First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. As you can tell Ben was really excited. He didn't want me to take his picture but I did anyway and this is what I got. He is now in the 9th grade and has already started the year off grumpy, but what's new. He has a lot of good classes but it is going to be hard. He is going to be great this year.

Here are the girls walking to school. They wanted us to walk with them and they started walking and talking with our neighbor and they completely forgot about Jason and I walking behind them. From right to left we have Lexi (neighbor), Corinne, and Whitney. The girls have a beautiful walk to school every week.

Here is Corinne sitting at her desk in her class. She is now in the 4th grade. I remember 4th grade and I was really boy crazy. I hope Corinne is more school crazy.
Last we have Whitney. She is starting 6th grade. She said she doesn't think she has grown at all because this year most of the kids are taller than she is. We are just small around here and she probably won't be the tallest in the class. She is really excited for her teacher Ms. Carlson. She is new the school this year but did her student teaching in Whitney's 4th grade class. We loved her then and are excited for her fun math stories.

Will and I had our first day of school as well. We played with Todd and Alex and then went and tried samples at Costco. Will and I loved the Orange Carrot juice. Then we went to lunch with Jason. It was a good day and he didn't miss his Ben, Whitney, and Corinne too much.

Let's hope tomorrow is just as successful.

On a side note, Jason grandma Murdock (Mamu) passed away yesterday. We were all very sad but new it was her time to go. She was 92 and ready. Viewing and graveside services are the next two days. I hope to gather some pictures and have them up in the next couple of days.

Wikipedia Likes Orange!

My husband is famous! If you type in Lotoja in wikipedia you will find a picture of him and his team at the start of last years race. Pretty fun. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOTOJA

Brace yourself!

Brace yourself this is one good looking kid. He got his braces on this morning. The assistants at the office asked Ben how he was doing and if he was happy to be here. He said "no not really." They all laugh and said at least your honest. Then Dr. Bailey had some glasses Ben could put on and he could watch a movie. Dr. Bailey waited and waited for Ben to decide and finally Ben said there was nothing he wanted to watch. They found it funny that he couldn't find a movie he wanted to see. 

After all was done Ben was a pretty good sport. His braces are on and right now they have blue rings around them. After we left the Ortho office we walked to the Dentist office and bought Ben a water pic so it would be easier to floss. Ben and I came home and tried it out. It was pretty cool but Ben was more talented than I was I kept drowning myself. I am sure we will get better. 

Now for the next 2 1/2 years we get to watch Ben's mouth progress and look forward to the day that they get to come off. 

Look who is 9!

Happy birthday my big girl. It is hard to believe you are 9. It seems like only yesterday you sat in the sand box and put rocks in your ears.

Corinne got to celebrate her birthday up camping and at home. When I told her I would make her a cake up camping she told me she didn't like camping cakes. So we cooked it in the oven of the trailer. Her and cousin Natalie frosted the cake and it was the yummyest camping cake ever.
I forgot to pack candles camping so her cake had tooth picks on it. It was pretty cool but they burned fast.
This is a self portrait. Corinne decided she wanted to get dressed up and go shopping for her real birthday. So off we went.
She had so much fun shopping and she had to have her picture taken with all her shopping bags. What scares me is if she likes shopping this much at 9 year old what is 16 years old going to bring.
Corinne was lucky and got to go to the Cycling Club pool party the evening of her birthday. We made a cake and carried to the party in the hot sun. It melted but is sure did taste good. Corinne got to stand on the table at the party and everyone from the club sang to her. Kind of fun.

Meadow Hike

Every year up camping, on the Sunday that we leave, we hike to the meadow and go rock rolling. We hike for a couple of hours to this beautiful place. Then we roll rocks down that hill and watch them splash in the river. Ben loves this part to here he is rolling some rocks.

This is our family picture at the meadow. We may not look beautiful but the scenery makes up for it. 

Uintas Trip 2008 part 2

Fishing is probably my girls favorite part of camping. This is Corinne with her first fish. It looks like the river was crowded but really that was just our family.

Whitney and Jason also caught a few fish. They went on a long fishing hike for about 6 hours and caught lots of fish. 
Will was fascinated with the fish. This is him kissing the fish. While putting him to bed one night up camping he was almost asleep and he rolled over to me and said. Oh, no the fishies. It was quite cute.
We have a sort of fishing rule, if you catch them you fillet them. Whitney was a great sport and learned how to fillet fish this year. She was a mess afterwards and complained that her jacket smelled like fish guts. But she was awesome.
For dinner of course we ate fish. Lots and lots of fish. All the girls wanted to pitch in and help. They each had a station and helped bread the fish. The fish and canned potatoes were delicious. 

Uintas Trip 2008

Camping this year was awesome. So much fun that I didn't want to leave. There are times I want to stay up there weeks at a time.

Ben took all the little boys on a small hike he discovered. It was so cute to see Ben walking up the road being followed by Todd, Jimmy, and Will. They all came back with hiking sticks and called themselves the Boys Hiking Club.

Ben and Jason decided to do a little upper muscle work and chopped wood. I think they actually enjoyed themselves.
I found Ben behind our camping area swinging a butterfly net. I wasn't sure if Ben was catching butterflies or bad guys. He really wanted me to delete these pictures but I wanted to leave them because it shows how much fun Ben was having. 

Will's 2!

Will's Birthday was on July 28th but I just got to posting the pictures. Will's birthday was really low key this year. Turning 2 we really decided that he won't know if he has a party or not. Kurt and Mim gave him this awesome remote control car that he can drive himself. You should have seen his face when he opened it.
We made a very simple cake that everyone would enjoy. So it looks really plain but it was yummy with hot fudge and ice cream. Will blew his candles out all by himself.
He loved eating the cake and icecream.
We also celebrated his birthday up camping and grandma and grandpa gave him this bubble gun. He really enjoyed blowing the bubbles all over camp.

Happy Birthday my big boy. You make me smile, laugh, cry, scream, and sigh everyday. Our family wouldn't be the same without you. You were worth the 7 year wait. 

Memories

I thought this looked like a lot of fun!

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! Nothing too embarrassing please. :) If we're only blogging friends, write about a post that is the most memorable for you.

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. I can't wait to see what people remember