Adventurous August 2011

After the tragic accident that took the life of a young man in our ward and neighborhood on July 30, life seemed to go at an incredibly slow rate at the beginning of August. But then, amidst the sorrow for our friends and neighbors, we were able to celebrate on August 11, when our friends Sarah and Stu Reeder were blessed with their first baby. A little girl that they named Hannah. She is so stinkin' adorable and such a blessing to Sarah and Stu.

More celebrating was to be had that same weekend when my oldest and dearest friend Mandy went through the Temple with her husband Scott. Then the next weekend they took their children, Sydney and Max, to the Temple to be sealed as a family for Eternity. Mandy and I have shared so many of life's milestones together, and what an amazing feeling it was to be with her as she embarked on another one. Congrats Donavan Family! Love you Mandy!

It's crazy how you wait all school year for summer to come and then in a blink of an eye it's over and "back to school."
I'm speaking for the kids of course, and YES, it was KIDS going to school in our house this year.

Samuel is finally in Preschool and loves it! For a kid who is so full of life and energy and curiosity, school is the perfect place for his little mind and body to be-even if it's only for 2 1/2 hours twice a week.

Natalie on the other hand has NOT been excited about school this year. The pic below shows how she was on the first day of school. I bought her brand new shoes for school and "somehow" when she put them on, on the first day of school, they didn't fit right. Talk about drama over a pair of shoes. Then it was all downhill from there on out...and that's almost how it's been everyday since. I'm not sure what's going on with her, and why she's being so grumpy about school this year, but I hope it passes soon.

As if sending the kids to school wasn't crazy enough, we decided to go on a little weekend getaway with our neighbors (the Marshalls, Goffs, Zeiglers, & Biesingers) down to the Utah Shakespearean Festival the weekend of the first week of school. Ahhhh! Well, for Brandon and I, it wasn't much of a weekend, more like a day trip because he had to be back to fly out to Vegas for work. It was a bit a of a whirlwind but we had fun anyway. We drove down Friday the 19th and had tickets to see Noises Off! It was a hysterical play about what goes on while in the production stages of putting on, and during a show. That night we drove down to St. George and stayed in the Zeigler's parent's house. It was such a beautiful house, complete with swimming pool, and Saturday morning, while the guys went Golfing, us ladies stayed behind and lounged in the pool (I promised I wouldn't blog those pics ladies-so I didn't)! After the guys got back and swam for a bit, we all got ready, ate lunch and headed back up to Cedar to see A Mid-Summer Night's Dream-one of my favorite Shakespeare plays! After that we all went to dinner at Lupita's Mexican Restaurant, which had an amazing salsa bar and even better Chimichangas. Mmmmm I want one right now. Anyway, after dinner Brandon and I headed back for home (I told you it was a quick trip).

The singing, dancing and acting camp that Natalie attended over the summer had two performances on August 23rd and 26th. The first one was at Bountiful Music on a tiny little stage that the kids barely fit on. It was very hot in the room and the music kept skipping every time the kids danced. The one on the 26th was at Cherry Hill and it was on a cute little outdoor stage. The kids performed their show and their solo songs that they'd worked so hard on over the summer, and Jessie Clark Funk (their teacher) performed some songs also. It was a beautiful night and a great little performance by the kids. Natalie had such a blast over the summer doing the things she loves best. Acting, Singing and Dancing! Not sure where she gets that from... ;)

On August 27th me and the kiddos went to the Federal Heights Rehab & Nursing Center for an Alzheimer's Fundraiser. Our Neighbor Pete is the Executive Director of the facility and we went in support of him, and of course, the cause. There was much fun to be had, including bounce houses, a "boxing ring," booths with lots of fun things to buy, carnival food, and Natalie's favorite-a rock wall. She and I took a turn climbing the wall. I was able to get to the top (in bare feel of all things) and Natalie made it up about half way. She kept freaking herself out and repelling down. It was a lot of fun, and a great day to spend time with our neighbors, Pete, Ashli and their son Boston. All for a good cause!

It was a pretty exciting end of August for Sam. He got to finally play soccer, and to our surprise...is really good at it. He dribbles the ball well and is kind of pushy (at 3 years old we still have to tell him to be nice, but one day that aggression will be good for him on the field). His team name was THUNDER and they were really cute boys. He had such a blast playing, and we really liked Tuesdays because it meant Sam slept really well that night. I'm hoping to find an indoor soccer league to put him in for the long winter months. That would be a win win for everyone!


Ahhhh, well that was a look at our Adventurous August...one of these days I'll blog within a reasonable amount of time, and maybe avoid this month-by-month blogging thing....then again maybe not!