School starts so.......

 ......there are changes like.....

Auntie R. and her husband T. moved here recently from Wisconsin. Their new apartment held treasure for T. man. Acorns. He constructed a chipmunk trap using the acorns as bait and then changed his mind and made it a friendly home. He is a little sad that there isnt a chipmunk in sight. I blame it on the 75lb. dog in the yard.    Too bad he now spends 6 hours a day in a classroom and not out back duck taping creations.

......you know you are going to see these same picts on all the mom blogs. New backpacks and shoes just dont show the Feeling!BTW N.'s new favorite shirt has a picture of a video game being played with the caption" living the dream". Not so impressive to teachers but very impressive to his buddies. 7th grade seems to suit N. just fine. He was a little nervous about the maze his school halls are and opening his locker but a week later he feels comfortable. Hooray!

Lucky kid gets to catch the bus on our street, just 2 houses down. Some kids are driven to the stop by parents because their walk is so far. 

Z. started 4th grade and has a super fun young teacher. She knows every kid in the class and is friends with most of them. Her first day choice of shirt is a little hidden but is so bright it lights up her already excited face. She was the only one so excited for school she wouldnt stop talking about it. T. got thru his first week by dragging himself home and collapsing basically. 1st grade is a big change for little guys. He loves it and has a fantastic seasoned teacher who knows perfectly how to treat these little guys. His great excitement for school was new fast running shoes. Orange. Wow.

I will post picts of kid #4 headed to school after Labor Day. Her backpack is as big as her entire body minus her head(almost), it's adorable. PreSchool at the kids same school will be just her thing, I know it.

We live in Utah and have never been to Kennecott

But here is proof that we, now, have. Its a really cool really big pit. And some other cool stuff that is underground and cant be seen. A copper mine is a great fieldtrip. Who would have thought.

I think Z. overheard how much copper is worth and is trying to determine just how much this massive slab would make her in cash.

The best part of this excursion for the kids ended up being the gift shop. They all ended up with great treasures and fun trinkets.

A dry Payson Lakes campout? That'd be strange.

N. and his favorite relative of all time at the campground. There probably was a Minecraft conversation going on or something about TNT.

Harley is a camping champ. She loved running around at the small lake near camp, rolling in fish guts and chasing ducks into the water. She hardly minded the rain.

Great Grandma P. is the organizer of the Annual Family Reunion in the rain. She has a cute little fishing pond in a tent for the kiddos. They love it, even the tweens and teens. 

Speaking of things kids love, T. shows off his S'mores skills. MMMM S'mores

Dirty and massively tired. The joys of a camping reunion.

Lake Day. The sky is playing a mean joke. An hour later there was a thunderstorm directly over us. Scary and cold!

Enjoying the chilly murky water. Lakes are really a lot of fun if you ignore that. Goodbye to the extended family clan until next summer, it was great! 

Fun visit to cousins in ID.

Ever been to Lava Hot Springs? We had never been until this trip. We were invited by cousins to run the river on tubes. BLAST!! This is a Must for every summer from now on. We were brave enough to show our farmer tans and bellies which is pretty brave. Even more brave though was the family that got their blind 80 year old grandpa to float the river. Yes it IS that fun.

Belly sucking games. N. wins for creepiest.

The rock is abrasive and not real forgiving to skin. I wish i had worn tennis shoes instead of flip flops. 

Because the kids weren't tired enough of water we stopped by a friend of cousins that has created a massive waterslide in his backyard. Super Long, super slippery!

Look closely there is grass in N.'s teeth! Ha. There was grass Everywhere!

The boys find a new game they love to play on cousins comfy couch. Z. spent hours watching episodes of some Mermaid show on the computer, 10 episodes I think. Now that is a vacation!

This kid cracks me up. Cousins cut out Awesome tape features and added them to T's face. He was a little embarrassed to be the laughing stock but it was so very funny!

Bella, new puppy Moab and Harley fighting over a toy. Harley had as enjoyable time as the rest of us. We have never had such a fun summer, never as enjoyable of vacation time. Thanks SO much to our Idaho cousins for sponsoring us. You're so missed!

The reason we went to Colorado

Uncle Tom got Married!!!!!
We all knew it would happen for him someday.
Tom and Rene chose a really cool ranch in the Never Summer mountains of Colorado to get hitched.

 We got there a day early(after leaving Steamboat) and played around the Vagabond Ranch grounds.
T.J. crafted his own giant Jenga set. Sweet!

Tom and Renes friends didnt mind that we followed them around on a hike.

Beautiful, majestic mountains. Such a perfect spot for a wedding party.

We got less sleep than usual because of a super sensitive carbon monoxide detector. After a really early morning hike D. and I took a nap in the greatroom of the fantastic cabin.

Wet but Perfect! Lightning all around and thunder to exclaim the "Amen" to the bride and grooms vows.

The groom and beautiful, waterproof bride. S. commented all day how pretty Rene was and wouldnt stop staring at her:)

I Love, love this picture! The wedding party hid under a cabin overhang to wait out the drips and lightning. This was their reaction to a really big lightning strike that was too close.

T. is stoked to be included as part of the reception to celebrate the newlyweds. He couldnt get over the fact that we let him drink a coke. He thought for sure he was all grown up.

It was a wonderful day and a wonderful trip the kids want to know when we are going back.
 Family reunion anyone?!

Steamboat Springs

       
Grandparents Merrill donated a timeshare week for us to enjoy Colorado in July.
 Awesome.
 Yes, I mean the grandparents, the timeshare and Colorado.
They are all Awesome.

Waiting for the elevator to take us to one of the 3 pools. So exciting.

S. found a butterfly near the pool.

There were too many things to do and see for us in one week. This outing was a botanical park that was also hosting a theatre company. We watched them perform Shakespeare. It was a beautiful setting and the kids had fun too.  

 

More swimming! And a really fun African Drum concert. Somehow unbelievably S. fell asleep during all the loud singing and drumming. Must have been all the swimming.

 

This park had a nauseating merry go round and some giant boulders to play on. Ingenious idea to use rocks as toys. BTW the kids didnt eat any dinner that night, they were too dizzy from the spinning!

Andrea and Derek and their girls joined us after a few days. The natural springs were an interesting attraction but the sulfur springs were so nasty. It made our picnic lunch less appetising.

We took all the kids on a hike to Fish Falls. Their favorite was the nearly tame chipmunk that ate their crackers. What a beautiful place.

And of course more swimming. I think the kids will remember the time in the pools more than anything else..

Hamster #2

Darth Maul.
He used to bite when Z. first got him.
 Now he is sweet and fun.
Oh, and smelly.
 Hamster cage smell is not cool, at all.

He sure does make this 9 year old very happy.

Best Neighborhood anwywhere

I was very confused as a kid, I thought that PG was full of cows and old cowboys, nothing good. 
Well there aren't so many cows and the old cowboys are wonderful, so is the whole rest of the place.
We feel tremendously blessed to live in such a beautiful, loving neighborhood.
We especially are blessed to have immediate neighbors who are so full of charity it constantly is overflowing in our direction. 
I wouldn't have believed it as a kid.

neighborhood chums

there is always a football on a lawn to be tossed

swapping stories and salads

the tape started out as 4 square boundary markers. 4 square tournaments are an annual tradition

I have a feeling our family could live here forever and love every minute, if only the neighbors would promise to never move away!