August 22 - First day of School 2011

Ready for school with friend Callie
Tyler's Teacher

Mackay and Callie's Teacher

School is already upon us and we ask ourselves where did the summer go. It is time though. The kids are anxious to see their friends and to start a life of schedules.

Mackay loves his 5th grade teacher Mrs. Ponek and Tyler thinks his 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Switzer is fun and funny. I am just so grateful for great teachers that love the kids that they teach. It should be a good year. Thankfully the teachers didn't give out too much homework this week. I think I had the most homework with all the paper work that I had to fill out on the first day. Go Gator's.

The rest of the week went fairly well. I was able to have friends over for a brunch on Monday to celebrate the kids being in school and also accomplished a lot around the house. It is also back to PTO stuff and I did quite a bit of that this week also along with finishing my Visiting Teaching. We ended the week with a PTO sponsored movie night at the school. We watched Rio and sold pizza, popcorn, chips, and water. We had a pretty good crowd show up. There was a lot of laughter, so I believe the kids had a good time. Yay for a successful first week of school.

August 20th - T's Birthday

Tyler was so excited for his 8th Birthday to come. It just couldn't come fast enough and then on the 20th it was finally here. Hooray! He woke up early asking, "Is it my birthday today". "Why yes it is", I told him.

We started the day with opening presents. He got his cub scout clothes, a fishing pole, an art kit, and a little stuffed animal dog. He was excited about everything and now wants to go fishing. We then had his favorite breakfast - Toaster Strudels. He loves those and makes them himself. We got ready for the day and then headed to Wal-Mart to by him a fish for his last present from us. We ended up getting 2 Betas. One of them only lasted 5 days. Wednesday was a very sad morning when Tyler woke up and found a dead fish. Poor little guy. It was then off to home for a lunch of Macaroni and Cheese and hot dogs and to get things ready for his big birthday party. At 2 pm Friends showed up and we had eight activities planned for the "It is Great to be 8" Party. We played a pop the balloon game, tried to land blown up balloons on a target by blowing the balloons up and then letting the air out. We then had a contest to see who could eat the Fruit Roll-up the fastest, we played a marshmallow game, and the kids decorated bags to put their goodies in. We also opened presents and had ice cream and cake. It was a lot of fun!

In the evening Tyler picked to go to Junior's Taco Shop for dinner and then we hung out with a lot of people at the Decker's wedding reception. The kids loved playing with friends there. It was off to home for a couple of episodes of The Avengers and then off to bed.

More upcoming will happen on October 8th when Tyler has decided to be baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We are so happy for him and so glad that we are able to raise such a fun great kid.

Annual Beach Trip

Santa Barbara Mission

Solvang, CA
Pyramid Lake

Refugio State Beach

July 29-Aug 5 we took our annual vacation with many friends to Refugio State Beach. The weather was absolutely perfect. The last day being the best.

Most days we had a late breakfast and headed to the beach, which was a short distance from our campground. I was not very good at taking pictures this year so am relying on friends for what I for got. At the beach I mainly visited with friends. I did build a few sand castles, and on the last day finally did some boogie boarding. Justin did a lot of boogie boarding! Mackay and Tyler are still a little shy of the waves but got braver as the days went on. They played a lot in the sand and also searched for sand crabs. Mackay was very brave by our last day and ended up swimming out quite a distance. He also did a lot of body surfing. Tyler and I even gave sea kayaking a try. We really wanted to see some dolphins and did see some in the distance a ways. Tyler was a little scared so we didn't last too long.

Wednesday we decided to take a trip to Santa Barbara to visit the Mission there. Mackay had done a report on it earlier in the year for 4th grade. It was really interesting. We did the self guided tour and saw the beautiful grounds. We then drove 30 minutes to Solvang and ate at a Danish Restaurant and walked around the town and had pastries and ice cream.

Sunday we did go to church. The ward there is always very welcoming. We also too a little hike to a water fall after church.

Most of our days were just spent being lazy in the sun!

It was a blast we are grateful for fun friends and the calmness that the beach brings. We will miss it!