Another School Year Has Begun

Summer quickly came to a close so we made one last-ditch effort at the beach. We went to Malibu on Aug 31, the day before school started, which I haven't been to in a long time, and were so glad we did! It was glorious! The best beach day of the summer (go figure) and it was such a relaxing and pleasant day.

Notice in the background that huge yacht just off the Malibu pier? Apparently it belongs to a Russian billionaire and is one of the largest in the world. It only costs $300 million. Check out the link as it will give you a video tour of the vessel. Quite amazing!

The first day of school is here!

Brooke 4th grade, Madison 6th grade, Ashlyn Pre-K, Christian 1st grade.

Brooke is in a 4/5 split and has the same teacher as last year for 3rd. Let's hope it goes well! There are a lot more kids in the upper grades, so her class will be quite full.

Christian is super excited that his BFF Harrison is in his class. He was hoping they would be seated next to each other, too. I told him that even if they were, I'd have the teacher move them, but she'd probably figure it out in the first 5 minutes of class that they shouldn't be sitting together. That would be the equivalent of a 6 hour playdate!

After we went to the elementary school, we took Madison to the Middle School. John really wanted to see her open her locker because . . .

He decorated it the night before!

She quickly met up with friends: Hayley, Fatima, and Jenna.

Fatima just returned from spending the summer in Palestine. It was very sweet - she handed Madison a gift bag and inside was a beautiful silver necklace of Bethlehem with "Madison" engraved on the back; a candleholder with the Nativity carved; and a ceramic plate of Bethlehem. Even though Fatima is Muslim, she was so sweet to consider that Madison would appreciate relics from the birthplace of Christ. Fatima's mother said that if we ever wanted to go tour the Holy Land, we would have to stay with her mother, who lives in Bethlehem, where she would feed and house us and take good care of us! Despite the cultural differences, religious differences, and of course political differences, it is nice to know that people are capable of loving each other regardless. THAT'S what this life is about and the way it should be.

At noon, Ashlyn got to finally go to her class where she quickly met up with her besties: Caroline and Eliza.

Three days a week, I will have all of my children in school for a whopping 2 1/2 hours. What's a girl to do? Seriously! I've never had them all in school at the same time before!

I'll tell you what a girl did the two days we've had so far . . . the first day about a dozen of us moms met for lunch right after drop off which was so fun and everyone was a bit giddy - then I went home to get some work (for Xirrus) done which lasted about 2 seconds because it was time to start the pick up routine . . . which takes a whole HOUR! So annoying. The 2nd day I spent at the elementary school doing PFA stuff, then ran errands. I'll let you know when and where I find the Bon Bons! It may just be the worlds best-kept secret.

The End of Summer is Near, and Yet it Seems it's Only Just Begun

LAKE MEAD!!!!

The Gates family invited us to go to the Lake for the weekend. We were so excited, especially me since I haven't been boating or water skiing since B.C. (before children).

We stayed in Boulder City (five minutes away) at a little charming historic hotel called the Boulder Dam Hotel which provided gourmet, huge breakfasts each morning including the "big dam breakfast" which in fact, was BIG!

The forecast was HOT - 110 degrees HOT and the water was perfect, refreshing want-to-always-be-in-it beautiful, clear and blue.

(Iayn, Ashlyn, Madison, Brooke)

Here is the Gates' boat and wakeboards where we each got to try wakeboarding for the first time. There's John looking totally studly on the back of the boat. I took the picture from shore.

Here's our 'camp' on the island shore. It worked out really well for those who were waiting to go on the next run. We had coolers full of cold drinks, lunch, and snacks, beach chairs, shade, toys, snorkel gear and rafts.

Unfortunately, someone stole our EZ-Ups, beach chairs, snorkel gear and rafts the next day so we were left with no shade or toys in 111 degree sun. Not nice, not at all.

We drove the boat over by the Hoover Dam and went for a dam swim in the beautiful dam water. There were many people who liked to see how often they could fit the dam word in a sentence. (over and over again!)

My little stud muffin with his wind-blown hair.

(I have no idea why this is all-of-the-sudden underlining!)

WooHoo! Oh yeah - Mom's Wakeboarding . . . Look OUT!

This is such an awesome photo as it not only shows how Madison was able to Wakeboard for the first time, but the way we were positioned put the gorgeous red mountain in the background. Love it!

We rented two Waverunners and are so glad we did as they were the best fun! By the end of the day, I was more confident and when I didn't have any kids with me and learned that I couldn't really throw myself off, I was able to have some real fun!

The kids loved tubing!

There is nothing but pure JOY on Christian's face!!!

Ashlyn and Brooke give the "thumbs up" to GO FASTER!

The weekend went by way to quickly.

Then I was a bit spontaneous: Instead of going home super early Monday morning as originally planned, John flew home Sunday night and I took the kids up to Utah for the week. We had not planned on it so didn't have anything with us that wasn't fit for a scorching hot weekend at the lake. We stayed with Joe and Heather whose kids luckily didn't start school yet and didn't have anything planned for the week. First item of business when we arrived after a joyful cousin reunion was to do laundry (and every day thereafter).

