Lovin' Summer Livin'

August already? Good grief! As the first day of school is all too quickly approaching, I am starting to have that oh-so-familiar feeling of panic and angst. I had so many plans for this time with my children-- some of them we did, a few of them I am still trying to squeeze in, but a lot of them didn't happen. Stinky first day of school! Go Away-- you're not welcome here!

These are a couple of the things (in no particular order) we have filled our time with...

We spent a Saturday at Big Springs.
It was fun. I do, however, wish I would have brought the bug spray. During our picnic, we were absolutely engulfed in mosquitoes. Needless to say, we all ate fast-- except for Karen-- who ate in the van. We also went to feed the fish at Big Springs. The only problem was there were no fish, so we had fun feeding the seagulls.

I sure love this boy! Notice the mosquito having its lunch on my forehead!

We went and played in West Yellowstone.
We did a little shopping, and a lot of posing for pictures. I sure have funny kids!

Karen with a bear

Kailani with a fish

Karen and Creed with a bear

KB with an old army jeep

We spent some time playing with cousins.
This was a bittersweet time together. It was so wonderful to spend time with my sister, Julie, and her girls. We got to meet her sweet new little addition. Our children really love being together. The "bitter" part was knowing this would be our last time together for a long time because they were moving to a far far away land called Ohio. Boooooo!

 We raised some butterflies.
 We began with 10 teensy-tiny caterpillars (about the size of a grain of rice) that we got in the mail.  It was really quite phenomenal to watch them grow unbelievable amounts every day, each make a chrysalis, and later emerge as a full butterfly.  I had no idea how much we would all enjoy this little project-- it was fascinating.

And... we sent our men off to scout camp and our women to the beauty salon.
Kyle went to Webelos day camp. He shot guns and arrows. He rode bikes on an obstacle course. He ate hot dogs, and sang camp songs. He came home sooooooo excited and happy. Cameron went to week-long encampment. He worked hard. As the youngest deacon, he spent a lot of time being bossed around, and gathering a lot of firewood. He learned first aid and emergency preparedness. It was hard for him (due to a case of home-sickness), but he toughed it out. I think it was even harder for his Mother. I worried about him every waking second (and a lot of seconds during the night too). Ryan joined him for the last day. We were all so happy to have him return home, and proud of him for doing something that was hard.
The girls and I went and got our hair done. we had some feathers put in our hair. It was a fun day together.