Thursday, September 27, 2018

First Day of School 2018

Josh is in 10th Grade...





Abby is in 8th Grade...

























Matt is in 6th Grade...


























Ben is in 4th Grade...


(looking for and saying "Bu"...bus)

And I am in Heaven...although, that's not right because truly, heaven will be with my family, so I guess I'll say I'm in a happy place...
I say something similar every year but I'll say it again...
I love my kids to pieces but I seem to be able to love them even more if we have some time away from each other during the day :)

Back to School Flings

These three events all happened about the time school started and I was present for none of them so I thank my mother and Andy for the pictures and for taking the kids.

Mom always takes the older three miniature golfing before they go back to school.
It's a fun tradition for them :)



Andy decided kind of last minute that he wanted to take Josh, Matt and Abby for a final weekend fling to the Tetons.

They hiked to Hidden Falls and a bit up Cascade Canyon.

Apparently, Matt was all about dunking his head in water...




GORGEOUS!



After spending the night in Jackson, they drove Flag Ranch Road and went to Terraced Falls.






I'm glad Andy got a few shots of himself.
One with each of the kids...


Do you spy Abby?
Apparently, this was the extent to which she would participate :)



And then it was on to Ashton and Big Judds :)

We had arranged to get together with some old friends for Labor Day.
We hadn't seen the Tolmans in a few years.  Andy had been roommates with Michael at Ricks College and Jami and I became fast friends when we met.  We were married one week apart and have tried to keep in touch through the years.

The night before, Ben became sick and so I stayed home with him.
They met at Mantua and had a picnic and went kayaking.
Apparently, it was a great time :)




Andy said the kids seemed to get along together just fine (enough to burry each other in the sand I guess) even though they didn't remember each other very well since it had been so long between meetings.

Josh the Coder

Josh was a hard worker this summer!
He participated in a program called Code to Success at Bridgerland.  For nine weeks he went Mon-Thurs for at least 4 hours a day and learned coding languages.


He never complained about it and always had a good attitude about coming home in the afternoon and having to still do his job, and practice the piano and cello.


After the program was complete they had graduation.


I'm so proud of him and his commitment!


Way to go buddy!

Kidd Family Camp 2018

Okay, time to play catch up again....

We made it up to one evening of the Kidd camp this year.  Even though we don't stay the night I think the kids enjoy going up and seeing friends/cousins...except for Ben who's just in it for "Bapa" and "O." :)  This year though, Josh had an apparently bit more enticing offer for an evening with friends so he stayed behind.

The Scrabblers....

My cousin Mandy and her family were there which is a rare occurrence since they live so far away.
Her daughter was very interested in Ben :)


T was busy that weekend but Jo was able to come join the fun.


Ben had a few willing ball partners...



As always, the kids did a cute skit arranged by Aunt Norma...



And as always, Uncle David orchestrated Minute to Win it.
Jo challenged me into joining him for one of the games.

He was throwing ping pong balls at me and I had to try and catch them with lint rollers.  They were absolutely NOT sticking!  We joked that maybe a better challenge would be for me to catch them in my mouth...

...so I did :)

Matt and Leif had to try after that and I believe they didn't have any more success than Jo and I did.

Ben was pretty content with his iPad

Matt was the only one of my kids to participate in the traditional finale of "Oreo Face".


As we were leaving, we went over to the fire to say goodbye to family and Ben tried to blow it out like a birthday candle :)


...still trying...