And then there was one...

Much to my disappointment, school started again. I don't know why it always surprises me, but it does. All the kids had a great first day. It definitely feels like fall around here. We went from a/c in the car to the heater in one day! All the leaves will be coming down before we know it. I will enjoy them as much as I can this year because next year we will not experience fall at all! I am pretty sure Phoenix has one season.

Joshua was a little disappointed that I was not driving him to school on the first day. Because of Gabriella's preschool schedule I had them ride the bus and then I saw them get off the bus at school. I told Joshua I would see him there. I didn't think he would remember or care once he got on the bus. But, as he came around the corner-- as soon as he spotted me and Olivia he began bouncing in his seat and pointing us out to his friends. Then, while he waited for the bus to unload--which took a long time--he sat at the window looking at us. It was the cutest thing and made the tears that I had been holding back pour down. I am so happy that I do not have to pry my kids off of me in order to leave them at school, but I am also very happy that this little boy was excited to see his Mom!




Gabriella is off to preschool. She thinks she is so big because her school is in the big kids school. Even though she doesn't get to ride the bus, she loves being at the same school. Don't you just love how big the backpacks look on these little kids!

Sweet Samantha is a 5th grader! She has grown so much over the summer. All her friends told her she was way tan--I agree and I don't think it is fair that she has such gorgeous dark skin.

Joshua is a second grader and really was not looking forward to school starting. He loves to see his friends, but really thinks that school cuts into his life too much.

Mariah is off to middle school again--I don't know what else to say about that. If she just didn't have to be so pretty....


Olivia was really feeling the unfairness of the day and tried to follow all the kids into school. She was really glad to see the bus come home!
So, it is just me and Olivia...at least until February.

Not my best effort, but here are the kids back to school treats!
They are apples and pencils--just in case you couldn't tell;)

Summer 2011

Most of these pictures were taken with my phone camera so the quality is very poor. We had a fun summer and I am very sad that it is over.

Kris was attending a conference in Boston in June so the kids and I joined him for the last few days. He flew there, we drove. It was a long drive. What was supposed to be a 5 hour drive turned into 7.5 because of all the weekend traffic. But it was worth it, we had a great time seeing the city. I have always wanted to go to Boston. We have lived on the East Coast for 10 years and this was our first visit.

This is our car ride home--that is a lot of kids in one car!


While Kris attended conference all day the kids and I had to entertain ourselves. We spent most the day in the Public Garden and Boston Commons. It was a little drizzly, but the kids were in a great mood and we had so much fun exploring everything.


This is the carousel in Boston Commons
We didn't know where we were going and just kept walking and discovered this great shopping area. I know it probably has an official name, but I don't know what it is. The whole city of Boston reminded me of a small scale Washington, DC and an itty bitty New York City mixed together.



A friend of ours told us about the ducks statues in the Public garden. She even loaned us her copy of "Make Way for Duckings". If you are as uneducated as I am then you should know it is a cute children's book that shows a family of ducks finding their way around Boston. Very cute book, and fun duck statues for the kids to play on. We spent way to much time climbing on ducks!
Joshua really tried hard to imitate all the different ducks.

All of my ducklings lined up in a row. I was such a proud mommy!
Across the street from the Public garden was Boston Commons. They had a bunch of frog statues. The kids loved them too, but not as much as the ducks. There was a great playground there, but a bit to wet to enjoy it much.
We loved all the ducks in the duck pond. We rode the swan boats around the tiny lake. We all loved it except Gabriella, she wanted to drive the boat.
Don't these purple flowers look like they belong in a Dr. Seuss book? We loved them!

Since we didn't want to make the kids walk all over the entire city we decided to buy tickets on the Duck Tour. Those are the obnoxious tour buses that go in the water also. It was a fun way to see the entire city, but not quite as educational as you might think. Our guide mostly pointed out all the Dunkin' Donut locations for us--there were a lot of those!
Switching gears now....

We love to go to the drive-in movies! There is a great place near our house that we try to hit a couple of times a summer. We usually make it for 2 movies--it makes for a late night.


We went with some families in our ward camping to a place called Highland Forest. We had so much fun visiting with them and watching the kids play. We even hid peanuts for the kids, a favorite game my Grandma Palmer used to play with us when we went camping with her.


We put this shirt on Olivia and had her walk into the living room where all the kids were sitting. I asked them if they liked Olivia's new shirt. It took them all a little while to catch on, but it was fun to watch their expressions as they figured it out. They were all screaming and jumping up and down. It was very sweet to see how happy they were. And, we have since found out it will be a boy! That announcement was also followed by screaming and jumping up and down. However, instead of being in our living room we were in the parking lot of the grocery store. It was a little embarrassing:)
We love you summertime! We hate that you come and go so fast--it is just not fair!