1st day of school

We've been in school for quite a while, but being the slacker that I am, I never got the pictures up. So here's my effort to get all caught up.

Here's Maddy on the 1st day. Do you think she likes monkeys?

Here are the boys showing off their new shirts.
Jacob was bound and determined to find a camouflage backpack. He is thrilled with his "army" backpack! Can't you just see the pride in his face!
Bryson was the easiest to buy a backpack for. We found this holographic Mario Kart backpack at the 1st store we went to and he was set!
I drove the kids to school the 1st day to help them carry all the supplies and donations and to meet their teachers, well Maddy's anyway - I already knew the boys teachers. If you look closely, you'll notice that even the Kleenex Maddy donated have monkey's on the boxes.

Bryson was soooooo excited to Finally start school! After we had dropped Maddy, Jacob and Bryson off in their classes, Ally asked me where her class was. I told her that she got to go home with mommy. She was a little disappointed, but I don't think she really wanted to stay. She seemed to enjoy having mom all to herself for a little while.

When I told Bryson that I was driving them on the 1st day of school he said, "Ah, come on!" He has been waiting FOREVER to be able to ride the bus with the big kids. At least it was some consolation that he got to ride the bus home. Here are the kids walking to the bus stop on the 2nd day of school. Ally had to have a backpack just like the rest of them.

Bryson was so excited!

Now the problem is that Ally keeps wanting to ride the bus. She wants to walk the kids to the bus stop everyday wearing her backpack. I guess she'll have to wait FOREVER too.

Crazy bungee tramp!

Here are the pictures from the bungee tramp. It was a full size trampoline that had poles up the side with bungee cords attached. They hooked several bungee cords to your harness according to your weight. After the cords were tightened up so that you were several feet off the trampoline, the worker would jump up and pull down on the cords to launch you super high!

Maddy was super brave and went first. They eased the kids into it and didn't shoot them the full height at first. They made sure they were able to handle the gradual increases.

She was even brave enough to do a few flips!!!

Jacob was smiling the whole time. He always looked like an X because he kept his legs out. Bryson loved it too, but he didn't go quite as high as the others. He wanted to do it again though. Too bad you only get one turn w/the passes or you have to pay extra. It was A LOT higher than I thought! I kept laughing and screaming at the same time and kept begging the guy not to launch me so high, but everyone else was telling him "higher, higher!". So of course he kept launching me HIGH! I would totally do it again though! I think I could have handled it better if he had eased me into like the kids - I'm just not as brave as I used to be!
I didn't do any flips. I was actually trying really hard to stay up right! Travis is much braver than I am! He was doing flips the whole time! It's pretty safe to say that the bungee tramp was super fun and we'd all do it again given the chance!

Family Reunion

The last part of our vacation in July was a family reunion for Travis's family. We were up in the mountains of CO. Their family used to have a cabin up there and this river was right by their old cabin. The kids had fun playing where dad played when he was a kid.

Ally loved watching the rocks splash in the water! She would squeal in delight every time!

What could be more fun than throwing big rocks in the river?
Especially so that Jacob gets splashed! ;) He was wet from the waist down before we left!

Maddy loved the walking stick she found - so of course everyone else to find one too.

We stayed at a hotel that had great amenities! We got to do some really fun activities! Bryson and I were riding the chairlift up to ride the Alpine slide. Even the ride up was fun!

Looks like Jacob was beating Bryson and I. He is a speed demon!

Maddy and her cousin Jenna rode the Alpine slide more than anyone else. They really packed it in!

There was a rock climbing wall. Bryson wasn't so sure about climbing high. He did get a few feet off the ground though.

Jacob and Maddy both reached the top!

We lucked out and it was one of 2 special "family days" there so the kids got to get their faces painted, got balloon animals and saw a magic show!

Bryson asked for a mad face. He was pleased with the result!

Jacob wanted fire!

Here are the boys panning for "gold". Jacob found some cool rocks and crystals and Bryson found some cool arrowheads.

Ally mainly loved the jumping castle.

The most unique activity was a bungee tramp. I'll post those pics next.

Here's our whole group at the end. What a fun reunion and what a great family!

More vacaton fun!

Phase 2 of our vacation was spent at Travis's parents house. My kids love to do Pixos there. I think they keep going until she finally runs out of beads. They just love it!

Travis's mom had all the grandkids paint rocks to put in her garden. Ally could have painted all day. We finally stopped her when all the colors were just being smeared together.
The next 2 shots show all the rocks. I tried to show which were my kids, but couldn't get the type any bigger in paint. Too bad I don't have photoshop or something. Oh well. Jacobs is the red one and Maddy's is the one that looks like a bug.

Ally's is the pink and purple and Bryson's is the one w/ orange writing on it.

The kids also got to do sparklers. They had a great time!

I had to hurry to get this picture before the sparks got too close to his cheeks! Crazy kid!

They loved these ones that had red fire.

Here is what Ally did every time someone got too close to her w/ one of the sparklers. She only liked to watch from a safe distance. Smart girl!

She finally decided it was safer to just sit on the step with her cousin next to grandpa.

Thanks for the fun time! We had a blast!

Stay tuned for our reunion fun!

Fun at my mom's

We got to be at my mom's over the 4th of July. It's so fun because the kids get to do fireworks in the street and then we can just watch the big fireworks from her driveway. My mom lives 2 houses down the street from the high school where they shoot off the fireworks. You can even hear the music a little. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that I don't have to get stuck in any after fireworks traffic and yet get to have front row seats!

This is another picture from the reception, but it's the only one I got of my niece Jessica and her son Spencer who were at my mom's the whole time we were. It was fun since I haven't gotten to spend much time with her in the last few years. My sister Denise is also in the picture ( I think I caught her in the middle of saying something - sorry Denise!) It's not weird for me to think of Jessica as a mom, but I still can't believe that my sister is a grandma!!!
Here is another one of my kids' big cousins. Austin was wrestling and tickling the boys again. You'd think they liked it or something! :)
My kids love to go to the children's museum by my mom's. Here is a pic of the kids on a huge map of the USA. You press a button to hear a clue about a state and then run and stand on that spot on the map.

Here is my fire crew. I'm not sure they'd make it to the right place w/ Ally driving! Hopefully she won't dump Jacob off the side! ;)

Maddy's BEST FRIEND in the WHOLE WIDE WORLD moved last fall. We were able to go visit Payton while on vacation. They hugged for several mins. when they 1st saw each other. Payton's mom and I went inside to visit a little and they were still standing there hugging. I think they missed each other!

While Maddy spent the day w/ Payton, the rest of the kids and I went to my sister Dalynn's house and then to a petting zoo near her house. Here's a cute shot of all the boys "locked up" in jail. Too bad there's such a gap in the bars on the left side! ;)

The kids loved the pony ride. Ally was not sure that she wanted to get on the pony at first, but ended up LOVING the ride and didn't want to get off! You can see Jacob in the background too, Bryson must have been out of the picture.

After a picnic dinner at the park, it was time to go and pick up Maddy. Here are the boys saying good-bye to their cousins, Seth and Bryson - how fun to have cousins so close in age, only a year apart!

Jacob and Calvin - even closer in age, only 4 months!

Saying good-bye was hard! What cute friends! I guess these hugs (and webkinz and phone calls) will have to do until next summer!

As always, we had a GREAT time at my mom's!