School's Starting Again

This summer flew by.  On the last week day before school started they had a meet the teacher open house at Foothill for all the kids.  We had a marathon day before we even got there.  All of us met Carly Pendleton up Hobble Creek canyon for a me and the kids, but mostly Livie baptism photo shoot.  Liv ate it up and loved posing with her babies breath for endless pictures.  Then, we met all the ward people and Carly joined us at the Springville Reservoir.  I brought our inflatable kayak and subway sandwiches for all the kids.  They paddled around the lake, swam, and played in the sand, while all the Mom's visited.  Then, we loaded up showered quick and headed over to meet the teacher.  Olivia is in Mrs. Denning's 2nd grade class this year.  She was excited to be in both Kaitlin and Aiden' class.  All Olivia and Aiden talked about all summer was how Mrs. Denning is the coolest second grade teacher (because she gives candy?) and how they really hoped to be in her class.  Mrs. Denning happens to be Kendell Oakey's sister and Amy had informed us of the sad news a week or so before teacher announcements that Lynette Denning didn't have Aiden or Olivia in her class.  Liv handled the news well, but then the day teacher's were announced w were all thrilled and completely surprised to find out both Liv and Aiden ended up with Mrs. Denning!!!  I took a picture of Olivia by her name in the hall at the meet the teacher open house. 

The boys got Mrs. Young for kindergarten which they were excited about because that was Olivia's teacher too. 

Here they are in the Mrs. Young's jeep during the open house. 

The Saturday before school started, I took Liv shopping for one first day of school outfit.  She also roped me into a sushi lunch (she didn't have to twist my arm too hard).

 Here's a pic of Liv on the first day of school.  This picture is courtesy of my Mom because I was actually working her first day of school, so Mom got her off to school. 


The boys started school the next week after kindergarten testing and were thrilled to ride the bus and finally be one of the big kids. 


I did pretty well letting the boys get on the bus and only tears up a little bit after it took off.

 I was fine by the time I got home, but then Derek called to ask how I was doing and I burst into tears.  At that moment I was so grateful that we had London and she doesn't go to school.  I spent the time they were away hiking with Carly and London to take my mind off the very quiet and empty house. Then, when I met them at the bus stop after school it was fun to see all their friends lined up and ready to get on to head to afternoon kindergarten.

Lake Powell Trip

Uncle Jon invited us to join them on their last super quick visit to Lake Powell for the year.  It was the weekend before the boys first day of kindergarten and I decided we had to accept the invitation as the our last hurrah of summer!  The kids and I drove down with Jon and Tanner Thursday afternoon.  We stopped for shakes at Stan's Burger Shak in Hanksville on the way down.  Then, we arrived at Bullfrog boat dock with just enough time to launch the boat and find a camp site on the lake for the night.  We found the neatest little cove to camp in at the end of one of lake Powell's many canyons.

 I set up our quick 3 man pop up and all the kids jumped in the water for a night swim.  They tried to  catch the little fish swimming in the water and loved the echo present in our little circular canyon end.  Then we taught Uncle Jon and Tanner how to play sushi go by lantern light in the boat.  In the morning, we ate breakfast on the boat and then we right on the water and ready to begin a great day of boating.  Liv learned how to do a 360 on the knee board and Camden was so close to almost doing it as well.  We actually brought two knee boards so the kids were able to tandem kneeboard. 

We set up the boom and Tanner held on the boom and helped Liv attempt her first go at water skiing. 

We stopped somewhere for lunch (sandwich fixing).  Then, Uncle Jon and Tanner took the kids to hike the crack and I stayed with the boat and got my first try at operating a motor boat to keep it from banging into the ledge while they were hiking. 



Camden couldn't wait to find a place to go cliff jumping. 

And all the kids had fun dragging behind the boat hanging on to Uncle Jon.  We called it the "Jonny Drag." 

We ended the day with some tubing. 

The kids are nutso.  They begged Uncle Jon to drive as crazy as possible to try to throw them off the tube.  They loved him to go in circle and catch big wakes.  As soon as they came out of crazy circle with all kinds of waves they were all 3 start circling their fingers to indicate to Uncle Jon that they wanted to do it again.   That night we packed up camp and  headed to the Ticaboo Lodge where we met up with Steph, Karlee, Derek and Chase, grabbed some dinner, and a shower.  Then, all my kids quickly fell right to sleep.  The next day we loaded into cars and spent another day on the lake.  Honestly, I felt like staying in a hotel was pricey and overrated after camping the night before right on the lake.  It was just so nice to wake up on the water ready to go and not have to pack up and drive to the lake.  Nonetheless, it was a beautiful wonderful day. 

