First Day of School!

Josh-Senior, Natalie-Sophomore, Jake--Freshman
Caroline--6th grade
Joseph --1st grade

School started last week with mixed reviews. After the first day of school only Joseph was still excited about school. This is the first time in 21 years I will be home alone for 6 hours. I am a little sad that the young children stage is over, but excited to finally have time to get some things accomplished that I put on the "shelf" for awhile.

Deep Cleaning

The summer's busy activities, fun trips and the kids home all day has taken it's toll on our house . I realized how messy and disorganized the house has become. So for the last week of summer we have been trying to deep clean. I told the kids to find something to clean/organized and do it. There was less complaining since they chose their own chores. Some picked cupboards to organize, others washed walls, dusted, and Jake decided to clean the top of the cabinets. It was amazing how much was accomplished with everyone working together. We still are not done and I think the kids are excited to finally start school tomorrow.

High School Soccer Team!!!

Natalie made the High School Soccer team. She is on Varsity, but also plays with the Junior Varsity. It is a brand new High School so the teams are made up of mostly Sophomores and Freshman with a few Juniors and Seniors. Even-though their team is young they have won their two preseason games. Natalie loves the sweats, uniforms, bus ride to games, cool girls and coaches, and seeing the football guys practicing on the field next to them.

Jake's new look

Before

After

I was actually sad when Jake had his signature mole removed this week. He has had this mole since birth and was his little beauty mark. It was starting to grow so the Doctor advised having it removed. Jake loves having a "cool" scar on his cheek instead (14 stitches). He has been making up all sorts of stories to go with it. His latest is that he got caught on a barb wire fence. The Dr. actually said that in about 6 months it will not be noticeable at all. With or without the "beauty" mark, we think Jake is handsome young man. (Top picture--we thought the store sign was great and made Jake take a picture under it)

Great things for families to do at Grand Teton National Park

1. Take the ferry ride to Hidden Falls and then hike the 2 1/2 miles back(make sure your six year old does not wear flip flops).

2. Camp at Colter Bay--roast Starbursts over the campfire

3. Swim and hang out at Jackson Lake

4. Canoe down the snake river from Jackson Dam to first take out point--you will see a lot of beavers, otters, and eagles. This is where we saw a moose and deer.

5. Junior Ranger Program

6. Hike and swim at String Lake

7. Go to Jackson Hole--Go to Yippee-i-o Candy Co. and to a musical at the cute western theater.

8. Get a chocolate ice cream to go at Jackson lake lodge and enjoy the big picture window view.

9. Picnic and Fish

10. Bring games to play (Ticket to Ride, Goblet, Apples to Apples, Blink, and Racko were favorites)

11. Play charades around the campfire.

12 Enjoy the beautiful amazing scenery!!!! :D

Lake Powell

Lake Powell top 10

10 beautiful scenery

9 stars

8 night time "spa time"

7 fire work show

6 boat ride to rainbow bridge

5 great food

4 slide and floating

3 hikes--especially slot canyon hike

2 swimming/water sports

1 family

Freezer Stencil T-Shirts

We went up to Al's house last week and did some more stencil T shirts. Caroline just painted with the soft scrub bleach like Natalie did last year. Natalie and Joseph were both done with the freezer paper stencil method. Joseph wants to do another with a drummer. This is fast fun project and a great way to refurbish a T-shirt.

2nd generation garage saler

Natalie decided she wanted to go with me garage saling today(she even woke up at 6:00 am). This is what she found for $19.75. She was so excited about what she bought and how cheap it was and would repeatedly say, "I love my stuff!" I don't think she will come with me every week, but has definitely caught the garage sale "bug". I also bought some great things which I will not list or photograph--I think I need to go to yard sale anonymous. :) Here is a break down of what Natalie bought:

shorts-------------------------------------------.50

lucky jeans------------------------------------1.00

perfume and make up samples-------------1.25

pink bag---------------------------------------1.00

jeans (7 brand)-------------------------------4.00

American eagle jean jacket------------------8.00

3 pairs of earrings---------------------------1.00

Jazz baseball hat-----------------------------1.00

vintage box (will use as a lunch box)------1.00

groovy black boots*-------------------------1.00

(*she wants to wear these on crazy _________

dress day or for Halloween-not 19.75

every day use)

Bear Lake Family Reunion

Bear Lake Reunion Highs:

Great weather

Great company

Great food

Great fireworks

Great Napolean Dynamite tour (Josh with some of the cousins and uncles went to Preston ID to check out all the sites from the movie)

Great four wheeling--Natalie's favorite

Great Boating/tubing/swimming

Great Movie nights

Great Raspberry Shakes

Bear Lake Lows:

Caroline splitting her toe open on first morning and unable to swim the entire time (Uncle Doug glued it back together with surgical super glue)

Family stomach flu bug circulating

Not seeing the families who could not attend.

Mosquitoes at the house

Flat Tire at beach

Sandy Babies at Beach

Discovering suntan lotion on my camera lens

All and all a wonderful and memorable time at Bear Lake. This video is a collection of photos--I will try to put it on again in a higher quality later.

Desolation Canyon River Trip by Josh

My scout group rafted 90 miles down the hot Desolation/Grey Canyon. The first day we just set up camp. There were so many mosquitos it felt like an angry bee hive was attacking that did not stop attacking. The food tasted really good. The second day we rafted 30 miles down the river. The river was calm that day. We would jump in the river every once in awhile because we were baking in the hot sun. The river was so refreshing- we swam about a mile and then would get back in the raft and paddle. When we arrived at camp there were more swarming mosquitos. We set up camp and had a fireside in the cool clear night with the stars and the full moon glowing. We roasted star-bursts in the crackling fire. The next day we rafted 30 miles down the river. We stopped at different places to hike. We hiked to a indian stone house and to some petroglyphs. Then we saw a old ranch with log houses.

On the 2nd to last day we went over this towering rapid that were twelve to fourteen feet high. There were a few rocks but we made it safely. When we got to camp, me and a few boys went hiking up the mountain, but one boy cut his knee pretty bad. When we got to the top we could see the river and the canyons in the beautiful orange sunset. The last day we went the rest of the way and hit another gushing mad rapid. Only two boys fell out, but they where fine. That was my exciting adventure on the river.