It's official.... school has begun!

Today was Sam's first real day of school. He was SO excited! He went last Monday to their "back-to-school" day, and we got all of the info, met his teacher, made a craft, yada, yada, yada.
Here are a couple of pics of him from last Monday....



One of the things that Sam has been excited about is that he gets to ride the bus. When you're 5 that is such a cool thing.... when he's 15, I don't think he'll have the same feelings about it! The bus stop is on our corner, which is SO nice and ultra convenient. That way if Alex is sleeping at pick-up or drop-off time, I don't have to wake him up to get Sam.
I was so glad that he had his friends to ride the bus with! It's so different to put him on the bus and walk away. The last two years for pre-school, I would drive him and pick him up. Now, I put him on the bus and that's it. I feel like I should be driving to the school and watch him get off of the bus and walk into the school! I am proud of myself for not doing that this morning, even though I really wanted to! I thought for sure he would get on the bus and never look back, but as he was walking on he actually turned and told me good-bye! Cute little guy!



And, no shock at all.... Sam and his friend Ethan sat on the first bench, right behind the driver. (the picture is hard to see, but I still thought it was cute)

We are so proud of Sam. He is such a good little boy. I will miss having him around in the mornings, and so will Alex, but we are so excited for the fun times that he will have and all that he will learn! We love you Sam!

Happy Birthday Gary!

Gary.... just wanted to tell you HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Thank you for being the wonderful husband and father that you are! Your boys adore you.... and so do I! Hope you had a great day! I Love You!




And, a HUGE THANK YOU..... to Bon-Bon and Pa for watching the kids ALL day, so that we could spend some time together! We have the BEST family in the world! We had a great day today.... so THANK YOU!

Calling all Walkers......

It's that time of year again.... time once again for the Intermountain Healing Hearts "Walk for Healing Hearts."
So many of you know how near and dear to our hearts these children and their families are. This event allows us to spend time with them and raise money for the needs of the group. We love to invite each of you to join us, so that you can see these walking (and crawling) miracles. Being in their presence is truly a humbling experience!
The event will take place on Saturday, September 12th at the Riverview Park in Provo, which is the same location as last year. The event starts at 9:30 a.m. sharp. There will be same day registration beginning at 8:00 a.m. Early Registration is currently underway until August 26, 2009. To participate the registration fee is $10.00 per person or $50.00 per immediate family.
The "Walk for Healing Hearts" event includes:
T-shirts for each registered attendant.
One Mile Walk along the side of those wonderful Heart Heroes.
Angel Ceremony to recognize those IHH Heart Heroes that have lost their battle, but remain in our hearts forever....never to be forgotten!
Wonderful Door Prizes! (Must be present to win).
Goody bags for the kids (while quantities last).
Great time socializing with others while supporting and promoting CHD Awareness!
The proceeds from this walk benefit the programs that Intermountain Healing Hearts, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization administers. Those programs include: Hospital Care Bags, CHD Awareness Display Table at Primary Children's Medical Center, and CHD Awareness Activities during CHD Week (February 7-14), Intermountain Healing Hearts Social Activities to help bring families affected by CHD's together (both Heart Heroes living and Angels), Funeral Flowers/Plant, Youth Heart Camp at Camp Wapiti, and the IHH Tree for the Festival of Tree's.
You can register early by going to www.intermountainhealinghearts.org. If you cannot attend, but would like to donate to this wonderful cause, donations can be made either electronically through PayPal or checks can be mailed to: IHH, PO Box 381306 Salt Lake City, UT 84158. Donations are tax deductible applicable by the rules the IRS has established concerning 501(3)(c) organizations.
Without your support, none of these programs would be made available to help those affected by CHD's.
We hope that all who can join us, will! Please let me know if you would like to attend with us. Last year we made buttons for all in our group to wear to show their support for Alex, and this year we would like to do something like that again. After all, each of you are members of our support group! We would not be where we are today without the faith and prayers offered by each of you in behalf of our family!

One of those days....

Alex has had a rough day today, and the wounds on his face prove it!

First, he slipped on the stairs and fell down 2-3 of them which resulted in a black eye/rug burn. While at Cabela's, he tripped and hit his cheek in the edge of the bench. While at Cherry Hill, he slipped once again and hit his chin (on the opposite side) on the picnic table and left a nice scrape across there.

