1st day of school!!

Today was the first day of school. A kindergartner, 3rd grader and 6th grader. 2 different schools, 2 different drop off times, 3 different pick up times.

Mo's 1st day consisted of a 1 hour parent orientation while he got a story from the teacher and a short movie in the Library. Tomorrow he will go for his first "real" day from 8 to 11:45. He has Mrs Cox and has several friends in his class which is good for him.

Emma has Mrs Lusher for 3rd grade. She was also her kindergarten teacher, but she switched to 3rd grade last year. Emma had her heart set on having her as a teacher. At the end of last week the principal asked if we would be willing to have her in the same combo class she was in last year (but as a 3rd grader this year). I chose not to have her in there. Many of her good friends are in the combo, so I'm slightly torn on if I made the correct decision. We'll see...

Benjamin was awake at 5am (I heard him! which means I was awake at 5am!!). N8 will be taking him to school on most days leaving at 6:45am with the middle school starting at 7:20am. He was a little nervous, but mostly excited. We'll see if he stays that way once homework starts coming home!

Taking advantage of our desert-geocaching!

On Saturday we ventured out into the desert for some geocaching. It has been a while because of the summer heat.

We had a great time until we got stuck! I don't have a picture of it, but it was exciting to say the least. Luckily we got ourselves out.

Can't wait for cooler weather so we can really enjoy being outside!

Birthday Boy

On Friday we had a few friends over to celebrate Henry's birthday! He was so excited!

I made chocolate cupcakes (not from a box!) with homemade frosting and fondant Star Wars items (light sabers, Yoda, etc).

Do you think he like Star Wars?

He was so excited for the candles that he blew them out well before Happy Birthday was done!

Love that little guy!

He's 3!!!

Henry is one of the happiest kids I know, yet one that can pull the grouchy, card at any moment. We love this guy and his obsession with Star Wars and "what time is it" (he's constantly asking us the time!).

I can't believe that he is 3!!

Happy birthday Henry!!!

DONUTS!!!!

Today a great friend invited the kids and I as well as a few other friends over to make donuts!! YUM!

Emma had a blast with her friend Katie making some dough:

and then rolling and cutting:

Thomas help Mo do some cutting too!

Spencer went into work early just so he could be home in time to make and eat some donuts!

I think Megan liked it!

I'm pretty sure Bud stayed outside with his best bud 98% of the time and Henry just had a blast running around.

Fun Times!

A new adventure

Today our family begins a new adventure. One that will last for likely the next 5 years or so. We know it will bring some ups and down, some craziness and blessings. We don't really know what to expect but are moving forward with faith. 

Today N8 was called as the Bishop of our ward. 

Many people told me congratulations today, others said condolences. I'll let you know in a few months which was right!

Family Camping-Rock Creek

Usually when N8 goes camping it's with the 2 or 3 older kiddos and I stay home and entertain whomever is left. This past weekend we decided it was time for the entire family to go camping together!

I am a skeptical camper, not really being a fan of dealing with the dirty children, etc, but decided we needed the family time. We headed up to Rock Creek, which is about 30 miles north of Bishop,CA (about 3 hours north of us). We saw that we were too late to reserve a campsite, but there were TONS of walk-ups. Unfortunately many people must of thought the same thing. We were able to get one of the last sites out of hundreds. It was a pretty tight fit for our HUGE tent, but we made it work.

 

After getting the tent set up and getting all food and scenty things into the bear box we headed over to the creek to explore. The creek was just across the campsite road from us. Lots of vegetation, logs to cross and rocks to throw in!

For dinner the kids roasted hot dogs on the fire and N8 and I had foil dinners. It started raining during dinner which made it a little difficult, but we managed.

The kids retreated to the tent to wait out the rain.

Some smores and chocolate bananas and a verners for N8 rounded out the night

At night we tried out something we saw online. You fill up a milk jug with water and stick a headlamp on it facing toward the jug. It made a a night little night light, not quite a lantern, but still some light.

It rained again during the night making everything nice and wet and muddy for the morning (but cool!!). We had pancakes and scrambled eggs for breakfast!

Then we headed to Rock Creek Lake which was down the road a few miles and explored, waded and threw rocks.

After Henry decided to fall in, we headed back to take down our campsite and drove a few more miles past the lake to Mosquito Flats (we didn't see any mosquitos!) and the Little Lakes Trailhead. It was only about a 1/2 mile hike and we found the first little lake!

  

It was so nice a cool, there were flush toilets and the scenery couldn't be beat! Pretty great family campout!