CAMPING

This August we went camping at Joe's Valley with my parents, my brother Mark and his family, and Mike's mom and brother John came up for 1 night.  It was the weekend of mom's and Mike's birthday.  We did this last year too only my brother Kirk and my sister Heather was there with their families too.  We went 4'wheeling and fishing and had a great time.  Austin and Chance caught their first fish, even I caught a fish.  Chance was the funniest when he caught his fish.  He was so excited, jumping up and down with excitement until we told him that is was custom to kiss his first fish he caught.  "I don't want to do that!" he claimed so Uncle Mark said "well how about we cook it up and you can eat it?"  "I don't want to do that either" he said. 

This last picture is Uncle Mark trowing back one of the small fish that was caught.  Cole was very inquisitive of what he was going.

JR. HIGH

Wow, I can't believe my baby boy started Jr. High already.  The time has gone by so fast.  I remember dropping him off at Kindergarten and he wrapped himself around my leg and cried.  Now he's off to Jr. High.  Where did the time go?  School starts on Thursday 8/26 at 7:50 and goes until 2:50.  But Wednesday it was just the 7th graders that went to school from 7:50 until noon.  The teachers and some 9th grades that volunteered were there to help the 7th graders with lockers and finding classes.  I think this was a great idea to give the 7th graders an opportunity to get familiar with the building and to help with the anxiety of starting Jr. High.  Austin was jazzed when he got home.  He loved it and thought it Jr. High was cool.  He's meeting new friends, some of which are girls.  He still takes a bus to school which I'm grateful for so I don't have to worry about how he's getting to and from school, especially Friday because they start 2 hours later.

INTERESTING CONVERSATION

Last night I was driving down to my mom's house and I had Chance with me.  Here is are conversation.

Chance:  What do you think the password word is?
Me:  What password, what are you talking about?
Chance:  The password to grandpa's computer.  Do you think it's Randy (Randy is grandpa's name for those of you who may not know)?
Me:  Maybe it's grandma's name.  Do you know Grandma's name?
Chance: No.
Me:  It's Tess.
Chance:  I don't like that.  That is something you do on paper at school.
Me:  No not test, it's Tess.
Chance:  Oh, with 2 S's.  I still don't like it.

So after going through several names grandma's new name is Alice.

Next Conversation:

Chance:  Grandma needs a dog.
Me:  I don't think gpa and gma wants a dog.  They have Omalley (their cat).
Chance:  They need to sell it.
Me:  I don't think they want to sell Omalley, they love him.
Chance:  Well that is a decision they need to make.
Me:  Well ask gma and gpa what they think then.
Chance:  No, I want you to make that decision.
Me:  I can't make that decision for them, Omalley is their cat.

So we did bring up this issue with gma and gpa and I am happy to annouce that they have made the decision so keep Omalley and not get a dog.

FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE!

Woo Hoo school has begun.  Chance is year round and is on A track which means he started school on 7/27/210.  He was very excited to start school full time and eat lunch at the school.  Even though he is a extremely picky eater he will eat lunch at school permitting they are serving something he will eat.  If they don't he takes a cold lunch.  So far he has been enjoying school and loves riding the bus to and from school.  According to him he is now a big kid and not a little boy.  Chance loves his teacher, Mrs. Saunders, and I've head nothing but good things about her.  The first few weeks of school they have a color for every day that they will study and everyone can wear that color to school.  As you can see in the pictures below the first day was Red Day.  So let's hope and pray for a wonderful year of school YIPPEE!

MEMORABLE MEMORIAL

For Memorial weekend we loaded up the trailer and went to the sand dunes for some fun.  The weather was perfect, not too hot and not too cold.  It was so relaxing to have a long weekend and to get out and see the kids have some fun.  And my baby went for his first 4-wheeler ride.  He did so good!  I'm so proud of him.

CRAZY KIDS

Chance is my picky eater.  He doesn't really eat meat unless you can count hot dogs and chicken nuggets.  Even when I'm at a grocery store he will gag and plug his nose while in the meat section.  The other day I was cooking dinner and Chance came into see what was for dinner (like he's really going to eat what I cook).  He looks in the fry pan and ask me what's that while plugging his nose.  I reply "fried chicken and mashed potatoes, yum yum mommies favorite".  Chance was totally disgusted, sometimes I wonder if they switched babies on me at the hospital.  I told him I could make him some homemade nuggets but he said that was not real chicken and he went to the freezer and pulled out a bag of frozen chicken nuggets and announced to me the this is real chicken.  A few minutes later Chance was back in the kitchen with a can a air freshener hosing down the kitchen from the smell of the apparently fake chicken I was cooking.

So a couple of weeks ago I asked Austin how his shoes were holding up.  It's probably been 5 or 6 months since the last pair we bought.  He said they were starting to wear out on the bottoms and holes were starting.  So we went shoe shopping.  My 12 year old son went from a size 7.5 to a size 9 in men's.  I can't believe how big that boys feet are.  Not to mention the size 14 pants are too short for him as well.  He's excited that he's getting so tall and can't wait until he's taller than me.  And he's also excited that he's starting to get armpit hair.  My baby is growing up too fast!!!

I was getting out of the shower a couple of days ago and found that Chance had invaded Cole's living quarters.

Austin insisted on trying to get in the dog kennel as well.  Yeah right like he's going to fit.

I don't think the dog liked the idea of the kids getting in his space.  Look at Cole's face in the last picture.  It's like he's saying "MMMOOOOMMMM, Austin's in my room!!!"

LET'S GO JAZZ

Last night Austin and I went to the Jazz game.  I decided to take Austin since he has done so well in school he's brought his grades up from D's and F's to almost all A's.  And all the help he gives me at home.  Austin has really been into basketball lately and wants to sign up for Junior Jazz as soon as they start enrolling.  I told him as long as he can keep up the good grades at school then he can play sports. 

We had so much fun last night!!!  The excitement and joy I saw Austin experience is a memory I will cherish forever, and I'm sure this is something he will never forget.  I called it a date night with mommy.  Austin didn't want to admit it was a date and refused to hold my hand . . . at first.  By the end of the night he was holding my hand and gave me a big hug and "thanks mom".

We started out having dinner in the VIP room.  To put it in Austin's words "this is fancy".  When he saw that we were sitting in row 1 his excitment for the game was through the roof.  He cheered, whooped, and hollered through the entire game.  He even was shown on the jumbo screen.  At half time it was back to the VIP room for snacks and pop.  All Austin could say over and over is that THIS IS SO COOL!!!!  At the end of the game the Jazz Bear grabbed Austin and he got to go on the court to celebrate our win and play in the confetti that the big confetti guns were shooting out.