Sunday with the Family

One of the great things about being in Utah is being close to our families.  Grandma and Grandpa Huntington were in town visiting, so we all got together at Aunt Diane's for a potluck dinner.

Abby and Chloe (my cousin Devon's kids) with Aunt Diane and Grandma Huntington

Paige, Chloe, cousin Tawna, Jessica, Kadance (Cousin Amber's daughter)

Koby (cousin James' son), Maddie, Nathan, and Lauren

James, Peter, Lincoln (James' son), Austin and Tyler

Grandma and Grandpa Huntington, who is tickling Ashlyn

Aaron, Janelle, Tawna, Nathan, Peter and Jason

It's always fun to get together!

Football and Floods

Jason and I were on our way to a BYU football game when we got the following text messages from the City of Alpine.

We called home to check on the kids and see if we had any flooding.  The kids said everything was fine.   We stopped to eat dinner and watched the pouring rain outside.  While we were eating, we got the text message telling an area of Alpine that they need to evacuate!  We called home again and talked to Lauren.  The conversation went something like this:

Mom:  Hi Honey.  How is everything going?

Lauren: Everything is good.  The kids are happy and we are just hanging out.

Mom:  That's good.  It's raining pretty hard.  Are you sure we don't have any flooding in the basement?

Lauren:  Ya, I'm sure...  I mean, there is some water on the floor, but it's not flooding.

We hurried home to fine water in the window wells and pouring in from some of the windows.  

I'm so glad our basement wasn't finished!

We used a pump and the shop vacuum to clear out most of the water.

Jason dug the window wells down a  little deeper.

After about 2 hours, we had the basement under control.  The football game had been delayed because of lightening in the area, so we decided to go and catch what was left of the game.

I don't even remember who won.  It rained on us a few times during the game, but I always love the energy at the BYU football games!  It was a fun night and we had to laugh at our new Utah problems.

Back to School

This is technically Austin's first year of High School.  The junior high has grades 7th, 8th, 9th.  Kind of sad that your freshman year is spent in junior high, but I think it is probably for the best.  There is a big gap between freshman and seniors!

So, here is Austin on the first day of his sophomore year at Lone Peak High School.

Jessica is a freshman and still at Timberline.

Lauren is starting her last year of elementary school!  6th grade.

And Ashlyn gets to start Kindergarten finally!  I think she thought she was never going to start school!  After moving here a week after she started kindergarten in California, getting registered in Utah and then getting a call the night before saying her birthday missed the Utah cut off for kindergarten, she had been looking forward to school starting.  We had the back to school date on our calendar, but when we got a letter from her teacher in the mail, we noticed the kindergarten first day date was not the same as the rest of the school.  Kindergarten started a week later.  On Sunday, she was so excited that the next day was her first day of school.  I felt so bad when we double checked the calendar and had to tell her that she had to wait one more day.  Kindergarten started a week later and not until Tuesday!  As I was putting her to bed on Monday night, she asked, "Mom, are you sure I really start school tomorrow?"  Poor girl!

Her first assignment was to bring in a poster about herself on the first day. :)

Paige wanted to be just like Ashlyn and wear her backpack too.  She was sad to see Ashlyn leave without her.

I think Jason had a much harder time than the rest of us!  Ashlyn said goodbye and followed her teacher in without even looking back.  Jason stayed and watched her through the window to make sure she really was okay.  I can't believe our baby is getting so big!

For the rest of the week, Paige made sure she was always ready with her backpack when it was time to take Ashlyn to school.

August

August was pretty relaxed.  Jessica and Lauren went with Abbey and Lindsey Halvorsen. friends from Clovis, to their Grandpa's ranch in Idaho for a few days.

We found a new friend!  This buck spent many afternoons resting in the shade under our trampoline in the back yard.

 He was even kind enough to duck down so his antlers wouldn't rip the trampoline on his way out.

We were excited to discover Leatherby's in Utah!

Austin and his friend Maddy

We had another basement flood.

 It rains a lot in the summer in Utah I guess.

 Good thing we checked on our way to bed.   Too bad it kept us up for another hour and a half.

We visited Grandma Lori and Grandpa Bob pretty regularly.

We went to the parade of homes and took pictures of some of the creative things we saw.

 We had lazy Sunday afternoons.  The girls adore their dad!

 I spent some time in line at the Slurp aka the Mormon Starbucks!  Only in Utah would you see a line like this for dirty diet Cokes and sugar cookies!

 We visited Janelle in the hospital when she had baby Brooke.

My mom came to visit and help Janelle after the baby came.

 I miss having a baby!

 We decided to buy office cubicles for our home office for the kids.  4 fit perfectly and gave the 3 older kids their own working space and still left a spot for me.

 Ashlyn and Lauren started gymnastics.

And the kids went back to school.  I think back to school needs it's own page.