First Day of School!

It's that time again! The kids are back in school. It's been a fun week for all of us. Back to normal life with routines and a schedule. YEA!!!! Everyone is having a good time and they are all glad to be seeing their friends again.

Here is Makayla waiting for the bus. It happens to be in our driveway so she is always sure to get out there plenty early to stake her claim for the first spot in line. It gets a bit crazy because we always have about 25 kids in our driveway each morning. That is ALWAYS a treat! ;)

Here is Mady and her backpack. She had a hard time getting moving for the first day of school. She had to come to the realization that there would be no more watching TV all morning and taking her sweet time to get ready. We were lucky she even got ready in time!

I am glad to have them occupied and back to bed at a decent hour. Mady is loving the fact that she now gets to enjoy school lunch and playing on the "Big Playground" with the big kids. Brayden and Makayla both think their teacher's are the nicest in the whole school! Jordan is adjusting to life at Jr. High and has realized that 5 minutes really isn't a lot of time to get to each class. He has been struggling to try to get to classes on time. He likes all of his teachers...all but one that is. He has had a hard time with his 2nd period Math teacher. :) Hopefully things will get better. Of course we have no pictures of him because, not only does he leave earlier than the other kids but...he is way to cool for pictures. I will try to sneak one of him at the school next week!

It was also a first day for me. I started my new job as the ISS Secretary at the Jr. High. I am so excited. Things have gone really well and I think I will just love it there. I have found that there is actually a LOT of paperwork and computer time involved in the job which is just great for me. Today, while walking down the hall, I actually ran into Jordan on his way to class. He even came to visit me a couple of times. Once to sign a paper for one of his classes and then again to introduce me to his new friend Mike. It's fun to see him in the middle of school like that. Hopefully I never HAVE to see him though! :) The kids are growing up fast and I can't wait to see what the rest of the school year brings for all of us.

Catch A Wave!

Yesterday we had the chance to head to the lake for the first time this year. FINALLY!!! Chuck, Shawna & the kids are in town and they wanted a trip to the lake. Generously my parents let us take their boat up. Thanks Mom and Dad! We headed up in the morning to squeeze as much time as possible out of our lake day.


Mady is enjoying some snacks!


Despite the windy weather, the kids tried to do some wakeboarding and knee boarding.



Brayden even nailed his 360 on the knee board!

After awhile we decided it was far too choppy and declared it a "tube day"!

Makayla, Mady and Jordan were first!



They ditched Mady and Jordan was super stuntin!!!

Finally once the sun started going down, the water smoothed and Matt took to the water. He has been perfecting his back flips!



To finish the night we heading into Heber to the Dairy Keen. YUMMY!!!! We ate outside and the kids loved sitting at the train tables!



Here are the cute girls enjoying some yummy food!


Here is Mady, Alaina and Evan "driving" the train!

We had a wonderful time today! I am glad that we got to spend the day with family. Thanks Chuck and Shawna for putting this together. Also, thanks again Mom and Dad for letting us take your boat up! We LOVE the lake!!!

Home, Home on the Range...

For the past 10 days, Makayla has been enjoying a trip to Gillette with her Nanny and Pa. She went there for Firefest '08, a big firework convention there with all kinds of neat things to see and do. She has been having a great time. She got a new webkinz dog and I had the opportunity one day while she was there to meet her in cyberspace to meet her new pet and we had an online swimming party! She loves staying with her Nanny & Pa because they are really adventurous. They are always taking her to explore and learn about all kinds of new and neat things. Last time she went she brought home a ton of really great fossils. This time, she had the chance to ride horses, something that she has been wanting to do for a long time!

Here is our little cowgirl!

Just look at the size of the smile on her face!!! Look out Dad...we might have a little cowpoke on our hands! She will be coming home tonight and we can't wait. We're glad she had so much fun but we will be glad to have her back at home! We love our little country bumpkin! ;)

2008 Bejing Olympic Dreams....

So...as much as I have never been an avid watcher of the Olympics this year has been a little different. Matt and the kids have been super excited to watch them.




Matt has been really into watching the sand volleyball and swimming.





The girls have enjoyed the women's gymnastics!








Obviously Jordan has been setting his alarm for the crack of dawn to watch his hero Kobe Bryant on the USA basketball team! He hasn't missed a game and for some reason tivo just isn't the same as watching it live. He even got Mady up one morning at 6:30 to watch it with him! That ended up being quite the fun day! :)






However....by far the biggest fan fever we have caught has been watching the amazing Michael Phelps. He is just unbelievable!




