3rd Grade, here he comes!

We quickly snapped this photo after mom freaked out because we were going to be late, but wait! We needed a photo of the first day. Caleb was exclaiming "SCHOOL!" and he actually made it on time. Whew!

Caleb and his cute teacher, Senora Nicols. She is a native which we are excited about. He will be able to hear the latin accent for the whole year and it will be great. When I spoke with her she was going pretty fast but I was catching most of it. So, I asked Caleb how it went today and he said, "Fun." He said she did speak fast but he could understand her. She said that Caleb reads really well, yeah!, and that the students all seem to do really good with Spanish. Here is hoping for a fabulous year of learning more Spanish and having fun also. Tonight we are going to have Family Home Evening about gifts of the spirit because as I thought about how Caleb now has the spirit he is a recipient of those gifts. And one of those gifts that will help him this year is the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. I think that will come in so handy this year as Caleb immerses himself more in school and the language. It will be awesome!

A day at the carnival

For our back to school party this year we had a carnival. The boys were surprised/interested to find out that it would be in our back yard. I came up with the games and activities in hopes that each of the boys would be able to have fun. Unfortunately, two of the boys had just played a good game of soccer- they both did awesome- but that meant they were tired and at times uncooperative, but there were still smiles from everyone at one time or another.

It started off with carnival treats. Kool-aid slushies and buttered popcorn.

After the treats the boys had a scavenger hunt. They had to pass off different school type challenges in order to receive their homework kits. I thought it was fun, but this was also the tired-cranky stage of the party.

The first event in the carnival, fill it up. Race from one end of the grass to the other to fill up a container one cup of water at a time.

Knock em' down. The boys enjoyed knocking those cups over.

The egg and spoon race. That was a little more challenging, especially if you did not have the "lucky" spoon. William found a way around this, by holding his egg on the spoon. Sneaky.

Which cup is it under. Challenging for the cup spinner but not so much for the astute kid.

The bean-bag toss. Caleb made this for one of his cub scout badges. It was fun for Caleb to make it and the boys seemed to enjoy playing it too. Oh, we also had an estimating game. I filled two containers; one with junior mints and one with chocolate kisses, and the boys had to guess how many were in each. They were all way off, but Caleb was close enough with 100 for the junior mints (there were actually 225) and Jonah guessed 40 for the kisses (there were actually 68). Rob would probably like to note that he was the closest one with his guesses but he was out of the running because he was the dad. When the carnival fun was done we headed to the "castle park" and ate dinner and played. Upon returning home the boys did this:

An impromptu pillow fight. They loved the freedom to pounce on each other, in a fun-loving way. There was the occasional hit that was too hard and Jonah stayed out of it all together. But it was fun to watch them romp on each other and have fun. These boys have such a great time with each other. Summer sure was fun, but I am sure we can make the school year just as great.

Scofield's last hurrah!

With school and soccer beginning next week we knew this would be our last trip to Scofield for the year. We played around during the week when it was just the kids and mom. Caleb learned to row the inflatable boat and he took great satisfaction in that. Then Pa brought up the boat on Friday and we played around in that the rest of the time. Caleb was a stud and went tubing!

Caleb did not want to go too fast but Pa managed to build up some pretty good waves for him to bounce around on. He was so fun to watch! William even went in the tube once and had a ball until the boat picked up too much speed then he was done. What a cute kid.

Haley had fun on the boat - watching Caleb in the tube and also watching Rob water-ski and go tubing. Rob had an awesome ride on the tube, Pa did an awesome job of driving the boat.

Peter Man did a terrific job on swimming and went as far out in the lake as Caleb ever has. He was just kicking around in his life jacket, paddling himself where ever he wanted to go. He surprised us a few times with how far out in the lake he went. He was feeling very confident in his swimming skills this week.