Obviously....

He's over it! (oh, and don't mind the food in his mouth!) At least if they really come in 3's, he's done.... for today anyway!

Is Summer Complete?

There are a few things that are required to take place before summer can be considered "complete".
First off, the more corn on the cob that you consume, the better your summer has been. As far as we're concerned.... it's been a great one!

And really, it doesn't matter "how" you eat... just as long as you do it!

Next, I believe it's mandatory to attend some sort of Fair. We choose to attend the Davis County Fair, not only because it's close, it's also free! And, really, how do you beat free!
We went with our good friends the Pounders, who we've been doing weekly activities with this entire summer, and it's been so much fun!
You of course have to see the bunnies, the chickens, get balloon animals and take a pony ride. The kids waited very patiently and spent time deciding which pony they were going to ride, only to have the attendants pick it for them. Sam was thrilled because he got to ride a real horse. He was a little disappointed because he wasn't wearing his boots and hat, but he quickly got over that!

He was, as usual, all grins at the thought of riding a horse!

Alex was also excited about the horses too! He never stopped jabbering and pointing his finger while he waited to ride.


I think we have another little cowboy at our house, because he also enjoyed his ride!

You cannot leave the fair without cotton candy and snowcones, right? The snowcones were a very welcome treat! We spent most of the day melting in the heat.

One more requirement is to go miniature golfing. Today, Ryan and Merilee invited us to join their family at Cherry Hill for some mini golf and dinner. We had a great time! The kids had a blast too. Luckily we didn't have anyone playing too closely behind us, so the kids kept hitting over and over at each hole. They were a little disappointed at the last hole when the ball didn't come out anywhere! It's no fun to have your ball taken from you, but they had a great time anyway! Here are a few pics from today.





Ryan and Merilee were camping at Cherry Hill, so after golfing we went back to their trailer and had dinner and visited for a while. Alex decided that he wanted to ride Rylee's scooter. He kept putting his foot down, like he knew what he was doing. We thought it was pretty cute! Thanks Rylee for being willing to share with Alex!


Thanks guys for the invite and the treats! We had a really great time!
There are so many other things that I need to blog about, but there will be time for that later, right? We've had a great time swimming, playing at parks, camping, yada, yada, yada!
The final consensus..... we've done a lot of fun things, but summer's still alive and kicking for 2 more weeks until Sam starts kindegarten! We'll try and catch up then!:)

Rock Sale...

One of the days when we got home from camping Gary and I were cleaning up. Sam decided that he was going to have a rock sale. You can imagine how many people were knocking down our door. Luckily, Gary and I got first pick on the rocks.
Sam was pretty excited... he even made his own sign to let us know he was OPEN!:)

Start saving your money.... maybe next time you can make it to the sale!

Please accept our apologies....

Currently we are too busy enjoying summer to spend time blogging! Here are a few pics of all that's going on, maybe someday we'll have time to blog about all of it... Thank you for understanding!:)

Mountain Shadows Retreat....

Or so we call it. When we got married we moved into some apartments called the Mountain Shadow Apartments. Six months later, my cousin got married and they moved into the same apts. Soon after that, our friends got married and moved in there as well, although, when they moved in we weren't friends. Through our 5 years of living there, we formed a great friendship between all of us. We started going on an annual camping trip about 7 years ago, with the exception of last year due to Alex being born... yada, yada, yada. This year we started again, and were so glad! We really missed not being able to go last year!
When we started these camping trips, there were 6 adults, and 1 child. Now you can see what we've blossomed into....

Our family arrived on Thursday afternoon, set up camp, took a little walk, and just spent some time together. We roasted hot dogs for dinner, and of course had to top it off with s'mores!


Sam really enjoyed his!
That night after we got the kids to bed, Gary and I hung out being hypnotized by the fire. We decided that we should probably just go to bed. Well, just as we were dozing off, the coyotes started howling... they stopped, we dozed off again, and Alex started howling! I took Alex into my sleeping bag and we "slept", at least he did. Later that night, the coyotes started howling again. Thankfully, not waking the kids up. About 2 hours later, they came back. At this point Sam began tapping me on the shoulder.... "Mom... mom... is that wolves?" "No Sam, go back to sleep." Did he follow my advice? Oh, heavens no. Why on earth would he do that? So Sam was awake from 4 a.m. until about 9 p.m.
Friday morning Gary and Sam went fishing while Alex slept and I dozed off and on in the camp chair sitting by the fire. Sam is still thrilled to use his flyrod, and always enjoys fishing with dad!

