1st Day of School!

This year we have a Junior in College, a Senior in HS, a Sophomore in HS, a 7th grader and a 4th grader!! Whew!! We have 5 of the smartest kids around. They are off to accomplish great things again this year. I somehow missed Kylee and Quincy in the picture taking. So sorry girls!!

Cute kids!

Toilet Papered...again!

This is what happens when you have cute Teenagers that live at your house! We have had this happen a couple times this Summer. Twice in the past couple years we have had a Perry Policeman bang on our door during the wee hours of the morning. I frantically throw on some clothes and stammer out to open the door. They kindly inform me that we have been toilet papered and to let them know when I clean it up if there is any damage that I would like to report! Gratefully, there must not be much crime in Perry. The Policemen must not have enough to do during the middle of the night! I'm pretty sure I would have figured out that we had been toilet papered when I woke up the next morning. Kinda a funny quirk about living in Perry! At our house, the teenagers get to clean up the mess. Chris and I know it doesn't come from any secret admirers to us!!

Camping at Smith & Morehouse!

We snuck in a last minute camping trip right before the kids all went back to school. The week before school started we camped from Tuesday until Thursday. We went with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Barb. We had to stop at Grandpa's favorite diner on the way there for lunch. Can't miss a good burger when you are with Grandpa! We got there and set up camp and then headed to the lake. Grandpa brought his pontoon boat and we took turns taking it out on the lake. Chris and the kids did a little fishing and actually caught some! We don't always have great luck fishing, so this was pretty exciting. We slept that night and woke up to rain, rain and more rain. It was cold and wet! 

Unfortunately, Grandma's knee locked up and she could barely walk. They decided they had better pack up and go home. Kylee went with them because she had to get back for a Dental Hygiene Orientation at WSU. Some of us wanted to stay the extra night, and some of us wanted to go home. It rained all day long. We decided to stay and we were glad in the end that we did. We played a lot of card games in the tent trailer and managed to make a dutch oven dinner over the fire. Later that night it finally stopped raining! Thank goodness! We decided to go back to the lake and try our luck at fishing again. Brinley was the only one who had not caught a fish yet. It took some time and patience, but she finally got one! Her first catch!! We are hoping for some more camping next summer with a little better weather!

Kylee's 21st Birthday!

Wow! 21 years old!! How did that happen? Happy Birthday to Kylee. She gets to share her Birthday party most years with Mason! That keeps things fun. We end up with 2 pans of favorite desserts to go with dinner. This year she helped hold his HUGE present as he unwrapped it.

Kylee is kind, hard working, motivated, super smart, beautiful and always so happy! We love that she is still here in our home with us. She definitely keeps us smiling!

Happy Birthday Kylee!

We love you!!

A week with KateLeigh and Maisley!

Liz Bunce was nice enough to let Quincy and Brinley stay with them while we were in Guatemala, so we did a trade and had her girls while they went to Oregon. It was a busy week! Adding 2 more to a family of 7 definitely makes a difference! One day the 3 girls spend hours in the garage making a road and parking stalls for the plazma cars. Sometimes you have to get creative!! 

Stitches!

Em's poor chin met with the gym floor during a dive at Volleyball! We had to take a quick trip to the Dr.'s office and get a few stitches. OUCH!

Sleepover!

A sleepover sometime during the summer was promised to Maddie and Brinley. They reminded us about it EVERY Sunday. Finally in August before school started, we made it happen. They were busy busy busy! They definitely made the most of their time together.

Summer adventures on Dad's day off!

We needed something fun to do together on Dad's day off one Summer day, so we headed to Salt Lake City. We ended up at the LDS Humanitarian Center and the Sweets Candy Co! It was actually really awesome! We had a tour of the Humanitarian Center by a couple really cute Sister Missionaries and watched a wonderful movie at the end of the tour. Then we went to the Candy shop. We also had a tour there and watched a live camera feed as they were making the candy in the warehouse. We got to sample candy and of course bought some to take home. Brinley won a contest and got to pick a free bag of candy. We were missing Kylee and Kade. They were both at work, but we brought them home some yummy candy!

Great activity for a day off!

Hike to White Pine Lake

This was the BEST hike ever!! On Dad's day off we headed to Tony's Grove and decided we wanted to hike a little. We told the kids we would just go a part of the way and then turn around. We lied...but accidentally!! It was so beautiful and the perfect weather for hiking. Most of us loved it so much that we wanted to go all the way to the lake. Quincy and Brinley were a little angry that we weren't doing what we originally said we would do. It was a LONG hike for us. We are not very seasoned hikers! It was 8 miles round trip but it was so gorgeous and the seeing the lake at the end was worth every step. There were lots of rest stops and even a few tears, but we made it there and back. Good job my little hikers!!