Betty also came to the cabin and Caleb loved it. The boys all made this rockin' structure (they called it a T-pee) in back of the cabin. It was made from sticks and grass. The boys had a blast making it together. Then Betty stepped up and helped Caleb find more treasures to add to the masterpiece. They found flags from in the cabin, things from the beach, odds and ends from everywhere. Caleb was thrilled with the finished product! They did great! And last but not least, we took Betty on one of our traditional adventure drives through the mountains to look for Bambi. Were we ever in luck!?! We ended up seeing 39 (Caleb claims 40) deer on our drive. Some were way up on the slope of the mountain, some closer to the road. Once we even came upon a family of one buck, 3 doe, and 3 fawns right by the side of the road. What a treat! To see wild life up close and in such beautiful surroundings. It was wonderful! It was bitter-sweet to leave Scofield today. I was so glad for all the fun times we had at Scofield this summer. My boys love it there! I am glad to think that next year Haley will be walking and enjoying more of it with us (and making it easier for us to enjoy more things together). But I am sad to think that the summer has come to a close. But there is still one more week before Caleb begins school and I am determined to cram something else "summery" into our time before homework becomes the norm. Scofield, you were awesome this year! See you in 2012~

Weber county fair

We ventured up to Odgen today for the Weber fair. Pa and his friend were playing some music for the fair and they had extra tickets. We tagged along and had a good time. It was the boys' first fair and they were trying to experience it all. Had we more money on hand they could have experienced more, but there is just never enough when it comes to satisfying the child's desire. But they had fun in doing what they did and they soaked up some rays, good music, and some animal viewing time. Pa, thanks for letting us tag along and have a fun time!

Haley was rockin' and singing to Pa's music. It was so awesome!

The Power Bounce; both Caleb and Peter did it and loved it. Peter was able to achieve some height and Caleb got super high plus did some flips. Very fun.

Caleb loved the rock wall, as always.

Now for the animals. There were some that we found interesting, comical, odd. They include:

This full grown chicken resembling a rabbit without the long ears.

The rabbit - dog entry

And this duck; no that is not a hat on it's head, it is some sort of feather contraption.

Now for some of our favorites:

This chicken was so cool with all of it's markings.

This bunny was just too beautiful to pass up.

Look at the horns on this goat. He was ready to climb out and eat any kid's straw hat that got too close. Caleb kept a safe distance from him.

And speaking of horns! Check out his Texas Long Horn! "WHOA!" as William would say. Yes, my friends, those things are real!

Finally, the baby kid goats were adorable!

With the pig-tails. She looks so cute with them but boy is it torture getting them in!

Post pig-tails! What a wild girl!

Oh, what do you do in the summertime?

Many people have asked me, "What do you guys do all week up at Scofield?" Usually Rob has been at work during the week and the kids and I stay at the cabin doing this and that. Here is just a small part of what we do for good times at Scofield. We really do enjoy going there and it is so sad that we only have one more week at the cabin before school starts. We will make the most of it for sure!

We go fishing

We are brave and jump off the docks

We go on walks (isn't it a pretty place?)

Some of us choose not to go to sleep in the crib

We read lots of stories (Peter "read" that book to Haley and she sat there the whole time, listening very intently. It was so cute.)

We have loved visiting the lambs and petting them. This is when they were weeks old.

And this is when they are bigger. The one Caleb is petting is his absolute favorite.

We play in the water

And the sand

A LOT!

This little girl loves the lake and apparently cantaloupe

And she even learned to crawl at the cabin! Yeah!

The only thing I did not catch a picture of this week were the two buck that visited the cabin site this week. It was so cool! One afternoon Peter was out on the front deck and I saw him waving and saying, "Hi!" I could not imagine who he was waving to so I popped my head out the door and I saw two buck just a few feet away from our cabin! How exciting! Then the next morning we were outside again and Caleb spotted them just at the top of the road. It is so fun to watch for wildlife and be there. We definitely miss Rob when he is not with us but the boys love being so close to the lake and playing in the mountains. So, next week will be the last for the summer but we will have more adventures and fun times.