We spent lots of time hanging out together, throwing rocks in the river, fishing, hiking and eating lots of good food and treats!
The kids had a blast swinging in the hammock (until they broke it), and playing in the dirt.



Lucy had a blast too! Although she didn't want to swim, she did like cooling off in the water!

She also made lots of new friends...

Just a few more random pics of the trip...




Thanks Post-Mountain Shadows Tenants! We had a blast!

Ice Cream...

You know, Ice Cream....

Isn't just for humans....

At least that's what Lucy thinks!

Getaway to the Mountains....

We got to spend this weekend with my family at our family cabin in the Uintas. We had such a great time together! The kids had a blast and they got along the whole time which makes for even happier parents!
We did a lot of activities, played a lot of games, and ate A LOT of good food! If you're not in the mood to read a long post or look at a lot of pictures, here is your stopping point! Otherwise, read on....
Friday morning started out with a hike up the Christmas Meadows Trail. Things were muddy, as you would expect, but the kids had a ball with that! They all had fun stomping through it, especially Rylee! It's amazing how much fun kids can have being turned loose on a trail! They were running, and laughing, finding HUGE nightcrawlers, using walking sticks and really enjoying themselves!
Stopping for a quick picture...

Cute Miss Sara! And she's as sweet as she is cute!

More random pics from the hike...




Our hike was cut short though... the usual trickle that you step over, looked like this...

which makes it a little hard for the kids to cross!
It did, however, give us a great spot for a family pic!

And how did Alex do at an elevation of 8800 feet? You tell me....



Pretty darn good... the little stink! He had a great time being outdoors. We didn't even check his O2 sats while we were there, because he looked good, and he's so squirmy, that it's hard to get a "good reading".
Couldn't help but throw this one in too!

Later that day, Sara did a craft with the kids. Thanks Sara for taking the time and entertaining the little ones!

After a LONG walk (for the kids), some dinner, and pj's, Bon-Bon read a book to the kids. They loved it, except for Rylee.... she was more interested in posing for the picture! I think she's multi-tasking.... there's no reason a girl can't listen to a story and look cute for a picture all at the same time, right?

On Saturday morning, they took the usual trip to the gun range. Alex was sleeping, so I stayed back, and had a nice shower and got cleaned up in the peace and quiet. The guys are there trying to site in their guns for the hunt, but the kids love it just as much. Here are more random ones....




Here are a few more random ones, from hanging out at the cabin, taking walks, etc., etc.





Now for the absolute HIGHLIGHT of the trip. We bought Sam his own fly rod for his birthday back in March. Obviously, the weather has not been cooperating with us, to be able to get out and use it. He was so excited to use it for the first time. We tried on the rivers, but they are bursting at the seams. We figured it was good practice for him anyway to be able to cast into the water and just try it out. He did really well, and was having a great time even though there was no fish. We decided to try some beaver ponds that are just around the cabin on Saturday night. When we got there, Matt and Sara were already busy fishing. The fish were rising, and so we thought we'd give it a shot.
Here is what a little boy looks like after catching his first fish, by himself, on his very own fly rod...

I wish you could see a close up of this, because his look is priceless! Here's what it still looks like after catching fish #8...

What a cutie! Sam we are so proud of you! It appears the fly fishing DNA was passed from us to you, and we are so glad that you had a great time!
A few more random pics...


Had to include this one... my nephew Matt thought that he needed carried back to the cabin during the walk, when he got told no... this is what happened....

Yes, that's him sitting in the middle of the road pouting. I'm pretty sure he got in trouble.... that is, after we all had our pictures!
Also just wanted to tell Steven thanks for the laughs during Scattergories! Oh, and we love you even when you act like a big geek in your sensual shoes (long story, and had to be there)!

We really had a great time! We are so grateful for our family! We are so grateful to have this cabin available to us. Thank you to all of the many hands, hard work, and money spent to give us this place to enjoy each others company, and the beautiful creations of our Heavenly Father. Thanks for the good times Coons family! It was a great weekend!