Our last Summer HOORAH!!!

 MJ's niece got married the weekend right before school started.  So we took a little trip down to Brigham City and decided to go the temple openhouse while we were down in Utah.  We met parents and Emily and spent the night.  It was a fun way to end our summer vacation. 

 It was fun for the kids to see both sets of grandparents and spend some time with them.

 School started on a Wednesday.  The girls were really excited to go and see their friends and meet their new teachers.  This year both girls have men for teachers and it has been a very fun.  They have really enjoyed the school year so far.

Cambree 5th grade--Mr. Kennelly

 Brinlee 4th grade--Mr. Van Wagoner or Mr. V

 Aidan gets to go to preschool this year and his teacher is Mrs. Kathy.  She is wonderful with the kids and he LOVESLOVESLOVESLOVESLOVESLOVES preschool!  He wants to go every single day so it is a disappointment when preschool is only Monday and Wednesday.  He is bored out of his gourd.

 Cole is now a walker.  I don't have a picture of it yet, but I will post it soon.  Here is just a cute shot of him crawling down the hall.

Read on for more summer fun adventures in the post below.

Our Summer Madness Wrap-up!!

We had a super summer!  It was so fast paced and packed full of fun times.  I have declared MJ to be the "Master of the Day Trip".  He knew just how to make the most of the days off he had, and we spent lots of time exploring the area around us.  We had a lot of picnics and lots of together time in the car. (Which had some definite pros and cons.) :):)

We took our little canoe up to a place called Teardrop lake.  It hod this fun little outlet that streamed across the road and it was warm water.  So Cole played and played in the creek.  The kids floated on tubes and we rode around the lake in the canoe. 

Cambree out in the tube.  This kid could float for hours on the water.

 This summer Aidan learned to ride his bike without training wheels.  He actually just got this bike at Christmas and so it was a big accomplishment to watch him achieve.  He was pretty stubborn at first and said he would never ride it, but once he had some success he was ripping up the pavement.  We can't keep him off it now.  We can't keep him home either, which has been quite the struggle.

 We went to the hill at the park by our house and ice blocked.  The kids thought this was such a great time!  We did this a couple of different afternoons when we needed something to do to get out of each other's hair.

 We usually go up to the old Teton Dam once or twice a year.  It has an eery feeling to me but it is such a pretty river.  The kids love throwing rocks into the water.  It never gets old.

And when you catch a frog it makes it that much more exciting.  

 A couple of nights we stayed up after dark and watched some movies projected onto our house.  Mostly we watched a few episodes of Kid History.  It was a fun way to wind down a busy day.

 We invested in a fish tank and MJ took us up to Warm Springs.  It is a great little stream that has quite warm water.  (Properly named.)  There is tropical fish in the water and we spent one afternoon catching our new pets.  (They lived for about 3 weeks and then slowly started dying.  It was very strange.)

 And once again we couldn't keep Cole out of the water.  He loves to play in it and this water really was warm.

 This is at the top of the spring where the water comes in.  Pools have been created up there and the kids swam and swam in them.  It's warmest up at the top.

 We celebrated our 14th anniversary in August.  On the 14th actually.  :)  So, we decided on a whim to pack the kids up and head to Pocatello for a little getaway, followed by a fun day of swimming at Lava Hot Springs.  It was a great treat for our kids to stay in a hotel and they were so excited about it all night. 

One afternoon we went up to Cress Creek and did the mile loop hike.  It is so pretty up there to look down on the valley.  This summer has been so smoky that it was strange to be up there and see all the smoke around the valley.  Kind of depressing, but still very beautiful. 

We spent 2 nights a week thru August watching Cambree play soccer.  She loves playing and it was so fun for her to be on a team with her cute friend Lily. 

HAPPY JULY!!!!

July has been flying by!  We came home from Utah for about 4 days, did some laundry, weeded some gardens, went to the 4th of July parade, spent the 4th with our double related relatives and then headed out for our next grand adventure...

We traveled to Wyoming for a family reunion we have there every year.  Spent a day or 2 with my grandparents, decided that we are going to try our very hardest to get a teaching job over there, and had a near fatal accident.  Ok, ok.  Maybe not quite that traumatic, but it was pretty scary.  Brinlee, my dad and my brother Sean were behind my aunt and uncle's trailer when it began to roll backwards.  Luckily my dad was able to push Brin out of the way and Sean grabbed her quick and got her to safety.  It was a crazy moment, but luckily everyone is a-ok!

Here is our parade attire and happy faces before the parade began.

After our reunion in Wyoming, MJ came home to work for a few more days and I traveled to Utah with my family so that my kiddies could once again participate in the swimming lessons down there. 

MJ came down on Thursday and was able to attend their last lesson with them.  He was supposed to take pictures but didn't get that done, so here are the few I was able to get.

Aidan loved swimming lessons.  He is fearless of water and was really excited to go everyday.  He was in a class with 4 little girls.  What a lucky fella. 

Brinlee got to do some pretty cool things in lessons this year.  Here they are playing tag while swimming on noodles.  It was hilarious to watch and I really like the concept of swimming with the noodles.  Her teacher was super great which is what she really needed.  She is timid about deep water.  She loves swimming but needs a little more confidence.

**Side note:  Cambree graduated from swimming lessons last year.  That girl is a fish and loves, loves, loves to swim.  She came to watch swimming lessons on the 1st day but it was absolute torture for her to watch her siblings swim when she couldn't so she didn't come watch again.  Poor little Cam...

COLE IS ONE!!!!!!

Yep.  Baby Cole is now 1.  I was hoping that this would mean a miraculous personality change, but alas, he is still mean...  He cries and screams and doesn't stop.  Someday when he reads this I hope he understands that I love his darling little face.  I REALLY DO!  But, man oh man, is this baby miserable with life. 

