, and we had really delicious carmel apples there. We then went to the Olyimpic Park. That was really neat to see. We had a great time with everybody and enjoyed seeing some of the country. Lauren and James traveled very well which made it possible for us to take our time and stay longer.