August, Part 4: Peter's First Day of First Grade

How did my sweet Pete get this big? How in the world is he old enough to be heading off to first grade?

Above: Just look at this handsome guy of mine. I sure love him.

Above: My adventure loving guy was more than ready to head off to first grade.

Above: He is so sweet. He has always been my sweet and sassy guy.

Above: Nothing but excitement about embarking on this new adventure.

Above: I love these next few pictures. The expressions that play across Peter's face are priceless. I shouted his name so I could get a picture of him as he turned around...and you can see how it all plays out.

Above: That's Peter's teacher, Mrs. Johnson, in the red behind him. She's the sweetest woman ever and was happy to wave and smile for my picture too. :)

Above: My sweet Johnny, who always has a hard time with change, was struggling with the change of Peter going to school, Peter being gone for a longer time each day, the fact that I was scheduled to be induced in just a few days, and the fact that he wasn't due to start preschool for another two weeks. So, I took Johnny up the canyon and we looked at the very little visitor's center for Timpanogas Caves and then walked around outside for a bit before heading home. I wanted to do something that was special with just the two of us.

Above: I think this handsome guy had a good time. It was nice to spend that time with him.

August, Part 3: The End of Summer

Above: At the beginning of August, we had a Monday family dinner at Willow Pond Park in Murray. There is a splash pad as well as this little water feature for the kids to play in. All of the kids got soaked, but they sure had a fun time.

Above: Good times and good memories. Thanks, Mom for always doing things like this for us.

Above: Caroline was busy pretending to be a mermaid.

Above: We went to Pete's back to school night so he could meet his teacher and then we took a quick drive to the canyon so we could visit Tibble Fork Reservoir (another one of our yearly family traditions).

Above: It's so fun for me to look back on our pictures from past family visits to the same place because you really do see how much your kids change each year.

Above: Of course, we always love to throw rocks into the river.

Above: We had to leave our favorite rock throwing spot pretty quickly, however, because we happened upon an ant hill (which housed some pretty voracious ants who were quite intent on defending their territory).

Above: We found another good spot to throw rocks into the river and spent a little time there before it was time to go.

Above: And just like that, summer is over and it is time to start school.

August, Part 2: Hot Dog Roast!

We didn't end up getting to go camping this Summer. Our weekends just filled up too fast. However, I knew we couldn't finish out the Summer without going to the canyons to roast hot dogs and make s'mores at least once.

Above: The boys were kind of cranky when I loaded them into the van...but the crankiness melted away as soon as they stepped out of the van and into nature.

Above: Yum!

Above: Johnny had a great time collecting rocks while we were there.

Above: He also had a good time checking out leaves and branches.

Above: Johnny especially liked the rocks with moss on them.

Above: Peter is a huge fan of the peace sign. It definitely has made its way into a lot of our pictures during this past year.

Above: Johnny has warmed up to the peace sign too...but I don't think he is necessarily keeping the peace with his tongue sticking out like that.

Above: The boys were sad that we didn't camp in the mountains, so when we got home, we set up the tent in the living room and the boys camped out there. Good times!

August, Part 1: A Visit to the Aquarium

Above: We got to go to the aquarium with Dad. That always makes things more fun.

Above: Show off!

As with any visit to the aquarium, there was a little drama. Do I renew my membership or not? Hmmm. The boys love it...but there always seems to be drama...hmmm.