UEA Weekend....another visit from Grandma and Bapa

We were lucky to have another visit from my mom and dad over UEA weekend. The weather was beautiful and we had so much fun going to Thanksgiving point and the zoo.

Am I cut from the same mold as this lady or what?

This was a maze that you go through only making right turns. My dad tried to figure it out...Mo got bored after five minutes so went to find the others. He stood and pondered and then determined there was no solution and they had made a mistake. He of course notified the proper authorities. After a few reminders they finally came and checked it out.....to his satisfaction it was wrong. Someone had bumped a haystack while cleaning it. I laughed at my dad and told him he was having a "Monk moment".....he smiled and agreed.

Here he is proudly showing the kids the maze (after it was corrected). Don't give an engineer an problem with no solution....

This one did have a solution....note to future Corn Belly Maze goers: make sure you have a map in hand before entering the maze. They did not provide one to us. We asked a lady holding one in the maze where she got it, she gave us hers and told us where we were on the map. It took one PhD and one Masters to figure it out....but we did:)

Sam started 1st Grade

Sam has been telling me all August how excited he is that he gets to go to school all day. He

got to pick out his desk and his locker the night before school started and meet his teacher. He looks so grown up. After his first day I asked him what his favorite thing was. He replied lunch and recess...they get to have recess 3 times not just once. I guess that was what all the excitement was for...not reading, writing, math :)
Today we were getting ready to take him to school and he found out Mo was going to Kid's Club without him...he was so mad! I think he gets it now. He goes to school all day and Mo gets to play. Mo is more bored now that he has to play with me. His school doesn't start for 2 more weeks. Thankfully on the days I work he gets to have cousin Clark come over and build him awesome things out of Legos. He keeps asking me when Clark is going to come over.

Trip to St. George to say good bye to summer

Charisse invited us to play in St. George the week before school started to say goodbye to summer. We had a blast. Their pool has the amazing backdrop of snow canyon. We even got to go to dinner and swim with the Seninger gals because they were bringing Sierra down to school.
(Kathy is the one reading a cycling magazine with a shirt over her head.) We watched movies, decorated sugar cookies, and played games. Elias even beat me and Charisse in a game of Scrabble (with some helpful pointers on where to use the "x" tile and "s" tile to complete a double word score.)

My Daddy is My Favorite Pal....

My dad emailed a while ago and said to send him a "to do list" for next time they come up. He wanted to help us with some much needed items around our house.
They came up a few weeks ago and he went to town!!!

He built some awesome shelves in both bedroom closets!! I no longer have to stack things 5 feet high, fearing that they will fall on me when I go to retrieve something.

He also fixed broken shutters, a broken closet door, a leaky faucet, hung mirrors and hooks, and even found time to battle the spurge in my lawn.

Thanks Dad!!! You are the best. We can't thank you enough.
P.S. I have already started my next list--wink, wink.

4th of July in New Mexico

We got to spend another 4th of July in Los Alamos this year. I love going home to my small town and take part in the festivities. We packed it in and my kids were usually dirty from head to toe by the end of the day.

My mom had each kid make a boat to take to Bandelier and float down the stream. It was so much fun. She even taught them how to make homemade ice cream in sandwich baggies.

Our kids LOVE Reed and Heidi's kids!! They get along so well and love to play with them.

James flew in for the festivities on the weekend.

My brother and his dental partner, Dave Gartz, are in the Elders Quorum presidency together. They were in charge of popcorn at the church carnival. Busy guys. He even managed to find the time to fix a cavity in Sam's mouth. My brother is a great dentist. He gave Sam a you know what in his mouth (so mum's the word) and Sam had no idea.

We love playing in Grandma and Bapa's back yard!!

We also love playing in Reed and Heidi's. We barbaqued, made s'mores, and did fireworks there on Saturday.

Look how awesome his landscaping is. I am jealous.

Reed put on a great show for the kids. He even sent a flaming firework into his neighbor's backyard.

We went on a hike/picnic up to East Forks, Sunday afternoon...my favorite place in the Jemez Mountains.

Happy Fathers/Birthday James!!

James' Birthday is always close to Father's day. On Father's Day we took a picnic up to Storm Mountain. The three boys had a great time hiking and throwing rocks in the stream. No Father's Day would be complete without a superhero shirt to James picked out by Sam and Mo. They have theirs on too and love to all have their superhero wear on.
The next Sunday was his Birthday. We met friends over at Laird park to play a game of baseball and eat cake and ice cream. He even got a call from the Seningers in Switzerland on this birthday.

My Favorite Pictures From Our San Diego Trip

We got to spend a week with my family in San Diego for my parents' 40th anniversary. We had so much fun playing with cousins, going to the zoo, Sea World, Lego Land, and The Beach. My kids loved playing in the waves. Their Uncles built some awesome sand castles.

The 14 grandkids blended into the zoo life well!

Sam refused to snuggle in with his girl cousins.

Thank goodness James can handle the spinning, twirling rides. I take after my mom (as does Matt) and we watched Terri and James go on some of the rides with the kids.

We played hard all day and stayed up way too late !!