Julie's Visit

Our good friend Julie was so kind to come and watch our girls last February when Chris and I went on a cruise.  She was especially blessed to stay with our girls in our rental, which we ALL loved.  Not.  She and the girls made a few trips to our house-in-progress to check it out during her stay, but we thought it would be fun to have her back to see the house in its completed state.

She flew in on Friday night before Labor Day to spend the long weekend with us.  It didn't work out for Chris just to pick her up at the airport on his return to the state since his flight from California was delayed five hours!  Julie took the shuttle to the park 'n ride off of exit 240 and Misha, Kristen, and I picked her up.

We had fun driving up to Estes and Rocky Mountain National Park on Saturday, though the weather did not cooperate for us to hike.  Boo (My children were pretty happy).  Kristen brought home germs from school and suffered with a head cold most of the day on Saturday.  Since it rained for awhile and Kristen fell asleep in the back seat, we just drove around.  There were still some areas affected by the flood.  In fact, as we were driving home via Loveland, we were amazed at the houses and cabins just hanging together off the edge of the river.

We saw this amazing elk? just munching away along the side of the road as people slowed or stopped to take pictures.
 

We stopped at the Fort Collins temple site with our girls since Misha and Kristen had never been.

Amy stayed home from church with Kristen on Sunday.  Chris gave a fabulous presentation to the adults in the third hour on internet/computer safety.

River Fog

It is pretty cool to see the fog or steam rising off the river or lake most mornings, especially as the sun is just coming up over the horizon.

Water Fight

There was probably about a pallet and 3/4 that we didn't use.  Our landscaper was going to pick up the sod on Monday morning, but in the mean time, Chris sent the older girls out to water the stacked sod.  As you might imagine, two girls and a hose started a water fight.  They even came in the house to grab Kristen so that she too could participate.  She tried valiantly to refuse the invitation.  Fortunately there wasn't a lot of crying as one might also imagine there could have been.

Albino Moth

Not sure if it is really an albino, but it is cool looking to be sure.

Bowl-a-Rama

And so it begins--school fundraisers!  I was surprised that this one came so early, but Misha was happy to participate.  I arrived a little early to pick her and her friend Hunter up so that I could take some pictures.

Sunday Morning Fog

I woke up early on Sunday morning and noticed the fog or steam across the lake.  Just couldn't stay in bed and NOT take a picture.

Landscaping

Our landscapers were busy preparing our yard for sod last week.  They finished the sprinklers in the back yard, laid weed fabric, added rocks, finished contouring and raking the yard, installed the rocks for the fire pit area, and made sure the sprinklers were in good working order. 

All to be ready for this:

Chris and I were just leaving Friday evening as the sod arrived.  So after a little instruction, the worker unloaded pallets of sod all over our yard.  Eighteen pallets to be exact.  We had asked our friends, the Bells, if they would help lay the sod and they were so kind to spend the entire day with us.  It was hard work.  My hands ached, my fingernails felt as though they were going to fall off, and my back protested as I tried to clean up sod parts at the end of the day. 

The transformation was magical though.  That's the best part about laying sod.  It gives a yard a finished look.  Granted, there is still so much to do, but we are well on our way in the process.

Kristen was our water girl.

Back to School-Amy

Amy, remembering her early-morning schedule from last year, was not at all thrilled to start back up in to the routine of 6 am seminary and school.  Her new seminary teacher, Tasha Wasden, just lives down the hill from us so Amy is able to walk to seminary in the morning.  After seminary, one of her friends who drives, takes Amy and a couple of other girls to the high school.  Pretty nice not to have to carpool there. 


She starts her job on August 26th as well.  Tuesdays will be a long day for her with Young Women in the evening.  I will have to pick her up from school, drop her off from work, and then pick her up on my way to Tuesday night activities at the Stake Center.  On those days when I drive for Kristen's carpool, it will be a bit of rush, but I am sure we can fit it all in.  I think piano lessons will be on Mondays after school.

Back to School-Misha

Misha started a new year at a new school.  I think she was secretly excited for a fresh start.  Secretly, because outwardly, she wasn't enthusiastic at all.  She rides the bus this year and much to my disappointment, this picks her up first and drops her off last.  She has to be at the bus stop by 6:40.  Last year, she wasn't waking up until 6:40!  Ah well, she doesn't seem to mind.  She even gets up at 5:40 to read scriptures with Amy and I before Amy heads to seminary at 6 am.

She hops on her bike and speeds down the half mile hill in two minutes.  She locks her bike to the front gate and meets the bus about a half mile after it leaves the bus barn.  She is the first of "9" students to ride this morning bus.  I am sure that in the darker days of the winter, I will drive her and wait with her.  The mom in me just can't do otherwise.  As she is dropped off in the afternoon (on a much fuller bus), she pedals back up the hill.  It takes a little more time and effort to ride back up the hill.

