The Res

I took Alexa and some of her friends up to the reservoir after school. It was early out day.




FRIENDS are the people in life that make you laugh a little louder, smile a little brighter, and live a whole lot better!!


Alexa and her friends went to the res several times this summer, I never made it this whole summer!! SAD!!
(Thanks to facebook and Alexa's friend for the pictures and the quote)!!!

Freshman Year

Man I love Facebook. I got these photos off of one of Alexa's friends fb page!! I thought I should put them up here for her! This is Alexa and her friend Lexi
Randi, Lexi, Regan and Alexa
Regan and Alexa
A whole bunch of her friends and I don't know all their names!!! Looks like it will be a pretty good year with friends like this!!

School is in Session!!!

It is here again, that time of year when a little bit of normalcy returns into my life.

 

This is Alexa's last year at the Jr. High. She is starting Seminary this year. She was not very excited to get back into the routine of school. She is a great student and does really well in all her classes so I am not worried about her one bit!!! Her school starts at 7:50am (I think). She is in a carpool so I don't have to wake up that early everyday...thank goodness!

 

Alex was super excited about heading back to school and he was counting the days! He has Mr. Bates this year, who I hear is an excellent teacher. Alex has promised me that he is going to be better about getting his homework done this year, we struggled a bit last year! He has also decided that 5th grade is going to be pretty hard so he is not going to be as chatty in class! I know he will do great! His school starts at 8:20am (I think) but he is there WAY before that! He likes to eat breakfast at school so he goes early.

 

Max starts pre-school in a couple weeks but he couldn't be left out. He is being watched by my sweet neighbor who is also his pre-school teacher so technically I guess it was his first day too! He is so excited to start school and had so much fun picking out what to wear today! I take him when I go to work at 10am however today he insisted on walking to school just like Alex. I followed him in the car.

Another great thing about the kids going back to school=FALL is right around the corner, I CAN"T WAIT!!!

Timp Cave and the Demolition Derby

We woke up at 7:00am to go to Timpanogos Cave with the Duvall's. We met them there (and we were late, sorry guys)! It was just Jeff, Steph, Harrison and Parker, the 3 little girls did not want to come on the adventure and they missed out!!!

Our hike time was 9am and we had until 10:30am to get to the top for our tour so we took our time, much to Parker's dismay! He was getting very irritated that we kept stopping so much! It is about 1 1/2 miles up a paved trail to the cave entrance. It is fairly steep and has some pretty extreme drop offs. Needless to say, we had to keep a very close watch of Max. I think Parker was more protective of Max than Rich or I, it was cute! Max was a champ and did a great job the whole time. Rich only carried him twice. He didn't complain or anything which is more than I can say for some of the other kids!!! Ha ha just kidding they were all pretty well behaved!!

By the time we got to the top we had about 20 minutes to spare. The end part of the trail is actually pretty steep and so it was nice to have a little break. We took a backpack full of water and snacks so we were in good shape!

 

Here are some views inside the cave. The pictures don't quite do it justice. It was a great experience and I think everyone had a good time. It was fun when they shut off all the lights and it was pitch dark!!
Amazing that there are such awesome creations on this earth for us to enjoy!

The walk down was pretty un-eventful!! There were not as many stops, so that made Parker happy! It was better walking up the trail I thought, it was hard on my lower back and knees coming down. Once we made it down it was lunch time so we decided, after much debate, to go to Taco Time!! It was yummy!

We got home and Alexa had to hurry and jump in the shower and get ready for work from 3 to 6pm. Rich and I both took naps and the boys just played!

At 7pm we went to the Demolition Derby with the whole Duvall family! It was my kids first one and they were not sure what to expect! It was really hot when we first got there so that made it kind of miserable.
It was fun watching all the wrecks and stuff and everyone had a good time. It was really long and we didn't get home til after 11pm! I love having family adventures!!!

LAGOON

We finally made it to Lagoon!! Alex has been going crazy all summer waiting and waiting!! Me and the kids took off at 10am, we picked up Harrison and Parker too! Monica, Kenzie and Jake met us there! It wasn't too crowded since we got there shortly after it opened.
Alexa took Max on the LadyBug Bop and he did not like it. He said it make his stomach feel weird! He did not want to go on it again!
Monica took all the "big" kids on rides while I hung out with Max in kiddie land. I did go on the baby tidal wave with him.

