Back to School

Yup, its that time of year again.  Where the kids head to school, and things get a little quieter at home - at least for 6 hours.  We have a 5th grader, and 3rd grader, and a 1st grader all going to school

Austin is going to Michele Stringam's preschool here in the neighborhood.  He also gets to be in the same class as his cousin Emma.  He is so excited for school!

Battle Creek Falls

I heard about an easy hike to a waterfall in Pleasant Grove, so we decided to give it a try.  I had imagined a pretty flat trail, and honestly expected it to be paved from the little bit I heard about it, but apparently I got the the wrong impression.  It was a relatively short hike - a little more than a mile, but it wasn't paved, and it was pretty steep at parts, especially at the end.  I almost attempted this hike alone with the kids a few weeks earlier because of what I thought it would be (I was thinking along the lines of the Bridal Veil Falls trail), so luckily, Devon was with me.  It really wasn't a bad hike, just not one I should have tried without him with all these kids and being so pregnant.

Here is the view from the top of the falls.  We made it!  That steep last part was kind of hard, and the kids felt worn out, but they did it!  The picture above is us standing at the top of what you see in the picture below.

We enjoyed some snacks and playing around in the water for a little while.  I love the outdoors!

Summer Random Stuff

I checked on Ethan one night to find this.  He has our old queen bed right now, and always sleeps on one side of the bed.  I can't imagine this position is too comfortable...

Lauren loves her dolls.  I seem to always have dried out wipes all over my house from her changing them.  I have quite a few containers of the ones I have collected.  I still use them when I change her, but for some reason I just can't get her to reuse the ones she has pulled out.

Austin came up to me one day and said: Mom I'm the phone guy!

Lauren recently started to sleep in a toddler bed. She has done pretty good.  I love how after I tuck her in bed, she will go find her babies and bring them to bed with her.  Of course sometimes I don't love that she will play for an hour or two instead of going to sleep.

Lauren loves to cut with scissors.  I have been pretty lucky that so far the worst she has done is make a mess with all her cuttings.  I have had to put the scissors away for the most part to help make sure she doesn't get into trouble.

A neighbor gave us a little vanity with brushes, combs, make up, curling irons, and blow dryers.  Ever since, these two have had a lot of fun playing with it.  Here they are doing a haircut with the comb and stool, and also curling with the curling iron.  I haven't seen them try to use real scissors and we are hoping it stays that way!

Summer Fun

We had such a fun summer!  It was filled with all sorts of good stuff!  Parks, the library, Seven Peaks, Trafalga, more parks, ice cream, movies, splash pads, mini golf, sprinklers, swimming, games, friends and so much more.  I think we did a good job enjoying it while it lasted!

At our house, we love the library.  The kids get so excited to go, and I love how on the drive home it is so quiet because they are all busy reading books.  When we get home, my living room floor gets covered with books and they all dump their books there and drop down next to them and start reading.  Our library gives a prize out if they bring back a reading chart.   One new favorite prize are some giant candy necklaces that have a bone on them.  One day we also took some snacks and a blanket, and stopped at the park on our way home.

Trafalga is a favorite place and especially these bumper boats.  Here is Jayden and Austin, and I'm sure Dylan and Ethan weren't too far away.

We found this fun new splash pad with our Gibson cousins while Lance, Kim, Warren, and Xander were out visiting.

Each of our Seven Peaks passes came with $20 of arcade tokens, and they kept messing up on our order, so we ended up with  $240 of tokens (they still aren't all used yet).  I pretty much never let my kids do the arcades because I think its such a waste of money (I think we ended up with like $30-50 worth of random toys and candy).  The kids loved getting to play them, and they got tons of tickets, which meant they got quite a bit of prizes, and enjoyed every bit of it.  It all worked out since they got their chance to play, and I didn't feel like I was wasting a bunch of my money.  Win-Win!

We also had fun playing mini golf at Trafalga.  Most the time it consisted of Dylan and Jayden and Ethan actually playing, and me helping and watchin Austin and Lauren have their fun trying to play as well.

Seven Peaks was a great place to be.  The kids really love that place!  Dylan and Jayden are good buddies and go around together to the slides they want to do, while me Ethan, Austin, and Lauren hang out at the wave and kiddie pools.

Good old Baby Kong and Momma Kong ice cream cones.  They sure were yummy and they sure were messy!

Our area ran super low on water this year, and before all the restrictions were put in place, we didn't have hardly any water pressure, so our lawn started to die.  I pulled out the sprinkler attachment and Austin had fun playing in it.  I love how he still wore his favorite cowboy boots that he was hardly seen without all summer.

We swam, swam, swam all summer.  I love having such easy access to a pool!

We love games at our house, and I love the days where get them out and play for hours.