Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!

 Summer FLEW by and it's already time for school to start!  I have to admit I was really sad to see summer go, but also looking forward to getting back on a routine.  The Backpack Fairy made her appearance again this year, and of course the kids were excited!

 Hailey got a new outfit, water bottle, some supplies and some fun activities to do with mom at home...

 Carter got a new lunchbox, water bottle, book, lunch snacks and some needed school supplies...

 Hailey loved her princess pen...

 Carter was STOKED about his camo lunchbox...

 Carter was soooo excited to start school that he hardly slept the night before.  Then when I woke him up for school he didn't want to get up cause he was so tired!  He started 3rd grade this year and has Mrs. Fluckiger.

 The whole family escorted him to school in the morning....

 I love doing little things for my kids to make them feel special and I had this idea to make a HUGE chocolate chip cookie for Carter when he got home........as you can see it didn't work very well!  I got a whole house filled of smoke!

 Dad and Hailey hid in the bushes with nerf guns to get Carter when he came home from school...

 He didn't suspect a thing....

 So the cookie was a little burnt on the edges, and not done enough in the middle!  Carter didn't seem to mind, and it still put a smile on his face!  He just had to eat it like this...

Hailey's first day of preschool was about a week after Carter started...

 

 She is going two days a week for two hours to a little home preschool.  She's excited to meet new friends!

Family Reunion 2012

 Last year my parents rented a condo up in Eden for the family to stay in for the weekend.  They decided to have our family reunion at the same place again this year.  The picture above is my mom telling the kids a story about one of our ancestors.  She told one each day and then had something special hidden for each child to find that had to do with the story.  The kids looked forward to finding their special bags!

 Uncle Bryan keeping Jordan in line....

 There are some ponds around the condo and when Carter found out we were going to the same spot, he was uberly excited!  The first morning a bunch of us went for a walk to look for critters and bugs.

Bryan, Grandma, Carter and Kai

 Meili and Carter with one of the snakes they caught...

 Izzy and Hailey

 Grandma and Livvy

 Cami was instructed to provide shade for the bugs and snakes.  I'm not sure who instructed her to do so, but she diligently obeyed :)

 Meili and Kai playing by the pond.... I thought their images in the pond were kinda cool :)

 Livvy checking out the snakes...

 Uncle Bryan hangin out with Hailey...

 Bryan found a preying mantis...

Swimming...

 Lots of cuddling...

and the girls coloring....

I wish I would have taken more pictures but we also played pool and ping pong, watched movies, did lots of eating, and played games.  Thanks Mom and Dad for a fun weekend!

Lagoon Day!

 Our church had a Lagoon Day last weekend and we were able to get discounted tickets, so we decided to go!  The first thing Carter wanted to do was the go carts...

Grammy was able to come with us, and we met up with some friends from church as well!

I didn't get pictures of our other friends, but we hung out with Jennifer, Kayleen and her girls and Shaela and her son Aidan.  Carter and Aidan were little buddies and they did all the scary rides together including "Wicked".  They were thrilled that they were barely tall enough to ride all of the roller coasters!

I just love Grammy's expressions in these pics!

 Carter and Hailey had a ball cooling off in the fountain that they have...

 Helping Dad cool down :)

 On the smaller rides, Carter was so sweet to help Hailey...

Boating at Willard

 A friend of ours, Scott, has a boat docked at Willard Bay.  He was out of town for a couple weeks and he asked us to go and use it so that it didn't sit for too long.  So we reluctantly went, ha ha!  It  was really nice to be able to drive down, pull the cover off the boat, start the engine, and take off for a few hours!

Hailey loved the fact that Scott had a naked baby doll on his boat!(Inside joke I guess, with a fellow boater friend!)  Hailey named her Sharra, and talked to her while we were there!

 We did some diving off the boat and swam for a bit.  Carter was scared to jump in at first, but once he did, he couldn't get enough of it!

 We also did a little fishing...

As we headed back to the dock, we let Carter sit in the front of the boat.  He loved it, and asked me to take a picture...

Can't wait to go again!  Thanks Scott!

Hyrum Reservoir

The other day we headed over to Hyrum Reservoir to play in the water.  We have never been down by the beach before, it was a ton of fun.  The kids spent more time wandering the beach and looking for crayfish and bugs than they did swimming.

Carter finding crayfish...

Glad to know that this is so close to home, we will definitely be going back soon!