Dancing Queen

In reorganzing my "pile" for back to school, I found this!

Saying Lucy loves to dance is like saying the sky is blue. She loves everything about her dance class...having her hair in a pony, wearing a leotard, her ballet shoes, her tap shoes, twirling, jumping, tapping, her friends, skipping, wearing her costumes, performing, she could go on and on. Lucky for Lucy, dance starts up again next week.

Daily Grind

Summer is officially over. The boys headed back to school this week. It was a happy sad day. Happy to see all their friends. Sad to wake up. I'm happy to have some structure back in our lives. Sad to spend time without them. They're pretty great.

Charlie was excited and nervous. Elliot was pretty much just excited. The night before we had father's blessings, laid out their clothes, lined up their backpacks and packed up all their new supplies. In the morning we started with a shower, dressed in uniforms, ate a healthy mini-wheat breakfast (totally a sucker for those back to school commercials) and then they were off. Lucky boys got to have their dad take them to school. Charlie wanted Justin to walk him to class. Elliot walked through the doors and said peace out. He walked himself to class. I see great things happening this year!

Bear Yake

We vacationed for the first time without Nana and Grandpa. It was a little weird, but still really fun. We did the usual, boating, eating, beach, eating, mini golf, eating. Did I mention I ate a lot of Mary's treats. And I took all weekend off from fitness. Oh the horror. Actually, I didn't miss it at all. It's amazing what 26.2 miles will do to your motivation to keep running.

The kids loved the boat as usual. They wake boarded, knee boarded and tubed. Charlie got up several times on the wake board in deep water. He looked like an old pro. And then there's the knee board, his new favorite past time. I think he loves it so much because any little wave or bump gives him sweet air. Elliot wake boarded mainly. He was a little gun shy after a bad fall at Pine View last week. But he pushed through and is getting better with every run. And then there was Princess Lucy. Uncle J.D. dumped her and Mary from the tube early on and then the drama was on. She would only sit in the middle of the tube, winced at every bump, and cried if the boat went too fast. Good, good times. I'm not anticipating pleasant times when it's time to throw her in the water to learn to ski.

We also spent a lot of time on the beach building sandcastles, searching for seashells and playing in the water. The cousins played and played and played. They wrestled, played soccer, baseball, tag and of course many games involving hunting or corralling animals.

Nana and Grandpa we missed you. We tried our best to offer the advice Dad would give to a skier in the water. Reminisced about crying in the water because Dad wouldn't let you in the boat until you got up. We used all the tricks you've taught us about planning ahead for dinner time. Without Nana there, I had no motivation to get up and run early. Sadly, I felt no guilt about that. We went on lots of "drives" to go get a beverage in your honor. We blessed our missionaries in every prayer! We love you.