The original reason to go up to Utah was to help my niece Domonique get settled with her first year of college. I was going to fly up later in the week and stay with Renee and Brandon and have lots of girl time, free time, visiting with friends time. But the kids had an absolute blast with their cousins and we had a little vacation as summer is quickly coming to a close.

It was so much fun going to orientation with Domonique, Renee, and Brandon. Ashlyn scored on all the UVU promotional items and is decked out looking like the littlest Wolverine.

Afterwards, we all went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner.

John flew in on Friday as he was in San Francisco (so he can drive home with us) and we played miniature golf . . .

It was nice, warm, sunny (hot) day!

Then we lucked out by seeing part of the Fitch clan: Rachelle and her cute baby for super quick (that was way too quick!) at Lisa's house. The kids got to cool off and swim at her pool and I got to catch up with my great friend that I've known my whole life.

Then we were off to Kim and Kyle's for BBQ and more swim! It's always fun to visit Utah because there are some of my most favorite people in the world there that I get to see. It would almost be great to live there . . . if it weren't UTAH!

:-)

Summer Happenings

We started out the summer painting and redecorating Madison and Brooke's room. Here's a before picture of a dresser we picked up for the new room. The funny thing is that when we brought it home, Brooke looked like she was about to cry at how ugly it was . . . not to offend anyone, but ugly for a little girl's room. I told her to have faith.

The finished product is much better, and fitting for their new digs. They are very happy with the end result:

We did the same to a totally different armoire. You'd never know it was a country-pine-looking thing!

The room is almost done, just a couple more finishing touches, like a nightstand shelf between the two beds (so the lamp and clock are not on the floor), and some sort of artwork for their walls. I love the shelf above the window that John whipped up one Saturday afternoon while I was chaperoning youth conference. His skills never cease to amaze me.

There's nothing like a good summer rain storm that comes out of the blue, with no warning, and pours down on the two cars you just spent the afternoon washing.

It's all worth it though, because not only is it so rare, but it is fun to play in the warm rain, and even better to have a rainbow over your house!

I love how during summer the kids get to spend so much time together that they become best friends once again without the disruption of school and sports. Then, at the end of the day, they fall asleep contentedly knowing that they are there for each other.

(At least that sounds good.)

Christian and Ashlyn share a room anyway, but they asked if they could fall asleep in mom and dad's bed. I let them; one was on dad's side, one on mom's. I was in the middle to read the story. I left to let them drift off to dreamland and when I came back in to check on them, Ashlyn had moved all the way over to Christian to snuggle with him. It was so cute and sweet I had to go get my camera. There may come a day when neither one of them will believe this ever happened.

Summer is not complete without at least one lemonade stand!

We did it during the heat wave, which was not so pleasant to be out in, but good for sales!

We have some little day trips planned that are fun to do and safe with casts.

First is Gardens of the World. It's a local place that has beautiful displays of well, gardens of the world, and is a perfect place to have a picnic and let the kids run around.

Madison and her friend Monroe loved the giant chess board and had a fun, competitive game going.

Next up is an afternoon at the Getty, which is such a beautiful place. I wish we had more time there. I think I need to go back, sans children, to really get to spend time with all the artwork.

Many (a lot!) of the paintings include nudity or religion. One of the first ones we saw was of a chubby naked baby who was supposed to be John the Baptist. Brooke pointed it out and I read the description, then Christian says, "They have Church stuff in here?"

He knew John the Baptist, but doesn't make the connection quite yet that religion permeates all of recorded history! Too funny!

The gardens and the views are marvelous! The raced to see who could spot the L.A. Temple first.

It's cast day! Are they going to come off? They are both hoping so!!

Oh well, we have one disappointed little girl. Only two more weeks; you can do it!

We spend an afternoon/evening at Carpinteria where we enjoyed dinner, campfire, and s'mores with Matt and Cyndi. Brooke couldn't go down on the sand, and it was too chilly to go in the water anyway, so it worked out well. Andrea came, too, so we had fun with baby Taylor as well!

The kids have been enjoying creating plays and using Photobooth and the video camera as they direct and act in wonderfully silly productions.

On this particular day, our friend Iayn was over and she and Brooke decided to give Ashlyn a make-over, which led to Ashlyn starring in a one-woman show.

We went over to Iayn's house later in the day where the hours of choreography and rehearsal came to fruition.

The Grand Entrance, complete with electronic curtains:

She danced her little heart out to Taylor Swift. We even had tickets and assigned seating.

What I didn't have though is my good camera; I only had my phone.

The older girls were behind us giving her cues as to her next move.

She was super cute! Normally she is very shy around other people, so to see her dancing unabashedly was really something.

The kids even made photos for her to autograph for us at the end of the show. She 'signed' each and every one.