 

The rest of the time I just watched him go on rides. He was having so much fun even though he didn't have a buddy to ride with! He would go wait in line and I would stand by the exit and watch him have a blast on all the rides!
After a while we met up at the picnic tables to have lunch. We made sandwiches and had chips and drinks. We had a pretty long lunch and Alex got really impatient! I made them pose for 1 picture before they took off again!

Amy, Jason, Owen, Amberly, Melanie, Brooklyn and Brinlie finally arrived so Max had someone to go on rides with!! He went on all the rides again with Owen and Brin. He wouldn't go on this one though!!
We all hit the baby tidal wave, then we went on the big tidal wave and Max didn't love that one too much. I guess he takes after his dad a little!

 

We all went on the Music Express, except for Mel and Harrison. Amb was in the seat with me and Max put she couldn't get her head over far enough to be in the picture!!

We kind of split up and some of us went on the train and the big kids went on Wicked and Spider and Cliffhanger etc. It was getting time for dinner so we ate Arby's and then there wasn't much time left since the park closed at 10pm. We split up again and I think everyone was able to go on all the rides they wanted to but it did seem like we were really rushed!

Max went on Dracula's Castle and the TerrorRide and hid his eyes most the time. We went on the skyride and he and Brin ended the night on the Merry-go-round. We had a really fun day and the weather was supposed to be crappy but it turned out great!!

Spanish Fork Pool (Swim Team BBQ)

Alex's swim team had a family BBQ today at the pool. We ate hot dogs and hamburgers and then we cooled off in the pool, it was a hot day!!!
This is the only photo I got of Alex because he was off with his friends the whole time!! Alexa went to St. George with Dan and Job for the night, she will be back tomorrow.
I think this is the first time this year (aside from Lava Hot Springs) that Rich has been swimming with us! Max was having a great time going on the slide with his dad and jumping into the water to him! Max is getting really good at swimming on his own! We had a fun time and after the pool we went home and ate dinner and showered and went to see The A-Team at the dollar movie.

St. George (Quick Trip)

Dan is in town for a visit from Africa and was heading to St George to see his daughter. He wanted Alexa to go with him since they are close to the same age.
Job and Dan came to pick her up and they were off to St George. His daughter's name is Olivia and she hasn't seen Dan too much so they don't have much of a relationship. Her and Alexa hit it off instantly and they had fun. Alexa slept at her house and then Job brought her back the next day. It was a quick trip but she had a good time and was able to spend some time with her uncles!!

Bees Game

Alexa and I met Monica, Amberly and the boys at the Gateway in Salt Lake. I was pretty excited to see them after being away for a week! We had lunch/dinner at the food court and then we shopped for a little bit. It rained for a minute and then it cleared up and was great! After we were done there we headed to the Bee's Game!!
Aside from Max getting lost (only for a few minutes but it was scary as heck), we had a great time watching the baseball game. The Bee's lost but we did see a guy a few rows in front of us take a foul ball right in the gut...OUCH!!! It was pretty scary, If it would have been a few inches higher it would have been one of us!!!


Just goofing around...the game was a little slow so we entertained ourselves!!

After the game was over Alex and Max ran the bases...
They each got a free kids meal at Old Spaghetti Factory so that is totally fun!! We had a great night and it is good to have my boys back!!! I missed them!!!

Water Funtivities at Melissa's!!

Again, thanks to my sister Melissa for creating and capturing fun memories for my kids!! I guess everyone went to Melissa and Steve's house last night to watch a movie and all the kids fell asleep. Being the sweet, caring aunt that my sister Melissa is, she didn't want to wake up the sweet peaceful kids so she just let them all sleep over!! She had my boys, Owen and Brinlie. In the morning she made them sugar donuts and then they got suited up for the water fun!!
How adorable is this baby??? She is the cutest!!!
It is amazing how much fun can be had in a baby pool!!

They hooked two slip-n-slides together for a giant party!!

I love seeing the faces and poses on slip-n-slide pictures!!!!

After the water fun at Melissa's Monica, Amb, Alex and Max got ready and met us at the Gateway for the Bee's game!