Family Night at the Bee's Game!

We have been planning on going to a Bee's Baseball game all summer long, but we have been very busy! So we finally made it to the Bee's game for Family Night! It was a perfect night for a baseball game! It was fun eating hot-dogs and nachos! The kids loved the family outing! Mara asked if we could get ice-cream and I told her probably not since we had done dinner instead. We decided to go for a walk around the stadium and as we were standing there a man came up and asked Mara if she would be willing to participate in the next activity down on the field! She was a little nervous and apprehensive but she did it!

So here is Mara down on the Bee's Field with Tony, the announcer! (Nate recognized him from his morning sport radio show!) 

Mara said it was a little scary being down on the field with all the players, but she did a great job and said it was fun! 

So the game Mara participated in Tony asked each side of the crowd to cheer and Mara had to choose which side cheered the loudest! 

Mara, The Bee and Tony listening to the crowd cheer! 

I cheered so loud! I felt like yelling "That's my daughter down there!!" But I didn't! Mara pointed to the loudest side and for participating she received a Bee's frisbee which had a coupon on it for a free ice-cream cone! 

Mara was even up on the jumbo-tron! Pretty exciting!! Way to go Mara!! Talk about being at the right place at the right time! We just so happened to be walking by when Tony was looking for a participant!

And Mara got her wish! A HUGE ice-cream cone! She did share with her family!  

Caleb loved the Bee's game, especially playing the game: "hit or miss?!" Before each batter hit we would say 'hit or miss?' and we would guess if the player was going to hit the ball or miss it! It was really funny to play with Caleb!

 

Carder also loved the game! He thought it was so fun cheering for the baseball players! He especially loved eating the ice-cream and playing at the playground! 

 Love these kiddos of mine! They are so fun to be with! It was a fun night being together as a family! We can't wait to go back to another baseball game!

First Day of School!

The new school year has started!! We actually have complete the first full week! It went by so fast! The kids are doing awesome in school! They all have great teachers and are excited for the new adventures, new friends and even a new school! 

I can't believe I have a middle schooler!! No way! It doesn't even seem possible! Ty is officially in middle school! This picture was taken at Back-to-school night. We went around and helped him find his classes, figure out his schedule, and practice getting in his locker! Oh my! The joys of middle school! Ty is doing well so far at his new school. He likes his teachers, he has lots of friends! Go Ty! I hope it's a great year for him!

These two little cuties get to ride the bus together! I'm glad they have each other and can go to school together! They were super excited for their first day!

Caleb is in 1st grade! All day long! It is a very long day for him and me! But he loves it! I miss him so much, and so does Carder! But he is meeting new friends and likes his teacher and I can tell this is going to be a great year for Caluba!

This pretty little sweetie is in 3rd grade! Oh my goodness, multiplications, cursive writing! Wow! She is so excited for school! She is such a smart girl and happy and loves learning!

There she goes with her new backpack on the bus!

Caleb was excited to ride the bus with his sister! (But he made sure we followed the bus up to the school to see him in his class!)

There she is! Ready to learn! She was already in her desk working hard on her assignment when we got to school! She loves her teachers and is happy to be in the class she's in! Way to go Mara!

Caleb walked right in and got busy coloring! He was excited to have two friends sitting by him! He is going to be a great 1st grader!

And then there was one!! Poor Carder! So sad! He feels lost and lonely without his siblings! The first couple days he liked the extra attention, but the fun has worn off and every day he asks when his brothers and sisters are coming home and if we can go to the school and get them! It's nice having one on one time with this little buddy of mine!

I didn't get a before school picture of Ty on his first day because he almost missed the bus! So I was waiting with camera in hand when he came home!! I sure missed this big boy of mine! He seems so far away at school!

Matching kids!

I love Sundays! I love that we get all dressed up for church looking so handsome and pretty! I also love that most of my kids can get ready by themselves now! The other day we thought it was very funny that we had two sets of matching kids! Ty and Caleb got all dressed and they were matching--and Mara and Carder had the same color scheme going on! (Mara said they looked like they were ready to watch a Seattle Sea-hawks game!! Go Sea-hawks!)

Future missionaries right here! Love these handsome boys! Glad they are faithful and obedient sons! 

Awe! Match-matching kids!! They are all getting so big so fast!

Our lucky day!!

One Saturday we were out running errands and we just so happened to be by the Sportsmen's Warehouse. They were having a Family Fun Day and we stopped by to check out the activities. They had a few contests that just by participating you could enter your name into the drawing. We each had a turn to throw frisbees into a target, and try fly fishing into hula-hoops. If you hit the target you could enter your name in again to the drawing.

Well, later that night we received a phone call that Mara had won a dutch oven from the Fun Day! A few minutes later we received another phone call saying Ty and Caleb also won!!  Wow! Talk about our lucky day! The kids were so excited and Nate was thrilled! The next night we had an all Dutch Oven dinner with three of the dishes cooked in our new dutch ovens: scalloped potatoes, corn bread and apple cobbler!!

Glimpse of Summer Activities!!

I can't believe our summer is over! Where did the time go!? We had a great summer and did lots of fun activities. Our family motto is "We work hard and we play hard!" We sure did a lot of that this summer! There was time to work and time to play! We had a great summer schedule and I will be honest I woke up my kids almost every morning to keep with that schedule! We had morning devotional together and studied and memorized The Living Christ. Every morning we also studied a conference talk together. It was a great way to begin our day! Then we got our chores done and went out to find an adventure or called friends over and played hard!! I miss summer already!

One day we went for a bike ride! This is close to our house. It was a pretty tough ride up steep hills but the kids did great. 

Caleb loves catching butterflies! He did a lot of this this summer! 

 The swimming pond belongs to a family in our ward! We went up for a ward Family Night and went swimming. They have slides and a rope swing! Fun times!

 One day we went bowling! Carder thought it was so fun to push his ball down the ramp!

Caleb did great bowling! He didn't even use the ramp! 

One day we went and visited Grandma Lewis at her school for a faculty & family water slide night!! 

The kids had fun going down the blow-up slides and eating dinner with their grandma!

We had fun with some old friends at the Tree House Museum. Carder liked playing dress up! 

 Even Ty had fun with the dress up! He is acting out the story of the Billy Goats Gruff...he's the BIG billy goat!

 

 Caleb had fun building an arch!

Carder had fun trying to play chess like the big kids!

 We had lots of fun times at Mimi and Papa's house! Carder wanted to try on Papa's boots!

Look close and you can see a dinosaur! We had fun at the dinosaur park with our friends! 

This place really made an impact on Carder! He loved going here and talks about going back all the time! 

 

This is the 'after' picture of our swimming fun!

We tried fishing at a near by lake, not even a bite!! 

But Carder had a blast playing with the worms! 

Mara really tried to catch a fish! 

We went exploring to new parks! Glad Ty hasn't gotten too big for the park! 

We had the perfect day at the park, had a picnic, went on a hike in the stream, and even rolled down the grassy hill! 

 

Carder had a good time playing here! 

 We went for a hike with friends up by the ski resort! It was a perfect trail for these little legs! 

 

We love going to Liberty Park! We played all day here with our friends! Rode bikes, fed the ducks, had a picnic, played in the water! It was a very fun day!  

Carder especially loved being with his cute friend! He kept trying to hold her hand, but she wasn't going to have that!!

 The kids loved playing in the water the best! It was nice to cool off! 

We escaped the heat one day and got snow cones and went to the park!

 

 I always knew it was a good day and we played hard when all kids fell asleep on the ride home!! Fun fun times this summer! Counting down the days until the next summer vacation!!