Summer's Over!

I can't believe the last time I posted was June 27. It seems like summer has gone by in a flash. I think I would have missed it if I blinked! Now we are back in school and I can't help but wish I still had another summer first.

It has been a struggle making the decision where to send our kids for school. Last year we enrolled them in a local charter school called Excelsior Academy. I was excited because it is K-8 so I thought I would be able to keep my kids together through the end of Rebecca's junior high. I also wanted to try it because they allowed the kids to work according to their abilities and since Adrian and Charlie read ahead of their grade level I wanted them to be able to work on their level. It also gave Rebecca a chance to work on a higher level of math. Well, those were my reasons for putting them in Excelsior but I have so many more for taking them out...

Honestly, it's not the best blog topic, but I will say that these last few days being back at East Elementary and Tooele Junior High have been fun. In fact, we really forgot that school could be FUN!

I'll admit the first day of Junior High I cried half the day because I can't believe Rebecca is in Junior High and because Junior High terrifies me. I don't have good memories of Junior High. I've really had to work to put those bad memories behind me so that I can let Rebecca have her own new experience and I pray every day that it is a good one.

Well, so far so good...

Here's my 7th grader with my baby. They're twins twelve years apart.

Here she is looking very junior highish. We forgot how fun it is not to have to wear a uniform:)
Here are my East kids all ready to go on their first day. They have awesome teachers and lots of friends that remember them from a year and a half ago. It's like going home. Such a relief!
I had to post this because it's such a cute picture of my boys. We were waiting for Shari to come out so we can all walk. I love being able to walk to school again!
I hope this school year doesn't go by as fast as the summer did because frankly, I need more time with my babies and it seems to be slipping away.

The Living Planet Aquarium

While Rebecca was away at camp I took the kids on a little outing with their Hunter cousins. We went to the aquarium in Sandy and the kids had so much fun. When we went to the zoo Jared would cry every time he saw an animal move because it scared him. Not so with the fish. He loved watching the fish swim.

I couldn't quite capture his excitement in a photograph, but it really was so fun to see.
Here we are together while exploring animals from the Amazon.
Shari and Adrian wanted to take lots of pictures so I let them have fun with the camera. This part of the exhibit had sting rays we could pet. Donald and Charlie would have stayed here for hours if I would have let them. The next day in the tub Donald was swimming like a sting ray and it was so cute.




Shari's favorite animal is a frog. She took quite a few pictures of all the different frogs and toads, but these ones were her favorite.

YW Camp

My girl is home!! I somehow survived the week without her and she survived Young Women's Camp. I love the crafts and handouts she brought home. When Dan saw this laurel crown with the ribbons down her back he said it's something Scouts would never bring home. The theme of their camp was "Happily Ever After" based on Dieter Uchtdorf's talk and they made sure the girl's know they're princesses!

Here is Bec's little corner of their cabin. She got to have her good friend Adria to bunk with. Yeah for good friends at girls camp!

We sent Rebecca with a camera so here are some of the shots we got from her. The campground sounds like it was really nice. Everyone had cabins and kitchenettes. They had flush toilets and showers and electricity and heat. That is definitely my kind of camping.
Rebecca took a lot of pictures of these cute little critters called pot-guts. I don't know if I've got the name right but to me they look like prairie dogs/squirrels. Her group nick-named her Click because she was always taking pictures:) I'm so glad Dan found our old digital camera to send with her.

YW hike. This brings back so many memories for me. She had a lot of fun. On their first hike they got lost pretty good but she wasn't too disappointed because they ended up seeing a mother moose and her baby in the wild. I think that's pretty cool too.
On this hike they walked up to a lake and then went canoeing. I still remember going canoeing in the early morning at girls camp in VA. I'm so glad she got to do something cool like that. They also did a challenge course that included a zip line.
When she got home I just wanted to sit and stare at her and listen to her talk all day. She was worn out but happy. Jared got a hold of some of her camp souvenirs and he loved this pretty little mirror she brought home.
I seriously can't get enough of this girl.
She's so AWESOME!

