Labor Day Fun!

We had fun with friends over Labor Day weekend. It's nice having friends to hang with when our family is so far away. We spent one night camping with friends on their parent's property. It was nice because we had the experience of camping, but could use real bathrooms when needed. We did have to drive to them at times since the walk up to the house was a long one for kids. The next morning we had fun boating on their little lake. It was great.

Our extra child

Our friends went on a trip the end of August, so we got to enjoy having an extra child at our house. My girls were really excited because for a few days we had three boys and three girls. They thought that was cool. On saturday, when the girls weren't in school, we spent a fun morning at the zoo and the carosel.

School day, School days!

School always starts so early here. It actually makes me sad this year to have them go. We had a fun summer. It's hard to believe I have three in school. Emily is officially a kindergarten! The kids were actually pretty excited to start this year. We didn't have any trouble with them being really sad to start school. The only hard thing was it rained the first day, making it hard to take pictures. :)

Final Vacation Lap!

We ended our vacation at the annual Blair family reunion in Lava Hot Spring, ID! It was a blast as usual. This year Jeff's mom was in charge, so of course she went all out spoiling the kids and adults with all sorts of fun things and treats. We enjoyed going down the river, swimming at the city pool, and just hanging out with family. I was impressed with the kids this year. Taylor went off the platform at the pool, and jumped off the high and low diving boards more times than I could count. Ashley and Emily both got the courage to go down the slides, and did so over and over again. All of the kids except Carter went down the river on the tubes, and I think I was the only one who was nervous. Taylor had one scary flip off his tube on the river this year, causing him to scrape up his legs, but he survived and was tough. Finally, we ended the time with a fun carnival, complete with popcorn, churros, games and prizes. Thanks Grandma for making it so fun. It was a great way to end our vacation and tire out the kids before the long ride home.




More fun with the family. It was nice having all of Jeff's family together again. It had been awhile.

Vacation Take Three

After being with the Blairs for a few days, we went to Orem to spend a few days with the Kollers. My brother and his kids were able to be there too, so the kids got to spend more time with their cousins. We also got to celebrate my dad's birthday, which he wanted to celebrate at Chuck-E-Cheeses. He's pretty nice to take all of the kids to that crazy place for his birthday. All of the kids (the adult ones included)had a lot of fun.


They also took us to the new aquarium in Utah. It was pretty neat. The kids especially enjoyed being able to touch the stingrays and other sea creatures.

Utah Vacation Take Two

After our stay in CO with my family, we went to UT to stay with Jeff's family for a few days. We had a lot of fun going to the cabin during the three days we were there. Our trip in the past involved spending one week with each family, but this year with the family reunions as book ends, and some work scheduling issues, we had to get creative and only spend about three days in each place. Here are some pictures of the cabin. The ones of Emily in the hammock were taken right before she fell out and cut her head open. I don't think I'll ever forget her screaming, walking into the cabin with blood pouring out of the back of her head. Luckily we were able to stop it, and no stitches were necessary.


Having a camp fire and roasting marshmallows is always a must at the cabin. Sometimes it's hard to fit in though because we are doing too many things and it gets late. The first night was out because of Emily's injury, but luckily for the kids (and the adults since we would've have had to endure angry children) we were able to do the marshmallow roasting (and flinging - a family tradition) the next night.

Family Vacation to visit family

We had a great time this summer on our annual trip out to Utah. It's hard to really say "trip to Utah" because we actually spent a lot of the time in Colorado and Idaho at two family reunions. The first family reunion we attended was with my side of the family. You could say it is the Bain family reunion even though none of us have the last name Bain. Our family reunion consisted of my mom, her sisters, and their kids and grandkids. Anyway, it was a lot of fun seeing my cousins again. We are all spread out, so we rarely see each other. It was nice to catch up again, and meet their kids. I was also glad my brother and his kids came. Our kids spent all day playing together, and they never seemed to get tired of it. Karolee was also able to come, and she is always a favorite for the kids. Everyone loves Karolee and her dogs Jesse and Hannah. We spent our family reunion at the YMCA camp in Estes Park, CO. What beautiful country they have there. My kids were awed by the beautiful mountains. Here are a few photos of some of the things we did.



There were a lot of fun things to do at the camp. Ashley and Emily really enjoyed doing the crafts with Grandma. We also had fun hiking, and just hanging out at the cabin.


M.y great sister and mom.

Yes, Blogging World, I am still alive.

Well, it looks like my blog is starting to follow the pattern of my journal. (My poor roomates will be so disappointed to hear this since I used to write in my journal every day!) I do pretty good for a little while, but then I get behind and give up because I am too far behind to write about everything. It takes a few weeks (like 8 or 9) of feeling guilty about it to push me into the catch up mode, and then I do a mass of entries. So, sorry for those who those who are already living in the present, but I am going to record my past a little bit for my own history sake.

The last of July brought with it fun summer days in the baby pool. Here are a few cute pics of the kids. Yep, I did not want to waste a swim diaper on a fifteen minute dip in the baby pool. It made for a big laugh for the older kids. Treats after swimming are also important.


We have found through the years that being outside in Kansas usually involves a lot of bug bites. Poor Carter got a bad one by his eye and had an allergic reaction. Luckily Zyrtec cleared it up.

In addition to playing outside a lot, we had a fun spontaneous trip to the circus one afternoon. A friend of mine called about something, and in the conversation I found out she was going to the circus camped outside our mall. It was only there for one day, and she had an extra adult ticket, so we decided to join her and her girls. I had to wake up my kids from their naps, but they didn't seem to mind. Taylor didn't get to go because he had scout camp.

Finally, the kids had their summer camp right before we left for our family trip to Utah. Here are a couple of pictures from their final program.