Date night-HAWAIIAN STYLE!!

My best friend Kathleen invited us to a Luau on Friday night.  Her husband Jacob works for Adobe where the party was at.  I had only heard about how amazing Adobe parties are.  I was really looking forward to it!

It lived up to all our expectations!  We had such a great time.  They handed out leis and flowers for our hair as we arrived.  They had delicious Hawaiian food.  The terriyaki chicken was my favorite.

 

They were also serving Hawaiian shaved ice.  I tried Mango, tigers blood, and coconut in one.

I teased Jacob about the honor of being able to enter "the great and spacious building".(inside joke)  The night ended with performers from UVU's Polynesian dance team.  The fire show was awesome!!  It reminded me of the Polynesian cultural center.  The whole night left me with the itch to go back to Hawaii! Thanks Kathleen and Jacob for the awesome memories!

Neighborhood campout!!

Our friends the Clark's invited us and some neighbors to go camping with them.  We stayed at a campsite in Ophir canyon.  Ophir is an old mining town.  The whole town has a population of eight. 

 

The campsite is what I call a hidden jem.  Not many people know that it is there.  It was beautiful!  The leaves were starting to change colors on the trees.

 

It was like camping in the park.  We were not roughing it.  I don't think we have ever camped on grass before.  The running water and flushing toilets were also a nice surprise.

 

The kids loved the giant sandbox!

 

We enjoyed eating our tin foil dinners.

 

There was still plenty of wildlife to be found.  Mckenna found these fuzzy caterpillars crawling around.  Kev and I even saw a bobcat on the way up the canyon.  It had what we think was a rabbit dangling from it's mouth.

The kids had plenty of friends to hang out with! Kolter was nice enough to haul all the bikes, scooters, trikes, and wagons up to camp in his horse trailer.  The kids zipped around the camp circle.

 

My friend Lindsey had the great idea to make "smorecones".  She put chocolate chips, marshmallows, and butterscotch chips, in a waffle cone.  Then she wrapped them in tin foil and roasted them over the fire.  Hannah and Halle sure enjoyed eating them.

 

Parker had fun riding bikes, throwing footballs, and running around with his friend Blake.

The kids all climbed up in the playground and told ghost stories around the lantern light. It was nice because we didn't have to worry because the whole campground is fenced in.

Addy was happy when I laid her down in her play pen.  But it took her forever to fall asleep.  She kept throwing out her blankets and pillow.  At one point she had taken off  her sleeper and thrown that out too.  It was nice because once the kids were all in bed the adults hung out around the fire.  We had a great time talking and laughing.  Kolter even made us a pumpkin cobbler in the dutch oven.  It was amazing!

A big thanks to Hillary and Tyler for putting it all together!  We hope to make this an annual event.

 

A breath of fresh air...

I love it when my sister comes home to visit.  We always have the greatest time together. My only complaint is it never lasts long enough.  We had a girls night out at The Melting pot.  I had never been before and always wanted to try it.

We tried the cheese and chocolate courses.  I liked the combination of dipping an apple in the swiss cheese.  Dessert by far was the best!  We tried one pot with peanut butter and milk chocolate.  The other was chocolate and carmel.

 

We went up to my Grandma Smoots house afterwards to hang out with her.  She got out a big box of our Great Grandma Jenkins outfits.  She wanted us to pick out something of hers to keep.  We had a great time trying on the clothes.  Teenie looked great in her blue cape shawl.  I chose one of my Great Grandma's coats.  It was a memorable night out.

The kids love their Aunt Teenie!  She is always fun and full of energy.  They had fun playing "just dance", jumping on the tramp, playing battleships, and eating cookies together.  She is such a such a thoughtful sister.  She showed up at our house one afternoon with a box of treats from Kneaders. We spent the afternoon hanging out on the deck and eating our chocolate mint brownies.  We love you Teenie!  Happy Birthday this Sunday!  We are already counting down the days until your next visit.

Labor day!!

We had a pool party and BBQ at my Dad's house.  We have really enjoyed the pool this summer.  This was the last party before they closed it up for Winter.

The most exciting part of the day was that Teenie was home with us!  I picked her up at the airport the night before.  The kids were so happy to have Aunt Teenie come and stay with us.

Mike decided to relive his teenage years by jumping off the fence into the pool.

I got it all on camera

This was my favorite pic.  If you enlarge the pic you can see that his toes are just barely touching the water.

The huge splash at the end.  I love that my camera can capture details like this and everything is still in focus.

Hayden having fun with Grandpa!

 

Halle loves all the attention she gets from her Aunt Teenie.

 

We put up the net for some water volleyball.  Mckenna even joined us in a couple games.  We also had fun playing "PIG" at the basketball hoop.  It was just Dad, Teenie, Mike and I.  The game got more involved as we played.  One of the shots was run, jump into the pool, and dunk it.  It made for some good laughs.

The highlight of the BBQ were the jalapeno poppers that Kev grilled up.  They are jalapenos we grew in our garden this year.  They have quickly become our favorite thing.  They have cream cheese in the inside and are wrapped in bacon.

Halle and cousin Hailey had fun dressing up and putting on fashion shows for us.  We still think that they look alike.  Amy made the comment that when she sees Halle she knows what her daughter will look like in a couple years. 

It was fun to have Greg with us too!  It has been a long time since we were all together.  The couch was crowded so Mike decided to just lay over the top of us.

Our second attempt at a sibling picture.  It was good times all around.  I love my family!!

A new school year!

The new school year has begun.  The kids had a big list of supplies they needed this year.

Halle was excited to start the first grade. She wasn't a bit nervous about being at school all day.  She was also looking forward to eating lunch at school.

 

Halle's teacher this year is Mrs.Sasser.  She came home from school the first day and told me that her teacher is beautiful. Halle really has made the transition easily.

Parker is in third grade this year.  He has Mrs. Smith for a teacher.  I have heard a lot of good things about her.

He has a lot of kids from our neighborhood in his class this year. He has been having fun playing tether ball at recess again.

 

Mckenna is in sixth grade.  She has Mr. Mccord for a teacher.  This is her second year in a row she has had a male teacher.  She has really been enjoying being on student council.  They eat lunch together every Friday to plan.  She also was happy when she got out of PE the other day to help with the recycling bins. 

It is hard for me to believe that she is sixth grade already.  I hope she has a wonderful last year of elementary school.  It will be so different with her off to middle school next year.

 

Hayden had his first day of preschool this week.  He was so excited!  He had been asking every day if it was time for school.

Hayden has Miss Marci for a teacher again this year.  This is the fifth year in a row she has had one of my kids for preschool.  They all love her.

 

Hayden sat down and got right to work.  He is off to a good start this year.  I sent Kev a text when I got home about how quiet it was with Hayden gone at school.  I have been enjoying the couple hours when I just have Addy.  She doesn't mind having all my attention either.