Thursday, August 25, 2011

School...once again!


Kate and Kelsie! Kate had to wear her soccer uniform top on the first day, since she had a game. I guess she's giving her grump face...

School started (in August) once again, for my cute kiddos. Kate is now a sophomore! Afton is a 8th grader, at her Junior High, Dylan is in 6th grade! Last year in Elementary for him! And my Jocelynn is in 4th grade! 4th grade! I can hardly believe it! In 4th grade, we moved from the dorms to our new house, and I had Mr. Westover, I think he is my favorite all-time teacher, probably because I was a good student, and he liked me, so I always got to run his errands! The funny things you remember! Here are some pics of the first day of school, and some pics of the night before, modeling new school clothes.
Afton and Maddi, Maddi, and Hannah

4th grader Jocelynn
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Sunday, August 21, 2011

The Summer that never ended?


No, the summer did end, but we did more activities, so here are a few more that we did with Erina...

We went to Cedar City for Jacob's Baptism. On the way down, we stopped at Cove Fort, thinking it would be a nice little time to relax, and just learn more about the Pioneers, but it was "Cove Fort Days" and the place was packed! The best thing about it, was they served free lunch! So hotdogs and chips around. Erina really could join our family, because she did NOT like hotdogs!
We got to spend the night at the cabin...
The Cabin




Jacob and Grandma Murray at Jacob's Baptism

Make-overs at Kathryn's after the Baptism with Seval.
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Emma's Play! And Jacob's too. They both did a great job!Especially since it was a special dress rehearsal.

Jocelynn and Erina in her Ukata. Erina looked so pretty (and later, she was so sweet and sent all of the girls their very own!)


And of course playing at the park!


Friday, August 19, 2011

Erina summer continues...


I saw a groupon deal, and decided to buy it for a float down the Provo River. This was one of our most exciting/dangerous activities of the summer. It was only dangerous for the fact that we could not steer the boat, and we kept running into the side!
After rafting we visited Bridal Veil Falls.
After the falls, we drove to Salt Lake and had dinner at 5 Guys, Burgers and Fries. They had the biggest hamburgers we've ever seen, and we were surprised that Erina ate the whole thing! Plus fries!

Everyone emjoyed their dinner!

After dinner, we went to the Sandy City Hall to see the Hot Air Balloon Festival. I've always wanted to go to one, so I was excited that it was at a time we could attend. We got to watch them set their balloons up, and then blow them up, and at the end, see them lit up. It was really pretty. I don't know where my better pictures are!


It was a fun and memorable day!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Erina summer...continued

Erina was with us for about a month...here are some pictures of the various activities...
Pizza at Costco!
Ice cream at Dairy Queen (in Beaver)
Visiting Daniel at work and looking out at the city!
Tour of the candy factory!
and swimming!

Monday, August 15, 2011

An Erina kind of summer!

Well, contribute it to the fact, that growing up, in my house, we had many different people come and live at our house, that when the opportunity arose to have a Japanese foreign exchange student come stay at our house for a month, I talked my dear husband into letting her stay at our house,(this was especially great, since it meant that the downstairs bathroom now had a finished date). So we quickly signed up for a teenage girl...and picked her up with her traveling group at the end of July. Erina...so very cute, but she didn't speak any English! She smiled a lot, and we tried as hard as we could to help her feel welcomed, to feel like she was part of the family, and to communicate with her, but I'm still not sure how well we did. The best part was that we had to come up with activities to do, which was also the worst part, because I felt a lot of pressure to keep her entertained! But it helped to also provide my kids more activties, which was also difficult, because we were juggling everyone's schedules, especially Kate's, because she was just made the High School Soccer team, and she had to be to all of the practices, and then the games. Here are a few of the pics, of some of our various activities.

Went to downtown Salt Lake, to see Temple Square, then rode Trax to the Gateway
We went to the Bingham Copper Mine, to check that out... it had been raining, and they almost didn't let us go, but by the time we finished with the visitor center, it had stopped raining, so we got to see down into the open mining pit.
I must say, that our bowling alley is awesome! They did some program where "kids bowl free", you just had to pay for shoe rental, and you could bowl, so that was my life saver this summer! I thought I'd get to go bowling, but every time, something else came up, so I just dropped them off! I hope Erina liked to bowl!! (Never knew for sure, she never could tell us)

Kate... A Soccer Stallion(ette?)

Kate worked hard all summer long. She went to soccer camp, she went to all of the open field practices, she practiced on her own (with help from her parents), and then tried out for the High School Soccer team...and she made it! It kept her very busy, and it kept us busy. She was so much fun to watch, and she kept improving throughout the season. The coach was impressed with her dedication to the team, to practices, and to games. Other girls made excuses not to go to practice, and even games, but Kate made it to all of them, and her coaches rewarded her with extra playing time. She was a regular starter on the JV team and played in a lot of the Varsity games. Loved watching her play, and loved watching her grow.
Such a pretty girl!

A special note, to wish her luck on the first day of tryouts.

She made it!

Showing some of her moves (I need to improve my camera skills, especially when my kids are playing sports)

She was such a cheerleader to everyone on her team. She was always cheering her teammates on!