Not only is he an incredible athlete, but I also find it admirable that as tough and amazing he is, he still has no problem putting his family values first. I have loved watching him constantly looking for his mom. It has been so neat to see him give her a nod as he is getting his medals, giving her his flowers and even one of his medals. Also, he has been just as sweet with his sister. What a great example to young athletes around the world.







I am proud that my boys have taken note of him and have found a desire to be like him. It seems Brayden has really taken a liking to him. We went to the pool on Friday and Brayden had to purchase a swim cap & goggles for his new athletic training!



How cute is Brayden as Michael Phelps Jr?







The other events the boys worked on was their diving skills. They spent quite some time trying to come up with cool tricks for the high dive.




Mady spent the day meeting her own challenge! The dreaded "yellow slide". The "yellow slide" is a slide at the pool that is pretty tall. She has been afraid to go on it ever since we started coming. Last time we came with Tami, she was brave enough to go on it a couple of times with Tami. This time she was determined to go on it again with Sheri. It is now her favorite thing to do at the pool! She LOVES it!!!



Here is Mady and Sheri at the top of the slide!





And here they are at the bottom!!!





Who knows....maybe one day my little child athletes will one day grow up to be something huge in this world. However, if not, they will always be gold medal winners to me!

Wild Things!

For Matt's company summer party they rented out the entire Hogle Zoo for the night! With the boys off backpacking with their grandparents, we just had the girls. The day got off to a rough start as Makayla spent most of the day at the ER. She and her mom are moving and were busy packing. While they were packing the Sheetrock piece that leads to the attic fell on her foot and crushed it. Luckily it didn't break it however, it did crack a bone and was pretty painful. She had to see the zoo from a wagon with an adorable new accessory...a boot!

The girls getting ready to see the zoo in style!

First we saw the elephants. Mady was soooo excited!

We got to see the zoo with Erik, Lanette and Savannah

A wagon full of cuties!

RAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Porcupines

This is a sloth that was hanging right on the net. It was crazy watching him from so close. They are quite a strange creature...also a very SMELLY one! The kids loved that they could touch him and see him so close.

Mady isn't so sure she wants to stand so close while not looking a the animal! You can see a bit of fear in her eyes!

Anyone who knows Madyson, knows that she is obsessed with "Raffies" (aka: giraffes). She has had a stuffed giraffe in her hand since she was 4 months old and has just been intrigued by them ever since. To this day she still sleeps with one. This has probably been one of the biggest moments in her life. She was sooo excited that it was adorable. She loved watching them and got giddy over every little thing they did. The first thing she did was find the one that looked just like her stuffed raffi! We were able to go into the building on the 2nd level and get an up close look at them eating. She just LOVED this. Being so close to them and realizing just how tall they are!

You can see the joy in her eyes. She loved every minute of this. Her favorite part of the whole thing was that we were lucky enough to see the baby giraffe eating. He is not even a year old and was so adorable. She was tickled to see him.

While we were in the giraffe building Mady decided she had found her new home and made the announcement that she would not be leaving with us that day. She had decided that she was going to live there forever. Once we finally got her out of the building, she decided that she would live at home and just ask Santa for a giraffe for Christmas! Hopefully she will ask him for a much taller home as well! We had a wonderful time together at the zoo and were glad we could share it with our girls and great friends.

Splish!!! Splash!!!

Tis the season for swimming fun! This summer has been wet and wild for sure!!! Mady is just finishing her second session of swimming lessons and she has finally been able to conquer her fear and keep herself from drowning. Which in my eyes is always a bonus with a kid in the water. ;) She has been learning lots and I am very proud of her progress! Her favorite way to swim is the "monkey, airplane zooom" She is very good at that one and you will all have to see it! Her least favorite is diving down for cars. She is not a big fan of that at all and Miss Laura had to force her a couple of times. I wasn't sure we'd get her back in the water after that...but she pressed through and was ready for more the next day!

Mady swimming to Miss Laura

Mady doing such a good job at "tiger arms"

Once we got swimming lessons over...it was time for some swimming fun! We have been spending some time at "The Bubble" and loving every minute. We have had a wonderful time having friends meet us there. Last week Tami and her kids were in town so we thought it would be fun to get all the cousins together to play. We had Tami, Bayli, Bo & Luke, Meg & Kash, Andrea & Evan and then me and the girls. It was so fun to watch the kids playing together and having so much fun.

All the cousins in the pool!

Megan, Mady & Kash are playin in the water

Mady going down the pirate ship slide

Our silly girls in the lazy river

All this summer fun we have had will surely make it hard to get back to school and having homework again! I will miss playing at the pool for sure.