Autumn

A few Sundays ago we took a drive up the canyon and hiked the Grotto. It was a perfect day to roll down the windows, turn up the ipod, and sing at the top of our lungs while enjoying the gorgeous scenery. Plus, its nice to take advantage of just being together sometimes.

Until we reach the point of too much togetherness, which happens pretty quickly in the car...

On the way back to the car I handed the camera over to Dax:

I kind of love that this was the last picture I found on the camera after he was finished:)

Uh, Does This Make Me Look Bad?

While I do like to joke about it sometimes, the answer is no. We do not beat our children. Even when they are extremely obnoxious. Which is a lot. And yes. That is a cast on another broken arm. Hayes fell on (or off, more like it) the playground at school last Friday. While Tyler was there. We did the responsible thing and took him to the doctor all the while thinking," Its not broken. We couldn't possibly have another child with a broken arm. He's fine." And the doctor thought he was fine too. No pain, no swelling. Just obnoxiousness. So we went home and went on about our business. Saturday I asked Hayes to fold a basket of towels and suddenly his arm was in excruciating pain. Enough pain to prevent him from folding. Yeah right. Fold the towels. But in his defense, it was starting to look swollen and puffy. By Monday-three days later-it was still sore enough we went back to the doctor (actually Grandma Jo was the lucky one to spend her entire day there-thanks mom:) and sure 'nuff, it's broken. I think Hayes was secretly a little happy about it.

Every once and a while, they're not obnoxious. Every once and a while, they're just so cute I can almost believe it will last.

First Grade, Second Grade

Ok. Tell the truth. Am I the only one to breath a huge.sigh.of.relief on the first day of school? We had a fun summer and I love these adorably handsome boys more than can be said, but Hello. We were all ready for this day. Although I am having a hard time believing they're both this big. Dax is excited to be a second grader and have just a little more clout and Hayes can't wait for the Big Kid Playground and Lunch At School. In fact, Hayes came home after the first day and before I could get a word out he said in a very level and serious voice, "I know. You want to know how it was. Well, it was the best day of my life."

And in a fabulous start to the school year we missed the bus on the first day and today, four days in, we've had our first fake sick day. There was lots of moaning and groaning about sick bellies until about 9:05. By the time I had called in to work and excused them from school it turned into a video game playing, bug catching, snack eating party around here with no sign of a sick tummy anywhere to be found. Hmmm. 1st and 2nd grade and they're already sneaky little buggers. I can tell I'll have to keep my bull-crap-o-meter finely tuned this year. Just kidding. Sort of.

"We've Never Had a Broken Bone in Our Family..."

Those were my exact words 2 days before Asher decided to cowboy up and ride Jen like a horse. Which she sort of is. Needless to say the ride didn't last long and we ended up in the emergency room. Ok. So it wasn't right away. 2 1/2 year olds fall a lot. Sue me. Now what's really fun is telling the Dr. that our small child was riding our Great Dane and fell off. I don't think they could tell if we were serious on not. I believe I predicted Ash would be the one last year when we had him in the ER. Now if I can just keep him off the tramp...

Random Summer Fun

The Provo Freedom Festival had a very impressive reptile show. All the more impressive as it was FREE. Somewhere, Tyler is screaming like a little girl...

Catching Crawdads while camping at Strawberry was waaaaay better than real fishing any day. Just ask the boys. Not to mention we had much better luck. Who knew you could have so much fun with some raw bacon and a piece of string?

Camping at Yuba was fun this year but very strangely super-duper cold.


Tyler got front row tickets to a Salt Lake Real game at work. It was really cool. This may show my extreme ignorance of the game, but I had no idea soccer was so scarffy. Do they wear team scarfs at all soccer games?

They also gave out chicken buckets as the preferred form of headwear. This, of course, appealed greatly to us.

This is What I Get When I Go To Work

See that adorable head of hair? Its my favorite. My very favorite. Its perfect. Its just Asher. Now look a little closer. Hmmm, there's definitely something going on on one side there. I wonder...

Yep. That's sure a big glob of something. A big, gooey, knotted glob. Gum? Syrup? Candy? No sir. Just a little Metallic Battle Bug Glitter Slime. With which to cover your Metallic Battle Bug, of course. Or to goop into your hair.

Ah, no. That's not coming out. Believe me we tried. And just to make it even more yummy, we smeared some peanut butter on it to see if that would help. Nope. It just produced screams like I was trying to rip all the hair out of his head just to be mean. Ok,I need a minute here. I think I'm going to cry a little. We're going to have to cut this out.

Tears. (mine, not his) Cut. Gasp. Cut. Cut. Sigh.




Ok, maybe its just the boy that's adorable. Lots of hair or not.

I'm A Blogging Slacker

I'm a total blogging slacker. There are several reasons on which I can blame this. #1: Our wireless router died and until we buy a new one my lovely, CONVENIENT laptop is useless for blogging and in order to access the internet I have to squat on my bedroom floor and crane my neck up at the tv in a very awkward, very annoying way. Yes, I know that makes no sense. Ask Tyler. He is the hooker-upper at our house and although I love him dearly, we all know this kind of thing get done a little half-a**** around here. That's just how we roll. Plus if the computer is hooked up to the tv then it records stuff for free. We really like free. And we LOVE recorded tv. Lots of it. Reason #2: unlike anyone else (heavy sarcasm), I have been uber busy and feel as though I have totally missed the first half of the summer. Poor Picked on me. Actually it's a good thing. I quit one job and started a waaaay better one. Let it just be said that cashiering at Walmart should only be done as a last resort. Now I get to work in a nice office and am done by one everyday and we are settling into our new routine quite nicely, thank you very much. There. Now you know my reasons. Because I know you all care. Really just because I enjoy rambling. On to the important stuff.

In June we went to visit Grandpa Dave and Grandma Julie at Mackay and check out the new four wheelers and the new boat. I was super fun and Grandma and Grandpa took very good care of us, as always.

Mackay is a fun little mining town with tons of trails and even some ghost towns. Its a good place to explore.

We went in this mine just a few feet until it was blocked off. Very creepy. Makes working at Walmart seem like maybe the second worst job. And yes, that is the classic "I can't hold it any longer" pose you are seeing.

We tried, but got nothin'. Fish have an aversion to Geldmachers.

Awww, so sweet. When you can't hear what they're saying.

And now this afternoon we're off to join the rest of the riff-raff at Payson Lakes-and hopefully take full advantage of the rest of the summer:)