The Big Blue Bus

So we had the greatest visitor a couple of weeks ago...this amazingly huge BLUE BUS...my brother Stu and 3 of his buddies are on a month long road trip in this school bus converted to an RV...which they painted blue! They stayed for 3 days and we had a lot of fun. It was great to see them...the kids thought the bus was the best.thing.EVER! The guys even drove us to Grace's soccer game in it.

Thanks for coming guys! I wish we would have gotten a picture with all of you..next time the big, blue bus is out this way we'll have to get that picture!

Soccer

We signed Grace up for a youth soccer league here in town and it's so much fun! It's just 3 on 3, but the kids LOVE it..there are 5 kids on her team, the COUGARS, and only 2 girls. And no joke, Grace and the other little girl Ally, are by far the best! Grace has even scored a few goals...and a couple in the other teams net, but hey, she still cheered for herself! It's really fun.

Family Pics

We had one of my really good friends take some family pictures of couple of weeks ago...they are really informal, but i LOVE how they turned out! And she gave us a great deal too (THANKS BECK, YOU ARE THE BEST!) We have a ton of pictures and these are just a few of them.

Shopie's First Day of School

Again this year I am doing a "friend" school for Sophie. There are 7 moms that participate and we rotate houses and teaching. We did it last year too and Sophie LOVED it. So we are doing it again this year, with most of the same kids and 3 new ones. The older and younger siblings join us too. We had our first lesson this week about the letter "A" and aquariums. Here are the kids! (thanks to becky for taking such great pics)

Grace's First Day of School

As if we aren't busy enough...our little girl is starting Kindergarten this year! Her first day was tuesday and we actually just got back into town from our trip at 4:30am that morning...needless to say we (garrett and I) look pretty tired. But the kids slept all night so they were ready to go!

We live only 2 blocks from the school, so we walk Grace there and walk to pick her up. It's perfect! And she LOVES it! I just can't believe how big my kids are getting. I actually didn't even cry when we dropped her off...but Sophie was sooo sad. Too bad she has 2 more years before she gets to go to Kindergarten...oh well.

BYU vs. UW

While we were in Utah we couldn't pass up the big football game happening in Provo that weekend...Huskies and Cougars. It was so fun to be at a football game, too bad our Huskies lost. But we had great company and a great time.

Thanks so much to Lauren's dad for hooking us up with the passes for the hospitality tent...needless to say we were the small purple fish in a big blue pond for sure! But it was so much fun!

Labor Day Weekend

We spent this past Labor Day Weekend with our family in Utah...and had the best time! It was just too short! We drove through the night on thursday so that we could have the most day time with everyone...we spent some time up in Eden, the cabin in evanston, and rock climbing in the Uintahs. Thanks for having us family!

Misc. happenings

We have had a busy summer of fun!

Here are a few things:

A pampering baby shower for my good friend Amanda. It was a fun night of friends, pedicures and food!

Canning, canning canning...Applesauce, pears, peaches, salsa, and tomatoes! I only took pics of the applesauce though. The rest is all neatly stacked in my pantry!

I am going to be selling my soap at two craft sales this fall, one in october and one in november. I have been working really hard already getting things ready. This is some of my homemade liquid laundry soap..what do you think? I think they turned out pretty stinkin' cute!
Fishing with Dad. Garrett LOVES to fish and we live on the river so he can go out any time he wants...which isn't as much as he would like...he's so busy...and he's going to get even busier...he is going to be teaching early morning seminary at 6am starting Sept. 7!

Brady and Garrett caught a fish this night too.

My front flower bed is doing amazing. I have a really good friend who works at a garden center and has great tips and tricks...so things have been blooming!

Sunflowers...this is pretty funny...the kids in nursery brought home some little dixie cups with seeds in them back in march...i watered them and they grew into these beauties!
Coneflowers...so cute!
Dahlias
This is a dwarf forever blooming lilac...and yes...this is the second time it's bloomed! I can't wait until it gets a little bigger!


Bubble Monsters!

Grace didn't want to take a bath this night...she's actually liking showers more...so Brady and Sophie had the whole tub to themselves and it makes a difference to only have 2 kids in the tub instead of 3.

They put in extra bubble bath and were bubble monsters!