The bus was nearly 10 minutes early, so while we thought we had plenty of time, instead we were racing to catch it, and this is the only picture I got before school:
which, unfortunately, was not clear enough to read the number or the picture on the bus (I forgot to check, in all of the chaos), and since the driver was quite lost on a new route, I spent the first hour of the morning worried I was going to get a call from the "choice school" in town that also sends a bus through our neighborhood saying that Zach was at the wrong school. Luckily, it was the right bus to the right school, and the first day was great – star wars shirt, an old friend, a new friend, cookies at lunch, and buying milk; and we got a happy first day of school picture coming OFF the bus instead.
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With just a couple of weeks left of summer (which to us ends when school starts now!) the kids and I abandoned all work that could be put off – which you could tell if you came to my house – and made the most of our remaining carefree, schedule-less days. Here are some pics from our end of summer adventures.
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Download MOV03934 Here it is… the sequel to the blastpad. Starring Emma. Enjoy!
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We finally did it… ventured out of our backyard to a real campground. We finally found one more like what we were used to in Utah… where you can't reach out and touch your neighbor's tent while you sit at your fire…
Anyways, we went up for one night and had such a great time. We borrowed air mattresses from a neighbor, and thanks to her we may camp again! (Emma said to Nate, "Dad, why do you and mom get the air mattresses?" to which Nate replied, "Because we're OLD.") We had a little stove problem the next morning, resulting in a kid-pleasing array of cookies and chips for breakfast, took a little hike so everyone around us could sleep without our excited noise at 7am, and drove home through the most beautiful farmland. The backyard is fun… but I must admit it is more exciting to camp without flush toilets, without backup breakfast in the fridge, and I swear campfire smells better when it's in the forest. Here's to real campming. -
Since this is our year to have a family trip [Duluth] instead of a trip to UT, Nate's family planned a "meet in the middle" reunion so Nate could see his brothers (I get out there with the kids and see everyone, but he doesn't.) Here are some highlights of our trip:
Mt. Rushmore. So amazing. So interesting. So fun for the kids to find dimes my parents hid there for them when they passed through the month before. So funny that we all went all the way back to the viewing area to get a picture with the mount, and the man taking it didn't get any of the heads. So fun.Crazy Horse. Still in progress. It's effort to make the mountain like the statue looks like my efforts at perfection. Glad Uncle David knew who Crazy Horse was… made the whole thing make more sense.The Waterpark. Who doesn't love a good waterpark! This one had warm water… making it the most enjoyable one I've been to. The kids dragged their dad and uncles down the tube slides over and over again… and occasionally me when they wanted to hear some screaming. Grandpa took Carter in the freezing kids slide till his lips were blue – they must figure the kids don't care if the water is cold. We had lots of fun hanging out with everyone!Parking Lot Baseball. Cousin Jaxon loves baseball like Zach used to, and the boys played and played in a corner of the parking lot.The Corn Palace. We just had to see what it was all about. Okay, I just did… and Nate loves me enough to take me.The Badlands. Noone could tell us why they were called the "badlands" so we had to see for ourselves. It was well worth the hour detour – if it weren't nine hours away we'd go back and hike around sometime when kids weren't sleeping in the car.Thanks, all you Adams, for the fun, fun time!(check back… more pictures to come.) -
This is Camo, our pet frog. The kids caught him with the neighbors one night, played and played with him, and then put him in a “cage” for the night. He escaped. They caught him again the next week, and we had another fun-filled summer night of holding and catching and watching our hopping pet. Carter said “frog! Frog! Frog!” over and over again. So, so fun. Zach put him in his cage again, rearranged the top boards, but to no avail… he escaped again. Unfortunately the next time we saw Camo, he was dead in the driveway. Lots of tears, a burial under the trampoline, and many happy memories of Camo. Now, though, Zach swears we buried a different frog – “he looked nothing like him!” Who knows… maybe Camo lives on. He was a good, good pet.
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One of those joys of summer.
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Almost as fast as a drive-through restaurant, my parents made another of their drive-through visits this summer. Nothing like celebrating pioneer day by driving as far as the pioneers went in a matter of 4 days! I swear, they are saints… adding on an extra 7 hours each way to stay at our house for less than 24 hours, some (but not much!) of which is sleeping… they must really love us. :) As usual, we had a great time. Thanks for the zucchini, the mounds of bagels, and all the fun. We're so glad you came!
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"If the temperature at First Security Bank reads 62* or below, the pool will close." But with the temperature at the bank at 60*… the lessons went on. Good thing, since it was the last day. We started out with a sprinkle of rain. You could see the steam coming off the pool into the cold air. (Thank goodness the pool was warm!) The kids were LOVING it. They have made so much progress and I am so proud of them! At the end of the two weeks of classes, Zach had gotten the hang of it and Emma was going under and jumping in all by herself. By the time the lesson ended, the rain was really coming down. (It had made quite a mud puddle, which Carter discovered and enjoyed.) Emma, shivering, said to me: "Can I have a popsicle when we get home?" While I felt like we should be having hot chocolate instead, I told my little Minnesotan swimmer she was crazy, and gave her a popsicle.
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Not staged, they just all love it. Hooray that Carter is growing into books! (Not so many weeks ago I was taping a massacred library book that he had gotten a hold of…)
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