Derek and I both had a go on the wake board, there was more cliff jumping, and another great lunch on the boat in a little cove on beautiful Lake Powell.  Liv and Chase had a blast tandem knee boarding together.  And, Liv learned to water ski off the boom and even crossed outside the wake.  It was such a sight to see!  Then at the end of the day, we tubed back to the boat launch.  There was this awesome donut rock formation that we drove the boat under. 

Then, we stopped for ice cream at the harbor.  We got off the lake just as the sun was setting after another full day on the lake.  Sunday morning, we ate the last of our breakfast foods at the hotel, then we caught sacrament meeting in Hanksville.  Then on the way home, we introduced Jon and Steph's family to our favorite Utah National Park---Capital Reef.  We showed them all the most important stuff:  we hit the you pick orchards, saw the Indian petrogylphs, saw the old school house, got pie at the Gifford house, and drove them up Capital Gorge.  Then, we headed back to the house.  I got stick on mustaches for the kids at the dollar store for the trip to entertain them in the car. 

It was a wonderful last summer trip and even though it was quick with just a couple days on the lake and a lot of driving so worth all the great Lake Powell memories with Aunts and Uncles and cousins.

This was a Summer of Theater

For Liv especially, this summer was filled with theater attendance.  Babi, Liv and I saw Oklahoma at Sundance's outdoor theater.  I love hiking up to that little theater.  It's such a fun place to see a show.  The kids and I saw Aladdin as part of Hale Center Orem Jr. season.  

We took the boys to see their first full length play--Newsies at the Hale Center new Sandy theater.

That theater was awesome and so was the show.  They boys liked it, but it was definitely a stretch to get them to sit for the whole thing.  Liv and I went with the ward crew and Carly Pendleton to see Bye Bye Birdie at the scera shell.  A fun night for sure, but the play itself was a little bit of a disappointment.  The take out Kohinoor vegetable navratan korma that we brought to eat outdoors at the show; however, did not disappoint.  I am just loving having a daughter who loves attending the theater as much as me.  I see a bright future with yearly trips to New York for she and I.

Annual Marshal/Thorsted Campout

The tradition continues!  This year was kind of a last minute squeeze it in for tradition's sake kind of campout.  Mom and George joined in, and while exhausting and not exactly the most comfortable night's sleep, I think they had fun and were impressed with out campout meals mostly.  This year we decided to camp up AF canyon and planned for literally the only weekend both of us could manage to get together for a campout.  Annie and I decided to drive up early Friday morning to try to find a spot up AF canyon almost every campground was full.  We ended camping at Salamander Flats which I honestly thought was awesome.  There is no running water, some of the campsites are a bit of a hike from where you park your car, and it seemed to be a popular place for dirt bikes--but the views were incredible, there was a potty, and we were able to get a campsite without having a reservation.

 It would be a great place to go back with a big group because there were loads of campsites.  Annie and I set up camp, later that afternoon Mom and George came up with the kids and the tin foil dinner that they threw together for us.  We did a hike near the campsite on the summit trail I think it was?  Super pretty.  Once Derek and Tyler arrived in the evening after work, we set them to the task of cooking the tin foil dinners and Annie, my Mom, the kids and I drove over to the reservoir for a quick dip in the freezing water.  It honestly felt super refreshing but was definitely shockingly cold at first.  We sat around the camp fire after dinner, roasted s'mores, and had peach cobbler.

In the morning, Derek made a fabulous breakfast of scrambled eggs, sauteed veggies and we had bagels and cream cheese and left over cobbler too.  Then, we headed down the canyon to hike Timp Caves.  It was much more uphill and longer than I remembered which was a bit trying with the kids, but they all survived and at the top we got to tour the caves.






Then, the afternoon was spent paddling around the reservoir in the kayak and playing in the water before heading home.  I will say that I don't love that reservoir half as much as the Springville reservoir especially since poor Carter stepped on a fish hook on shore which wasn't much fun.  But, the campout overall was awesome.  We always talk about how our campouts are cursed because something goes wrong every year--the only hiccup this year was that the night before the campout the truck wouldn't start and we needed it to drive all the gear up the canyon, but that was nothing compared to our usual only required a little late night trip to buy and change a battery.