Last week, we celebrated Hayden's 2nd birthday. We watched Paige's photo montage and I was sitting there thinking, I don't take enough pictures of my kids. Well, after narrowing down August's pictures, I've changed my mind. I have enough photos in August to make a montage! Make a cup of hot chocolate, clear your calendar and ENJOY!!! (And for some reason, the pictures are all out of order and I'm not going to take the time to reorder them!)
Well, August is the month we try to squeeze in everything we haven't done yet during the summer. We had a fun trip to the mall and found lots of fun accessories at Claire's to dress up!
This one is my phone's wallpaper - I think it's so cute - and I actually get to see Emily dressed up!
Girl's Camp was in August. It was ward camp this year, so while there was a lot more planning and work, it's always much more fun and bonding. Here's the leader's tent. We all made name flags for our tents. One night the girls "pranked us" by taping pictures of bees all over our tent and signs saying that we are "Bee-utiful!" Aww! We also pranked another ward there with a bunch of cut out moons and moon cakes and a sign that said they'd been "mooned!" They got us back later at our YW's room with a bunch of stars and Starbursts and signs saying "It was a TREAT getting mooned by you!" "Thanks for BURSTing into our camp!" "Thanks for the moons, here's some STARS!" Boy am I glad I work with the girls. Boys camp would probably have been a bit different!
We did a lot of fun activities during girls camp; including canoeing, rappelling, hiking and touring Timp Cave, ziplining, etc. I don't remember doing so many active activities during my girl's camps! Steve stayed home for the week and again did an excellent job taking care of the girls. He likes his week with the girls too.
Fun at McDonald's playplace!
And the chickens keep growing! We thought it was funny when they climbed the back stairs and pecked on the window! The kids thought they were knocking to get in. Fun until they poop all over the deck!
In August, Thanksgiving Point hosts $2 Buck Tuesdays. Since we're all so cheap, we brave the crowds and the cousins have fun wherever they go. This is the Ladybug Theater at the Children's Gardens. The kids like to put on plays for us.
And here we make them pose again my the bear statue!
And in the Merry-Go-Round gardens. I think this picture was taken about 2 seconds before Braydon got stung by a bee. (And made the kids wary of flowers for the rest of the day!) He was brave and luckily wet paper towels seemed to help.
Yes, we forced them to sit in the middle of the flowers even though by now they were all afraid of flowers (aka bees.)
In the Secret Garden. And just FYI, the sign behind Mason says, "NO swimming or wading!"
Such a happy girl. Even though she'd tripped a dozen times that day and we had to keep finding bandaids for her.
Ella by the Secret Garden door.
All the cousins posing for their moms! Except Scottie because he was too fascinated by the tiny baby birds in a nest a lady had pointed out to him.
We had to rush back from the Secret Garden to make our time at Noah's ark. They love splashing around in the splash pad.
Eden found Noah.
A trip to Menchies - the girls favorite Frozen yogurt place!
I found a way to get Eden to wash the outdoor cars. I let her draw all over them with markers,
gave her a sponge,
and a big sudsy bucket of water,
and let her have at it! Such fun!
Another $2 Tuesday - this time at the Dinosaur museum.
Mason and Samantha are always so good to Eden.
Usually we play during her naptime and she's a stinker. Luckily she took a little nap while the kids played at the sand and water tables.
AAUUGGHH! Yes, those are our cousins behind the barrier trying to pull the shark's teeth out!
And climbing up to the cave people!
I spend a LOT of time with the youth! This was a river rafting trip down the Provo river. I missed it last year, and it was a TON of fun! It was a chilly evening, though, so the water was extra cold!
And the fact that these girls will be driving soon scares me since they couldn't steer worth a darn! I was sitting in the front with another leader and we had to dive to the bottom of the raft multiple times as they kept hitting the trees on the banks! One of the leaders had PVC pipe squirt guns. Those things can shoot A LOT of water! We were the unlucky targets multiple times and I was SOAKED. Too bad I wore jeans!
Here's what I do when I'm babysitting the Shanks. Scottie has to practice his multiplication facts...
and Tanna has to practice reading...
while Mason entertains Eden!
Of course, they are always rewarded. Here's a trip to Jungle Jims! The last hurrah before the first day of school!
First day of school! Emily's in 4th grade and Ella's in 2nd grade!
Every day when the girls leave, Eden or I says, "Just you and me!" I made her this Rapunzel paint palate the first day so she could have fun "painting" her tower!
We started a before school job checkoff list. The first week, if they got everything checked off everyday, they got to earn a trip to build-a-bear! (Because I scored some awesome coupons!) Of course, everything's more fun with cousins, so we brought Natalia and the Shanks. And mom - who loves build-a-bear! And was generous to end up paying for everything!
We headed to Classic Skating for the last time before our passes expired.
Ella, Mason and Tanna spent a good part of their summer in play practices and performances. They rented a camel for the show.
This is Ella and Tanna with their show dad.
They started the show with lots of little families attempting to have FHE. All the kids were either misbehaving or absorbed in their iPods. Ella, Tanna and Mason were the absolute best misbehaviors of them all, though!
Then they freeze while the narrator appears and decides to tell the story through song instead. She unfreezes them all and they took their places on the sides of the stage while the moms and dads became the 12 brothers and their wives.
The narrator always sat by Ella when Joseph "found" the golden cup in Benjamin's sack.
The dream coat at the end.
Followed by a fireworks show.
Multi-colored flowers for the performers after their last show! It was an excellent performance and all the actors did a wonderful job. Of course, I thought the children's chorus was pretty awesome too!
August is also FULL of soccer - practices and games! Here's a few fun pics from this season. Both girls did much better this year and got some good kicks in! They sure are cute to watch.
We're so glad grandma keeps us in beautiful Sunday dresses!
I also spent August filling my preschool spots and preparing for open house and the school year. This year's theme is "I am Zoo-per!" So our open house had a safari theme. I was a zoo keeper and all the kids brought a stuffed animal with them to open house.
Eden came with her Curious George! She's been such a darling preschool kid so far! It's so fun to hear her version of what we learned and all the songs we sing. She sings ABC song all the time now and adds more and more letters each time. She's such a smartie!
More summer fun...
While school shoe shopping, Eden found sandals in her size that matched Emily's! It took everything I had not to buy them for her! So we took a picture so we could remember them!
One day we bombarded grandma with a project day! The girls picked out some fabric and buttons and we made our own owl pillows!
Then Grandma sent us to the Lindon Days activities. We got to ride the train, ride the mechanical bull, climb the rockwall, jump on the bounce houses, ride the ponies and pet the animals. It was lots of fun!
Lynn and kids came to the AF pool with us a couple of times! Eden LOVES the water! And Samantha taught Ella how to jump off the diving board.
We also had our extended Gibson family reunion at Larry's house. After hearing a report of mom and dad's and Diane and Richard's missions, we had a family meeting. Everyone introduced themselves.
Then we ate and spent the day swimming! The kids LOVED his pool, diving board and slide!
And here's a flashback from June - found this on my computer! Here's Captain Kim - ready for another day of training her crew!
