School Begins

It is August 20th and School has already begun.

 

Emily is in 9th grade this year! 

She is going to be going to a different school again this year.  I feel a little bad that all through Jr High she has had to change schools every year,  but I think this new school will be a good one. 

Emily is very excited to be in Seminary this year.  I hope she likes it.   It was usually one of my favorite classes.

 

 

Joe is in Fourth Grade and is very excited because fourth graders can run for the school president.  He is already campaigning. 

He did not get the teacher he was hoping for,  but I really like the teacher he did get, and I think he will too.  She was over the student council last year and can probably give him a few pointers.

 

 

Joe was a little unhappy to find out that Makayla was in his class again,  but I think they will have fun this year. 

 

 Josh is starting 2nd Grade. 

 He was really nervous when we got to school,  but he was happy to be there.  His class is out in the portables this year.  Josh liked that.

 Valerie is in preschool this year.  She thinks she is all grown up. 

 We are doing a little co-op preschool this year with a few of her friends.  I am really looking forward to this.  Because she is my last I am glad I get to be such a big part of her last year home. 

Summer Review 2013

It seems like this Year is flying by, and Summer was no different.  It was fun and busy and did not seem long enough.  Here are some of the highlights of our Summer vacation. 

 

School ended right after Memorial day.  So Memorial day weekend we stared giving our yard a sprucing up.  We put in some flower beds along the side of our house,  and replaced the one in the front. 

The last day of school Grandma Lay was here to help us kick off Summer.  The kids only had to go for about an hour and a half the last day (why they had that last day at all I still don't know)  So Grandma and I picked the kids up from school and we headed to Timpanogas Cave. 
I was not sure how Valerie would do on this hike,  but all of the kids did great.  They loved seeing the cave.  After we were done though Valerie told her dad that it was creepy. 

 

We went out to visit Great Grandma in Tooele a couple of times this summer. The first time we went we headed into to the canyon and had a picnic. 

At the end of June we went with a group of friends to Tracy Aviary.  We had not been there for years.  Joe's favorite birds were the Vultures.

In July Valerie turned 4. 

We spent the morning with Garndma Bolander

Then Grandma and Grandpa Lay came to visit.  Grandma helped us the next day at with Valerie's party.  We invited her friends over for lunch and swimming. 

 

Later that month we had a nice surprise.  Our friends the Blacks came to visit all the way from China.  Emily and Melanie had fun catching up with each other. 

 

 

In the middle of July we headed to Washington to visit Grandma and Grandpa Lay.

We had lots of fun at the beach

 

 

Picking and eating berries.

 

Hiking to Horsetail falls.

Dinner with just the adults. 

and Going to the Portland Zoo.



 

In August it was Emily's 14th Birthday, and Grandpa's .......Birthday too.  I always feel a little bad for Dster, because his birthday is always overshadowed by Emilys.  He does not seem to mind though. 

Emily also had a small party with a few of her friends.  Kelsie, Savannah, Wolverine and Kiki all came over for dinner, games and a movie. 

 

Ryan and I were able to make it t a couple of the stages of the tour of Utah this summer.  That made Ryan very happy. 

 

With the help of Grandpa Lay and Ryan, Joe took second place over all in our wards Pinewood Derby with his car Deadpool. 

And Lunch with Grandpa Bolander is always a treat.

 

 

And to fill up our down time in between all of these fun adventures, we used our Pass of all passes to have more fun at Trafalgia and Seven Peaks. 

We had a really fun Summer.  The only bad thing was it was not long enough.  School started way too early this year.