We were able to celebrate his birthday down in Utah with my brother Sean who's birthday is 2 days after Cole's.  So we had the party in between and celebrated on Friday the 13th.  It was really fun.  Andy and Kristin and Crew came up for dinner, some of Sean's friends stopped by and his girlfriend JaNeil was there and so it was quite the crowd.

Cole didn't get to open any of his presents.  Aidan made sure of that.  He basically just sat there in silence (My birthday gift from him???) and watched as Aidan tore through all the paper. 

However, he took care of his own cake.  We just grabbed this perfect little cake from the store and he loved it.  It was fun watching him tear into the cake when he realized it was super delicious.

This is the ice cream cake that I  made for Sean.  It was also super delicious but Sean didn't tear into it like Cole did his.  How strange... :)

This is our newest member of our family that we got during the birthday party.  Yes.  We brought a pet home from Utah.  Yes, it is a kitten.  Yes, I did run over our last kitten and vowed to never get another pet for the rest of my life.  My mom talked me into it.  The kids did their part of pestering me about it and MJ said it would be good with him.  So, now we have a cat.  That lives IN our house!!!  I am pretty sure that having 4 kids has made me completely lose my mind!!!  COMPLETELY!

Anyway, meet Simone.  We aren't sure if it is a boy or girl.  Uh.... Either way this cat will be getting fixed at the appropriate time.  And I have to admit I sort of like it.  Sort of...

Aidan likes to fall asleep in his doorway at night.  The 2nd night we had our kitten this is where we found both the fellas. Aidan is slightly timid around the kitty but does ok.  I thought this would be a fun thing for him to see when he woke up the next morning.

(I must mention here that Aidan has a horrible fear of dogs.  It was really awful for a while there.  He is getting better and I think with having a little kitten to deal with it will help ease the problem of dogs some.  I hope....)

Since we have been home, we have been spending a lot of time in our backyard enjoying lazy summer days.  It has been anything but a lazy summer the past few weeks so it is good to slow down a bit and spend some time doing nothing but cooling off in the pool. 

And practicing tricks.  Ha ha.

Oh and let us never forget to style our baby brother's hair while swimming...

Brinlee turns 9 years old and our trip to Utah for a week...

Brin turned 9 in June and she had quite the birthday.  For weeks she told us that we must not love her because we didn't talk constantly about her birthday.  The actual day of her birthday was very long for her while we waited for her dad to come home to celebrate...

This cupcake was made by her friend Christina and it was so exciting for the kids to get a big piece of cupcake!

This is the cake I made for our blondie and she was thrilled with the butterfly themed paper plates that went along with it. :)

The inside of the cake matched the neon frosting of the wings.  Looks appetizing doesn't it?  Actually, it was a pretty tasty cake!!

We took the kids to a place called I Jump.  It was so much fun.  For one hour we jumped our hearts and energy out!!  It was exhausting and those foam pits are fun to jump into but they are something special to try and get out of.

Cole loved it too.  He would crawl off the edge and fall into the foam pit in the kiddie area.  It was a good time for all...

I may or may not have just thrown Aidan into the pit....

Brinlee is born 1 day after my dad's birthday.  The year she was born it was in the 90's all week.  My mom had come for a visit and stayed because the Dr. told me I would probably have the baby at any minute.  I was dilated to a 6 and stayed that way for another week...in 90 degree temps living on the 3rd floor of an apartment complex without air conditioning.  My mom would make me walk and walk.  She was a trooper and stayed a few extra days until I could come home from the hospital.  (She was the Relief Society President at the time and had a lot of people who needed her while she was away but she stayed and I loved the time we were able to spend together.)  My dad came to get her and we were very hopeful that Brin would be born on his birthday, but she had other plans...

She weighed 9 lbs. 2 oz.  She was very round and such a sweet, sweet baby. 

She has amazing blue eyes and beautiful blonde hair.  She tells hilarious jokes, talks in foreign accents most of the time and calles me mudder, or madre, or mama, or mother(said in an english accent).  She has an adorable happy laugh and I love to hear it.  She is such a joy when she wants to be...(she also suffers from middle child syndrome something fierce so that is a struggle.)

We love our Brin and couldn't imagine the past 9 years without her!!!

Last week, my dad had some classes he needed to take.  He is also teaching summer school and had to have a sub for his class.  So, he asked if I would come down and teach for him.  We went down and it was an eye opening experience to teach 4th going into 5th graders.  WOW!  ...anyway....

While we were there, we went to the movie Brave one afternoon, spent some time at the lake with Kristin and Crew and then my little brother Sean took my kids to 7 Peaks.  It was a great week for them.  Here are a few lake shots.

Crew hanging out in the raft.  He liked when the kids were in with him, but when they got out he decided he hated it!

Crew looks so much like my brother Andy it is crazy.  These teeth are just one more amazing resemblence.  HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

While it may look like a beautiful sandy beach this is a LIE!!!  The sand was up at the parking lot.  The lake was far away and it was filthy gross mud.  That stunk like dead fish and everything else.  Oh well...kids have fun with anything I decided!

I didn't get any pictures of the kids at 7Peaks since I didn't go.  Sean and his cute girlfriend JaNeil took them and they had an amazing day!  Brin was rescued by a lifeguard, Aidan came home with a head wound from one of the waterslides and Cambree was so tired at the end of the day she knocked her head into the wall.  :):)  They LOVED it all and it wore them right out.  This was about 10 minutes after putting them to bed that night!  Yay for Sean and JaNeil!  You guys can take the kids any day!! :)