Monster Mash

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It's officially over

I suppose we better post these remaining summer pictures that we keep meaning to put on our blog.














Because this morning we woke up to this. Somehow we never got a fall this year. This is the earliest end for our garden too. No more fresh salsa. No more Slip N Slide. No more shorts. Sigh. We are hanging our sad heads today like our poor sunflower.

Daddy....this is boring!

We thought we would share a little Old Faithful memory...

Aubrie the artist and poet

Aubrie has been impressing us since she was very small with her creativity and drawing. But, about six months ago (so, I'm a tad behind here!) I was surprised when she brought her portfolio home from her Kindergarten poetry writing. I'm late in doing this, but I was just so amazed at her talent as a poet in Kindergarten that I wanted to keep these on digital record. I'm not sure if her great writing is a testament of her excellent school, or if it's just Aubrie. I scanned them all, but then realized I should probably type a few so they are more readable on the blog (the ones I didn't scan can be viewed better if you click on them first). How does she know to write metaphors like the one above?! So cool!




My Heart, by Aubrie
My heart is a great place.
You might think I'm ugly.
But inside I'm a great beauty
Almost like a clam
How you at first think it is ugly,
but when you put sand in clams it grows a pearl inside it!




She brought this artwork home from school the other day. She explained that it is an airplane in the sky that wrote "MOM" in the clouds. The rainbow is coming from the sprinklers that are on in the yard! Cute!



She explained this portrait is made out of her favorite foods (blueberries for eyes, lemons for cheeks, raspberries for mouth, etc.)

School, By Aubrie

School is the best thing in town.
It is better than the store with a crown.
We learn how to read and that's one of the needs
We learn Spanish
and sometimes I get a little tanish!

Back to School

I'm a bit overdue on posting these as we are starting our third week of school. But, back-to-school pictures are just so important!


Aubrie is a first grader this year. It actually doesn't mean too much of a transition though because she attended all-day kindergarten starting in January.


The bigger transition for her is that she ended up with a new teacher, Mrs. Franzen. Because of her combined grade level school, she was supposed to have the same teacher this year but with budget cuts, things were changed around a bit. After a little bit of drama this summer due to this, things are going quite smoothly and Aubrie truly loves her teacher. It's fun to already see her growing up a little and having more confidence at school.


Elliana is in her second year of Joy School. Her schedule hasn't changed much this year either, except that her school is 30 minutes longer.


Here she is with all her cute Joy School friends on their first day!


As we dropped the girls off on their first day, Teyah said, "I want to go to class!" Even though she thinks she's ready for school, the two of us have been enjoying a little one-on-one time. And, even though I miss the girls immensely while they are away, it is quite nice only having to take one to the grocery store!

Summer in 3 1/2 minutes

During my second trimester, we entered 11 states! It was tough to fit it all into one song, but here are the highlights nonetheless.

A reason to celebrate

These two love-birds (my sister Toni and her new husband Darin) chose to get married Labor Day weekend in Utah. We hadn't anticipated much travel at all this summer, but with all these important family events that were unexpected, it made for a ton of travel!


Toni was a beautiful bride, and I enjoyed spending lots of time with her the week of the wedding. I am so happy I was able to be a part of it. We love Darin and couldn't be happier for these two.


About three years ago, we experienced a driving trip to Utah from you-know-where, and swore we would never make that drive again. But with Dave completely out of days off and our travel budget more than exhausted, we didn't have much of a choice this time. David drove the family to Utah one weekend, flew home on frequent flyer miles home so he could work, flew back the next weekend for the wedding, and less then 24 hours later turned around and drove us home! What a patient and nice husband I have!


We decided that if we were going to make the 21-hour drive, we would try to make the trip there somewhat of a vacation; we'd do it in three days; and see some things our kids (and David) hadn't seen before.


This picture is fun to me because I have such distinct memories of this dinosaur (and the slide in the picture below) from when I was a very young girl.


That slide has got to be about a thousand years old! What a flashback!


I enjoyed going back to the "cowboy culture" I grew up with and realized what a distinct culture it really is. Growing up, it just seemed so normal!


