The Last of Our Summer

Oh my goodness!  I can't believe how many things we did the last month of summer.  We went on a bus ride over to BYU with some of our friends.  The kids love riding the bus!  Ok maybe Logan doesn't care too much in this picture (top right, and bottom left).  The kids ride for free still so it's a fun outing to just do something different.  The rest of the pictures in this collage are from the Trafalga in Lehi, one of our favorite places.  With our Pass of All Passes it's an easy place to go and have some fun on a dime. :)  Daniel's favorite was the frog ride and Lizzie was finally tall enough to ride everything else so she had a blast too.

While Laila and Quinlin were here we wanted to all get together and do something fun before school started for most of them.  We headed South for the day to hike the East Leprechaun canyon.  It was so much fun!  I'm pretty sure everyone came out of the canyon with scrapes, but it was totally worth it.  Starting on the top left and going clockwise there's a picture of everyone after the canyon. Then we've got Lizzie and Berklee with their amazingly dirty faces. They had a blast, but I felt so bad Lizzie got blisters from shoes that were too small and had a hole in the bottom.  I didn't realize she had grown out of them since she's been wearing sandals all summer.  Then Daniel's on the bottom playing in the dirt.  All of the kids suddenly had an amazing amount of energy as we got to the cars and the food. Then Caleb and David are up on top of the truck. On the bottom left is my favorite picture!  Hehe the helmets we were wearing combined with heat made a fabulous hairdo for my mom. :)

I probably ended up being the most scraped up.  With taking care of kids I tend to forget about myself.  I was drinking plenty of water, but with feeding Logan I never ate any food myself.  Then we came to a part of the canyon (felt so loooong!) that was so tight you had to go through it sideways. My mom and I stayed together and I was trying to help her since it was a really trying part.  Not thinking (I know I'm an idiot) I locked my legs while my feet were stuck in the crack of the canyon. I was trying to help mom be ok since she was kinda nauseous.  Instead she ended up trying to catch me as I passed out.  My face smashed against the rock and scraped me up in about 5 different places, of course right where the helmet didn't protect.  I'm amazed at the people around me and what they can do.  My mom was struggling, yet she still found the strength to catch me enough so I didn't get wedged in.  Spencer came racing back to check on us and then took care of the kids while Steven and my dad came back to help us.  I swear my brother is half spider and half monkey.  What he does on the rocks seems impossible.  That's probably why I trust him so completely on things like this. He pulled me out, with no help from me.  I was still not too coherent until he doused me with freezing cold water.  Ok it shows how hot I was that it felt ice cold, but it was like room temperature.  That woke me up and after getting me to eat some granola bars he took off to help the rest of the group while my dad stayed back to get my mom and I through.  It was such a hard and incredible day.  I loved every second I got to spend with family and especially Spencer since up to this point we hadn't had much time with him for about two months.  The kids needed a chance to just get out and dirty. Yay for hiking/canyoneering!

Not sure how the bus pictures ended up in this collage, but oh wells.  The top left picture I thought was so cute.  The cousins on the Jackson's side were all playing outside and set their chairs up like this and talking.  The top right was at an Owlz game.  With our passes making this kind of thing free, we go to a ton of Owlz games.  Grandma and Grandpa bought all of the kids french fries, which they all loved! The bottom middle was from a quick trip to see Lisa and Christopher in Cali for her baby shower.  I've never seen the Queen from Snow White, but she was awesome!  Lizzie wouldn't get in the picture.  The Queen freaked her out.  Then the bottom right is Lizzie and Daniel doing what they do best, eating batter out of the bowl. :) Yes they definitely take after me with that.

My baking hobby has now evolved to cupcakes!  I love cupcakes, always have.  These are red velvet, grasshopper, white chocolate raspberry, and butterfinger.  These were delicious!  I could eat so many of these!

This collage is a birthday party up at the Scanlon's for all the July birthdays.  Jen came with a whole Brave/Highland games theme.  She comes up with so many fun, great ideas. I loved the kids doing archery.  I want one of those to just play with at home.  Daniel and Eddie were all about just knocking the golf balls around.  We made our own crests on posters and each of us got a name tag with a Scottish name.  I believe I was Hagus. :) I loved the prizes everyone won at the end.  Jen had made a mini bow and arrow for all the kids with popsicle sticks and q-tips.

If you've stayed with me through all of this then way to go! This last one is Lizzie playing in her first soccer game, which got rained out.  Then Lizzie and Kyra watching the rodeo.  Lizzie calls it the "radeeeo".  She can't wait for next year when she gets to ride a sheep. Then all the kids are laying in a giant puddle after a sudden rainstorm.  I love that I caught Spence in midair as he's going to splash all of them.  On the bottom are two pictures of Lizzie's first day of preschool.  She loves getting there early every day so that she can do the playdough.  It makes me laugh cause she always wants to be the first one in the door.  Then the last picture on the right is from camping up at MeLisa's cabin.  We forgot jackets so Lizzie and Daniel are sporting the super cool 80's coats.  We had such a blast with Steven and MeLisa's family up at the cabin.  It was great to be away from everything and just be in the mountains with family.  We spent the two days riding 4-wheelers all over.  Lizzie and Daniel found a new obsession.  They kept yelling for Daddy to go faster.  Yeah Spence didn't mind going faster.  Needless to say we had a blast!