Max’s Birthday

He turned 5!  And he has a cracker in his mouth in this first picture :).  We’ve made it a tradition to take the kids to The Brick Oven for their birthdays.  They get free meals with a lollipop sundae, so they’re always excited to go!

Max had his first friend party!  We did it at Boondocks, and had a great time.  We have GREAT neighbors and have made such good friends here. 

This was cute, they have the birthday kid spin around in tickets and they have to try and finish by the end of the birthday song.

Some more pictures from Labor Day weekend

I’m so glad Ashley had her camera when we went to the Provo Beach Resort, ours was dead and she got some cool pictures!  The ropes course there was awesome, and I was so excited to do it.  I’ll admit though, once I got up there I was terrified.  Usually I like doing stuff like that (bungee jumping, sky coaster…).  But for some reason, this made me super nervous!  Madi was doing it too (she’s my little dare devil) and I think she could tell I was scared, which made her scared.  So she almost started crying at the beginning.  But then she was fine and even did the course twice!  She was having a ball.  I, on the other hand, had to get off.  I was a wimp! 

Cool picture of Ashley way up there!  Her and Brian were really brave!

Me basically freaking out. Haha

Madi doing awesome :).  Keep in mind, lots of the course is like 4 stories up!!

My handsome hubby; he did great on it too.  He kept showing off to me, “c’mon it’s easy Em, follow me…”.  Easy for you to say Mike!

Mini-Croquet.  Mike’s dad even got the middle hole (kinda like skee-ball) at the end and won a free game! 

Basketball Tournament

BLUE BELL ice cream!  If you’re from the south, you know what a gem Blue Bell is.  We haven’t had it in years!

Andrew was so adorable on the carousel.  He smiled like this basically the whole time :).  Love that boy!

First day of School

Today was Madi’s first day of school!  Max start this Thursday.  I can’t believe I have a first grader!  I’m so proud of Madi and how brave she is.  She’s always so good at making new friends and trying new things. 

My kids and posing.  Haha, it’s hard to get them to take a regular picture :)

Max had to join in too!

Saying goodbye to daddy before work. 

Making new friends and comparing wounds from fun summer activities!

Her teacher, Miss Hulet, is wonderful!  I’m so glad Madi got her.  It’ll be a good year.

Oh my sweet Max.  He had a hard time saying goodbye to his big sis.  They’re best buds and it can get lonely at home without her.  Thankfully there’s still lots of little kids around the neighborhood!  They were SO SWEET saying goodbye to each other.  Melts my heart.

Madi doing a flip!

We hung out in Pleasant Grove this last weekend with Mike’s family.  We always have a great time when his parents are in town.  One of the things we did was go to Jump on It.  Madi has been practicing her flip all summer, but hadn’t been able to land it yet.  She landed it for the first time that night!!  I got a video of her doing it…it takes a few tries but she gets it.  And watch the flip Max does at the end.  Cracks me up!!  P.S. please ignore my annoying cackle.  It's like a witch laughing.  

Last days of summer

This year school didn’t start until after Labor Day.  Which was so fun (and kind of exhausting…haha).  So the kids had lots of days to soak up the rest of summer.  We fit in Lagoon with the Carlsen’s, 7 peaks, and lots of pool days. 

We didn’t get very many pictures from Lagoon, but it was a great day.  We played there with the kids for a few hours, and then got a babysitter and brought them home.  Then the adults were able to go to dinner and head back to Lagoon for some of the bigger rides that we hadn’t done.  Such a fun day!!

I can’t believe this is the only picture we got from Seven Peaks!

One of my very favorite things about Madi is the sweet little notes she leaves us.  She suprises us all the time.  One morning I went down to get the kids breakfast and this was taped on the closet door:

We are so lucky to have such a little sweetheart and peace-maker in our family!

Pineview!

Once again, we had a GREAT time up at Pineview reservoir with my family.  The condo’s we stay at are right by the lake and they each have a hot tub on the deck (needless to say, the hot-tubs were a hit among the grandkids!).  It’s so great to sit around late into the night laughing with family.  We were able to go to the monastery, boating, and played on the beach.  Oh and pool the first night was great too. 

Mike playing Go Fish (with the Old Maid cards :)

This was the best family picture we could get at the monastery.  Yeah, not great. 

Seriously the tree lined path to it is beyond beautiful!  It was interesting to watch the monks come in and do their chants and prayers.  One of the monks talked to Marcus and said he was 84 years old and had been at this monastery for 62 years!!  He also said it gets better everyday :).  I just can’t imagine that!  That’s definitely a lot of chanting.  He was from St. Louis and hadn’t been back since he came.  He was such a nice guy and even told Gracie a joke (What’s the difference between a monk and a monkey?  Monkey’s have a tail.).  Anyway, it was good to get to hear from one and see that they’re just sweet people. 

The next day we spent at the lake.  We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to go boating!

Mike and Nate had a crazy ride!!  I cannot believe they were able to hold on.  Mike was half off of it at one point. 

Mike took Sadie and Max on the tube.  They had so much fun and Sadie and Max were so brave.  Unfortunately, when we slowed the boat down to stop, the front end of the tube caught the water and dumped them all out.  Mike was having a heart attack trying to get Max and Sadie out.  He said underwater he felt like he was on top of Max, and then he was worried Sadie was under the tube.  It all was only a matter of seconds that they were under-water, but they came up sad and crying.  I was worried they were going to be totally scared, but they calmed down fast and still had a great time.  Thankfully everyone was safe :)

Building sandcastles is serious business!!

Madi was able to get up on the kneeboard this year!!  Kylie helped her get started and she was able to hang on a get up.  She kept doing funny tricks like “no hands”, and doing the thing bull riders do with their arm. 

So proud of her!!

Max watching his big sis. He kept cheering her on. 

I’m bummed I didn’t get more pictures of the family at the condo.  But we had such a great time and we’re so thankful for great family!!  Now we get to spend some time with Mike’s family and his mom is coming to stay with us this weekend.  It’ll be fun!