Miscellaneous

School has been in for 2 weeks! Madelynn seems to like her teacher. I am really glad. He told me that she is really smart and reads very well! Yay! I'm glad. We met Ava's teacher last night. I'm not sure what I think of her, but I was in a bad mood and I think she was nervous, so that could explain my feelings. She starts on Tuesday. The reason for my bad mood was because Madelynn starts school at 8:10, which is right by our house. Ava starts at 8, on the other side of town! How am I going to manage that? I enjoyed walking Madelynn to school in the mornings. When I signed Ava up last year they said it did not start until 9. I am sure I will figure it out!

Travis and I are headed up to Salt Lake tonight so I can catch my plane in the morning. The kids are staying with Kim and Jared (Thank you!), I am nervous. I hope they are good for them and for Travis while I am gone! I am also nervous about flying. It's not my favorite thing to do. At least the flight is only an hour and a half! Can't wait to see everyone. Have a great Labor Day weekend to everyone else!

Going on a trip, kidless and husband less!

I'm going to Rapid City on the 29th and I'll be there until the 1st! Travis and the girls are staying home. This will be weird. I haven't ever been away from the kids for that long. Can't wait to see everyone!

Last camping trip before school!

We decided to go camping one more time before school started this weekend, and in the new camper! On Wednesday Travis had the day off so we loaded up with Kim and Jared and the kids and took off. Travis dropped us off and headed back to work. We had a fun time, came back on Thursday for awhile and got some stuff we forgot. We headed back up and Dean and Diane and Penny and Maynerd came up. We had a really good time. The new trailer is nice. The mountain was PACKED as it was opening weekend for archery hunting. Friday we counted 69 campers driving up the road. That didn't include all of the trucks with 4 wheelers and tents! Some guy went by in a 4 wheeler and I saw something fly off of it and it was his wallet. He was very happy to have it back when he came around a few minutes later. Travis got there Friday night and we had a fun time that night. The guys were playing with lasers and got yelled at by a guy. Saturday night Kim and Jared's friends Justin and Savannah came up to visit. Sunday came too fast and we didn't want to leave. The drive home was scary. For some reason once we got on the highway the trailer started swaying really, really bad. I was freaked out! Hopefully we can figure out what the problem is and get it fixed before we decide to go again.

First day of 1st grade

Today is Madelynn's first day of 1st grade! It was hard to wake up this morning!! She has a guy teacher and neither of her really good friends are in her
class, so I think she was a little nervous, but she seemed to be better once we got there.

Ava really did NOT wany to wake up this morning! I am glad she doesn't start until after Labor Day. I can get her going to bed earlier and be less tired in the mornings!

The sun can do amazing things!

I had to run to the store tonight and we were having yet another storm. The sun made the mountains look awesome! These pictures do not do it justice. I keep saying this is the most beautiful place I've ever lived and it keeps living up to it! (If you click on the pictures you can see a full sized image.)

Then we ran to the grocery store. Trav ran into a friend, so he sat chatting for awhile in the parking lot, ran into the store, and came back out. My battery was dead in the car when he got back! Oops! I didn't really have anything running. I don't know why it ran out so fast. Cross your fingers that it is ok and that's all that was wrong!

Not much going on.

We haven't been doing much around here. On August 1st Kim and I took the kids up to the mountains for a picnic. We let them stick their feet in the water. It was still pretty deep, so we didn't let them get in. We went to visit other friends camping and the kids had a great time catching little tiny frogs in a pond nearby.

Here's Aden. I was messing with this one in Paint Shop. It was fun! Doing around the hair is so hard though! I think that's why his hair has a greenish tint on one side!
The girls and Tristan checking out the water.
Katie and my girls checking out the water!


School starts in 11 days, so I figured the girls needed hair cuts. Here's a before. Madelynn just got her bangs trimmed. She wants her hair to be really, really long. I am ok with it most of the time. She is bad about washing her hair (she throws a HUGE fit!) and brushing it. We're working on it though. I think she is getting better!
Ava's hair. Sigh. . . I don't know what to do about it. I wish it would grow long, but when it does it turns into a huge puff ball. Before Madelynn cut it (about a year ago) it was long and curly and beautiful. Now it's really textured and unruly and I don't know what to do with it! This haircut seems to suit it nicely. It actually looks good most of the time now! She is obsessed with brushing her hair now too, so it's been looking good for the few days she's had it cut.




Wow! Her hair looks light!