Ordinary Days

 I'm kind of sad that Aaron didn't have this calling very long, but it sure was fun while it lasted.  He was asked to work with Jackson, who is the cutest little guy with Angelmans syndrome.  Aaron is such a big hearted guy and Jackson will always have a special place in our hearts.

 Sometimes Grayson and I like to go to our favorite furniture store just for fun... and to take silly pictures.  

 Andrew's class after the fun run.

 A little fall cooking.

 We're enjoying this nice fall weather for just a little bit longer.  Below is where Grayson stood on a bridge and reminded me about the Billy Goat Gruff underneath.  

Zions

This year we decided that I would take the youngest two kids to participate in the annual family outing to Eric and Heidi's property at Zions National Park.  After some serious stress with planes and car rentals and lots of shuttles, we then proceeded to get lost while driving around looking for the right site.  I found myself at the spot my gps had directed me to at the end of a dead end road and seeing no one in sight.  It was dark, we'd been travelling all day and the kids were tired.  I braced myself for a complete break down from the kids as  I started to tell them that we had to turn around and I had no idea where to go next.  They did panic a bit, but Sam surprised me with his immediate idea that we should pray.   We did and no miracle immediately happened, but we felt peaceful.  I knew that things would be okay.  And they were... we'd lost our signal, but after driving back for about a half hour... I got a signal again and managed to call my family who directed me to the right place.  It was quite a touching experience for me and for Sam.   

 After kind of a rough start... we ended up having a wonderful time.  I love seeing these cousins play together.  They had so much fun running around, sword fighting, digging in the sand, hiking and shooting bb guns.

 My favorite part was each evening after the kids were tucked into bed in their tents...quickly falling asleep after their busy days... my siblings and I all gathered around the fire and talked and laughed and had a great memory-fest!  It was such a great time.

I'm not sure if I'll remember what this means 10 years from now... but Eric's lesson about the "royal we" was one of the best laughs I've had in years.  

 Nothing ends a great trip like ice cream sandwiches.

Ordinary Days

 Our ward always has a brunch for Moms on the first day of school.  Here is Grayson hanging with his friend Kate.

I'm so so grateful to have this last full year at home with Grayson before he starts preschool and everything.  I treasure these years with each of my kids and feel sad that this may be my last chance.  With all the kids back in school we have this special time to spend together and I love to discover more about this cute kid and his funny personality.  

One morning not long after school started it was a beautiful day, so Grayson and I decided to walk to the beach.  We'd seen these crabs at beaches lots of times this summer, but for some reason there were so many more than ever before.  Every rock had a dozen crabs underneath and Grayson loved it.  It was hard to capture his reaction but it was so much fun that he did this over and over, uncovering dozens of rocks.  It was so fun.

A fun evening at the mother/son activity this year.  We played sports, tug-of-war and had races together.  It was good times.

For the first time... we participated in the annual Mukilteo parade.  I'm not a huge fan of parades and crowds and that sort of thing, but this was actually pretty fun.  Since it's just Mukilteo, it wasn't crowded and the kids loved being in a parade.  

At the BYU/Utah game with the Strongs and the Watkins.  They invite us so we can cheer for the U and have some good rivalry.  It wasn't too hard of a job since the U won AGAIN!!  We always have a good time.  

First big homework assignment.  I thought it was fun to learn about our heritage.  Not sure Andrew loved it quite so much, but he was proud of his finished product.

Nightly climb on dad ritual.

Back to School

Here we go folks:  7th grade, 5th grade and 1st grade.  So far so good.  In the first week and a half... I've only had to drag kids out of bed a few times, had one homework tantrum and 2 kids beg to stay home.  So overall...pretty smooth.

Last Summer Visitors and a Birthday

The very last week of summer... we got our final summer visitors and loved ending the summer on such a happy fun note.  It might have made it just a bit harder to go back to school after they left, but going back to school is hard either way... so I'd say it was worth it.  

I convinced Mom and Dad and Brett to take a trip to the Olympic Peninsula for a few days and explore the rain forests.  It was a lot of fun, but it did rain and pour on us the whole time.  We hiked through a rain forest then returned to the home we'd rented for the night, threw our clothes in the dryer and then put them back on and went out on another hike.  LOL!  

 I suppose it's appropriate to have rain when exploring rain forests.  It was beautiful.  These are from the Quinnault rain forest which we hadn't visited on previous trips.  It was fun to see this one.

 Since we had to take 2 cars... this was a frequent scene between the 2 cars. 

 Funny story... we decided on that 2nd rainy hike to go try to find the biggest tree outside of California which is a giant cedar about 2 feet larger in diameter than this one.  We followed the directions we'd found in the pamphlet and drove up the rode, back down and couldn't seem to find it.  Finally after about an hour and half of searching Mom stopped someone to ask for directions.  Turns out the largest tree outside of California fell down last month.  Seriously!!! LAST MONTH!  Not only was the tree down and the hiking trail closed, but the lodge used as a marker for the beginning of the hike had also been closed down... explaining why we couldn't' find it.  We settled on the largest SPRUCE tree in the world.  It looked big enough to satisfy us... especially after all that driving.  LOL!

 We spent a few moments of sunshine on the beach.  We were only passing by and meant to spend 20 minutes enjoying this beach, but my crazy kids, all 4 of them, immediately jumped right into the waves... clothes and all.  Nuts.  All of them.  

 And then of course... it was great to have G & G and Brett here for Sam's birthday.  He got all that extra attention and he ate it all up.  Here's Grandpa teaching Sam how to fly his new remote control helicopter (which by the way only lasted 24 hours, but it was a really fun 24 hours).  

 Sam requested my signature (and only) cake.  The kit kat cake.  Yeah... I know I went crazy with the extra effort of putting the m&m's in a pattern this time.  Nothing's too much for my kids!!  Seriously though it was so fun to celebrate Sam and remember what joy he brought to our family 7 years ago.  We went around the table sharing our favorite things about Sam and my favorite thing was how Sam acted like he didn't want us to rave about him, but then as soon as one person was done... he'd move to the next person's lap and say "what do you like about me?"  Haha.  We talked about his amazing smile, his ability to make friends with all sorts of different people and his compassion.  We also talked about his soccer skills and all those teeth he keeps losing.  Sam is a joy to have in our family and it's a pleasure to be his mom.  

 On labor day... Aaron had the day off and got to join us for a trip to Snoqualmie Falls.  Afterward we stopped at this fun XXX root beer store.  This place has HUMONGOUS hamburgers and root beer floats and I couldn't resist a picture of the awesome sign.