First Day of School

I cannot believe that Chloe is in 6th grade.

Apparently, 6th graders are suddenly embarrassed to have their mom take their picture in their new classroom.

Mortified, in fact. I wonder how she'll feel next year when she's in Jr. High...

My Little Myah started 1st grade today. First grade. First grade!

Pondering.

Lately, if you talk to Myah, she will let you know that she has 4 wiggly teeth.

And she will show you all the tricks she can do with her tongue.

I'm proud to announce that I only hyperventilated for about an hour this morning. I miss these two terribly when they're away from me (even though they drive me a little nuts when they're with me). Why is it like that? Tell me I'm not the only one who feels this way. And tell me I'm not crazy for feeling a little bitter at their eagerness and excitement about school. I know I should be tickled that I have daughters who love school so much. But I'm not. Not in the least. Shouldn't they be sad to leave me? Because they're not. Not in the least. This worries me. I think I need therapy.

Bear Country (Road Trip Part 3)

Yes. I said BEAR Country.

If you know me at all, you know that I am deathly afraid of bears. However, I do have to admit that driving through Bear Country was one of the highlights of the whole trip. These bears are used to people. At least that's what I had to tell myself.

Did you know that Leer can growl like a bear? It's a gift. He didn't know the camera was rolling when he was trying to wake a sleeping bear. I seriously laughed all my make-up off as I kept replaying this clip.

He got me back though when he rolled my window down while a big ol' bear was only about 15 feet away from me. Not nice!

Even though it's called Bear Country, they have a lot of other animals roaming around too.

Elks

Reindeer

Arctic Wolves

Big Horn Sheep

and Wolves

Mount Rushmore (Road Trip Part 2)

Day 2 of our road trip found us at Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. I guess we can now remove that from the bucket list.

Mount Rushmore in the daylight.

Mount Rushmore at night.

Martin's Cove (Road Trip Part 1)

This summer, our little family took a rather large road trip through 10 states.

Our first major stop was Martin's Cove in Wyoming. This is a place where the pioneers in the Martin Handcart Company had to stay on their journey west while they waited for snow storms to pass.

I have a deep respect and fascination for the pioneers. I think all they were willing to sacrifice and everything they had to endure for their beliefs is truly amazing. We were grateful for the chance to stop there.

Stadium of Fire

Chloe once again had the opportunity to participate in Stadium of Fire. Just like last year it turned out to be a wonderful experience for her. I think it's such a neat thing for her to do even though it's tough. It builds character and shows her that she can accomplish something really awesome because she worked hard. And let me tell you, these dancers work HARD. First they learn the dance at their own studios and then all the dancers practice together for about 25 hours over the course of 2 1/2 days. And it takes 840 dancers to put on a show like Stadium of Fire. They practice outside on astro turf and it is HOT and exhausting! It is so grueling that they have a team of EMTs there and believe me, they were busy. Luckily, I had the privilege of being able to volunteer again. I get to be responsible for a group of girls and give them rides to and from BYU, make sure they stay hydrated and spray them with water to try to keep them somewhat cool.

Soup (Ashlyn), Sasha (Chloe), Mrs. Wilkinson (Sarah) & Johnny I Mean Tina (Sophie)

This was the group of girls that I was responsible for. Oh my goodness, they had so much together. The conversations they had with each other during the car rides made me laugh until I cried. They even had nicknames for each other.

I didn't get any coverage of the dance performance or the Carrie Underwood concert or the fireworkds because my camera died. It had a message on it that said "Battery Exhausted" and I had to laugh because I knew all these girls could identify with that.

Timpanogos Cave

Well, here we all are at Timpanogos Cave. I wish I had put on some make-up. Oh well. We had a good time hiking up there with the fam. If you haven't been there, it's probably worth the effort to see the formations that can only be seen there. They named a lot of the formations after food or food related items. Here are some examples:

Caramel Falls

Salt and Pepper Shakers

Cave Bacon

Cave Popcorn

The Hershey's Kiss

Drinking Straws

Caves are weird.

Ryan & Lindsay

On May 7th, my little brother-in-law married the cutest girl you ever did see. What a perfect match they are for each other.

The Bride and Groom

The shoes

The kiddos

The kiddos with Grandpa and Grandma

Us