End of August-

We went to a Meet your teacher and class thing.  Ava moved from a different school so now Ava & Owen are together! It's so nice and Ava is especially lucky because she gets to be in her cousin Eliza's class!  

The night before school started we thought we'd have one more summer adventure and went to the zoo.  Turns out the zoo locks up kind of early so we played on the playground and went out for ice cream. 

And Cathrine, aka my summer adventure buddy, joined us.  She totally saved me and helped our summer be a million times more adventurous.  Thanks Cat!

Owen's Birthday & the First Day of School!  Poor Owen had to start school on his birthday.  He was kind of sad about it until that morning when he told me it was ok that he was starting on his birthday because he was kind of excited.  For breakfast we had a full breakfast but the most important part that we put the candles in was the hashbrowns.  Owen loves him some hashbrowns.   

Ready for the first day!  And yes, Owen really did wear his coat to school when it was like 80 degrees :)!

After school we played Monopoly. 

With Matt starting a company, I got to help with a couple photo shoots this day which was really fun but also meant I was running like a crazy person from here to there and trying to make sure Owen had a great day- so for Owen's cake he got ice-cream sandwiches stacked in a pyramid.  Luckily he was cool with it. 

Because I am awesome, I ordered Owen's presents from amazon in hopes that they'd get here in time and turns out, we were all sitting in the living room opening presents when the doorbell rang and it was the delivery man with Owen's presents in box!  The timing was perfect!

After the party was over Owen got to stay up late and work on a lego creation with his Dad.  

Then on Saturday Owen helped me make this awesome lego cake for his friend party.  We went to the fun park and had a great time.  

Later that afternoon there was a great rainstorm that Isaac was loving. 

Then that evening we went to the Ogden Temple Open House.  They had totally renovated the Ogden temple and we got to walk through it.  I love taking my kids through the temples and talking to them about the promises we make with Heavenly Father there.  It was beautiful.  I'm so grateful I get to be together with my family forever because of the covenants made in the temple. 

From some awesome stretchy material from my mom's house Ava created these great swim suit accessories.  She was pretty proud.

Near the end of August poor Lily got sick.  It was so sad to watch her feel so horrible.  Luckily she was only miserable for a couple days and then was back to her busy self.

We made it to Willow Flats and did the awesome hike to the spring.  It was beautiful.  

Owen was cute on the way back down- he was falling behind everyone else hurrying down and he said he was going slow because he liked to look and see how beautiful it was all around.  It was fun to enjoy it with him.  

Camping at the River-

We got to camp at the river with some of my family! The sand box is always a hit. 

Some fun girl cousin time.

Morning snuggles with grandma.

Sitting around the campfire in the morning is the best part.

I went with Cat on part of her long run and it was so beautiful.  I forgot how lucky I was growing up with a georgous river & canyon just out our door. 

Then we also floated the river and it felt so good!

Beginning of August-

Looking at these pictures makes me miss summer!  We did so many fun things to finish off summer.

Swimming!

Playing in the stream at one of our favorite parks.  

Playing 500 is even better in a stream. 

We rode our bikes to enjoy some ice cream.  

Boating on Glendale reservoir with friends.  It was so fun.  And I learned that Matthew's got kneeboarding skills & Owen too.

I cut up 9 beautiful watermelons in less than and hour for our ward party.  

We went to the fair!

Ava is an awesome big sister.  

Matt had a trip to China but luckily for us some of my sisters were in town and we partied hard and the week went by fast!  

On Monday we had a picnic at second dam.  The water was cold but the kids still got in!

Owen & Ava finished swimming lessons.

And we got to stay after and swim a few times.  

On Wednesday night we got the crazy idea that going to the grocery store with all the kids for some ice cream would be fun.  Ya, it was crazy and the back of my heels did not make it out unscathed from the little shopping carts.  Memory maker. 

Flexible Isaac.

On Thursday we went to Bear Lake & it was beautiful!  

Cute Johnny boy.  

Isaac spent forever making these little mountains.

And even though it was cold we stopped for shakes after. 

On Friday we went to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.  

Then on Saturday we went up to the river and floated and played.  

After playing at the river and my mom's house we made it home around 8:00 and I was hoping to get the kids to bed quickly.  It was the last night before Matt came home from his China trip and I wanted to send him some pictures from the day and finish preparing my first young women's lesson.  Owen & Ava kept getting after each other and arguing.  I was loosing patience but kept it together and got everyone in bed finally by 9:50.  So I started my stuff and Owen came upstairs to complain about something we'd already talked about and that he wanted to sleep somewhere else so I just told him I didn't care where he slept but I needed to get stuff done so he had to take of it himself.  After I got my stuff done I found that he'd made a bed on the floor next to my bed.  It made me cry.  I sure do love being a mom.