Will's glasses

Will has been complaining off and on for some time that his eyes bother him. I finally took him in the day before school started and sure enough, he needs glasses. He was farsighted and has a focus deficiency. He will pretty much need to wear glasses all the time when he is in the classroom. He has been so excited to get them! Doesn't he look handsome?

Steadman's slides

For the second year in a row, we went to Steadman's Slides while we were in Idaho. It's just outside of Raft River in the country and they have two huge slip n slides and a zip line. This year we had most of the family there and we celebrated Beth's birthday.

Everyone started out going down just one tube at a time. After lunch, we started to get more brave and the trains of tubes grew longer. Everyone had so much fun. Some of the kids ran up the hill all day long and would slide down with or without a tube. They were all exhausted by the time we left!
The night before we went, five of our six kids threw up. Thankfully, it was a quick moving bug, but Naomi was still a little under the weather and wanted to snuggle all day. She even let my brother Frank hold her, but you can see she looks a bit more nervous about my brother-in-law Devan. He wore this outfit as a joke, but ended up leaving it on all day! He got some pretty funny looks!
Just about everyone tried the zipline, including my brave 6 year old niece, Sidnee.

Bruce fell in love with my niece Cheyenne while we were there. I don't think we've ever had to ask any of our kids not to kiss people, but this is a problem for Bruce. He loves cute girls! I hope he grows out of this soon.

First Day of School!

Yesterday marked another milestone for our family...five kids in school! We have three in elementary and two in middle school. The kids were pretty excited to go back and see their friends. Will has the same teacher as last year because they do a 2nd-3rd grade loop here where they stick with the same teacher. Bruce was so happy he has a couple of his buddies in the same class with him this year. He will have his teacher for the next two years. (I hope she can handle him for that long!)

Elizabeth's first day of school pictures are so much better than last years. It's nice not to be the new girl! Justin doesn't get too excited about anything, but he said today that the second day was way better than the first. Hopefully, it's all up hill from here! He has some exciting things to look forward to this year, like the class trip to Washington, D.C. at the end of the year. I can't believe he will be in high school next year!

Madelyn was definitely the most excited of the kids for school to begin. The first day she only went for an hour while the parents met with all of the kindergarten teachers. Today she couldn't wait to get on the bus. She was the first one on at our stop and hardly even looked back. She loved her first full day.

After we dropped Madelyn off at her class yesterday, this girl was all smiles. As soon as we left she whispered in my ear "just mommy and me!" She is thrilled about the one on one time with me. I have to admit our house was pretty quiet today. I felt a little sad when I made lunch today that it was only the two of us. I don't even want to think about the day she starts school.

1st Lost Tooth

While we were on vacation, I was helping Madelyn brush her teeth and noticed she had a wiggly tooth.  She couldn't have been more thrilled.  All of the sudden, she had to be careful what she ate and she was constantly wiggling it.  When we arrived home, it was the first thing she had to show Aaron (and everyone else).  Last night, it came out.

She was so excited to put it in this little plastic tooth under her pillow.  She was up bright and early this morning to check if the tooth fairy came!  I think this is a sign she is growing up which thrills her to no end.

Bike ramp

This morning we had a fun family project: clean out the garage. It ended up being a pretty fun project for these kids when Aaron got up in the attic and brought down a few blocks of wood. Remember doing this when you were a kid?

Even these little girls got in on the fun!

Farewell...Evan!

This past weekend we had the privilege of going to Ohio to see Aaron's nephew Evan for the last time for two years. He is leaving on Wednesday to serve a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Riverside, California . He will spend two months in Provo, Utah before he leaves learning Spanish as he will primarily be working with Spanish speaking families. Evan has had some recent health challenges that have delayed him a bit, but he has been determined to go and is so excited and ready! We know he will be a great missionary!

Our time in Ohio with Evan reminded me of my nephew, Kolton who came to visit us last May (with his sister Bailey) before he left for his mission to West Virginia. My kids are so lucky to have some great role models!