The Big Day

Another school year has begun! All of the kids were really looking forward to it, and deep down I was too! They loved meeting their teachers and Matthew was excited about being at a new Jr. High. I am really looking forward to watching each of them learn and grow this year!

The girls had fun designing a paper to make their plain binders look cute! Kynlee stenciled the flower pot on hers and Karley wrote, "4th Grade is a Ball!"

Matthew - 8th grader, handsome as can be!Kynlee - 6th grader, Queen of the school! Karley - 4th grader, sweet and super cute!Beautiful sisters! Kenzie ate her lunch fast...she could hardly wait for her turn to go to school!I couldn't take enough pictures of Kenzie's first day of Kindergarten! I think as Mom's, we look forward to the day when all of our kids are in school, but it is actually quite sad...I didn't want to let my baby go, but I know it will be so great for her! Kenzie loved her 1st bus ride! She was nervous while we waited for it, but when it got there she got right on, with no tears! Matt and I beat the bus to the school and watched as she ran off the bus just filled with excitement! One of Kenzie's best buds, Jaylee, is in her class...cute girls!Everyone had the best day, so all of my worries faded away! I love my cute school kids and pray for a great year!I had to throw in this darling picture of the girls just off the bus on the 2nd day...love the shirts!

Summertime Athletes

I was lucky enough to develop a passion for playing sports at a young age. Now I get to see it developing in my kids. Each of them love to be active. Matthew and Karley had a chance this summer to participate in activities that they love and I am so proud of them both!

Matthew and a couple of his basketball buddies entered the Murray 3 on 3 Basketball Tournament. It was exciting! They didn't win, but they played well together and it gave them great experience!
Matthew in action! The knowledge he has of basketball just blows me away! He gets better all the time!

Karley entered a summer "Run For Fun" program. She likes running and is good at it! We kept track of her mileage each week and by the end of the summer she had ran the distance of a full marathon - 26.2 miles!

Karley is so proud of her shirt that says she ran 26.2 miles...what an accomplishment!

Kennecott Perks

Towards the end of every summer we look forward to the perks that Kennecott offers all their employees. It's a great time to squeeze in some extra fun activities for free or at a price that we can't pass up. We are thankful for Dad's job and the hard worker that he is! One of our favorites is going to the REAL Soccer Stadium! Rio Tinto (Kennecott) sponsors the stadium and so they have a night dedicated to the employees and their families. They opened all of the concessions and everything on the menu was FREE! It was so fun to ask for whatever and however much we wanted without having to pay a dime for it! Then we loaded up with ice cream, popcorn, cookies, and drinks for the movie we watched down on the field.

It was fun watching "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" on the jumbo tron!

The girls and I enjoyed the Dinosaur Museum...it never gets old!:)
LAGOON
GETS BETTER
EVERY YEAR!

Our family loves going to Lagoon! This year was the most fun, because Miss Kenzie, who is 5, was tall enough and without any question, brave enough to go on all of our favorite rides: WICKED, COLOSSUS, and SPIDER to name a few! One of the last pictures is of her posing like a Rock Star just after she got off Wicked...she's a big kid now! I kept asking her if she was sure she wanted to go on all of the big rides and she just kept saying, "Ya!". When I sat by her, it was so cute to hear her little scream on the scary parts. We hope she has the same excitement next year!

Yellowstone Experience

We finally did it! Since we have lived in UT, we have talked about going to Yellowstone each summer. We decided last minute that we were going to make it happen and boy howdy are we glad we did! Uncle Fred suggested a few extra stops on our way up to Yellowstone from his house. Our first stop was at Warm Creek where we fed trout Cheese Balls...Uncle Fred said that's what they like best and he was right!:) When they casually came out of the water to eat the Cheese Balls we could see their enormous size...2-3 feet long and 6-8 inches wide...awesome!

Next, we headed to the Mesa Falls. In this picture, the Lower Falls are in the distance behind us. It was still quite the site until we saw...
...the Upper Falls! We were so close...the bright rainbow made the view breathtaking!

The family
I just had to get individual shots of my beauties with nature's beauty behind them!
Dad's and Mom's pose

It really was mesmerizing and picture perfect!
Our last stop before arriving at Yellowstone was to see the actual starting point of a river. It literally bubbled up from the ground!

The water was so clear that we could see the fish really well, but they were not as interested in the Cheese Balls as the birds were. Thanks to Uncle Fred for highlighting on our map all of these great stops!

There was no way I was going to sleep in a tent while in Bear Country! The kids loved our cute, safe cabin and the porch swing that we rented in West Yellowstone! It was such a great set up and we wish we could have stayed longer than one night!

These two are ready for the adventure that Yellowstone has to offer! These are some of my favorite shots of the hot springs, paint and mud pots (or stink pots as we liked to call them), and geysers!

The colors were gorgeous!

The long walking paths got to Kenzie right away...she was much more comfy on Dad's shoulders!:)

We were excited to experience the most famous feature of the park...Old Faithful!

After patiently waiting for over an hour, and a few sputtering false alarms, Old Faithful stayed true to its name! The powerful geyser only lasted a few minutes, but was definitely the highlight of the day!

This lonely Bison was our first, up close look at the wildlife in Yellowstone!

Our pepperoni quesadillas, cooked in the fire, turned out yummy!

Where there's a camp fire, there are kids roasting marshmallows, eating 'Smores, and...

...making popcorn!

The kids loved the bunk beds!

Luckily the ONLY bear we saw was the one at the KOA Gift Shop!:)

Elk

These cute girls loved the Paint Pots!

The force of the Yellowstone River was incredible just before it went over the Upper Falls!

Kynlee looking down at the Lower Falls.Deer

I love this picture of the kids looking at a Bison herd spread out in the distance!

This stop was "Dragon's Mouth Spring". It sounded and looked as if a dragon could have been inside the cave!

We came upon a massive herd of Bison that were much closer to the road! It was amazing to see so many at a time and was another highlight!

Many of them strolled across the road, oblivious to the cars.

This cracks me up! We thought it would be cool if one walked in front of us. Well, sure enough one did...the SKINNY, UGLY, SCRAGGLY one!:) It looked like it was probably the one the other Bison picked on!:(

The massive Yellowstone Lake

Matthew and Kenzie were wiped out by the end!

Our trip ended with a drive through The Grand Tetons National Park.

What a trip! It was a lot to see in a short amount of time...lots of driving. But, so very glad that we went and so grateful for the wonderful memories we have made together as a family!