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I'm really missing those lazy sleep-in late mornings.

 

 

And those endless hours playing in the backyard.

It's just weird not having these two little toothless kids around all day. I'm not quite ready to give up that freedom of having our days all to ourselves, but I know this is what comes with kids growing up.  It's nice to see them learn and grow...but so so hard to just turn them over to school for hours and hours. I find myself wanting to be a fly on the wall in their classrooms to make sure they're okay. Poor little Ava is struggling with a bad case of nerves in her second week of Kindergarten. Her first week was wonderful, she loved it, but now she can hardly eat before school and one day she cried...which makes me want to cry. It's getting better, slowly, with  A LOT of bribing. It will all be okay....I just have to keep telling myself this.

 

The weekend before school started Jeremy and his dad did a catering job down in Pine Valley and so Grandma Barker and the kids and I tagged along. We all spent the night in St. George and did a little shopping and a lot of swimming.

 

Ruthy asleep in the hotel room.

 

Our big SECOND Grader! We walked down to get a donut and juice before school.

 

The next week was Ava's first day of Kindergarten! She was sooo excited...a least for that first day.

 

After picking them up from school we went out for Slurpee's.

Ava and Luke are both in soccer this year so we spend quite a few evenings at games. 

Ruthy spent a good part of one game eating and searching for chocolate chip cookies and sat like a big girl in her cool chair.

 

Here are a few pictures of the yard. This year a friend gave me some Morning Glory starts and I just love them, they are so bright and beautiful.

 

 

And that wraps up a pretty nice little "legend..wait for it...dairy" summer together.

Friends? Cousins?

Alison and I used to work together years ago and have stayed close friends ever since.We really should be sisters. On the drive out to their home Ava asked if Sadie and Cyd were her cousins.:) We just love this family like family and we always have a great time together. This summer we ran the river again with them and were able to squeeze in an extra day full of dinosaur bone hunting and playing down at the sandbar. So so fun...thanks again guys!

This is one of the coolest museums ever! They actually built this huge museum over the dinosaur dig site. An entire wall of the building is the side of a mountain full of bones! So you get to see first hand how amazing it would be to find these giant bones.   Up at the top floor of the museum...it's pretty impressive!  After lunch we headed down to the sand bar for some sandy fun. We made castles and mermaids and ate sandy Muddy Buddies.   The next morning we stopped at the "Sev" ,of course, for a breakfast of champions...powdered sugar donuts and Slurpees, then headed up to Flaming Gorge.  The water was freezing and the scenery was spectacular as always. This year we stopped at a sand bar to play on the side of the river, the kids loved it!    And of course we finished off the raft trip with a picnic at Little Hole, chicken salad sandwiches, peanut butter m&ms, and watermelon...our usual.    A few weeks later while Morgan and Alison did a wedding shoot in town (they are amazing photographers) we got to spend the whole day with the kids at Seven Peaks. The kids had a great time...they are fearless I tell ya...Sadie and Cyd both went down Free Fall! Luke made me go with him the last time we came here and I was pretty scared! He looked at me and said, "It's okay mom I'm even a little scared." :)