school and football

I was just thinking about how school starts in nine days! This will be the first time (except the year I was pregnant with Sara and spent half my day in bed and the other half being crossing guard...so it doesn't count) in twenty years that I will have my children in school all day. I may actually get something done...or just enjoy going to the bathroom by myself. I am looking forward to Sara's first grade year.
We also have started football season. We had our parent meeting on Saturday and the boys practiced all week last week. We did have sign-ups in July and I guess Spencer is growing up because I didn't even go with him to sign up. Every year I bring my camera and take pictures as we progress through the line. I enjoy standing in the hot sun because it means soon I will be in the shade of a tree sitting in a camp chair as he practices and Sara can play with her little friends while I visit with mine. This year I picked Kim up at the airport while he stood in line with a friend and when through the whole procedure ....and no pictures. I guess he is growing up.

While our boys were on scout adventures this week we had a girl sleepover with the cousins. It was fun to get the sisters together, but we did have to entertain the little girls. First we just let them play for a while. As dinner approached Wendy's was the eatery of choice. After dinner we got the girls settled in for a movie at the theater--Hoodwinked. The sisters gathered across the parking lot for a yummy meal and visiting at the Olive Garden. Before we knew it it was time to pick up the cousins. (85 minutes sure goes by fast.)
They were hoping to go swimming, but we ended up at the Riverwoods playing around in the sidewalk fountains.
And they did get a shuttle ride back to the car.
As we pulled into home, Grandma and Uncle Brad had a nice fire going to roast marshmallows for S'mores. Yum! About eleven we were ready to wind things down and I think everyone even got a pretty good rest...considering the circumstances. It was a fun evening.

Twenty-six years

On June 26th Kim and I celebrated 26 years of being together. It seems like just yesterday we spent a whirlwind day going through the Oakland temple and rushing to our reception in Paradise. It was a perfect day and thanks to my mom...quite stress-free. I took care of the wedding dress and chose the colors, but she pulled it all together and did it beautifully. But really the only thing that mattered was that I had found the man I was going to spend eternity with.
To celebrate we spent two nights at the Crystal Inn in SLC. We spent real money and went to a real movie theater (not the dollar theater) and watched Seventeen Miracles. Yeah, just another handcart story, but not really. It reminded me that we need to always remember. Beautiful story!
This is the sunset as we got out of the Theater. The next day we went to the Draper temple where we were able to spend a good part of the day working in the temple. It was nice being together. Later in the day we took a drive up the canyon and ended up at Brighton. It is Jared's favorite ski resort, but we had never been there. Beautiful (winding) drive and it is a nice resort.
We took our time getting home the next day. It was good to get away and spend time with my eternal companion.

I just got back from a week at girls camp. It was a lovely little camp right along the river. Don't worry, nobody drowned...which was my worry.
Here are my cute girls with the two priesthood from our ward. The camp theme was "The Master's garden" and we were the rock garden. It was really fun and we had an awesome camp director and an amazing week, but I am Oh so glad to be home!!!

Brandon Graduates!

June 3, 2011 Brandon graduates from Orem High School. He is on the back row with the white collar. (Graduation services are held at BYU)
It is such a better view from the Jumbotron.
Proud Dad!
Proud Mom.

Good-bye suburban. We are on a quest to be more economical. It just did not make sense for me to be riding around town in the big suburban. Most of the time I was alone or with only one other child. Very rarely did I even have three kids with me...and almost never the whole family. It was time to say our farewells. A sweet lady down the street bought it and now I can pass by and check up on it every once in a while. I hope they enjoy it as much as we did. We just don't know what we will do when we go camping? We'll cross that bridge when it come ;-)

Oh, yes, we were not without a car for long. My brother sold us his Honda which we picked up just the next day.

Kindergarten Bowling

Sara's class went bowling. I was lucky enough to go with them. We were able to walk just a couple of blocks to the bowling alley. All the children just wore socks. Can you imagine coming up with enough shoes to fit that many kindergarten students! We just bowled for an hour, but almost got two whole games in. Some of the children did quite well...well, it was bumper bowling.