First day of school....

Everybody else posts about the first day of school so I guess that means I can too! To say the kids were excited would be an understatement. I remember as a kid being so excited to wear my new school clothes, put on the new back pack and new shoes. It's so fun watching my kids do the same thing.

I walked them to school for the first day. Unfortunately Haylie and Micah are too cool now to have their Mom walk them into their classrooms. Luckily Briggs still wanted me to go with him.

Micah, grade 4, Mrs. Dittman

Haylie, grade 5, Mrs. Bright

Briggs, grade 2, Mrs. Romeril

Skylie started kindergarten this year and didn't start until the next day. I got to go with her on her first day. Luckily since this is my fourth kindergarten orientation I was well prepared for the "kissing hand" and didn't shed any tears. (they always read the same story, then you have to kiss each others hand and it makes me tear up usually). She was really excited for her first day and has been loving going to school. Her teacher is Mrs. Bennett.

As for me, I'm liking having the schedule that being back to school brings. I'm already sick of making lunches but I'd better get used to it. Poor Summer doesn't know what to do with herself in the afternoons when Kash is sleeping and she is by herself. (poor me is more like it, haha)

Bikes, apples, and prayers....

Summer's favorite thing to do is ride her bike. She asks almost everyday to go on a bike ride to the church. I think she secretly wants to run into Jacob. She has been riding with training wheels so much that I figured she was ready to ride without. So one night we went over to the church, took them off, and away she went. Now she bugs me even more to go on bike rides with her "two-wheeler" to the church.

This little guy could not be happier that Summers old bike isn't being used anymore. He loves pushing it up and down the road for some reason. He doesn't even try to ride it, just pushes it. So tonight Steve decided he needed to learn to ride it. I don't know why it was so cute to me watching him ride it around by himself. Either it was the pink bike, or that he is still my little "baby", or maybe that he thought he was the coolest thing alive.

My friend Becka moved in across the street and the kids have been having a blast playing together. Hunter and Micah are the little apple pickers. Everywhere I look I see apples they have picked. A bowl of crab apples in my kitchen, a bunch scattered in the driveway, let me tell you how much I loved stepping in a rotten one on my lawn. If anyone has apples they want picked I know two very willing and ready kids for the job.

As much as I don't like seeing the summer coming to an end, I do love the colors of the fall leaves.

And one last random. Lately Kash likes to try and say his prayers at night after the girls are done. Usually he just says, "Father, amen". Tonight he got really creative though. He folded his arms and leaned on the crib like he always does, then said, "Poppa, Poppa, Poppa (repeated at least 12 more times, then he said, "bike, bike, bike, bike (repeated at least 12 times), then "Dadda", amen. It was so cute!

Another pet....

So the other day I was trying to get my laundry room organized. There were some towels that apparently been there for a while because when I picked them up guess what I found....

thats's right, another salamander!!! What in the world is going on in my house???? And how long has that thing been in there? By the looks of it it has been dead for a while now. The real question is how many times did I step on it without realizing it? It was under a towel right in front of the washer where I step almost everyday. Ok, maybe the real question is why was that same dirty towel in front of my washer so long and not thrown into the washer to be cleaned. Really, how are they getting into my house???

My new favorite thing...

Those that know me well know how much I like to vacumm. Those of you that don't know, well, I like to vacumm. I'm kind of a freak about it. I don't like anyone else to do it but me. If my kids vacumm I have been known to re-vacumm after they leave. I cringe when Steve volenteers to vacumm (although I am glad that he helps). Anyways, my love of vacumming has quadrupled because of this......

I have gone threw about 4 crappy vacumms since we've been married and finally had enough with it and went out and bought a dyson. I am honestly in love with it and it was worth every penny. And yes Steve, I should of listened to you 2 years ago when you told me to buy it.

Calaway Park (calgary part 2)....

So after we went to the zoo we went and stayed at Leslie and Mikes house. The upstairs to their basement rental was empty so we were lucky enough to get to stay there. The next morning we headed to Calaway Park. We try and go every year and the kids love it. This year my whole family was there except for the husbands. Here's a few of the pictures from the day.

