Back2School

And just like that, summer was over. I kept feeling bad about how much we didn't do. Moving kinda consumed me and took over ALOT of summer. But when I start feeling bad, I try to remember all the camping and boating we did do! We did have a fun summer and we were VERY busy so it flew by! I'm already looking forward to next summer so we can do lots more summer-y things!  

Here is my handsome SEVENTH GRADER!!! I really can't believe I have a kid in Jr. High! Time got away from me on that one. He seemed to grow up over night. And yes he is in full puberty squeaky voice, mode! He gives us all some good laughs when his voice cracks. He's attending Clark N. Johnson Jr. High this year. It was a tough choice since alot of his friends go to Tooele, but I think he'll fit in just fine and make lots of new friends. Getting him registered was a nightmare but I think he'll like his classes and succeed in all of them! His morning come an hour earlier than the girls and he was almost late, but I got him there with just a few minutes to spare! 

Rybug is in FIRST GRADE! We are a few months in as I'm typing this and I still can't get it out of my head that she is NOT in kindergarten! She is gone from me all day now and is of course thriving and loving every second. She loves learning Portuguese and comes home and chatters all sorts of new words she is learning. She cracks me up. 

Miss Mae is in FIFTH GRADE!!!! She''s already saying she hates school but I know she's excited. If for nothing else, to see her friends! She is such a beautiful girl inside and out and I know she will do great things. 

And Miss Bri wants to be just like her big sister and wants her hair done the same and clothes the same. As you can imagine, it doesn't always go over the best....

But on the first day of school, they were happy to be twinning!

I wasn't supposed to walk Ry into school but she had to use the bathroom so I got to walk her in and snuck a quick pic of her in front of her class room. She had some anxiety caused bathroom issues at the beginning of school but I'm happy to say they are resolving themselves as she gets more confident. 

We were running late the first day of school so I had to do their school boards after school! But its fine! 

 Love you my kids, but I also love that you are ALL FINALLY in school and I can hopefully find myself a hobby! Or sit in peace and quiet and eat pizza or something! (We all know I get bored in peace and quiet so I will be keeping myself as busy as possible, I hope!)

Dates

We've also been able to squeeze in some dates! Chad and I went to a play because we got free tickets at the last minute. I've never been to the Hale theatre but it was quite incredible in the round theatre with all the moving floors and parts! We really enjoyed it! 

And we promised kids all dates with mom or dad before school so we got even busier making them all work! Chad took Carter to UMC to do go karts, Mollie chose lunch at Subway with mom and Dad and a park, Bri chose the zoo and she's the only one I got pictures with and Rylee was actually sick alot and didn't get to go yet. But she has big plans for the childrens museum at the Gateway! We sure love spending time with our kiddos! I hope to be better at doing dates with them. I remember how great it was to do it with my parents as a kid and I always chose to go to TCBY for frozen yogurt!

 

Friends

Despite our busyness, we found a little time to see some friends! 

We always love game nights with the Maughans and Farris families. The kids are always so cute playing games themselves and having a good time. 

My friend Steffanie surprised me one evening on my porch with a huge surprise that she had moved back to Utah from Virginia and was here to stay! That made my heart happy!

My good friend Lyndi visited one day. I wanted to stay and talk but really only got about 15 minutes with her due to time constraints! But it was SO good to see her! 

And this one breaks my heart a little, Alex has been a best friend to my girls since they moved in. We are a little sad that they are moving to AZ but hope to be able to see her again every so often. Before they left, they gave us their snow blower! We picked it up one evening and let everyone say goodbye. 

We sure will miss her and her kind heart and generous spirit!!! 

 We truly are blessed with amazing friends in our lives!

 

Back to Baumgartner

 It has been 9 years or so since I've been to our favorite Baumgartner campground!  I so miss camping in the pine trees in the fresh mountain air that is pretty secluded from everything. It's mostly the same as i remember it but there was a land slide and a fire in the spots where we'd usually camp that happened a few years ago. Still, it is breathtakingly beautiful and I love telling my kids about all the memories I have there. This year, everyone but Justin's family came. We had the theme of the Olympics since our camping trip landed right in the middle of the 2020 (2021) Olympics. These pictures are all out of order but I'll do my best to explain them! 

Everyone is always happy to be out of the car and finally at camp. Especially since it was a 6 hour drive for us! I found the hammok ASAP and snuggled the niece!

That evening after everyone arrived, we had our opening ceremonies. Jord explained the activities and competitions over the next few days and the medaling system. He and Tay had a lot of fun things planned. 

There were all kinds of things, tiki toss, football toss, javelin toss, frisbee toss, and a corn hole tournament that went on constantly over the first days. But we also snuck away for plenty of water time. I was afraid the river would be too low to float and it really was, but Carter talked the uncles into doing it and later, Mollie and I did it. It was horrible. I had to stand and walk in several places just to keep moving. The few places it was deep enough was very relaxing! 

A heated corn hole tourney. There were some hurt feelings but I believe Chad and Carter ended up winning the competition!

Of course we hit the hot pool every morning! The kids loved running to it whenever they got a tiny chill. Waking up in a mountain hot tub every  morning is how I should start every day! 

Another competition we had to work on in advance was a boat race! We had to gather materials from nature only and build a boat that would float. You could team up with someone if you wanted. So here and Mollie and Ashton working hard on their boat!

Cute cousins! The kids all got along and did great!

We were supposed to dress up one day in a family color. We chose tie dye! Here are our socks and our shirts are a ways down below. 

One day was track races! It was very convinient we were camped in a loop! We had a foot race, bike race, relay races and a stick horse race!

Rylee and Roman spent lots of time hammering nails and pulling them out. I think they both had black eyes by the end of the trip from wacking themselves with a hammer. 

Each night we had a medal ceremony. Here is Bri getting a medal. 

Yum watermelon!

Medal board!

The gang in mostly matching t shirts!

We all had to make a family flag too. Here was ours. 

Here are some home made boats. 

We went down to the bridge and the brothers put them in the water to race. It was fun cheering them on from the bridge. Good times. There were some very creative ones and so not so creative ones (ahem...CHAD!) but we had a good time. 

Grandma bought stuff to do a fairy garden so we found a spot where there was a cross in the ground and did it at the foot of the tree by the cross. 

Grandkid pic!

The whole gang!

I've been dubbed Aunt Candy so here I am feeding the girls some candy just before bed. 

Jilly pup did pretty great with all the people around. She likes being outdoors. And she snuggled up right on our feet for bed. 

And just to prove I did it, I jumped off the rock without a life vest, and lived to tell the tale. It's always a great rush but on this hot day, it really felt nice!

I hope its not too long before we get to go back but in reality, I know it will be. But we sure loved our time! We made the long trek back to Utah Sat night. And we were all glad to be back home at 1AM!