First Day of School

It's always bittersweet, but mostly bitter this year for my kids to start school.  The summer went by so fast and we weren't ready to let this kid go.  Our summer was just so content.  It's the first time in years that we weren't moving, doing rotations, putting in a yard, etc.  We just played and swam and enjoyed being together.  It's not so much that I will miss Caden (though I will) I'll mostly just miss summer.  He was pretty stoked, though, to get back to his friends and the girls chasing him at recess.

With Caden gone my squad is down to these two goofs to hang out with during the day.  This morning I was canning peach jam and you can imagine how "helpful" they were:

A few random pictures from our summer:

Pool

Oh, Lehi Pool.  During the summer when I tell my kids it's time to go home from somewhere, they are confused if we don't drive to Lehi pool.  That's how much time we spend there each summer.

It makes me so happy to see my kids progress in swimming.  Bryce started out the summer giving my serious anxiety-- he wouldn't wear his floaties and thought he'd developed the skills of Michael Phelps over the winter.  I worked with him a lot and made tons of progress. He could swim a good distance, and he'd just come up, take a breath, and keep going to make it longer.  Even Tessa got pretty good at getting to where she wanted to go kicking around.

Labor Day was so sad and we're already counting down to next June.

Miss Messa

This little girl has found a way into her grandma and grandpa's heart. They love her and she loves them...a lot.  Anytime I ask her if she wants to go to "papa's" house, she shouts an enthusiastic "YAASSS!!"

Here she is at Grandma and Grandpa Schow's living through every grand child's rite of passage--taking a ride on Piper.  I hope there is a special place in heaven for this dog that takes so much "love" from the grandkids.

She is in one of my favorite stages where so much personality comes out every day.  Forever, Tessa could only say "Byce" so all day every day she was demanding things of Bryce or wanting him to come play with her.  Finally, she picked up on "Dunyun" (Caden) and now from the moment he walks into any room with her, she repeats it over and over.  He's usually so good to respond, but will sometimes finally say, "Tessa--just go ask mom!"    

She loves to pretend she's a puppy so I'm gong to try and find a puppy costume for Halloween.  

At night when I rock her, if she isn't settling down I tell her I'm going to put her in bed and she will say, "EYES!" and squeeze her eyes shut...for a second...then she peeks...and it's hard for me not to laugh which of course sets her off.

She loves to sit in Bryce's seat in the car and as soon as I say anything about, "OK, let's go..." she starts asking, "Bryce seat?"

She loves candy.  And I love her.

Rise and Shout

Seriously, though, how about the cougs?

The Boise State game was the most exciting I've ever been to. Although my dad originally only had 2 sets of tickets, somehow all 5 of us kids ended up there...that's a lot of "lucky drawing winners" according to my sister in law Shayli.

All of the fans actually stayed the whole game--a first for the university! Although Chad and I missed the "white out" memo, it didn't seem to take any luck away from the cougars--they still came up with the big win.  It took me awhile to fall asleep that night and my hearing didn't return until the next morning.  I don't know how much more my heart can handle on the Tanner Mangum roller coaster. 

Butterfly Lake

Every time these pictures come up on my screensaver, Caden says, "I can't look--it makes me too sad."  I think Butterfly Lake is what my heaven will look like.

Our camping trip started out like many of my childhood camp outs--with a 3 hour discussion on which site to choose.  Once we got settled, it was straight to the lake where we spent most of out time.  

Tessa fell asleep at 10:30 in the car on the way there, so instead of her usual 3 hour nap, she took a short 45 minute snooze.  It actually worked out to our benefit, though, because she was so tired that night she went right to sleep.  The boys spent the first night sleeping on the same bed.  In the morning Bryce complained that Caden was rolling down onto him all night, while Caden accused Bryce of pushing him away all night.  

One morning there was a moose and her calf feeding at the lake.  We watched them walk all the way around.  It was pretty amazing.

We spent a lot of time at the lake fishing.  The kids all kept busy in their own ways.  Tessa played in the dirt like it was a sandbox.  She loves dirt and was pretty content.

Bryce spent his time looking for "treasures" in the dirt.  Grandpa makes the kids feel good by getting pretty excited about anything they come up with...extra line, bubbles, or even a spinner that Bryce found in Grandpa's tackle box.

When Bryce felt that he hadn't had enough chances to reel in fish:

And Caden spent his time developing a new talent--casting!  There were many tangles in the trees and seaweed but he eventually got good enough to do it on his own.

We loved rafting all on the lake.  I rowed myself out to the middle one time and just laid there in the sun.  Ahhh...

The lake was small enough we felt OK letting Caden out on his own in a raft.  He did awesome going all over the lake.

Other fun pictures:

Seriously--who needs to go any further than Butterfly Lake for a dream vacation?