Summer went on this about 10 times in a row. It was right before closing and there was no line up so she just kept going and going.

Love the log ride. You can't really tell but Skylie was honestly drenched from head to toe.

This was Kash's favorite ride.

This was right before Kash decided he didn't want to sit in the front seat anymore and moved to the back. I was so scared he was going to fall in. Luckily he didn't.

The Zoo (calgary part 1)....

One day after swimming lessons me and my Mom loaded up the kids and went to Calgary to meet up with Leslie for a couple days. My kids have never been to the zoo before so that was the first thing on the agenda. We were on a tight time schedule since we didn't get there until the afternoon, but we were able to see most of the things we wanted to see. Here we all are minus Leslie.

I think my favorite animal was the giraffe but the tiger was a close second. It walked right beside the window we were at and it looked so cool that close up. The kids all liked a lot of different animals, but most of them liked the monkeys the best. We sat and watched them forever. They were so entertaining.

The kids could not get enough of this bear.

I wish that Kash could of fit on!

And there were just enough of these little elephants for all my kids, except this random boy was on and didn't want to get off. Oh well.

They loved the gorilla's. I think it was Brigg's favorite.

The kids loved the dinosaur land, once we convinced some of them that they aren't real (skylie and summer). In there defense, I was a little scared when walking by a big one and all the sudden it started moving and making noises out of no where. They loved looking at all the different dinosaurs and pushing the buttons to make them move and make noise. It was really cool.

The funniest part of the day was when we were leaving. We got to the gate to go out and I went to find the parking ticket to swipe so that we could leave and it was no where to be found. My Mom searched her stuff, I searched mine again and it was no where. We sat there having no clue what to do and finally backed up and just sat there trying to find it while everyone else starred at us. Mike and Leslie had already gone threw so Mike ran back to find out what our problem was. After trying a few different things Mike finally drove their vehicle threw again, backed out, ran over and gave us his new ticket, then we were able to use that to get threw. Anyways, it was really funny. Through it all me and my Mom were laughing so hard, and I can only imagine what was going threw Mike's mind. haha. I'm just glad that Mike was there because me and my Mom would probably still be there trying to figure out how to get threw.

Echo Lake...

Well since it's been almost 2 months since we were actually at Echo Lake, I don't really remember many of the fun little details. But whatever. I do remember that we had a few slight problems with the boat. Like almost sinking it twice. We eventually figured that one out. I do remember that we had ok weather, a few rainy shopping days which are always fun, and a couple warm days. I do know that Summer got up on the attached skiis for her first time (after a few tears were shed and surprise, surprise Steve making her try), Briggs got up on the wakeboard for the first time (well he got up last year briefly). I do remember Summer and Skylie freaking out when they had a run in with a crayfish. Like always we went turtle hunting and Scuba Steve caught a few for the kids to look at. I do remember that we had fun, like always.

In fact here we are having fun before we even got to the Lake. We were just over an hour away from home and our burb broke down. At least we broke down in front of some little bar in the middle of no where and we were able to eat while we waited for some help. Steve's parents were nice enough to come meet us and switch us vehicles. Luckily our vehicle made it home for them. So here we are waiting for them.

Well here's some pictures from the week. I have a hard time narrowing them down, so there are a few.

I love that Briggs wanted me to go knee boarding with him. I think he felt bad for me when I didn't get up the first time. haha.

Scuba Steve junior. Briggs loves snorkeling.

This was Kash's favorite spot.

One of the kids favorite things is knee boarding.

Wait, I take that back. This was probably their favorite thing. Jumping from one diving board to the next to the tube.

I swear I have a picture of everyone of my kids doing this. Unfortunatly someone showed Kash how to honk the horn.

This was my favorite spot!

When we are at the lake I don't do the girls hair very often, so the first day I did everyone's in braids hoping that they would stay in for a few days.

We love Echo Lake. It's so pretty, peaceful, and relaxing.