First Day of School and Soccer!

Here are the kids on their first day of school! Mazzy just started the 2nd grade and has Mrs. Leavitt. Bronson just started Kindergarten and has Mrs. Jenkins. Both of their teachers are wonderful! So far they are both loving it and doing so well! I love to see Bronson eager to learn and go to school every day. It was such a good decision to wait and start him this year!

Mazzy also started soccer for the very first time. She is slowly getting the hang of things, and we have discovered that she is a FABULOUS goal keeper! It is so much fun (and painful at the same time) to watch her games! These little girls are working hard to learn the game.

Camping with my Fam at Hardsgrabble.

(Above: Grandpa Thayne with Brons and Maz on our hike to the Caterac Falls)

(Above: I forgot to take the kids masks off for the pictures, they had to wear them while we were 4-wheeling because of all the dust because they were having sinus problems at the time. They were still adorably filthy.)

(Above: Grandpa Thayne and the munchkins.)

(Above and Below: Cooling off in the creek.)

We (well more the kids and me, Ryan only got one trip in with us and I don't have those pics yet) have been able to go camping with my parents a few times this summer up to Hardsgrabble. For those of you who do not know where Hardsgrabble is, it is in Morgan. I love going up there with my Dad. He practically grew up in these mountains. He always has stories to share and new places to explore while we are up there. Things like finding old horse trails that him and his uncle used to ride on, places where the Indian's used to roam, so many things to explore. So much history happened, I feel like I go back in time when I am up there and try and picture everything the way it was so long ago. I LOVE this place! Here's just some snap shots of one of our fun trips.

More Summer Fun...June thru August!

(Above: Just family time! We just finished eating Sunday dinner and I said...I wish dinner would magically clean itself up, so Maz went to her room and came back with a crown and magic wand for Daddy to try out.....he said the magic words, but it didn't work.)

(Above: My turn......it still didn't work, if anyone was wondering.)

(Above and Below: Hangin' at the Car Show. In June we went to the Bountiful Car Show, it was rainy and unseasonably cold, but we still had a great time. The below pictures are of the burn outs, these 2 cars were my faves!!!

(Above: What's summer without the Blow Up Water Slide?)

(Above and Below: Playing with SWEET friends!)

(Above and Below: Birthday parties for friends...Hanging out at the Drive In Movies for Gage's b-day. The clouds were rolling over the mountains.)

(Above: Filling up water balloons for a fight!)

These were just some snid bits of other things we've done this summer, other than Bear Lake, nothing too crazy, but we did have a fun filled summer, I hate to see it end!

Bear Lake with Ryan's Fam!!!

(Above: Ryan's parents and the fam lounging on the WINDY beach.)

(Above: Jake burried Chelsea, he thought it was a good babysitter!)

(Jake getting burried in the sand, it wasn't so fun when the wind was pelting sand into his head.)

(Sierra and Mazzy coming to see what all the fuss is about.)

(Above: Bodhi was next to get burried alive, he got the worst of the sand blown in his face.)

The weekend that school started we headed back to Bear Lake for one last hoorah!! Curtis, Ryan's oldest brother competed in a 1/2 Ironman and we decided to make a family reunion of it. I don't have all of the pictures and videos of this trip yet, so they will have to come in a later blog. But I think it turned out as successful as it could considering the horrible winds and cool weather the ENTIRE weekend. It was still fun just hanging out with the fam and enjoying each other's company. And WAY TO GO Curt for finishing your 1/2 Ironman...soon you will be a WHOLE Ironman woohoo!!!! While we waited at the finish line for Curtis, I ended up getting to hand out the medal's until Curt crossed, which was about 40 min. or so, they were soooo short handed of volunteers. There were supposed to be volunteers in the 100's and I think they only had 40, which is NOT very many for a big event like this was.

Bear Lake with the Hammerstrom's, Mark and NO KIDS!!!

(Above: After our cold hike we decided to stop and get shakes, brilliant I know, and Jaycee and I got our picture taken, don't we look stunning?)

(Above: This is one of the 1st little lakes you come upon at the beginning of the hike.)

(Above: The hale was still coming down at this point, Ryan was even cold, yes, that's how cold it was.)

(Above and Below: The storm cleared off for a minute to take a picture of the beautiful, clear water.)

This trip to Bear Lake was quite relaxed and TOTALLY awesome! We decided to leave the kids with Grandpa Thayne and Grandma Shell and just go spend some time with some GREAT friends, the Hammerstrom's and Mark of course! We didn't take many pictures on the beach or on the boat, more videos of wakeboarding than anything this time. We did go on this beautiful hike to Bloomington Lake, which is a natural glacier lake. When we got up to it, a storm was rolling over and the temperature plummeted to I think 45 deg. BURRRRR!!! It was a 1/2 a mile hike in and about half way it started to hale and rain on us! It was quite adventurous! But when we finally made it to the lake, it was totally worth it. The videos here at the end are of Ryan and I wakeboarding. My video is kind of long, so if you want to watch it, just fast forward to the 2 min. mark, that's when I finally start getting a little air, which I'm very proud of! It doesn't look like much, but it feels awesome!!!

Bear Lake with the Vincent's

(Above: Another BEAUTIFUL sunset at Bear Lake.)

(Above: Joe, Sam and Jamie, relaxing on the boat!)

(Above: Mazzy jumping in from the boat to take a swim.)

(Above: Ryan and Brons out swimming.)

(Above: Maz and Sam, two little bathing beauties!)

(Above: Bronson just OOOZING with coolness!)

Our next trip to Bear Lake was with some of our good friends the Vincent's, they hadn't ever really been, so we had to share our "heaven" with them. We had a BLAST!!! Thanks for the good time Fred, Jamie, Joe and Sam!!!

Bear Lake with My FAM!

(Above: Grandma Shell and Brons playing in the water.)

(Above: Bronson and Stryder swimming)

(Above: All the kiddos...Stryder, Kaden, Bronson and Mazzy)

(Above: Stryder playing dead)

(Above: Maz and Grandma Shell playing on the beach)

There are going to be quite a few posts over the next few days because I am so behind on my blog and our summer vacations and fun. So check it frequently. It's mostly going to be pictures, so enjoy!

We got my family to come up to Bear Lake this year with us to celebrate Bronson's birthday. We all had so much fun visiting and laughing and just having a great time together. My best friend since the 1st grade even made it up for a day to hang with us, so it was really fun for me!