Brad's Birthday and the First Days of School

Happy birthday to Brad!  We loved celebrating his birthday with fun family dates and of course, some pumpkin pie!

Aleah and Cade made some super cute decorations!  I love that they came up with these decorating ideas all on their own.

The weekend after Brad's birthday we went to Deer Creek for one last time for the year.  On the way there Aleah decided to pull out her tooth!  She didn't want it to fall out in the lake!  That makes three teeth that she has lost.  She is just like me, she loves to pull out her teeth.

Aleah decided that she would try water skiing.  She did great except we all forgot to tell her to let go of the rope when she crashed.  Man is she strong!  The poor girl got drug through the water until we hurried and stopped the boat!  But, she did hold her breath, so that was good.

On Brad's birthday we got to go to the school to meet Aleah's 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Halls.  Aleah instantly loved Mrs. Halls.  She was so excited to have her own desk.

The day after Brad's birthday, August 19th, was Aleah's first day of 1st grade.  She was so excited.  She picked out her clothes and did her hair, all on her own!  She is on the early bird schedule.  So she has school from 8:00 am to 2:15 pm.

Aleah loves to learn!  She loves school and was so happy to get to go to school again.  I did good until the way home.  Then the tears started!  I miss her.  I love being with her.  But, I'm thankful that she loves it!  Cade gave me a hug and said, "It's ok Mom.  You still have me!"  Such a sweet boy!

I had a fun week with Cade before he started school.  We went on bike rides together and enjoyed spending time together!  Now that school has started, he tells me all the time that he misses exercising with me.  He says, "Maybe we can exercise together on Saturday!"

The day before Cade started school Brad took the morning off from work to be with Cade.  They went to Thanksgiving Point and then out to lunch at Johnny Rockets.  Cade loved every minute of it.  He had been needing some time with Brad.

August 26th was Cade's first day of kindergarten.  He was beyond excited!  He has been looking forward to this day since Aleah started kindergarten!  He is in morning kindergarten.  He has school from 9:15 am to noon.   He rides his bike to and from school with two of his buddies, Asher and Tate.

As we were getting ready to leave to take Cade to school, he found a party popper in a drawer in the kitchen.  He felt like this was the perfect time to use it!  The picture is blurry because it scared me!

One of the boys who is in Cade's gymnastics class is in his kindergarten class.  His name is Hudson.  They were so excited when they saw each other!

He got to hold the door for everyone.  Which became one of his favorite things to do.

Cade's teacher is Mrs. Baca.  The same teacher Aleah had last year!  When I told him he got to be in Mrs. Baca's class he said, "That's what I was wishing for!"  He loves her.  She is such a great teacher.

Here is a picture of Cade's class on the first day.  His friend Asher is also in his class.

I miss him when he is at school, but I'm thankful that I still get to have lunch with him!

Getting Ready for School

Summer time was way too short this year!  We loved all the vacations and time that we got to spend together as a family.  To get ready for school to start we made a list of the things that we still wanted to do and tried to do as many as we could!  This year I was a little unprepared.  I forgot that since Aleah was starting first grade that she would be gone all day!  I do not like that part of first grade at all!   

Aleah and Cade are so creative and have so much fun together!  They made an amazing fort using almost all of the blankets in our house.

Of course, Thanksgiving Point was on the list.  But, I forgot that it was August and a Tuesday!  When we got there and there were millions of people I thought to myself, "What is going on here?"  Then it hit me, two dollar Tuesdays!!  No!!!!  But, we went outside to the children's garden and had a great time.  It actually wasn't too busy out there.

Aleah has been needing a bigger bike.  Brad found her an awesome one on ksl.  She loves it!

Our garden is doing well.  We even have some pumpkins growing!

We got to enjoy one last vacation with Brad's family at Red Ledges in Heber.  It is so beautiful there and nice that it is close to home.  We enjoyed a nice hike.

A lot of fun swimming in the pool!

We were able to successfully make a three person totem pole.  It was a funny thing to watch!

We tried many times, with many different arrangements of people, to get a four person totem pole.

We didn't have any success.  One time we almost had it long enough to get a picture, but I missed it.  It was a pretty hilarious activity!

We got to play some pickle ball!

And some basketball.

One evening all the adults went to see the play, The Wizard of OZ, at Sundance.  Fifteen years ago Brad took me to see, The Fiddler on the Roof, for our first date!  It was a fun date night and fun to reminisce about our first date.  After that first date we were pretty much inseparable!

The gymnastics place that Aleah and Cade go to did a segment on KUTV 2 Fresh Living.  Cade was asked to be one of the gymnasts.  He is so amazing!  He had a fun time being on TV.

Since we don't watch TV he didn't know what I was talking about when I told him what he was asked to do.  So this was his response, "No. Aleah can do it!"  After taking to him I found out that he thought it was going to be like the gymnastics that we watch on TV, the olympics!  So funny!  He told me, "I cant do stuff like those guys!"  I explained to him that he would just be doing the same things that he does in his class.  Then he felt good about it and was excited.

We had a good time.  But, they didn't show the kids as much as they showed the reporters.  It was kind of sad.  After Cade watched it I asked him what he thought.  He said, "Not good.  They just showed the people taking too much!"  He was totally right.  They needed to show the gymnasts more!

We found these cute desks at IKEA.  Aleah and Cade were very excited to have a place to do their homework.  I would be happy if they didn't have any homework at all!

Of course, our summer wouldn't be complete without a trip to Lagoon!

Even my parents came this year!  It was a fun fun day!

Aleah and Cade were tall enough to ride most of the rides.  We even went on Wicked two times.  I'm so glad that they love roller-coaster rides.  But, they are not too old for the little kids rides yet, either.

I got COMPLETELY soaked on Rattlesnake Rapids!  I was still wet that evening when we got home.  I knew it was a bad idea to sit by my brother on that ride!

Bombora is still our favorite ride!

And the kids couldn't leave without riding the bumper cars.

We truly had a wonderful summer vacation!