First Day Of School

It's that time of the year again....back to school time. This summer has been wonderful but we're all ready for school to begin.

Justin starts high school this year at Layton High School. I can't believe he is in 10th grade already. He is excited to continue playing the baritone tuba in the school's concert and marching band. He's going to have to stop his karate lessons because the school games that the band plays at are the same days as his lessons...but hopefully he can start up karate another time.

Jayd is in the 8th grade and as our social butterfly very excited to see her friends again from school. The week before school she attended the volleyball camp and then the first day of school tried out for the school's team. She made first cut and on the 2nd day of try outs she was told she made the team. Isn't that fun!!! Jayd is also interested in later trying out for the basketball team and then doing track in the spring. Yep...she is our over achiever. Chancey happily leaves elementary school behind and goes to Jr High School with Jayd as a 7th grader. She is more confident this year and very excited to start this new phase of her life. Chancey loves having the "block class schedule" which means she only has 4 classes a day instead of the normal 8. Chancey has always wanted to learn how to play tennis so she will be starting some tennis lessons in September for 4 weeks.

Lilah is the "older sister" now at the elementary school. She is now in 5th grade and was very excited about being in a class with two of her best friends Payden Dicks and Samantha Bernards. Lilah has started running and is hoping to follow Jayd's example and join the track team when she is in Jr High School. She has two years to prepare so we're sure she'll be ready by then.

Olivia is in the 2nd grade this year. She enjoyed meeting her teacher before school began at the back to school night so was very happy to start on the first day of school. Olivia has no problem making friends so we're sure that once again this year will be a fun year as she meets new people in her class that she has not had before.

Abraham starts kindergarten this year. Wow...can you believe it? They have put him in the all day kindergarten class. We think this will be good for him as he seems to like learning better from people other than his family. :-) He is excited to eat lunch at school and be big like his older sisters.

Elijah will be home with mom each day as we do our "house" stuff. We hope to go to the gym at least 3 times a week so he will be able to play with some kids in the day care there for a little while.

Need Shade For Our Back Yard

We have been looking around for different ways to shade our back deck from the summer sun. One of the options we have found seems pretty cool and economical - a retractable awning for our home. It looks like there are a bunch of different manufacturers for them and most seem to have the same basic folding arm and Sunbrella canvas topset up and styling. We are really impressed with the Taylor Made Awning retractable awnings products and prices the most. We would be really interested in hearing has anyone else has had experience with these awning products?

Family Trip to Wyoming

This year for our family summer trip we chose to go to Wyoming. We were able to rent a cabin in Alpine, Wyoming that was big enough for our family. Each day we had fun activities and took lots of pictures so that we could remember our week and share our experiences with friends and family. When we were not out exploring the area we played lots of card and board games in the cabin. This was a great family trip!!!!

The backyard of the house we rented had lots of tire swings and everyone loved playing together on them. There was also a fire pit out back and one night we enjoyed roasting marshmallows and making smores.

On Sunday afternoon we walked down to Palisades Reservoir. The activity the kids enjoyed the most was throwing rocks into the water and picking out their favorite rocks to bring home. It was a beautiful day.

On Monday we drove to Teton National Forest and Yellowstone National Park. It was a little farther than we hoped it would be (3 hours 1 way) but we were able to see some beautiful lakes, amazing mountain ranges, water falls, geysers etc. The animals we saw were 2 gray wolves, buffalo, elk, hawks, moose, pronghorn, trumpeter swans and chipmonks. It was a long day but we were glad we took the kids to see this beautiful area.

In Yellowstone we pasted Lewis Lake and had to stop and play for a while. The kids enjoyed playing at the boat ramp and taking fun pictures of each other. Elijah even picked some flowers and gave them to me.

On Tuesday we found a great river in one of the canyons next to our cabin so we had to go back on Wednesday and play in the river. We wear our dirty cloths and went in the river. We played games in the water and enjoyed just having fun. It was fun watching the children clinging to each other and the river current was strong...but not enough to stop the fun.

The highlight of the trip was Thursday when we rented 4 horses for 4 hours. WOW...we didn't know how much fun it was going to be. All 7 of the kids just could not get enough of riding them and everyone had a marvelous time. At one point Matt had Elijah on the horse with him and suddenly Elijah took off his hat, waved it in the air and said "hee haw". The kids are still trying to convince us that we now need a horse of our own. Not likely...but good try.

Lilah's 10th Birthday

Wow...can you believe Lilah is 10 years old. How exciting!!! This year Lilah wanted to have a party with her friends so she invited a bunch of girls and they had a great time playing games, eating pizza, cake and ice cream. Our good friend Shauni Snow volunteered to made Lilah's birthday party cake when she found out that mom would be driving 3 hours to bring 11 girls home from girls camp the day of Lilah's birthday. Thank you Shauni for helping...the cake was so beautiful.

We also had a family birthday party the day of Lilah's birthday. Grandma and Grandpa Curtis, Aunt Andrea, Nana and Papa Vassel, Karmen, Jauquin and Zeke came to celebrate with us and eat our traditional Texas Sheet cake. Yummy!!!

Words From Our Grandma Jacqi

"I am feeling so thankful for this beautiful world, all my dearest friends, and the joy of the gospel and all the answers I have received concerning life, where I came from, why I am here, and where I can go. I am so grateful for the missionaries that found me and taught me the plan of salvation. I wonder what they are doing now and if they realize how much I love them."

Thank you for sharing Grandma. We love you so much!!