Leah's First Day of Kindergarten!

Leah was so excited to FINALLY have her 1st Day of School!

I let her eat lunch at school before she went to Kindergarten.

She had a GREAT day at school. Look at that GRIN! :)

Farewell Friends

We are so sad to see our good friends, the Kruegers, move so far away! But, we are really happy for them and their new adventures that lie ahead.

Trine has been such a great friend and is always willing to help me out whenever I need it. She was also a great workout buddy for a very long time.

Larry and Jon had good times together. When they were working together on something there was always more laughter than work!

Leyna and Leah had their moments when they just couldn't get along, but they have become such great friends. Leyna gave Leah a memory book for her birthday and Leah has been putting pictures of her and Leyna and Kayla in the book.

Kayla is such a cutie! She is going to change so much by the time I see her next. I'm glad we have the internet so I can still catch some glimpses of her! Leah loved babysitting Kayla. She loved holding her and playing with her (probably a little too much because Kayla felt smothered at times).

Trine invited us over to her in-laws house to go for a swim and have one last get-together before they left. We had SO much fun!
Alex, Caleb, Leah and Leyna

Jon playing frisbee catch

Alex falling a little short of catching the frisbee

Reach Caleb!! You're almost there!

BFF's!!
Alex and Caleb's noodle-boat

Leah swimming on her back

Kayla

Kayla, Trine, and Leyna

I am so glad we got to know Trine and Larry. We have done a lot of fun things together and I really appreciated the temple night babysitting swaps we did every month. I secretly hope they move back to Provo when Larry's done with school, but for some reason Trine wants to end up in California by her family!! :) Where ever they end up I know that we've made great friends for life. See you soon Kruegers!!

Jon's Fish

This is the bass that Jon caught on Mona Reservoir when he went fishing on the boat with our brother-in-law, Alan, and Ezra.

First Day of School

Caleb is proud to be a 1st grader!

Alex is now in 3rd grade

My cute boys on their way to school.
Alex reminded me as we were going out the door,
"Mom, don't forget to take pictures!!"
I guess he looks forward to that tradition.

Have fun in 1st and 3rd grades! You're such smart boys!

A Successful Boating Trip

We finally got to take our boat out and experience the open water without any major troubles. Leah really loved feeling the wind on her face! :)

Caleb just wanted to nap the whole time we were fishing

Alex trolling for fish

Jon wanted to troll for fish, so I got to drive

Happy Jon...he's so glad the boat worked great

The only trouble we had the whole time we were out on Deer Creek Reservoir was the fact that we didn't catch any fish! Plus, we're still learning all the quirks about the boat. It took a few attempts to get it started again when we would stop to fish. All in all it was a great boating trip though!

Our first boat ride

We went to Utah Lake tonight with our good friends, the Kruegers.

YEAH! The boat is finally on the water!
It has taken Jon so much time and hard work to get this
$200 boat running and ready for the water.

Trine with baby-in-a-life-jacket bundle, Kayla

Jon and Caleb

The Kruegers and our kids

Jon taking a picture of us while docked.
Getting ready to GO!

Caleb looking out at the lake

Our family on the family boat!

See the smoke on the left side?
Alex is trying to block the burnt rubber smell from going into his nose!
The head gasket started leaking.

After being stranded for about 30 minutes
we got towed into the harbor by some friendly boaters.

It was a good first run. I'm glad Larry was there to help Jon learn the boating rules. He also noticed the heat gauge before it ruined anything major.

We're so happy it's running, but
it'll take a bit more time, effort, and money to get it back on the water.

Leah turns FIVE!

Leah celebrated her 5 year old birthday today, August 12th! She had a family party with my side of the family on Sunday. We had a nice dinner together. Here is Leah blowing out her candles at the BEGINNING of the "Happy Birthday" song. We tried explaining that you blow them out after the song, but she just didn't listen.

Leah's presents:

All the boys snuggling with Papa while Leah opened presents
Leah had her first birthday party with friends.
Here they are playing a game of duck, duck, goose
The wind was blowing too much outside for her to
practice blowing out the candles AFTER the song is over
Yummy flower shaped sandwiches were served for lunch
I think everyone had a good time playing in the pool, slip 'n slide, and sprinklers.

Leah's Turn!

Leah is so excited to have her turn doing swimming lessons. She waited so patiently through the boys' swimming lessons, and now she finally gets to be the one in the water. She is in the duck class and loves that her teacher's name is Katie ("just like Aunt Katie" she told me). Her teacher is very impressed at her abilities. One more week left of swim lessons--then school's almost ready to start!! :)

Child Labor Laws

Alex has been BEGGING me to let him mow the lawn so he can earn some money. I finally let him try it out. It was a lot of hard work for him, but he earned enough money to buy himself a new Lego Bionicle. Nice work, Alex!