Camp Out

This weekend was so beautiful we couldn't just stay in. We love going up to Justice Park with our friends the Scherers to have a relaxing afternoon and evening. The kids love to run around and play while the adults hang out by the fire and chat.

Usually for dinner we roast hotdogs but this time we switched things up. Bret and Ashlee made tin foil dinners and we brought up our dutch ovens and did ribs and cobbler. Everything was delicious! A whole lot better than hotdogs that's for sure!

Brylee is such a little poser and totally adorable.

Jase's favorite chore while up the mountain is collecting fire wood. And he's great at it.

Yep that's me...one happy camper. Happy because at the end of the evening I was going home to a nice soft bed while the boys were staying to sleep in a tent. There are a few times when being pregnant has its advantages.

Kaden and Ellie always have fun together. We'll see where this goes in about 5 or 6 years.

Jason always brings knives and a hatchet for the kids to play with. It of course gives Ashlee and I anxiety, because we are just waiting for one of the kids to hack an appendage off.
Ethan loves to play in the dirt and luckily there is plenty of dirt on the mountain.

Ellie was all business while whittling away on this stick. I think having her tongue out helped her concentration.

My mom joined us this trip and it was so nice to have her there. Ethan loves to cuddle with Nanna and Brylee kept asking her if she would be her "for real Grandma". It was so sweet.

After Ashlee, my mom and I left, the party really heated up. Literally, thanks to the 6 foot long log they threw across the fire.

A bunch of sleepy heads!

Kaden slept in the longest, he's much like his mother.
Jase had to have been hot! He had on his fleece jammies, his winter coat and he slept in my negative 40 degree sleeping bag. Toasty!

One more cute picture of Brylee. She's a sweet little girl!

The kids really had a great time sleeping in the tent. Brylee and Jase went to bed first and laughed and giggled together for almost half an hour before crashing. When everyone got home I asked Jase how camping was and he said, "Fun! Until my butt caught on fire!" What?! Jason was laughing so I checked the rear end of Jase's pajamas and sure enough there was a burn hole. Jason said that Jase was sitting in a chair near the fire with his leg up fixing his slipper when an ember jumped out of the fire and caught on his bum. Jase suddenly started screaming and no one knew what the problem was until he finally yelled, "My butt's on fire!" Jason quickly patted the fire out and thankfully Jase didn't get burned! Poor kid. Despite Jase's mishap everyone had a blast and they are all hoping for another nice weekend to camp out again.

And so it begins...SCHOOL!!

Yes school has finally begun! Jase was so excited to start kindergarten. This morning he took me all over wanting his picture taken. So maybe he was more excited about his new school clothes than actually going to school. He's his mother's son!

Jase is in a K-1 program at ISU this year. It should be a great opportunity for him with a smaller class size and student teachers helping a large portion of the time to further reduce the student to teacher ratio. Not to mention it's all day everyday instead of half day or all day every other day. We met his new teacher on Tuesday at an open house and she seems very nice and ORGANIZED. I'm sure Jase is going to learn a ton!
He looked so tiny walking down the hall at the university!

Jase seemed to all ready know the routine when we got there. He put his backpack and jacket away, found a book and sat down quietly to read. I was so impressed. I was worried he was going to cry or not want me to leave, but he just looked at me with those big brown eyes and said, "Love you Mom, bye!" And that was it. My little man started kindergarten. I cried the whole way home! I'm so proud and excited for him to learn and grow it was just a moment of realizing WOW he's really growing up and I don't get any of those days with him home back. But he is such a wonderful little boy I cannot wait to see what he will do next. (sorry the flash was out of hand in this shot. oops)
Kaden started 3rd grade this year! Holy smokes! While I was taking his picture all I could think was how very handsome he is. And I feel he looks less and less like a little boy everyday. He has the same teacher he's had for the last 2 years so the first day of school wasn't too stressful for him. He was just REALLY excited to see his friends again.

Las Vegas

When August rolled around and every day Jase started asking me how many more days of summer there were because he was "tired of summer" I knew something had to change. So I asked Grandma Marley if her offer to take the boys to Vegas was still good and luckily it was! Kaden and Jase were both so excited to spend their last 2 weeks with Grandma and Grandpa Marley soaking up the sun and in the pool.

Grandma and Kaden.

Hehehe. That's a great shot of Grandpa Marley!
Everyone was cheesin' it up! Jase is so cute!

Grandpa Marley is the Wolf Scout leader in his ward so Kaden was very excited to get to go to scouts with him. Kaden even earned a Bowling Belt Loop thingy.

Love these pictures of Kaden.The boys pretty much lived in the swimming pool. Not that I blame them with temperatures in the 100's everyday.

Kaden learned how to jump off the diving board. When Mom sent me the video of it I nearly had a heart attack! I'm not a fan of water and seeing my son jump into the deep end sent me into panic mode. But he did great! He's becoming a great swimmer.
This looks like about the best spot to be in Vegas. Soooo cool!

Jase and Grandpa loved to play a game they call "bellywompers" where Grandpa throws Jaser into the pool. What fun!

No trip to Las Vegas is complete without a trip to Chucky Cheese. Nasty food aside the kids love it!

Jase even struck the Jackpot on one game and earned 125 tickets.

There aren't too many grandmas out there that will dye their grandsons' hair blue...but lucky for Kaden and Jase theirs will!

Even more lucky is that their mom didn't freak out about it! Looks great!
(The sun was really bright in their eyes here hence the pained expression.)

Kaden and Jase really enjoyed themselves and so did Grandma and Grandpa. They made the last 2 weeks of summer bearable and more importantly memorable.