Returning to Mount Rushmore as an adult was fun too, because as a kid I was so unimpressed by it. Isn't it great, when you realize you have gained some perspective on something? Our kids, were not so enthused.




However, we stopped at this adorable storybook village park in Rapid City, SD, and they were mighty impressed by it.


Teyah especially loved this "choo, choo train." After seeing the trains at Carpinteria this summer, she has been totally obsessed (our first kid to like trains). So, when she got to ride this little train all by herself she was more than thrilled!


We kept our path due west and stayed a night in my hometown. It was a total trip taking my girls to the Wyoming Dairy Queen I basically grew up in! It has hardly changed and they sat on the same saddle chairs I sat on when I was their age!


This gorgeous pic, doesn't exactly evoke the best memories. It was taken right in front of the Antler Motel that we stayed in. The motel was fine until we woke up in the morning and realized Dave had been eaten alive by bed bugs! The bites quickly grew into large blisters and after several medications, and two weeks time, they have still not completely disappeared. Did I mention I have a trooper of a husband?


We enjoyed our drive through Yellowstone too. The only scary part was when Teyah's carseat buckle broke in the park. We weren't quite sure how to proceed, but after my impressive husband messed with it a little, he rigged it so we could safely continue on.


The trip from memory lane continued on to Idaho. This is the first house we purchased and the one we brought Aubrie home from the hospital! It was the same owners we sold it to, and they let us see inside, the backyard and updated us on the neighbors! What fun!


I am going to explain further why my husband is so patient. We made it to Utah just before midnight Sunday night. Then, he arose at 4 a.m. to take the early flight back home Monday morning to be able to work. Around 8:30 a.m. he called and said he was still in Utah because Northwest/Delta had canceled his flight due to mechanical issues, and re-booked him on a non-direct flight. After even more delays in Denver, he finally arrived at work at 4 p.m. Needless to say, our plan of him not missing work, didn't go over so well.


The week the girls and I spent in Utah was great fun! We spent time with cousins, Grandma, aunts, great grandparents, etc. Everyone was healthy until the stomach bug started to hit one-by-one.

Unfortunately, I had it the day we drove home. But despite the bed bugs, the flu, and the canceled flight, I still think the trip was worth it! We loved being there with family and seeing Toni so happy. Congrats Toni and Darin! Thanks for giving us an excuse to travel again.

The magical vacation, round 2

We have truly found a family favorite place to vacation. The Blue Harbor Resort in Sheboygan, Wisconsin is above and beyond my favorite place in the world.


I look at these pictures, and I smile. My shoulders melt, I breathe a little deeper, and I'm suddenly rejuvenated again. I can't think of anywhere else that evokes that kind of physical response.


Even being pregnant and not able to enjoy water slides, I loved seeing the girls have fun at the water park.


When you are having this kind of true vacation, you let your kids stay up late and have their own gigantic ice cream sandwich. You do this because you are in such a good mood that you can take on any meltdowns they might have from being overly tired and overly sugared.


We didn't have to do any work to go to the beach there -- the resort has towels, sand toys, a shower to clean up and a maid to vacuum sand from the room.


The sunsets are impressive, and walks are dreamy -- whether it be in the morning or evening because of the eye candy all around.


Others organize activities for your children to participate in, and provide the supplies (and did I mention clean up?).


We stayed in two rooms because we wanted the kids to experience the "Aquarium Room."


The girls have always wanted to sleep in bunk beds, and they finally got their chance!


When we first arrived at the hotel, the kids were beyond excited! They remember it from last year, and they love it as much as we do. They have talked about it through the year numerous times.


They enjoyed a break from the water when they entered the "Kids Club Room" to color a picture for the coloring contest and play a little.


The only disappointment this year was the waves were flat. We found out the waves on Lake Michigan are unpredictable and have a lot to do with weather patterns and wind direction.

We are already talking about the next trip. Anyone want to join us? I think I should get paid for doing an advertisement for the resort! In all of our travels, twice now, this has definitely been our most relaxing, most fun family vacation. With such a whirlwind summer, I'm so grateful we were able to squeeze this trip in because I think we all came home closer as a family, happy, and refreshed!