First Day of School

This year the first day of school was a little different than other years.  I was sick and Natalie was sick also and stayed home.  Usually I make a fun big breakfast and put cute notes, snacks, prizes etc in their lunch and backpacks.  I was so tired that all they received was money for hot lunch.  It was not the best first week of school and hopefully the rest of the year is a lot healthier and organized.  Joseph starts kindergarten this week and I will treat that as the real first day of school.  I also realized as the kids get older they do not enjoy first day of school pictures--notice the bad attitude of the boys.

Bear Lake

My parents own an 100 old farm house on 30 acres on Bear Lake, ID.  It is very peaceful and beautiful there.  There are a pair of owls that live in the old willow trees on the property and my kids and I love hearing them and seeing them swoop down over the property.   I went along with my sisters Al and Becca.  The kids had fun playing at the beach all day.  Water and sand is all you need to keep children amused for long period of time(ten till six at night).  One day we did a sand craft where we made sand monster faces with plaster and shells and treasures we found on the beach. We also made plaster prints of our footprints.  When my sisters repeatedly nursed their newborns, I told them that my book (Breaking Dawn) was my newborn I was nursing the whole trip.  It was fun get away.

EFY--by Natalie

My hall on pizza night
This is my group

Haley and I before one of the dances

EFY(especially for youth) at BYU was was a blast!!!  I loved all the classes and learned a lot more about the scriptures, the gospel, and prayer.  I had great councilors and a cool group.  I met a lot of people from all over the US. The dances were really fun because everyone danced. My favorite activity was pizza night when we stuffed pillows up our shirts and danced on the deck of our hall(see picture).  I also participated in the variety show--it was fun. 

Bear Lake Beach Diet

I have been on the south beach diet for a week or so and then went up to Bear Lake with a couple of my sisters.  I was pretty good the first day and then soon ended up on the Bear lake Beach diet as follows:

Bear Lake Beach Diet:

Chips, twizzlers, soda (fresca), turkey cheese sandwiches, pancakes and syrup, bacon, eggs, toast, hash browns, juice, veggies and hummus, cookies, cheeze-its, hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, oreos, go-gurts, otter pops,sugar cereal, beef jerky and homemade frozen raspberry yogurt.   Though very enjoyable at the time --I do have a stomach ache and will need to start over on south beach tomorrow.  I discovered it is just too hard to do south beach diet when you are at a Bear Lake Beach--they don't mix.

Drive Inn Night

Last year we had a "drive inn" in our garage and the kids begged to do it again.  This years movie was Nacho Libre and the concession stand choices grew and were better because John went to the store to pick up the candy.  The kids always seem to enjoy doing things more if it is a little out of the ordinary.