Another June Boy

Jared turned 1 the day after Charlie turned 7. I love celebrating my sweet boys.

Jared got his first pair of shoes and refused to take a step in them. In fact, this is how they made him feel.

The birthday boy loved his cake:) He ate it in in about 2 minutes. We have it all on video. I still can't believe he's 1. The first year always goes by way too fast!

June Boy

In case you missed it after looking at the pictures, Charlie is 7! We had such a fun day with Gough and Kurtz cousins visiting. I'm so sad I didn't get a picture with all the cousins! For breakfast he wanted muffins and for lunch we took him out for a kids meal at Carl's Jr. He also got to go to Walmart and pick out some presents from his grandparents. He picked out a mini Bop It game and a hand held electronic version of 20 Questions. It's all so very Charlie, if you know him you'll laugh, or cry. For his birthday dinner we made quesadillas. His cake was white cake with white frosting. His other presents included Super Mario Bros. Wii, a cute piggy bank from Aunt Katie, Rubik's Revolution from Aunt Shari, a balancing eagle toy, a Rail Twirler, and a basketball and baseball mitt from Adrian.

Summer Fun Begins in Boise!

School got out on May 25 and we left for Boise May 27.

Adrian got to spend his ninth birthday on the road to Idaho and then we celebrated in style at Grandpa's house. It was so much fun. He got a new baseball glove, a new basketball, a mini Children's songbook, some new clothes, and a week of golf lessons. Aunt RaeAnn and Uncle Paul bought him 9 candy bars, and with money from his Grandparents we took him out and he bought a couple of nice Halo Lego sets. I keep forgetting he's 9 and he gets so annoyed when I call him my 8 year old:)

Adrian is so reliable/predictable. Every year he wants brownies for his birthday cake. I love it.
In Boise we had so much fun hanging out with Aunt Kimberly, Uncle Paul, Aunt RaeAnn and Grandpa. Donald loved all of the extra attention. He thrilled them all with his enthusiastic Lego Rock Band songs. Here Donald is impressing Aunt Kimberly with one of his silly faces.
On Memorial Day we went and visited my cousin Marie and her family. It's been 12 years since I've seen her so it was really awesome. We really need to do it more often! I loved how our kids got along so great and how much Marie's kids reminded me of my McKnight cousins. Here's how they all look together, McKnights and Weirs. It was so much fun.

The day after we visited Marie we went into Boise to try out the Discovery Science Center. There were three big rooms full of experiments and examples of science. The kids loved this station where they got to make remote control rovers.
My girls got a big kick out of some mirrors in a triangle that made it look like you were standing in a crowd. We had lots of fun with it.


Here are my quadruplets. They are so adorable!
Shari's such a good actress. She brings out the actor in everyone around her.
The next day we went and visited one of my friends I knew in the Netherlands. My kids had so much fun and so did I but I didn't take any pictures! I am so bummed. I think it's the perfect reason for us to get together again, Erica. Since I didn't take any recent pictures I wanted to include one from when we lived in Holland. Erica is the one in the awesome hat.

We were going to leave Thursday to get back home in time to start planting our garden Friday but we were having too much fun in Boise and no one wanted to leave, so we stayed an extra day. It was freezing cold and rainy but we still managed to spend some time at one of the great parks by Grandpa's house.

Sister Love.

I don't know how Dan manages it but he kept all 4 of them swinging! They have so much fun with their Dad.

I'm sure by Friday morning our wonderful Boise family had had their fill of us. When we managed to get everything packed into the van, including the kids, I went back into the house to make sure we didn't forget everything and there was silence. I think Aunt Kimberly and Grandpa appreciate their quiet house even more now that we're gone. Thanks for showing us such a great time! It was the perfect way to start the summer.

Hakuna Matata

https://picasaweb.google.com/dan.blodgett/RebeccaSolo?authkey=Gv1sRgCPDc-v6No4SkqwE#5606785354645536258

This is a link to a video of Rebecca performing her amazing solo for the band concert at her school. She did such an incredible job I just had to share it.

(When the video first starts it looks weird but after about 10 seconds it's normal.)