That time again

Madelyn and Ethan were pretty excited to go back to school again. The day before school started we went to the school and took a few pictures to calm some of Ethan's first grader fears. Some of you may recognize those orange doors! The morning of the first day was a little crazy. I barely got a few pictures as they walked out the door in between the eye rolls from the fourth grader. Emma really thought she should be going to school too. Someday soon Emma!

Fauxhawk

Ethan decided to try out the fauxhawk look. His hair has always been really short up until the last 6 months or so. He wanted to start growing it out some. Right now it's pretty shaggy but with a little goop he's got this new look. We've only done it a few times but in the past his hair wouldn't spike or stick up no matter what we put in it. This do stayed for two days straight! Sorry this pic has my watermark on it for my photography blog. People put these on photos to deter others from stealing photos (not that my photos are steal worthy yet but you never know). I'm not in business I just have a blog to stick a few photos that I take.

Photography Class

For my birthday present I signed up for a photography class from a local photographer. We went to her house for three nights of instruction and then we did a photo shoot which happened to be on my birthday. She had 4 girls in prom dresses come and we got to take pictures with her helping us and we watched her take some as well. I learned a lot and had fun. Here are just a few of the pictures I took. It was a great birthday present!!

4th of July

I was pretty sick with a sinus infection the weekend of the 4th so we didn't really do much on the 3rd of July. Our neighbors invited us to a BBQ and swim party that night so Chad, Maddie, and Ethan went. I kept Emma home because she's a maniac around water and hard to keep track of. Luckily on the 5th, Chad's sister invited us over to their city's celebration. The kids got to be in the bike parade and then we all watched the regular parade with them after. We also wandered over to the park where they had a few things going on there. Later that night we did our own little fireworks at our house. It was nice to spend time with family and celebrate the 4th...on the 5th.




Check out Emma's dance moves below. Doin' a little robot!

Baseball

Ethan was in coach pitch baseball this year. He really enjoys this sport and was so excited for every game! They were the Giants this year. Ethan wore his hat everywhere, not just to his games. He's a pretty good hitter once he gets ahold of the ball and improved on catching and throwing this year. He's also getting a little speedier at running (poor kids got his dad's genes there!) It was fun to go and cheer him on.




Bet you can't guess who Ethan's biggest fan was!

Bridger Lake

In June we went on the annual Bridger Lake camping trip. The kids look forward to it all year long. The kids had fun playing with their cousins, fishing, hiking, riding bikes, staying up late around the campfire, looking for animals, and just hanging out. Chad's family goes to this campground with a big group of people and they always have a dutch oven cookout. Chad and his sister won this year with a dutch oven Cafe Rio dish. It was delicious! Haylee came with us and it was evident up there how old she's getting. At first she struggled getting around everywhere but by the end she seemed revitalized by the great outdoors. Here are a few(ok alot) of pictures from the fun!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

So we attempted our first ever garden this year. We started small with one garden box and planted a some tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, squash, and Madelyn's cabbage she brought home from school. We weren't sure if anything would really grow but so far so good! Here are the before pictures the day we planted.


Here are the after pictures. It's a little wild in there. Madelyn's cabbage is pretty giant. I think it was part of some contest to grow the biggest one but I can't find the paper that she brought home with it. It's pretty big compared to some of the others from her class even with the holes from the bugs that got to it! We've already had some peas from the garden and can you see our first red tomato??