Our CrAzY Last Week of Summer!

This was one crazy week. A week before school started, we got a call from some contractors that we had been waiting for months to hear from. They were coming to put insulation in our home, and wrap all our ducts. It sounds like a simple job... but apparently it isn't. They were on the house, under the house, in and out of every room in our house. It is weird to have the "comfort" of being in the privacy of your own home gone. It was nice to be able to have it done, but it was hard to feel "stuck at home" for the last week of our Summer-long par-tay!

In case this wasn't nutty enough, we also had  another contractor  (and all his workers) replacing our roof at the same time. It wasn't planned this way. Ryan and I had been praying for a couple months that we would know who to have do our roof. We were having a hard time deciding... and then our roofer was practically delivered to our front door (or at least to our next door neighbors roof). It always amazes me how mindful Heavenly Father is of every little detail in our lives. I really liked working with Jeff Gold (he was more than fair with us), and am so pleased with our new roof!
BEFORE:

DURING:

AFTER: (Drum roll please...)

We also had (amidst all the chaos) a back-to-school luau. It was a lot of fun. In fact, I must have been having too much fun because I didn't get any pictures of  the tropical bonanza. We had fun decorations on the walls and table.  We had Hawaiian haystacks for dinner, with margaritas to drink (the word of wisdom friendly version of course!), and coconut buns for dessert. We wore leis, and even got to see Ryan in his lava lava. We listened to Hawaiian music, and used words like "aloha" and "mahalo". It was a fun end to summer. Here are some pictures of before and after:

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.

June 2011

I can't believe that our first month of Summer has already slipped by.  We are trying to squeeze in as much as we can. I sure love having my children home with me, and don't want to waste a moment. Here are a few of our adventures...

The older boys went up to our cabin for a weekend.  The cabin is one of our favorite places on earth. They had a great time, and hopefully were helpful. While they were away, the rest of us went to the park.

So, naturally, we had to take a spin or two on the carousel. It was Creed's first time... he wasn't too sure if he liked it or not.

We went to a family reunion in Downey, Idaho. My children were fascinated by that tiny little town. It was fun to see family, and my children were so excited to spend a day playing with their cousins.

We went to the Tauphus Park Zoo-- sans Cameron-- because he thinks the Zoo is "Snoozeville".  We had a great time-- but would have liked to have had him there.

My children were so excited to show me that this donkey was "trained" to use the toilet! They were pretty disappointed when I told them that he wasn't "trained", and that the "toilet" was actually his food trough. Gross! We felt bad for the poor llama that gets to be roommates with that donkey!

And lastly, it wouldn't be summer if we didn't all hang out around the house in our undies and purple fuzzy hats...

Well, at least that is what Karen thinks!