Mountian Climbers

Last weekend the Elder's Quorum had an activity. They went mountain bike riding and then had a dutch oven cook-off. We weren't able to stay for dinner but we had plenty of fun while Shane was off riding!

Toilet Paper in Your Hair!

Saturday night, we put toilet paper in Layla's hair after her bath!


Of course, on Sunday morning, it was quite curly! She looked like Shirley Temple and is just adorable. When someone told her she probably didn't know who Shirley Temple was, she said yes, she did. And if Shirley could go to the temple, so could Layla.


And, yesterday was the first day of school!

I can't believe Lylli is already in 2nd grade! Though she wasn't ready for summer to be over, she enjoyed seeing her friends!

And Lylli said that yesterday was the very BEST first day of school. EVER!

Layla keeps asking when she gets to go to school, but she doesn't start until after Labor Day. But, I told her she could wear her new school clothes when Lylli went to school.

Seryn is wearing her new shirt, but had been up sick all night the night before and didn't feel well, so she wanted to wear a sweater too. Still, she can't give up a chance for a picture!

Nothin's in Cement ... yet

I don't know why I can't blog regularly right now. I just feel so disoriented, I guess. But I thought you might be interested to see where we are right now in our lives.

We sold our house in June and have been living with my parents while we await a job option in northern Idaho. However, a couple weeks ago, we decided we really need to go to Provo so Shane can pursue a doctorate degree in marriage and family counseling down at BYU. So, we will probably be moving there. We are currently waiting to see if he can get a job as a counselor down there, but he may have to get licensed before many of them will look at him. If that's the case, we may move down there and put his mechanic skills to work. He can't apply for the program until December and it will start next fall. So, we have a lot of waiting to do. But we are eager to follow a new path and see what the Lord has in store for us.

In the meantime, I have been frantically looking for replacements for my positions at the preschool and also for my father-in-law. We have been keeping plenty busy, helping my parents put in a back porch and I have been involved with a couple blog tours for a few of my author friends and am putting together my own blog tour for the end of September. It's a lot of work, but I hope it will pay off in the end. (A blog tour is where I send my book to people and they read and review it - and sometimes add an interview of me - and then on their assigned day, they post their review of my book on their blog.) I've also been busy working on getting another book polished up to send off! So pray for that to go well!

All in all, we've had a busy but enjoyable summer but we are eager for school to start up again! Here are some pictures of the cement project.

Denver Zoo

Last weekend we were in Denver for one of Shane's friend's weddings. It was fun to see everyone, but like a dork, I left my camera in the hotel. So no wedding pictures. But we went to the zoo while we were there, so, we have zoo pictures!

This is the one picture the girls weren't acting like they should be in the zoo! Aren't they cute? Seryn is such a wild sleeper that we actually had to put her on the floor so Lylli and Layla could sleep!

This is Seryn, Lylli, Ella, and Layla in front of the zebras. The zebras were Seryn's favorite!!! (She did not trust the elephants!)

And, of course, they thought the peacock was lots of fun! (Ella, Layla, and Seryn)

Seryn thought the seal was pretty fun to watch swim.

For lunch, Shane bought the biggest hot dog I've ever seen! It even had sauerkraut. (YUCK!) But he loved it!

And Seryn thought her dad was so funny, she tried to imitate him! Funny kid!

Utah Vacation

I am VERY far behind! (So this may have lots of pictures.) A couple weeks ago, we went down to Utah for my dad's family reunion. We went a few days early so we could play with some of our friends who moved down there and that was WAY fun!! We went to the splash pad and hung out for a while and then went and toured the helicopter. Also a lot of fun! In fact, there was a house for sale down the road from them, and Shane and I seriously thought about looking into it! Thanks Bowmans!! We had a lot of fun!

Seryn, Rachel and Avie. Seryn did not like it if even a fraction of my attention was focused on Avie. It made her very jealous!

Seryn and Wyatt.
Layla with the helicopter. Thanks, Luke, for the tour!

The helicopter landing pace at the hospital!

We also bought a Sequoia while down in Utah. Visiting with my aunt and uncle, we discovered that we have owned 14 vehicles in the 8 1/2 years we've been married!!! (They've been married for 25 years and just hit the 14 mark!) We thought it was funny! Ridiculous! But funny!

This was a picture I took at the park we went to in Bountiful. I just thought it was pretty!

Lylli playing Frisbee.

Shane playing ultimate frisbee with my cousins.

My mom showing Lylli and one of my cousin's kids how to tie a blanket for the Primary Hospital.
We also took the girls to the Oquirrah Mountain Temple open house. It was really beautiful and the girls loved the opportunity to go through the temple. I've been to a couple open houses, but really found it enjoyable to go after I've been endowed and know what everything is for. It was very neat! An experience well worth it!
Lylli took this picture of the fountain at the temple. She really has a pretty good eye with the camera. In fact, she took the picture of me in the back of my book!
We also did a little swimming at my uncle's house before we went on the mountain.

We went to the Heber Valley Camp run by the LDS church. It was really fun! It's always good to reunite with family and Shane had a great time with all my cousins! He's never really experienced a family reunion before and so this was fun for him! At this camp, they had challenge courses with fun things to do. I only got pictures of the swing which we all did except Seryn. It was a little freighting but fun!

Layla
Lylli
Yes, this is Shane!
I'm being brave and including one of me too.

Over all, we had a great vacation! It was long overdue and we had a great time!

Splashing and Sparklers

My sister's family came to town over the 4th of July. The kids have had so much fun playing with their cousins! It will be a very sad week after they leave!

We are living with my parents now and Lylli went out to my dad's shed on the 4th and scrounged up some wood. Then, she made this scale. Shane helped her glue it, but she did the sanding and put it together. She is quite proud of it!

We didn't do tons for the 4th, (besides our family breakfast) but the kids did some sparklers and some noise makers and then we went to watch the fireworks!

Swimming

Lylli has been taking swimming lessons again this summer. She really enjoyed it the first week! But they changed the program since last year and so she's struggled this past week. They've been introducing too many new strokes, and where she's not a very strong swimmer yet, it's been challenging for her. Still, it's good for her and I think she had fun. She'll do better when she takes the class again and can do better!

Also, an interesting tid-bit. Seryn HATES the water! She is terrified of it! In fact, it's only been recently that she's started to sit down in the bathtub without screaming! She hates the rain and cries at the simple thought of it. My mom said that an airplane flew overhead one day and Seryn thought it was thunder and hid under the slide - crying, of course.

But this week...

Layla has loved playing in the pool and so has Lylli. The other day, Seryn had to have her swimsuit on because everyone else did. Then, she mustered up the courage to wander close to the pool. She then began to play in the water from the outside of the pool. By the end of the afternoon, she was playing and splashing along with the other girls and loving it! (Now I have to go buy little swimmers diapers!) I'm glad she can play with her sisters! (This picture is the day that Layla decided to combine the swimming pool with the sand box. Ick!)
The girls just love all the fun things there are to do outside at Grandma and Grandpa's house!