Back to School-Kristen

This girl has been so excited to go back to school.  She was excited for her new teacher, Mr. King, she was excited to be learning, she was just excited to be back in school.  It bugged her sisters.  They weren't quite as excited.  I hope she always has such a great love of learning.

Kristen carpools with the two other families that presently live on our street.  That means I only have to drive to and from school every third week. 

A Dip in the Lake

As my girls took a break from all their hard work on the sprinklers (sarcasm) and headed down to the lake, I grabbed my camera and snuck a few pictures from the deck. 

17th Anniversary

As Chris and I finished installing the sprinklers in the front yard, we were covered in dirt and feeling hot and sweaty and tired, I commented,  "Do you think 17 years ago we could have imagined that we'd be spending our anniversary this way?"  I'm certain we didn't give 17 years in the future much thought.

But here we are and still loving life together, still working hard, still in love...

Sprinklers

Oh, the yard.  I'm pretty sure that last time we finished a yard at our Monarch Estates home that I said I would never buy another house that needed landscaping.  I mean it this time!  And we aren't evening doing all of the hard back-breaking work.  Chris spent all day Saturday working on sprinklers and installing an electrical conduit for a future garage.  The girls helped a little bit; I hung out inside organizing closets with the painters who spent much of the day finishing touch-ups and finally removing the blue tape from my walls!

After the painters left, I went out to help Chris.  He was winding down, but I was able to help by filling in the trenches after he finished adding the sprinkler heads.  (At least we thought it was being helpful as I watched some of the trenches being dug out Monday morning by the landscaping crew!)
It was a pretty pathetic way to spend our 17th anniversary, but stuff needed to get done.  We had landscaping rocks coming Monday morning and sod the following Friday.

Family Reunion - Monday

It was a short and sweet visit, but not until breakfast was over.   Chris and I spent a couple hours Sunday evening cooking bacon, shells, and hashbrowns so that we wouldn't have to get up quite so early on Monday morning.  Even so, it took a bit of time to pull everything together.  Lucky for us our leftovers were happily accepted by Jenna and her husband Joey.

People had to get to work, so our family, my older brother, and my parents were the last ones to leave the cabin.  We didn't have any reason to rush since our plans for the day included the Ogden temple open house at 1:30 and a flight at 4:45.  We said our goodbyes as we locked up together and headed out.  Chris and I decided to take the scenic route through the Aspen Loop and down in to American Fork canyon.  Beautiful.

As we were on our way, my brother called and said they wanted to join us at the open house in Ogden.  Yay!  He later said that we made great efforts to come to Utah and they wanted to be able to spend a little more time with us.  Some of us (me) were looking a little ragtag.  We changed into our church clothes in a tiny bathroom at the local library.

The temple was beautiful and so totally different from what it had been.  It was a nice way to end our visit.  We snapped a few pictures with Chris' iPhone and then headed off to the airport.  We had enough time for a quick mid-afternoon lunch.  We arrived at our gate 45 minutes and they had already boarded the A's and were working on the B's.  Lucky for us we got to sit and wait on the plane.

Family Reunion- Sunday

9 am church.  Ughgh.  I was up early to shower thinking that I would beat the rush later.  It worked well and we were all out the door by 8:30 am.  My sister-in-law provided a breakfast of pop tarts and steel cut outs.  I believe this was my mom's first time eating a pop tart.  Her conclusion?  They would make a great treat but a little too sweat for her for breakfast.  See it was perfectly balanced with the steel cut outs for those who chose the healthier option.  My kids?  Pop tarts.

We stayed for Sacrament meeting and then headed back to the cabin for a little rest and relaxation.  I think Christopher and I dozed for almost three hours!  It felt so good, and I didn't have any trouble sleeping later that night.  When we awoke, the kids were playing Hide n' Seek again (a little noisily I might add), and dinner was almost ready.  My mom cooked ham and Utah funeral potatoes.  Apparently that was the name of the recipe she used.

After dinner, we had my mom's traditional fish pond where everyone gets to take a turn.  It had just rained so, she had to improvise in the basement around the air hockey table.  My girls jumped in to hold a blanket up.  We found a few treats to send back over the blanket to my parents since they sometimes get overlooked. My sister also thought ahead and had little gifts for them as well.

Following the fish pond, my parents had also put together some memories of each of their children to share.  I was grateful that my brother stuck his phone in my dad's pocket as he talked in order to make a record.  Bad shot with my dad's tongue mid-phrase...and my sister posing in the background.

I played photographer.  None of this back and forth dialogue for months about what colors everyone should wear, we just took pictures.  I don't think I even got a chance to comb my hair.  My dandy remote came in quite handy and the range was much improved over the last time I tried to use it.  Misha and Amy took this opportunity to add some crazy faces to the photos, much to my chagrin.  Here's hoping it won't happen EVER AGAIN, GIRLS!

I took some photos for my sister's family and a bunch for Mitch as well as anyone who was a willing poser.  Here's hoping they will like them.