First Day of School 2011

Our hopes were high for this school year.  Luke started Kindergarten at a brand new school, Leonard Elementary, and Audrey started her first year of pre-school.  Luke got on the bus the first day, and I couldn't believe what a big guy he is.  Although he hasn't talked yet this year, but we have started lots of new things to try and help him.  He likes his teacher and school, and he says that his favorite part of school is gym class.

Despite major excitement to start school, Audrey was a bit unsure on her first day.  We have been really pleased with her school, though, and her teachers are great.  After a few tears on the first day, she loves to go to school and has never looked back.

Troy Daze & Bronner's

If you know us, we aren't much into touristy or crowded venues.  However, when our city - Troy, MI - had a 4-day-long festival right across the street from our house, I had to take the kids.  It was just too tortuous for them to see the craziness day in and day out and not go over there.  We set a strict budget, so they pretty much each got to go on one ride and play a few games.  My very favorite part, though, that made it all worth it was the free magic show we just happened to stumble upon.  They asked for a volunteer from the audience, and before I knew what had happened, Luke was up on stage!  He actually raised his hand and volunteered!  That is VERY out of character for him.  He went up in front of everyone, said his name in the microphone, and helped the magician with a trick.  I was snapping pictures and clapping like a crazy fool, because I was so giddy with excitement over this breakthrough for Luke.  He can talk when he wants to!   Yea!!!  Audrey also helped on stage, so it was very exciting for our family that day.  

 
The next weekend, we went as a family up to Frankenmuth, MI for another out-of-the-ordinary touristy experience.  We went to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland, which is supposedly the biggest Christmas store in the world.  I have to say that I was expecting more, but it was pretty neat.  There were a LOT of breakable ornaments within Max's reach, so we couldn't stay for too long.  We did get a personalized ornament to commemorate the trip.  Our favorite part of Frankenmuth was the family-style all-you-can-eat chicken dinner at the Bavarian Inn in town.  It was really fun with the waiters and waitresses decked out in traditional German outfits, and the kids did well.  We are glad we made the trip.  I realized that I mostly took pictures of neat decorations and crafts that I wanted to recreate for cheaper at home - instead of pics of the family.  Sheesh.  At least we got one with most of us in it!

Scripture Camp

As Primary President in our ward, it was my pleasure to be in charge of Scripture Camp this year.  Pretty much every year (depending on the presidency), our ward has done this as a kind of Vacation Bible School idea for our Primary kids.  This year we held it from 9-12 for three consecutive days, and it was a ton of fun.  It was also a lot of work, but I think our ward keeps doing it because it is so much fun.  This year we did a "Travel Through the Scriptures" theme, so we decorated a hallway like a time machine and had the kids travel back in time to Old Testament, New Testament, and Book of Mormon times.  There were lots of funny costumes.  Personally, I don't think the pictures do it justice.  There were lots of interactive games, activities, crafts, snacks, and relays.  We didn't even get any pictures of the last day, which was a bunch of water games, slip and slides, etc.  My kids were begging to go back again after it was over.  

You guessed it.  That's me as Moses.

Audrey Turns 4

Birthday season at our house continued with Audrey's big day on August 23rd.  Here she is posing in her new princess outfit and jewelry (for her and her doll) from Grandma and Grandpa Hall.  

 She picked Texas Roadhouse for dinner, although Luke may have been very persuasive in his opinion.  It ended up being the perfect choice on that night, because they apparently have kids' night on Tuesdays.  There were balloons, face-painting, and a very large Andy the Armadillo walking around to say hi to the kids.  Plus, free kids' meals!

Then we headed home for a very delicious ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen.

For her party a week or so later, I was racking my brain for something fun but not over-the-top.  I came up with the idea of having a Painting Party, and I have to say that it was awesome!  For our 4-year-old, we invited 3 friends so that there would be 4 total girls.  Very manageable, and she just so happens to have 3 main friends.  We did face-painting with homemade face paint, fingernail painting, and finger-painting with homemade finger-paints.  Easy, cheap, and really fun.  But, my favorite part of all was the cake.  I did a rainbow cake  (6 layers) and covered it with white fondant.  I discovered that I'm not very good at working with fondant, but the girls didn't seem to mind the bumps.  Then, they got to "paint" the cake with food markers.  I think that was their favorite part.  Then, we ate cake and ice cream, opened presents, and played until moms came.  It was kind of a glorified play-date, and I HIGHLY recommend it!  Audrey got to have lots of fun with her friends doing a bunch of her favorite things, and she felt very special.

Happy Birthday, Princess Audrey!

August Party - Part 2

While in Phoenix area for the wedding, we were able to hang out with my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and fabulously accomplished cousins on Sunday.  There were pictures taken, but I'm not sure on whose camera.  Maybe I'll get a hold of them someday.  Anyway, it was awesome to see them, as we don't get to nearly often enough.  

On Monday, we were on the road again (or should I say in the air again) on our way to one of our favorite places on earth - Montana!  Becky picked us up at the airport in Missoula and drove us up to their cabin in Kalispell.  Lake Blaine looked just as we had left it a couple of years before, but I think it had missed us.

 My pictures are randomly out of order, but you get the idea.

Jeff, Kayla, and cousin Nixon!

Max and I

Baby Nixon.  It was so awesome to finally meet him!  Hooray for cousin #2!

Max

Everyone in the family was there!  Unfortunately Kristin left before the family picture.

Proof that Luke had a tube wipeout.  Luckily, he laughed and climbed right back on.

Notice that Luke is always on a tube, and he's always in the middle of the big one.  Smart boy.

Me enjoying the "refreshing" water.

Clay getting ready to go.

Uh oh.

We'll just call that a backflip.

And hopefully that wasn't why the wedge broke.  hehe

This kid is hilarious.

Audrey and Luke both loved riding in the front of the boat.

 Blake and cousin Sadie

 Brita and Sadie

Brock

Jeff

Luke jumped off the dock!  If you know him, that's a huge accomplishment.

Bryce

We did tons of skiing, wake boarding, tubing, swimming, paddle boating, and general laking, and then we said goodbye to a few siblings and drove north.  We were able to stop at Clayton's Grandma Hall's house, which was really nice.  We haven't seen her in a while.  Then, we drove up to Calgary for a day or two before flying home.  Becky even humored us and took the whole family to ride horses.  We took lots of pictures of the kids with Great-Grandma Hall and having a blast with the horses, but our camera broke and we lost them all.  At least we saved a few of the wedding pictures.  

Update: found a couple of extra pictures!

All in all, quite the awesome two weeks.  We were all exhausted by the end (especially Max), but we would do it again in a heartbeat.  We miss everyone like crazy already!