First Day of Preschool

Today was Erik's first day of preschool. He was very excited!!! When we first got to school he got pretty nervous and shy. I eventually snuck out and he did just fine! Yeah!! Sorry about the pics, he was so jittery, I couldn't get him to hold still.

Fishy Fun

Just a fun little project for Erik to play with one day. It actually kept him entertained for 3 days.

Monster Shoot

Erik has been a little bored since his brothers went back to school so we had cousin Landon over one day to play. We drew monsters on paper and then took them outside and shot them with "Monster Poison". They had a blast! They also had to shoot the dogs, house, grass, and everything else to make sure they weren't monsters too!

Men in Black

I got the boys all ready for church one morning and went to finish getting myself ready. I walked out to find this.








Look mom, we're Men in Black!! Later at church, a gentlemen walked up to us and said, what good looking missionaries. Erik said, "We are not missionaries, we are Men in Black!!!" Ah, little boys, I mean men.

First Day of School

The boys were very excited to start school this year. I guess that says a lot about my teaching abilities. They have never been excited before.?? Well, Layron started middle school this year. I was real worried about him. I couldn't wait til he came home. Neil thought it probably wasn't a good idea to meet him at the bus stop, so I took pics out the window and got one as soon as he walked into the garage. Yeah!! A smile! He loved it! He is making friends and having a good time.
Michael started fourth grade and Seth started second grade. They are loving their teachers and doing well. Seth loves taking his lunch to school and Michael likes being the older brother at school.

Oh Erik

Erik had a lot of memorable experiences this summer that everyone kept saying, "You need to write that down". So here goes. First off, his voice is not quiet. He is like that penguin on Toy Story that has the megaphone stuck in it's throat. Whenever he talks, EVERYONE hears.
On the flight to California, he grabbed the bag in front of him and yelled, "Awesome, I'm gonna puke in here when I'm sick." The whole front of the plane turned around to look at him as I tried to explain in my not as loud voice how he isn't really sick. Just excited about the bag.
In the taxi one day, he asked, "Why are we in this guys car, and why is it so dirty?" A few minutes later, "Look mom" (holding his shirt over his nose) "this is what I do when things stink" Really?
Then a few days later, in a quiet theatre, he yells out"Look mom, there is our taxi driver" He was pointing at the screen at Hulk Hogan. (He did kinda look like Hogan)
One day, as we sat at the pool, he layed down on a chair next to an older lady and asked her why she painted her toes that color. She said "Don't you like dark red?" To which he replied "No". Well, luckily she was a retired school teacher and thought it was funny. I guess she understands kids without filters.
On the flight home it was midflight and almost silent, I (and the whole plane) hear, "Mommy, is this plane going to take us to Heaven?" To which I replied,"I hope not." (He was looking out the window at the clouds.)

Wyoming

Two days after we got back from California, I packed up the kids again and headed to Wyoming to visit Aunt Tara, Uncle Hannes and their family. We picked up Grandma Jan in Ely and she went with us. It was great to have her with us. The boys had a great time playing with the chickens and goats. They loved shooting too! We tried homemade goat milk and cheese. We also ate Elk Spaghetti. Another first!!

Paddleboats

I have never been on a paddleboat. I have always wanted to though. We went to a lake just outside of Livermore which was beautiful. We saw paddleboats and I knew we had to take a ride. We each took two kids with us. It was all strategy. I took the muscle kid and the light one. I would like to tell you how fun it was but my only advice would be to NEVER, NEVER, use one. We had two hours to get them back. After one hour we looked back and were still very close to the dock!! We tried to make the best of it. The kids all took their turns paddling. It was more like a treadmill on water. All that work and you never actually go anywhere.

Quiet Like Ninjas

We don't usually break a lot of rules.:) But, we decided to sneak the boys down to sit in the hot tub one night even though the sign said you had to be 10 years old. Our boys can be pretty noisy, so we told them they had to be as quiet as ninjas. How exciting!!!! Seth is even showing off his ninja poise. The plan worked out quite well actually. They were super quiet. (I should take the ninjas to church).

We all roll doooowwwwnnn!

We did a lot of fun things in California and saw a lot of new things, but one of the kids favorite things to do was go to a college in town and roll down the grassy fields and play on their soccer field. We were couped up in the hotel room a lot until Neil would get home at 6:30 every night. So, after dinner we would head out to burn off some boy energy.